How INDYCAR drivers can win the month of May and compete for the Indy 500

In Driver’s eye with James Hinchcliffesix times INDYCAR The winner will take you into the mind of a racer as he breaks down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.

Spring in Indianapolis is a beautiful thing. The snow melts, the weather warms, the flowers begin to bloom. But that has nothing to do with it.

What makes spring in Indianapolis so beautiful is the fact that we are in the “Month of May,” as we like to call it in sports.

When the calendar flips to May 1, something in the air changes in Indy. It is difficult to explain but it is undeniably felt by everyone who resides there. The smells are stronger, the colors brighter, and there is an energy in the air that is palpable.

For INDYCAR teams and drivers, it is the most important month of the year.

The Indianapolis 500 is the largest motorsports event on the calendar. In fact, it is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. There is no non-religious gathering of human beings on Earth larger than the Indy 500. To be fair, some would say the Indy 500 is their religion.

So how do the drivers and their teams stand out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway all month long and in the biggest race of the year?

2 KEYS TO THE SUCCESS OF THE INDY 500

To be successful in the month of May and the Indy 500, there are two things every team must focus on more than anything.

The first is the three Ps: preparation, preparation and preparation. Much of your fate in the Indy 500 (and the crucial qualifying events that precede it) is decided before the cars even leave the trailer.

The off-season work in the shop on engineering and pit stop practice, the hours spent building the cars, the countless races in the simulator – all of these things add up and set the tone for how your month of May might go.

It’s the difference between confidence and speed versus feeling miserable and frustrated for an entire month.

The second is, simply, execution.

There are so many things you have to do absolutely perfectly as a team during the month, and mistakes can be costly. Over 500 miles on the iconic 2.5-mile track, uncontrollables abound and can negatively impact your race, so accomplish every element you can. can Control is vital to success. Especially when you also need a little luck.

Let’s take a look at how INDYCAR drivers and teams attack the month leading up to the Indy 500, scheduled this year for Sunday, May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

WEEK 1: INDY 500 TRIALS

The first week of the month is all about what we call the Indy 500 open test.

The month of May began with the two-day test which, ironically, took place in the last week of April this year. The teams hit the track for the first time this season and dusted off the cobwebs before returning angrily later this month for the opening day of official Indy 500 activities.

It is usually to confirm and ensure that all the car’s systems are working properly, so as not to waste time when official testing begins.

This is also a great opportunity for one-off entrants (cars that are not full-time INDYCAR competitors) to get the team together on a race track for the first time in a year, if not ever. There are only so many meetings and practice stops you can do in the shop before you have to do it for real.

[INDY TESTING: Mick Schumacher’s First Time Driving Indy Oval]

WEEK 2: INDY ROAD COURSE RACE

After the Indy 500 open test, week two moves to the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which is located inside the famous 2.5-mile oval. This year it will be Saturday, May 9.

Racing in any configuration at IMS is a race, but when the biggest race in the world is right around the corner, sometimes the grand prix can feel like the 500’s annoying little brother.

But it’s not something you can ignore, as it awards as many points as any other race. It can also give your team a boost heading into the rest of the month. Ask Will Power, Simon Pagenaud or Alex Palou, who turned the confidence of winning the Indy Grand Prix into a 500 victory a few weeks later.

But more on that next week…

WEEK 3: CLASSIFICATION AND MANY LAPS

Once the race on the Indy road course is done and dusted, the series requires teams to take a mandatory day off.

The garages are closed and all engineers, mechanics, officials, volunteers and drivers have one last day to rest and recharge before the marathon leading up to Memorial Day weekend and the Indy 500. The teams then have a day of no track action to change the cars from the road course configuration to the oval configuration.

This is when Week 3 really begins, and it’s all about turns.

The practice week has four days with six total hours of practice. That is a ton of tracking time, but it’s because there is a lot of work to do. Teams will prioritize evaluating any updates or changes they developed during the offseason and then begin to follow a path in configuration.

The first few days of the week focus specifically on preparation for the Indy 500. Drivers will spend a lot of time racing through traffic and getting the car comfortable under race conditions. Logging as many miles as possible is crucial.

On Friday, the power is raised to qualifying levels (it’s all speed, speed, speed) and the focus turns to the four-lap qualifying races that will determine the starting grid and the coveted pole position.

Saturday and Sunday are all about going fast and figuring out where you’ll start in the greatest spectacle in racing. The qualifying speeds of the last six Indy 500 pole winners were at least 231 miles per hour.

There is no greater thrill, nor more nerve-wracking challenge, for an INDYCAR driver than a flat-out qualifying race at IMS.

WEEK 4: THE GREATEST SHOW IN RACING

Once you’ve survived qualifying weekend and your heart rate is down, Week 4 will focus on strategizing your 500 miles. How you approach this final week and the final two practice sessions (one on Monday and one on Friday, affectionately known as Carb Day) depends entirely on how the previous weekend went.

If you qualify well, you work to adjust the car to run at the front and fight for the victory at pure pace.

Starting near the back? Well, then you have to throw everything you can at the car to make sure you can make it through the traffic. Because if you have to pass more than 30 cars, that means you’ll spend a lot of the day in traffic!

After that, all that’s left is 800 left turns between you and becoming racing royalty!

Easy, right?

[INDY 500: Everything To Know For Busy Month of May in Indianapolis]

SOUNDS LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT

After watching the open test, I am very excited about this year’s Indy 500. And I already have my eye on one team in particular: Arrow McLaren.

Zak Brown’s team has four cars – three full-season drivers in Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel, plus a single entry for 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay – and each has a very different story.

Starting with Lundgaard, you have a driver in his second year with the team, and he is coming off a seventh-place finish in 2025, his best finish in four Indy 500s. He has two podiums on the season, but has never finished a race on an oval in the top three. With a year of experience with this team, you should be full of confidence. Plus, you have the benefit of learning from an Indy expert in…

Ryan Hunter-Reay. The addition of RHR to this team is by far the most exciting combination of the unique entries. Previously a race winner for Andretti, he nearly won last year in a backup car for a team that only competes in one race, the 500, each year. Put it on a program with McLaren resources and watch out.

Nolan Siegel, who is the focus of the latest episode of the FOX Sports docuseries “All In,” has a lot to prove to team boss Tony Kanaan this season, and the year hasn’t started very well. But a strong performance at the Indy 500 can save a driver’s season. And career.

Finally, you have the most popular host of the series, Pato O’Ward. Pato’s Indy record is exemplary: four top-5 finishes in his last five starts. The outlier was a crash with a handful of laps to go while, as you may have guessed, he was in the top 5. Only Alexander Rossi, another one to keep an eye on, has been as consistently competitive over the past decade as Pato, who is fueled by recent memories of a bitter defeat.

Indy owes nothing to any of the 33 drivers who were lucky enough to participate in the 500. But if there is a driver who you think deserves a checkered flag that will change his career and his life, it is Pato.

But deserving it doesn’t make you someone to watch.

However, the way he drove and the behavior of his car in the open test is more than enough to put him at the top of the list of favorites heading into the 110th edition of this incredible race.

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