Guide to the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500

(Photo: Joe Skibinski / Penske Entertainment)

By Aaron Bearden

The grass is turning green, leaves are sprouting and temperatures are rising. 

May is back upon us. And that means one key thing – cars will soon be back on-track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

The 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 its just days away. Starting this weekend the stars of the NTT IndyCar Series will flock back to the Brickyard for two weeks of racing, qualifying, press and, for one lucky driver, a taste of milk and a spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy. 

Here’s your primer to the 2023 edition of ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.’

 

Schedule

All times ET

GMR Grand Prix

Friday, May 12

• IndyCar Practice: 9:30-10:45 a.m., Peacock
• IndyCar Practice 2: 1-2 p.m., Peacock
• IndyCar Qualifying: 4-5:15 p.m., Peacock

Saturday, May 13

• IndyCar Final Warmup: 11:15-11:45 a.m., Peacock
• Indy NXT Race: 1-2:20 p.m., Peacock
• GMR Grand Prix: 3:30-6 p.m., NBC/Peacock

 

Indianapolis 500

Tuesday, May 16: 

• Indy 500 Oval Veterans Practice: 9-11:15 a.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Rookies and Refreshers Practice: 1-3 p.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Full Field Practice: 3-6 p.m., Peacock

Wednesday, May 17

• Indy 500 Practice: Noon-6 p.m., Peacock

Thursday, May 18

• Indy 500 Practice: Noon-6 p.m., Peacock

Friday, May 19

• Indy 500 Practice: Noon-6 p.m., Peacock

Saturday, May 20

• Indy 500 Practice: 8:30-9:30 a.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Qualifying: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Qualifying: 2:30-4:30 p.m., NBC/Peacock
• Indy 500 Qualifying: 4:30-5:50 p.m., Peacock

Sunday, May 21

• Indy 500 Fast 12 Practice: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Last Chance Qualifying Practice: 12:30-1:30 p.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Fast 12 Qualifying: 2-3 p.m., Peacock
• Indy 500 Last Chance and Fast Six Qualifying: 4-6 p.m., NBC/Peacock

Monday, May 22

• Indy 500 Practice: 1-3 p.m., Peacock

Friday, May 26

• Indy 500 Carb Day Final Practice: 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Peacock
• Pit Stop Challenge: 2:30-4 p.m., Peacock

Saturday, May 27

• Indy 500 Parade: Noon-2 p.m., Peacock

Sunday, May 28

• Indy 500 Pre-Race: 9-11 a.m. Peacock
• Indy 500 Pre-Race: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., NBC/Peacock
• 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: 12:30-4 p.m., NBC/Peacock

Monday, May 29

• Indy 500 Victory Celebration: 8-11 p.m., Peacock

 

Indy 500 Entrants

The official entry list hasn’t been released at the time of writing (May 12), but there are 34 expected entrants for the 2023 Indy 500. That means bumping will be part of the festivities and one team will go home – see the Qualifying Format section for details. 

Entry	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevrolet
2	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
3	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet
4	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Racing	Chevrolet
5	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevrolet
6	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
7	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	Honda
8	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
9	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
10	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	Honda
11	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
12	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet
13	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
14	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda
15	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
16	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet
17	Katherine Legge	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
18	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	Honda
19	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda
20	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
21	Pato O’Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet
22	RC Enerson	Abel Motorsports	Chevrolet
23	Rinus Veekay	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
24	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	Honda
25	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
26	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Racing	Chevrolet
27	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
28	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	Chevrolet
29	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda
30	Stefan Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
31	Sting Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
32	Takuma Sato	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
33	Tony Kanaan	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet
34	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet

 

Qualifying Format

After a four days of practice and a final hour-long morning practice on May 20, the IndyCar grid will qualify from 11 a.m.-5:50 p.m. ET. The field will be organized by a drawing and every car will be presented with at least one chance to qualify. 

Qualifying will see each driver take to the 2.5-mile IMS oval for four laps. Their official time and speed will be the average result of those four laps, forcing drivers to find a balance between early pace and run-long consistency. 

Once every team has had their opportunity to set a time, a pair of lanes will be set up. Lane 1 will be the priority lane, where a team is given priority for track access but must withdraw their prior time for the privilege. Lane 2 will allow a team to revert to their prior time if they’re slower, but those in it will be forced to concede the track to anyone in Lane 1 before they can go out. 

The key positions to watch on Day One will be the top 12 and bottom four. The quickest dozen entrants at day’s end will have a chance to qualify for the pole on Sunday, May 21, while any outside of the top-30 will be forced to participate in Last Chance Qualifying. The rest of the field (13th through 30th) will have their starting position for the Indy 500 set on Saturday. 

Pole contenders and last-chance qualifiers will each get hour-long practice sessions on Sunday. After they’re complete, the Fast 12 will hold their first qualifying session (2-3 p.m. ET, Peacock). Drivers will run in reverse order from their position on the charts at the end of Saturday. At session’s end, the top-six drivers will advance to the pole round, while positions seven through 12 will be locked into place. 

Last Chance Qualifying will follow from 4-5 p.m. ET. Each car will be given a guaranteed attempt, with chances to make multiple attempts until time expires. Their most recent attempt will remain eligible on the leaderboard until it’s withdrawn or time runs out. Any entrants below 33rd at session’s end will fail to qualify for the Indy 500. 

Firestone Fast Six qualifying will then wrap things up (5:15-5:45 p.m. ET, Peacock). The six remaining drivers will run, starting with the slowest from the Fast 12 round and ending with the fastest. The round’s quickest driver will secure the NTT P1 Award and lead the field to green in the Indy 500. 

