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It's that time of year again when those of us who don't normally follow open-wheel racing become fans for a day. The Indy 500 will be run for the 94th time at 1 p.m. EDT this Sunday. Here to get you up to speed (get it?!) is Tony Johns from SB Nation's Pop Off Valve.
During the last lap of this year's Indianapolis 500, Mike Conway's car hit Ryan Hunter-Reay's. It sent Conway's car airborne and flying into the catchfence before crashing back down and shattering:
It's one of the more frightening crashes, considering how totally ruined Conway's car was. And yet, according to reports on ABC, Conway will be okay. He'll be hospitalized on account of a foot or leg injury, but he was awake and alert, and the injury is not considered time-critical.
For all things Indy 500, follow SB Nation's open-wheel racing blog, Pop Off Valve.
Dario Franchitti is now a two-time winner of the 2010 Indianapolis 500. He very well may have benefited from the yellow flag which effectively ended the race -- Franchitti was running out of fuel, and Dan Wheldon was closing fast. Wheldon ended up finishing second.
Danica Patrick shuffled through the crowd to place fifth at the end.
However, on the north end, Mike Conway is the focus of attention at the moment. He was involved in a ferocious wreck; we'll have more on him shortly.
Here's what Tony Johns of our own Pop Off Valve had to say about Mr. Franchitti before the race:
The 2007 winner of the Indy 500, Franchitti took a year off in 2008 for an ill-fated stab at NASCAR racing. Returning in 2009, Franchitti finished the year as the IZOD IndyCar Series champion. His Target Chip Ganassi team lacks the outright speed enjoyed by Penske Racing, but Franchitti and team strategist Mike Hull make up for it in patience, good strategy and a well-balanced car -- all elements that could add up to a victory.
For all things Indy 500, follow SB Nation's open-wheel racing blog, Pop Off Valve.
At the 151st lap, Dario Franchitti has the lead at the Indianapolis 500. He's followed closely behind by Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan.
Franchitti, it should be noted, won the rain-shortened 2007 Indy 500. Currently, he stands as the IndyCar Series champion.
Marco Andretti, the youngest racer of the legendary Andretti family, has only one career win to his name.
Tony Kanaan has taken the lead during seven different Indy 500 races, but has yet to win the event. He's a former IndyCar series champion.
Meanwhile, the favorited Helio Castroneves is back in the pack, and his chances of winning the 2010 Indy 500 are growing slimmer.
For all things Indy 500, follow SB Nation's open-wheel racing blog, Pop Off Valve.
So far, today's race has belonged to Dario Franchitti; the 10 car has dominated Helio Castroneves and the rest of the field for the vast majority of the 85 laps thus far.
In third place, however, was the relatively unknown Raphael Matos, who was a 50-to-1 shot to tak the race coming into today. It was not to be for Matos, however, as he lost control of his car on the 77th lap and crashed into the wall.
The crash looked worse than it actually was for Matos; his car was a complete wreck, crumpling in onto itself upon hitting the wall. But it did so backwards, meaning that Matos' cockpit wasn't in any danger. The Brazilian driver exited the car uninjured.
Poor Davey Hamilton. The 47-year old driver--who had retired nine years ago after a serious injury, only to work his way back to the Indianapolis 500--has just crashed out of the race on the very first lap.
Hamilton was spooked by Thomas Scheckter coming up on the outside, and lost control of his car as he swerved to avoid Scheckter. This, obviously, upset Hamilton, who would call Scheckter an "idiot" and "knucklehead" while being interviewed by ABC and radio after the wreck.
The good news, however, is that Hamilton is uninjured, as the wreck was entirely minor. Still, it's a rough way to go out.
Since the dawn of the automobile, an otherwise nondescript street corner west of Indianapolis has served as the focal point for the hopes and dreams of racecar drivers the world over.
The sprawling Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the home of the 94th annual Indianapolis 500, an American institution since the year before the RMS Titanic was built. It has survived a century of American history.
This year, some 300,000 people are expected to experience the race in person, along with millions more around the world via television and radio, as Helio Castroneves tries to add to that history by becoming the fourth four-time Indy 500 winner.
Brazilian native Castroneves is the most recent 500 winner -- having won from the pole last year -- and his chances for winning this year improved dramatically when he repeated his pole-winning performance from 2009. Should Castroneves be victorious, he would join A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears as the only four-time champions while also delivering team owner Roger Penske his 16th Indy 500 victory.
