INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis 500 media day is now behind us. It’s time to fire these engines one more time for the final practice session of the month on Carb Day (11 a.m. ET/NBCSN). After the 90 minute practice is over, these cars go back to Gasoline Alley until race day.

With that being said, what are the main things discussed on Media Day?

Passing Should Be Better Up Front Compared To Last Year

It seems unanimous that the race up front will be vastly different than what we’ve seen here in last year’s race. The drivers have all said that battling for the lead will be easier to pass. Even third place getting by second will be rather easy. But, from fourth on back – well that will be harder.

See, the drivers all say that the cars have a much bigger draft and can close easier to the car in front this year than last year. That’s because of IndyCar adding downforce to the front of these cars to go along with Firestone bringing a new tire for Indy.

More downforce and a grippier tire means more passing.

But, the reason to why fourth on back is harder to pass is because that fifth place on back may have a run on fourth place but fourth place may still have a run on third place. If you pop out to pass, you get hit with a ton of air and the car gets draggy. The car in front of you pulls away because they’re still getting a tow while you’re not.

Up front, you have cleaner air and not the traffic in front to get a tow off of. Make sense? Expect to see more than 30 lead changes on Sunday.

Past Winners Want A Win More Than Ever

It’s one thing to want to taste the milk here. It’s another to have tasted the milk here in the past and want it again. See, all the past winners that have won here, say that the jealousy is almost greater when they leave here and to have not won the race than it was when they left here before they had won the race.

Indy is a place everyone wants to win at. The desire is stronger here than anywhere else. But, once you get a win, you don’t want anyone else to bask in the ambiance as the winner for the next 12 months. You want it to be yourself.

So, for the past winners in Sunday’s field, they will be extremely jealous if they don’t win, so much so, some avoid social media for a while.

Ed Carpenter Racing Seems To Be The Most Prepared

Everyone polled on Thursday said that Carb Day would be the most important practice session of the month. That’s because most of the practice days this May have been run in cooler conditions. When it got hotter last weekend, everyone was already on qualifying trim. When they got race levels back for Monday, the highs were in the 60’s with overcast conditions.

Carb Day is supposed to be hot, humid and in the 80’s. Race day is forecasted to be near 80. That’s why Carb Day is a key practice sessions as almost everyone said that they are looking for data.

Not one organization though.

Ed Carpenter Racing says that they have ran a lot this month and have data for whatever conditions Sunday throws at them. Run by themselves for clean air data in cool, hot, overcast, sunny? Got it. Run in a group in those conditions? Got it. Get shuffled back on race day and you think your car feels bad? They have data for how to get back to the front and how the car needs to be setup to do so.

Right now, everyone says that ECR and Team Penske are the ones to beat. After talking to everyone, ECR is the only group that seems this confident.