The 101st Indianapolis 500 May 28, 2017

It is officially 8 days and one wake-up until this year's 500. It may be bigger than the previous record set last year for the 100 anniversary!

A big reason this year's 500 is notable is the shifts that occurred over the off season with several changes in the upper ranks.



Not affected by their team's signing and firing secondary drivers, and third and fourth tier drivers if you're Andretti, team leaders such as Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan at Ganassi, Helio Castroneves and Will Power at Penske. Of course Michael hasn't fired his son, Marco Andretti and won't, so he is still in an Andretti seat as is last year's 500 winner, American Alexander Rossi. Andretti Autosport has three full time cars with Marco, Ryan Hunter Reay and Tacuma Sato. Added on is Rossi's ride co owned by Bryan Herta and Jack Harvey's ride owned by Michael Shank Racing in partnership with Andretti Autosport.

Second tier teams such as Sam Schmidt, Rahal Lanigan, AJ Foyt and and Ed Carpenter Racing have a large new group of up and comers. Some like James Hinchcliff and Mikhail Aleshin for Sam Schmidt have several years experience at Indianapolis, while AJ's new signings are mixed. Carlos Munoz comes off an Andretti seat which put him in the mix to win the 500 several times. He has finished second twice. Conor Daly has only two other starts at Indianapolis and knows he has a lot to learn.

At Ed Carpenter Racing JR Hildebrant, who was one turn from winning, returns with team mate Spencer Pigot to take on the famous 2.5 mile quadrangle. New to the team is a third car driven by Zach Veach while owner/driver Ed Carpenter will drive the fourth car.

Penske has several new additions: Joseph Newgarten, who wrecked his Penske in practice today is new to the team's amazing line up including last years champion, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Perhaps the most talked about entry is that of Fernando Alonso who will drive a car co-owned by McLaren and Andretti.

In day four of practice, cars practiced all day, and Alonso posted a top speed over 226mph. He's getting up to race speed.

(photo credits, all Marshall Pruett photos of: from top, Carlos Munoz, Conor Daly, Fernando Alonso, Simon Pagenaud, Tony Kanaan and last year's champ, Alexander Rossi)




-katykarter