 

Race Format

The Indy 500 itself is a simple race. It lasts for 500 miles over 200 laps. There is no overtime rule in IndyCar, so the race can end under yellow. It’s deemed official and can be called for untenable circumstances (such as rain) after the halfway point (100 laps). No Indy 500 has been called early for rain since 2007, when Dario Franchitti triumphed after just 166 laps. 

 

What about the GMR Grand Prix?

The Month of May will open with a two-day show for IndyCar on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. There are 27 entrants for a race that totals 207.32 miles over 85 laps. 

You can see the spotter guide here. Coverage for the race will begin on May 14 at 3 p.m. on NBC and Peacock. 

 

Fun Facts

• Why is Indianapolis Motor Speedway called the Brickyard? Because that’s what it truly used to e. An original crushed stone and tar surface was deemed unsuitable in racing in 1909. So that fall, the entire 2.5-mile track was paved in bricks. It took 3.2 million paving bricks to update the speedway. Asphalt was gradually added to the mix, completely paving the turns in 1937 and the entire track save for a stretch of the front stretch in 1938. That was covered with asphalt in 1961, but a small section of bricks remains at the start-finish line. 
• Kissing the bricks is a beloved modern tradition. But it wasn’t started by an Indy 500 winner. NASCAR’s Dale Jarrett and crew chief Todd Parrott started the trend when they won the third edition of the Brickyard 400 in 1996. 
• The maximum field size of 33 has been utilized since the 1934 edition of the race. An adjustment was made to shorten the field that year after five participants died in the 1933 Month of May, with the size determined by how many cars could fit the 2.5-mile (13,200 foot) track if each was allotted 400 feet of space. 
• That 1933 race had a record field size of 42 entrants. The smallest field for the 500 was made up of just 22 entrants in 1925, though the true distinction goes to 1916, which saw just 21 cars for a race shortened to 300 miles due to the war in Europe. 
• After his win in the 1933 edition of the race, Louis Meyer laid the groundwork for one of the races biggest traditions when he drank buttermilk after the race – a treat to refresh himself on a hot day. He drank buttermilk again for his third Indy 500 win in 1936 and was filmed by a Movietone News cameraman. That caught the eye of local dairy industry executives, who requested winners be given milk moving forward. 
• That wasn’t always the case from there, though. From 1947 through 1955 the winner was given cold water in a silver chalice from track president (and three-time Indy winner) Wilbur Shaw. The cup was engraved with the words “Water from Wilbur.” 
• Starting in 1956 the winner was offered a bonus (then $400, now $10,000) from the Indiana Dairy Association for drinking milk during post-race festivities. The Shaw cup was retired a couple years later and the milk trend has continued on to this day. 
• The closest finish in Indy 500 history came in 1992, when Al Unser Jr. beat Scott Goodyear to the line by .043 seconds. 
• But what about the largest? That distinction goes to Jules Goux, who won the 1913 edition by a margin of victory totaling 13 minutes, 8 seconds, over Spencer Wishart. 
• The most dominant drive to Indy 500 victory came from Bill Arnold, who led 198 of 200 laps from pole for the win. He only conceded the first two laps to Meyer before taking the lead on Lap 3 and marching off to a comfortable win. 
• As for the fewest laps led by an Indy 500 winner… Well, the answer is technically zero. Lora Lawrence (L.L.) Corum is credited as a co-winner of the 1924 Indy 500 despite failing to lead a lap in his Indy 500 career. This is because he was relieved by Joe Boyer on Lap 112 of 200. Boyer had led early in his own entry, but was called to switch with Corum after unscheduled stops left him behind. Fred Duesenberg made the decision, which helped his Duesenberg machine prevail over a quartet of Miller entries. 
• Among drivers that ran the full race, Dan Wheldon has the distinction of the fewest laps led in an Indy win – one, in his 2011 triumph. 
• Four drivers are tied for the most 500 wins at four: AJ Foyt (1961, 1964, 1967, 1977), Al Unser (1970, 1971, 1978, 1987), Rick Mears (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991) and Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021). 
• Three owners are tied for second on the wins list with five – Lou Moore, Michael Andretti and Chip Ganassi. But their wins combined don’t equal first-place Roger Penske. He’s won at Indianapolis 18 times as an owner. 
• The most successful numbers shouldn’t shock you. They’re the Nos. 3 (11 wins), 2 (nine wins) and 1 (seven wins). 
• A wild 2013 edition of the race provided both the most lap leaders (14) and lead changes (68) in a single Indy 500. The 1930 event saw the fewest, with two leaders and only one lead change. 
• Scott Dixon only has one Indy 500 triumph to his name. But the veteran does have the distinction of the most laps led overall in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He’s led 665 laps, or 1,662.5 miles, to date. 
• Dixon and 2013 winner Tony Kanaan have led in the most Indy 500s as well. They’ve each led in 15 of the race’s 106 editions, with Kanaan once leading in a record seven-straight 500s from 2002 through 2006.
• Ralph DePalma has the dubious distinction of most laps led in a losing effort at the 500, having paced 196 laps before a broken connecting rod ruined his race in 1912. Michael Andretti’s 431 career laps led are the most of any driver to never win the 500. 
• Helio Castroneves is the only driver to win in his first two Indy 500 starts. He’s also one of only five drivers to triumph in back-to-back 500s, joining Shaw (1939-40), Mauri Rose (1947-48), Bill Vukovich (1953-54) and Unser (1970-71).