Friday was the official opening festivities for the month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the action was not on the 2.5-mile world-famous oval. The racing activities took place on the 2.439-mile road course that weaves between the hallowed facilities.
The Indycar series is preparing for its 5th annual Grand Prix of Indianapolis that will lead into the traditional oval activities. Over the past four years the race has been dominated by two drivers: Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.
Pagenaud won the inaugural Grand Prix race while with Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports and he also won the race in 2016 with Penske. The aforementioned Will Power won the 2015 and 2017 editions of the event with Penske.
Saturday afternoon’s races begs the question: Penske or the field? With Will Power taking the pole Friday evening, Penske doesn’t seem to be slowing their dominance of the event anytime soon. All four Penske cars qualified in the top 10 (Newgarden 6th, Pagenaud 7th, Castroneves 10th). The team just seems to be head and shoulders above the rest.
It seems that the super team’s biggest competition today will be two rookies who have been fast all season. Robert Wickens and Jordan King have been surprising the competition all year with great finishes and contending for wins. Both drivers will start in the top 5 and we’re less than a second from the pole position in qualifying.
Though the Chip Gannasi cars of Scott Dixon and Ed Jones qualified poorly, it will not be long until the two will methodically work themselves through the field and attempt to break the Penske streak.
The Indy GP begins the most famous month in motorsports at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and momentum from the GP can carry teams the rest of the month. Just because this isn’t the “big race” does not mean that these drivers are not laying it on the line.
Expect a lot of passing and action with Indycar’s new aerokit this year keeping the field closer together. Team Penske will still be the class of the field and Will Power will assert his road course dominance on the field for the second straight year.