(Photo: Shawn Gritzmacher/INDYCAR)
By Aaron Bearden
The 2020 racing season has been among the most surreal in the history of motorsport due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no greater proof of that than this week.
It’s mid-August. Temperatures are high, hurricane season has arrived and students are venturing back to school – for the ones holding classes, anyway.
Oh… And it’s time to start festivities for the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
The Greatest Spectacle in Racing will be a unique spectacle itself compared to its prior 103 runnings. Gone is the traditional Month of May, with the race shifted to August due to the pandemic. The hundreds of thousands of fans will be replaced by the echoing of empty grandstands with no spectators allowed. No one will be bumped since there are exactly 33 entries, and for the second time this century Central Indiana residents will be allowed to watch it live with the local blackout lifted for the first time since the 2016 sellout.
It’s going to be a unique experience for all involved, from the drivers racing for a chance to drink the milk and kiss the bricks to the dedicated Indy families watching from home for the first time in decades.
Here’s everything to know heading into the most unique Indy 500 in recent history.
Resources to Track
The Field
There will be a Field of 33 for the race, though that wasn’t always guaranteed. Some late deals and collaboration among teams allowed for exactly 33 entrants when the official entry list was unveiled on Monday.
Among the eleven rows of three are eight former winners of the prestigious event, led by the returning Helio Castroneves (2000, 2001, 2009). The three-time winner is the only multi-time Indy champion in the field, making his way back to IndyCar for the race amid a full-time schedule in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Acura Team Penske. Castroneves is eager to return to IndyCar next year when Acura and Team Penske part ways at the end of 2020, so this stretch may be as much about proving what talent and potential he still has to the rest of the field as it is securing his fourth slot on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
Other prior champions of the race competing include Scott Dixon (2008),Tony Kanaan (2013), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Alexander Rossi (2016), Takuma Sato (2017), Will Power (2018) and Alexander Rossi (2019).
Five rookies will contest their first-ever Indy 500 when the green flag flies, including four drivers that previously contested the traditional Freedom 100 ran by Indy Lights on Carb Day prior to the main race.
Pato O’Ward will contest his first 500 after failing to qualify for the 2019 edition of the race. His Arrow McLaren SP teammate Oliver Askew will also be making his first start, as will A.J. Foyt Racing’s Dalton Kellett and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay.
Joining the Road to Indy graduates for his first start will be Alex Palou. The former Super Formula ace will continue his rookie year in the Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh entry.
The full slate of full-time entrants will be present for the Month of August, joined by a host of part-time drivers eager to capitalize on an opportunity to score the biggest win of their career.
Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso will be back for the third time in the No. 66 Ruoff Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, trying to redeem his 2019 DNQ before he returns to F1 full-time with Renault in 2021. The Spaniard needs only an Indy win to complete the unofficial ‘Triple Crown of Motorsport,’ having already won the Monaco Grand Prix and 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Veteran Charlie Kimball will pilot the No. 4 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. Ed Carpenter will try again for a win in his home race in his own No. 20 Chevrolet. Sage Karam will be back in the No. 24 Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing – joined by JR Hildebrand, who came one Turn 4 crash from a win in the 2011 race, to complete the team’s two-car lineup.
Journeyman driver James Davison will pilot the No. 51 Honda in a unique Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing, Byrd & Belardi entry, combining smaller partners to forge a joined effort that will see Ware make its first Indy start. Davison’s year has seen him run in everything from the Chili Bowl Nationals to the NASCAR Cup Series, and he hopes to contest a Cup race at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course this weekend if qualifying in Indy goes to plan on Saturday.
Other part-time competitors in the field include James Hinchcliffe, Spencer Pigot, Max Chilton and Ben Hanley.
The collective field is split pretty evenly among OEMs, with 17 Chevrolets and 16 Hondas. Andretti Autosport leads the field with six entries.
The Format
While much of this year’s Indy 500 is different from the norm, the overall format hasn’t changed too much. The 12-day stretch will see a slightly-condensed version of the standard Month of May protocol, with a few of the extra events stripped away.
It’ll all be viewable from home, through most of the festivities will require a subscription to the INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold. It currently costs $39.99 for the rest of the year.
The field will open up the schedule on Wednesday, Aug. 12, with a condensed version of the Rookie Orientation Program and Refresher session for series veterans.
Veterans will get the first look at track time from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET, with the ROP and refresher tests running from 1:00-3:00 p.m., and the full field following from 3:00-5:30 p.m.
Veterans going out first allows for an opportunity to get experienced drivers behind the wheel of the cars first and make any necessary changes with the added variable of the aeroscreen this season before others jump behind the wheel.
Thursday and Friday will be more in line with traditional practice days, allowing the full field to run from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday will follow the “Fast Friday” format, allowing teams to utilize the maximum turbocharger boost to simulate qualifying runs. Doing so is up to the discretion of each team.
The field will draw for their initial qualifying order at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, and then return on Saturday for the standard four-lap average qualifying format. All 33 competitors will be split into two groups for a pair of brief practice sessions (8:30-9:30 a.m.), with qualifying set to begin at 11:00 a.m.
The Saturday qualifying session will run from 11:00 a.m. through 4:50 p.m., with teams able to make additional runs at their discretion once all competitors have had a chance to set an initial time. Once time runs out, the top nine competitors will transfer to Fast Nine qualifying on Sunday and the others will all be locked into their position. With only 33 cars, none have to worry about returning on Sunday for bumping.
Sunday will feature one brief Fast Nine practice session from 11:00-11:30 a.m., following by qualifying itself from 1:15-2:15 p.m. Teams will each get one run and qualify in the opposite order from Saturday’s results, leaving the fastest driver from Saturday with the final look at a pole run on Sunday. Afterward a full-field practice will be held from 3:30-6:00 p.m.
All that will remain after that will be a lone Carb Day practice from 11:00 a.m. through 1:00 p.m. on the following Friday, followed by the race itself on Sunday, Aug. 23, going green at roughly 2:30 p.m. ET. There will be no Freedom 100 with Indy Lights shelved for the year, and the pit stop challenge has been eliminated for 2020.
Full Schedule (All Times ET):
Wednesday, Aug. 12 (NBC Sports Gold)
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Practice (Veterans)
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Rookie Orientation Program/Refresher Test
3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Practice (Full Field)
Thursday, Aug. 13 (NBC Sports Gold)
11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Practice
Friday, Aug. 14 (Fast Friday) (NBC Sports Gold)
11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Practice (With maximum turbocharger boost)
Saturday, Aug. 15 (Qualifying Day) (NBC Sports Gold)
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Practice (Group 1)
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Practice (Group 2)
11:00 a.m. – 4:50 p.m.: Qualifying (Top nine advance)
Sunday, Aug. 16 (Pole Day) (NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold)
11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Practice (Fast Nine)
1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.: Pole Qualifying
3:35 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.: Practice (Full Field)
Friday, Aug. 21 (Carb Day) (NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold)
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Final Practice
Sunday, Aug. 23 (Race Day) (NBC)
1:00 p.m.: 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (200 laps, 500 miles, 2:30 p.m. green flag)
