The 2009 Indianapolis 500 features one of the strongest fields for many years, following the merger between the IRL (Indy Racing League) and Champcar. As usual, the month of May has been filled by rookie orientation, practice and qualifying.
Castroneves Claims Pole at the Brickyard
Just a few weeks ago it was uncertain whether Helio Castoneves would even be at Indy. The Brazilian Penske driver was charged with several counts of tax evasion last year, but was finally acquitted. Castroneves is already a double winner of the 500, his last victory coming in 2002.
2009 also sees the return of veteran Paul Tracy, driving a Geico sponsored car for the KV Racing Technology team. Meanwhile, newcomer Raphael Matos collected the Fastest Rookie award after qualifying 12th on his Indy debut.
Danica Patrick, who starts from 10th, may well have a rival for the media spotlight this weekend in the shape of Alex Lloyd. The British driver has been attracting attention all month in his vivid pink car, and matching overalls. Lloyd is making his second appearance at Indy while still searching for a full-time ride. He put his under utilised talent to good use in qualifying and starts from 11th on the grid. He may well have history on his side, as a pink car has won the Indy 500 before.
In addition to Patrick there are two other female drivers in the field for this year's 500. Sarah Fisher claimed the 21st slot on the grid, while Milka Duno was 30th after a frantic Bump Day. Fisher enjoyed an impressive run in last year's race before being caught up in someone else's accident.
Bruno Junqueira saw his efforts come to nothing. After making it into the field he was informed that his seat was being taken by Alex Tagliani. The driver change resulted in Tagliani being demoted to 33rd position on the grid.
The winner of the 2009 Indy 500 will be extremely hard to predict. Castroneves, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon have all previously tasted the winner's milk in Victory Lane. The young pretenders Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti will be hoping to challenge their more experienced rivals over 500 miles. It promises to be an enthralling spectacle whatever the outcome.
2009 Indy 500 Starting Grid
- Pole - Helio Castroneves, 2 - Ryan Briscoe, 3 - Dario Franchitti
- 4 - Graham Rahal, 5 - Scott Dixon, 6 - Tony Kanaan
- 7 - Mario Moraes, 8 - Marco Andretti, 9 - Will Power
- 10 - Danica Patrick, 11 - Alex Lloyd, 12 - Raphael Matos
- 13 - Paul Tracy, 14 - Vitor Meira, 15 - Justin Wilson
- 16 - Hideki Mutoh, 17 - Ed Carpenter, 18 - Dan Wheldon
- 19 - A J Foyt IV, 20 - Scott Sharp, 21 - Sarah Fisher
- 22 - Davey Hamilton, 23 - Robert Doornbos, 24 - Townsend Bell
- 25 - Oriol Servia, 26 - Tomas Scheckter, 27 - Mike Conway
- 28 - John Andretti, 29 - E J Viso, 30 - Milka Duno
- 31 - Nelson Philippe, 32 - Ryan Hunter-Reay, 33 - Alex Tagliani
The grid at Indianapolis is split into 11 rows, with three cars on each. The 33 starters will be flagged away at 1pm local time for 200 laps of the classic 2.5 mile circuit. The pace car will be driven by Emmy Award winning actor Josh Duhamel. Tickets for the race are available from the official Indy 500 website.
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