In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.
Spring time in Indianapolis is a beautiful thing. The snow melts, the weather warms, flowers start to bloom. But that has nothing to do with it.
What makes spring in Indianapolis so beautiful is the fact we are in the “Month of May” — as we in the sport like to call it.
When the calendar flips over to May 1, something in the air changes in Indy. It’s tough to explain but undeniably felt by everyone who resides there. Smells are stronger, colors are brighter 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 motorsports event on the calendar. In fact, it’s the largest single-day sporting event in the world. There is no non-religious gathering of human beings on Earth bigger than the Indy 500. To be fair, some would argue that the Indy 500 is their religion.
The Indy 500 really is The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
So, how do drivers and their teams excel at Indianapolis Motor Speedway throughout the month and the biggest race of the year?
2 KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR THE INDY 500
To be successful in the Month of May and at the Indy 500, there are two things that every team has to focus on more than anything.
The first is the three P’s: preparation, preparation and preparation. So much of your fate at the Indy 500 — and the crucial qualifying events leading up to it — is decided before the cars ever come off the trailer.
The offseason work back at the shop on engineering and pit stop practice, the hours dedicated to building the cars, the countless runs in the simulator — all these things add up and set the tone for how your Month of May could go.
It’s the difference between confidence and speed versus being miserable and frustrated for a whole month.
The second thing is, quite simply, execution.
There are so many things you have to do absolutely perfectly as a team over the month, and slip-ups can be costly. Throughout 500 miles on the iconic 2.5-mile track, uncontrollables are abundant and can negatively affect your race, so nailing each element you can control is vital to success. Especially when you need a little luck, too.
Let’s break down how INDYCAR drivers and teams attack 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 all about what we call the Indy 500 Open Test.
The Month of May kicked off with the two-day test, which, ironically, was in the last week of April this year. Teams hit the speedway for the first time this season and dusted the cobwebs off before they come back in anger later this month for opening day of official Indy 500 activities.
It’s usually to confirm and ensure all the systems on the car are working correctly, so time isn’t wasted when official practice begins.
This is also a great opportunity for the one-off entries — cars that aren’t full-time INDYCAR competitors — to get the team all together at a race track for the first time in a year, if not ever. There are only so many meetings and practice pit stops you can do at the shop before you need to go 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 Check, the second week shifts to the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course, which lives contained in the famed 2.5-mile oval. This 12 months, it is on Saturday, Might 9.
Graham Rahal leads INDYCAR’s 2025 Sonsio Grand Prix. (Picture by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
Racing on any configuration at IMS is a rush, however when the largest race on this planet is simply across the nook, generally the grand prix can really feel just like the annoying little brother to the five hundred.
However it’s not one thing you may overlook, because it pays simply as many factors as some other race. It could possibly additionally give your workforce momentum heading into the remainder of the month. Simply ask Will Energy, Simon Pagenaud or Alex Palou — all of whom took the boldness from successful the Indy Grand Prix right into a 500 victory a number of weeks later.
However extra on that subsequent week…
WEEK 3: QUALIFYING AND A LOT OF LAPS
As soon as the Indy highway course race is completed and dusted, the collection makes the groups take a compulsory time off.
The garages are closed and all of the engineers, mechanics, officers, volunteers and drivers get one final day to relaxation and recharge earlier than the marathon run-up to Memorial Day Weekend and the Indy 500. Then, the groups get a day with no on-track motion to modify the vehicles over from highway course configuration to oval configuration.
That is when Week 3 actually begins, and it’s all about laps.
Scott Mclaughlin celebrates successful the 2025 Indy 500 pole. (Picture by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
Observe week has 4 days with six complete hours of apply. That’s a ton of observe time, however it’s as a result of there is a ton of labor to get achieved. Groups will prioritize evaluating any updates or adjustments they developed over the offseason after which begin heading down a path on setup.
The early days of the week are centered on the setup for the Indy 500 particularly. Drivers will spend quite a lot of time operating in site visitors and getting the automotive snug in race trim. Logging as many miles as you may is essential.
