30 Days In May

Memorial Day fell on a Monday and the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500's green flag fell on Sunday. This was the culmination of weeks of intensive testing, on and off track work, a full month where the 2.5 mile 'square' oval always sees sporadic testing and tweaking early in the month, to arrival of all the race teams, Media Day, Speed Day, Qualifying Day, Bump Day, Pole Day to name only a few of the scheduled examination and thorough combing through of available entrants to the unquestioned "Greatest Spectacle in Motorsports".

Much of the tracks festivities in the Month of May has to do with honoring the veterans of past Indy 500's, and veterans of military service to our country. Many of the legends within the halls of the on-site museum served proudly, and their machines are there on display.

This years field is as always split between the have's and the have-not's:
The 'have's' are Penske Racing. Roger Penske redoubles his effort every year with a seemingly inexhaustible bank account. The Penske Teams in virtually all forms of motorsports have the best equipment, the cream of the crop in team members, engineers and drivers. Indy car racing is no different. As far as two driver teams, Penske is unmatched. This year, two-time Indy 500 Champion Helio Castroneves brings his veteran prescence to Gasoline Alley, along side younger Sam Hornish Jr., a man who was fast as the driver for Panther Racing's Chevrolet, then as a new Penske driver replacing retiring 2-time CCWS Champion Gil DeFerran- Sam was stunning. Mechanical difficulties have kept him out of the winner's circle of the Indy 500 up till now, in three tries, he has yet to finish.
The other 'have's' are the five cars of Andretti/Green Racing. Always fast, Michael, Mario and Kim's Honda sponsored team has been at the forefront of the Indy Racing League's win column every year since it's inception in 2002. Michael makes his return to Indy as a driver after three years as an owner only, and his son, Marco, a rookie this year, starts just ahead on the grid. Dario Franchitti is on board again as a dominant team member, Dario's reported skill is the ability to sort the car out for the engineers, and accurately telling them what the car is doing. It may seem like an innocuous thing, but I can tell you from some experience, you're kinda busy when you're racing, but to be fast, as Dario is, you must make your car as fast as possible too. Tony Kanaan is the fourth member, a past champ as an Andretti/Green driver, and a formidable threat to repeat always. Brian Herta drives the fifth car, although it has been said that Brian will continue to be the testing driver, and may see limited entries in IRL events this year. Missing from the Andretti/Green driver line up is defending Indy Racing League Champion Dan Wheldon. Let's check over at the Ganassi pits...he might be over there.

Chip Ganassi has made his prescence known in Indy Cars and Champ Cars over the last ten years. I first saw him in Champ Car in 99 with a two-car Target sponsored team driven by Jimmy Vasser and Juan Montoya (He didn't get his middle name until he left for Formula 1). Both drivers saw success and Montoya went on to win the Cart/FedEx points championship as well as the 1999 Indy 500. Chip also won a championship with Scott Dixon, one of his present drivers. Other cars owned by Ganassi are driven by Ryan Briscoe and Danny Wheldon.