How INDYCAR Drivers Can Win May and Compete for the Indy 500

In Driver’s eye with James Hinchcliffethe six times INDYCAR The Winner will take you into the mind of a runner while breaking down the inner workings of the sport for fans.

Spring in Indianapolis is a beautiful thing. The snow is melting, the weather is getting warmer, the flowers are starting to bloom. But that has nothing to do with it.

What makes spring in Indianapolis so beautiful is the fact that it’s “May” – as we like to call it in sports.

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

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

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

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

2 KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR THE INDY 500

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

The first concerns the three Ps: preparation, preparation and preparation. Much of your fate at the Indy 500 – and the crucial qualifying events leading up to it – is decided before the cars even roll off 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 these things add up and set the tone for how your May might go.

It’s the difference between confidence and speed and being unhappy and frustrated for an entire month.

The second thing is simply execution.

There are so many things you need to do absolutely perfectly as a team during the month, and mistakes can be costly. Throughout the 500 miles of the iconic 2.5-mile track, there are many uncontrollable elements that can negatively affect your race. can control is essential to success. Especially when you also need a little luck.

Let’s break down how INDYCAR drivers and teams are attacking the month leading up to the Indy 500, set this year for Sunday, May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

WEEK 1: INDY 500 TESTING

The first week of the month is dedicated to what we call the Indy 500 Open Test.

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

This usually involves confirming and ensuring that all of the car’s systems are working properly, so that no time is wasted when official testing begins.

This is also a great opportunity for one-time entry cars – cars that are not full-time INDYCAR competitors – to get the entire team together on a race track for the first time in a year, if ever. There are only so many meetings and training stops you can do at the store before you have to do it for real.

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

WEEK 2: INDY ROAD RACE

After the Indy 500 Open Test, the second week moves on to the Sonsio Grand Prix on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is inside the famous 2.5-mile oval. This year it is Saturday May 9.

Racing any setup at IMS is a wild ride, but when the world’s biggest race is fast approaching, the grand prix can sometimes feel like the 500’s boring little brother.

But it’s not something you can neglect, as it is worth as many points as any other race. It can also give your team momentum for the rest of the month. Just ask Will Power, Simon Pagenaud or Alex Palou – all of whom took confidence from winning the Indy Grand Prix to take a 500 victory a few weeks later.

But we’ll talk about that again next week…

WEEK 3: QUALIFYING AND LOTS OF LAPS

Once the Indy road race 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 are given one final day to rest and recharge before the marathon preceding Memorial Day weekend and the Indy 500. Then, the teams are given a day of no track action to transition the cars from the road configuration to the oval configuration.

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

The practice week consists of four days with six hours of practice in total. It is a ton of track time, but that’s because there’s a ton of work to do. Teams will prioritize evaluating any updates or changes they developed over the offseason and then begin going down the configuration route.

The first few days of the week are specifically dedicated to setup for the Indy 500. Drivers will spend a lot of time racing in traffic and getting the car comfortable in race setup. Logging as many miles as possible is crucial.

On Friday, the horsepower is ramped up to qualifying levels – it’s all speed, speed, speed – and the focus is on the four-lap qualifying races that will determine the starting grid and the coveted pole position.

Saturday and Sunday will be all about going fast and figuring out where to 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 – or more nerve-wracking challenge – for an INDYCAR driver than a flat-out qualifying race at IMS.

WEEK 4: THE BIGGEST SHOW IN RACING

Once you survive the qualifying weekend and your heart rate drops, Week 4 is all about strategizing for your 500 miler. 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 on driving the car to be in the lead and fight for victory on pure pace.

Start near the back? Well, then you need to throw as many as you can at the car to make sure you can squeeze through traffic. Because if you have to pass more than 30 cars, that means you’ll spend a large part of your day in traffic!

After that, you only have 800 left turns left to become a racing king!

Easy, right?!

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

SOUND 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 uses four cars – three drivers for the entire season, Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel, plus a one-off 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 in four Indy 500s. He has two podiums this season but has never finished an oval race in the top three. With a year of experience on this team, he should be brimming with confidence. Plus, he has the benefit of learning from an Indy expert in…

Ryan Hunter-Reay. RHR joining this team is, by far, the most exciting combination of the one-off entries. A former race winner for Andretti, he nearly won the W last year in a backup car for a team that only competes in one race – the 500 – each year. Put him in a program with McLaren resources, and watch out.

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

Finally, you have the most popular driver of the series, Pato O’Ward. Pato’s record at Indy is exemplary: four top-5 finishes in his last five starts. The exception was a crash with a handful of laps to go while, you guessed it, he was in the top 5. Only Alexander Rossi, another one to watch, 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 lucky enough to compete in the 500. But if there’s one driver you think deserves a career- and life-changing checkered flag, it’s Pato.

But deserving doesn’t make you someone to watch.

The way he drove and the way his car performed in the Open Test, however, 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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