Castroneves delivered a blistering performance Saturday during Pole Day qualifications, turning in a four-lap average of 227.970 mph around the 2.5-mile oval. He edged teammate Will Power, whose 227.578 mph average was good enough for second. His other Penske Racing teammate, Ryan Briscoe, will start fourth after Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti broke up the Penske party with the third-fastest time.
"Each run encouraged my teammates -- if he can do it, I can do it as well. This track is very tricky. You have to go at the right time, and we did that," Castroneves said. "It's great to be part of this team. We work so well together. I'm on the pole but all three of us benefit from it. I'm very proud of Team Penske, they did a great job today."
Bump Day qualifications followed on Sunday, and the atmosphere was electric as drivers attempted to make it into the field of 33 starters. Since Indy qualifications were compressed from their traditional two-weekend format to a single weekend, drivers and teams found themselves bereft of their usual safety cushions and were forced to gamble on last-minute "make it or break it" attempts. For some, including Tony Kanaan -- who crashed both his primary and backup cars in practice -- the gamble paid off. For others, including fan favorite and 2002 Indy 500 runner-up Paul Tracy, it did not.
Kanaan was unable to post a qualifying time until there was less than an hour to go in Bump Day qualifications. His car, cobbled together from pieces of other Andretti Autosport cars, was not the threat for the pole position that many considered it would be earlier in the month, but it was good enough. Kanaan, who for the past eight years has started in the top two rows, will start from the middle of the last row on Sunday.
"This is quite a life. Today was very stressful for the whole 7-Eleven team, but it is what it is," Kanaan said. "I know I can pass cars, so I think next Sunday is going to be a lot of fun."
Tracy, meanwhile, was in the field as Bump Day wound down, but a controversial call from team owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Jimmy Vasser and race strategist Barry Green resulted in him withdrawing his speed in favor of trying for a more solid qualifying time. The move backfired after Tracy could not get up to the requisite speed. "Can you believe it? Because I can't. [I'm] going to miss the biggest race in the world," a devastated Tracy said afterwards.
The 33 starters will participate in a whirlwind media tour at the beginning of the week but will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Friday's Carburetion Day final practice prior to the 94th Indy 500, which will get under way at 1:00PM EDT on ABC Sports.
Four women will be competing in this year's Indianapolis 500. The fastest is Sarah Fisher, who comes to Indy as an owner/driver in the Dollar General No. 67 Dallara. Fisher originally came to Indy with two cars, but her teammate Jay Howard failed to qualify on Bump Day.
Two rookies, Ana Beatriz and Simona de Silvestro, will be making their Indy debut in 21st and 22nd place respectively. Beatriz races in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing and won the FILS race at Iowa Speedway last June; this will be her second IZOD IndyCar Series start. De Silvestro has competed the full season to date for HVM Racing and has impressed many with her performances, although her race finishes have thus far been disappointments.
Danica Patrick finds herself in unfamiliar territory. The darling of the IndyCar world and perhaps its most famous personality sits back in the 23rd position. Danica has made headlines this month for her dissatisfaction with her car and her team that became public in a series of post-qualifying interviews. Her teammate, Kanaan, eventually sat Patrick down and had what he called a "Come to Jesus" talk, trying to get her to enjoy what she's doing on the track more. The talented but sometimes temperamental GoDaddy Girl will have a long way to go if she hopes to improve upon her career-best finish of third in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
SBNation's IndyCar blog Pop Off Valve offers this three-part SBNation Primer on the Indy 500 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to help you learn more:
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Odds Shark 
Late Fuel Push Decided 2010 Indianapolis 500
A run of green-lap flags at the close of the Indianapolis 500 pressed the leading racers to push the brink of their fuel mileage. It was a gambit that favored Dario Franchitti and snakebit Brazilian fan favorite Tony Kanaan.
Second-place finisher Dan Wheldon may have been denied a shot at first because of a caution on the final lap caused by the wreck by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway, but as Pop Off Valve notes, one of the key storylines was Kanaan forcing his way from the 33rd starting position to second place, only for a fuel shortage forced a splash-and-go that plunged him to an 11th place finish.
Race favorite Helio Castroneves was also felled on a stall coming out of a late pit which dropped him to 9th overall after he had been hovering around the top five throughout most of the race.
Conway was transported by helicopter to Methodist Hospital was what was revealed to be a broken right leg. A number of spectators were treated after being contacted from debris from the crash, but none suffered more than minor injuries.
Ryan Briscoe, Raphael Matos, Sebastian Saavedra, Bruno Junquiera and Davey Hamilton also dropped out after their cars took heavy contact.
For all things Indy 500, follow SB Nation's open-wheel racing blog, Pop Off Valve.
May 30 7:00p by Michael Tunison - 0 comments