On Friday, the horsepower will get turned as much as qualifying ranges — it is all velocity, velocity, velocity — and focus shifts to the four-lap qualifying runs that can decide the beginning grid and the coveted pole place.
Saturday and Sunday are all about going quick and discovering out the place you’ll begin in The Biggest Spectacle In Racing. The final six Indy 500 pole winners’ qualifying speeds have been at the least 231 miles an hour.
There isn’t any larger thrill — and no extra nerve-wracking problem — for an INDYCAR driver than a flat-out qualifying run at IMS.
WEEK 4: THE GREATEST SPECTACLE IN RACING
Alex Palou kisses the Borg-Warner Trophy after successful the 109th Operating of the Indianapolis 500 in 2025. (Picture by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures)
When you’ve survived qualifying weekend and your coronary heart price comes down, Week 4 is all about strategizing your 500 miles. The way you method this remaining week and the 2 final apply classes — one on Monday and one on Friday, which is affectionately often known as Carb Day — completely is dependent upon how the earlier weekend went.
In case you qualify properly, you’re employed on dialing within the automotive to run up entrance and contend for the win on pure tempo.
Beginning close to the again? Nicely, then you definitely’ve obtained to throw as a lot on the automotive as you may to just be sure you can weave by means of site visitors. As a result of if you must go 30-plus vehicles, which means you’ll spend quite a lot of your day in site visitors!
After that, all that continues to be are 800 left turns between you and turning into racing royalty!
Simple, proper?!
[INDY 500: Everything To Know For Busy Month of May in Indianapolis]
SOUND LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT
Having simply watched the Open Check, I’m so enthusiastic about this 12 months’s Indy 500. And I’ve already obtained my eye on one workforce particularly: Arrow McLaren.
Zak Brown’s workforce is operating 4 vehicles — three full-season drivers in Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel, plus a one-off entry for 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay — and every has a really totally different story heading in.
Beginning with Lundgaard, you’ve obtained a driver in his second 12 months with the workforce, and he is coming off a seventh-place end in 2025 — his finest in 4 Indy 500s. He’s obtained two podiums on the season however has by no means completed an oval race within the high three. With a 12 months of expertise with this squad, he must be brimming with confidence. Plus, he has the advantage of studying off of an Indy skilled in…
Ryan Hunter-Reay. RHR becoming a member of this workforce is, by far, essentially the most thrilling combo of the one-off entries. A earlier race winner for Andretti, he almost took the W final 12 months in a back-up automotive for a workforce that solely competes in a single race — the five hundred — every year. Put him in a program with the assets of McLaren, and be careful.
Nolan Siegel, who’s the main target of the newest episode of FOX Sports’ docuseries “All In,” has rather a lot to show to workforce boss Tony Kanaan this season, and the 12 months hasn’t began out nice. However a powerful Indy 500 efficiency can save a driver’s season. And profession.
Pato O’Ward earlier than the 2026 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg earlier this season. (Picture by David Jensen/Getty Pictures)
Lastly, you’ve obtained the collection’ hottest driver in Pato O’Ward. Pato’s observe report at Indy is exemplary: 4 top-5 finishes in his final 5 begins. The outlier was a crash with a handful of laps to go whereas, you guessed it, operating within the high 5. Solely Alexander Rossi, one other one to look at, has been as persistently aggressive over the past decade as Pato, who’s fueled by the latest recollections of bitter defeat.
Indy owes nothing to any of the 33 drivers fortunate sufficient to participate within the 500. But when there may be one driver you are feeling is deserving of a career- and life-changing checkered flag, it’s Pato.
However deserving doesn’t make you one to look at.
The way in which he was driving and the best way his automotive was dealing with on the Open Check, nonetheless, is greater than sufficient to place him proper on the high of the listing of favorites heading into the a hundred and tenth operating of this superb race.
MORE DRIVER’S EYE:
