INDIANAPOLIS — 5 full practice days, 2 qualifying days, a parade and the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 are now behind us. Here’s what we learned from the Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

• Sometimes, the best cars don’t always win – Most considered Sunday’s race to be a battle between Chip Ganassi Racing vs. Arrow McLaren Racing. They had all four of their cars starting off in the top 10 starting spots in a race that had seen six straight winners come from a top 10 starting spot. Ganassi cars were 1-2 on opening Day, 1-2 on Thursday, 1-2 on the four-lap average chart on Fast Friday, 2-3-4-13 on Monday and now 1-2-4 again on Carb Day. None of their four cars won. Same for McLaren. 2 were crashed, one was in 16th and the other in fifth. I asked the drivers during the week how many times did the best car win at Indy, some said 50-50 others say as low as 30%. With such a long race, a lot can go wrong and for the top cars, a lot did.
• Big Teams Still Shine – Roger Penske has now won 19 Indianapolis 500 wins. Chip Ganassi has 6. What’s wild is, this is the first time that they have ever finished 1-2 in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Since Chip Ganassi Racing joined the NTT INDYCAR SERIES full-time in 1990 (they were a co-entrant with 1989 winner Emerson Fittipaldi), they’ve won five times at Indy. Buddy Lazier (Hemelgarn) was second to Juan Montoya in 2000. Penske actually wasn’t there as they were in CART at the time. They came back in 2001 and went 1-2. Ganassi’s top finisher was fourth that year with them being 4-5-6 actually. Michael Andretti (3rd place) was between. That and 2015 with Montoya and Power beating Charlie Kimball and Scott Dixon are the only instances to where it was a Penske vs. Ganassi show. Penske has won 12 of their 19 Indy 500’s in this span between 1990 and now. But, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. The two teams have won each of the last 10 series championships. They’ve also won 5 of the 6 races this year and 39 of the 52 (75%) of the races with the Aeroscreen. Combined, Ganassi, Penske and Andretti have won 15 of the last 19 Indy 500’s. Plus, the last non Penske Chevrolet driver to win at Indy was Al Unser Jr. with Galles in 1992.
• Track position race but you can pass – Some thought that this year’s race was going to allow for more passing than in years past throughout the field. With new aero tweaks, the door was opened. However, as we went into race weekend, the consensus tempered expectations. They all figured you could pass with ease in the first 2-3 spots, but beyond that, it would remain difficult. In saying that, there was options to move up though. Josef Newgarden started 17th and steadily worked his way up through the field. Marcus Ericsson started 10th and finished second. Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Rinus VeeKay and Colton Herta each endured troubles at some point on Sunday and fell outside the top 20 in doing so. They’d rebound to finish in the top 10.

• Chevrolet improvement -Chevrolet had the preferred power in this race in 2018 and again in 2019. They’ve swept the front row in both years. In 2018, they led nearly 150 of the 200 laps run. For 2019, they combined to lead 155 of the 200 laps. That ended their reign. In 2020, it was all Honda. This time Honda swept the front row and took 11 of the top 12 starting spots. They’d lead 180 of the 200 laps and sweep the top four finishing spots and take 8 of the top 10 finishers overall. 2021 saw Chevy close the gap. They led over 100 laps but the manufacturers were pretty even with each having 3 cars in the top six. Honda had better qualifying pace and finished 1-2 in the race. Last year, Chevy had led nearly 80% of the laps and won all 4 races entering the Month of May. Honda however instead swept the month including producing 6 of the top 9 finishers in the 106th Running of the Indy 500. They also led 166 of the 200 laps too. On Sunday, Chevrolet was back and scored their 1st win since 2019 here. They put 2 cars on the front row and led 130 of 200 laps including taking the win via Josef Newgarden.
• This truly is Kanaan’s “Last Lap” – I think some speculated that Kanaan could come back in 2024. However, the 16th place finish he notes is like the final note of this song. “In a way, finishing 16th will take everybody’s idea out, oh, you finished third, you should do it again,” he joked. “Kyle Larson is driving that car next year. Hopefully I will be around.”
• End Of Race Dragon Move Here To Stay – So long as this aero package sticks and the lead car is in a lame duck scenario, the end of race dragon maneuver first started in 2019 by Simon Pagenaud and perfected the last 2 years by Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden have proved that this end of race antics aren’t going anywhere. The drivers have all said that while it looks unsafe, it’s not as bad inside of the cars as we think. They know the risks but they also note that you can’t just sit there holding one line and get freight trained. The move is in defense to break the draft behind you. I think INDYCAR is pleased with this package making the end of race chaos here to stay.
• Crazy Restarts Also Here To Stay – By virtue of this racing package and being the leader a lame duck situation, the crazy restarts also aren’t going anywhere. Essentially, if you’re the leader coming to the green, there’s virtually no shot of you leading the next time by. In fact, there’s a real case for you to be down to third or further back. Fair? That’s the name of this game as drivers behind time the restart and use the tow to pass.
• 1st Half of Race Fuel Strategy – The first 100 or so laps is always going to be about fuel saving. With a fuel run going 27-35 or so laps, the further you can stretch the fuel the better you can make it to the end of the race in 6-7 pit stops. That’s why you’re always going to see the rest of this way the jockeying for position then holding serve to conserve fuel. The first 2-3 drivers will swap the lead every 3-4 laps in order for them to save fuel too because you don’t want to lead and punch the hole by yourself for the entire stint because you’re wasting more fuel and as a result, won’t be able to hit your fuel number. The manufacturer who gets the best fuel mileage is going to shine. Chevrolet was the one this year. While Palou was leading at the end of the first pit cycle, he was also just one of two Honda’s in the top nine now. There were six Chevy’s lined up behind him (VeeKay, Ferrucci, Rosenqvist, Rossi, O’Ward and Power). Ericsson went from 10th to 8th in his first stint while Newgarden entered the top 10 for the first time at this point in ninth.

• This Race Has Become One Nobody Wants to Lead – With not wanting to lead the lap coming to Lap 199, not wanting to dominate the race out front early and not wanting to be shown the lead on a restart, the Indy 500 has become a race that no one wants to lead. That’s wild to think about, but true. The only lap that counts is Lap 200 and that’s what makes this race a wild one until that point. Josef Newgarden led only five laps on Sunday. The only winners to lead fewer laps were Joe Dawson, who led two in 1912, and Dan Wheldon, who led one lap in 2011.
• Veteran Race – Josef Newgarden became the ninth 32-year-old driver to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. However, since 2009, he was the 14th winner in the last 15 years that was over the age of 30.

Ages of #Indy500 winners since 2009

09: 34
2010: 37
2011: 32
2012: 39
2013: 38
2014: 33
2015: 39
2016: 24
2017: 40
2018: 37
2019: 35
2020: 43
2021: 46
2022: 31

Avg. 36 years old

— Eric Smith (@Eric_RaceReview) May 25, 2023

• Red Flag endings – The precedent has now been set. 2 straight years we’ve seen a late race red flag. We saw three of them on Sunday even. Barring a caution flying on Lap 199, if there’s anything occurring on Lap 198 and earlier, a red flag now must fall. They just proved that they can call it and do it on a green/white flag scenario without any pace laps prior.
• Parity – We’ve seen a lot of parity lately in this race. Since 2011, only Takuma Sato has won this race more than once. The winners in this span is Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Rossi, Sato, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Marcus Ericsson and now Josef Newgarden. 12 winners in 13 years.
• Next year’s Winner likely finished outside the top 10 on Sunday – Among the last 8 winners, 5 of the 7 finished outside the top 10 the year prior to their victory.
• Santino Ferrucci’s/Pato O’Ward’s time is coming – Ferrucci was 3rd on Sunday for his fifth top 10 finish in as many tries including the last four being with four different teams. He just gave AJ Foyt Racing their best finish here since 2000. There’s no doubt in my mind, Ferrucci will be an Indy champion one day. For O’Ward, this was his first DNF here as he went from sixth to fourth to second to a crash while battling for second with eight laps-to-go on Sunday. He too will win here one day as well.
• Speed Is Back – 4th closest finish ever, 3rd most lead changes, 3rd ever last lap pass for the win, 11 lap leaders on the lead lap set the record, fastest ever female qualifier, fastest ever pole speed, fastest starting field, fastest front row and closest front row.
• Indy is Back – Crowds all month exceeded all expectations with a 10% boost in attendance for all practice days on opening week. Qualifying weekend had an estimated 80k between the two days, Carb Day around 75k and race day having all but a few thousand tickets sold. The hype was real. Indy is back.

• ECR Much Needed Top 10’s – 11 straight years now ECR has had a driver in the Fast 12 Shootout. On Sunday, they got much needed top 10 finishes for their full-time drivers. Ed Carpenter Racing started off the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season reeling. Rinus VeeKay entered the Indy 500 18th in points. He finished 21st, 11th, 26th, 16th and 13th respectively. Conor Daly was 24th. He finished 14th, 20th, 23rd, 25th and 19th himself. However, on a warm day in Central Indiana, both full-time cars came away with Dual Top 10 finishes.
• Practice Week Plans – That has changed over the years but the focus is clear that you have to jump off race configurations at some point and simulate qualifying runs. Most teams have started doing this. Also, you can’t neglect race pace too as the teams do pack runs as well. A key cog in this though is running in traffic with other teams to find out how they’re running their cars. It’s one thing to run with teammates to play it safe, but it’s another to send out a car or two to run with other “teammates” in other camps. I saw it a lot this month with an ECR or McLaren car running with Ganassi’s or Penske’s or even Andretti’s or vice versa to see how each other were handling and seeing how they stacked up with them.
• Another Disappointing Month For Andretti – Before the UAK was introduced in the 2018 season, Andretti Autosport had won 3 Indy 500’s in a four-year span including 2 straight. Since? 0-for-5. They’re falling further and further behind. They led only 3 laps in 2022 with finishing 5-20-22-30-31 that day. This past year, they finished 9-13-17-28-30 with just one lap led. 1 top 5, 2 top 10’s and 4 laps led in two years here. That’s not very Andretti like. It was a disappointment for the Andretti Autosport cars in qualifying too. They didn’t have a single driver in the Shootout and would only start 15th (Kyle Kirkwood), 19th (Romain Grosjean), 21st (Colton Herta), 24th (Marco Andretti) and 26th (Devlin DeFrancesco). Marco Andretti calls is embarrassing to be this way for another year.
• RLL lacking superspeedway speed – In April’s open test, RLL went 23rd (Rahal), 26th (Lundgaard), 28th (Harvey) and 31st (Katherine Legge). Last year, they had 2 of the bottom 3 qualifiers (Lundgaard 31st, Harvey 32nd) and earlier this season in Texas, they qualified 24th, 27th and 28th out of 28 cars. That’s why it shouldn’t be too surprising that 3 of the bottom 4 qualifiers for next Sunday’s race are in the RLL camp and the one going home is one of their cars. Katherine Legge was 31st, 33rd and 29th respectively on the speed charts. She was 28th on the four-lap average chart. She started 30th. Christian Lundgaard was 32nd, 27th and 32nd across the three days. He was 30th on the four-lap average. He came from 31st. Jack Harvey was 28th, 21st and 31st this week and was 32nd on the four-lap average. He blew an engine with 10 minutes remaining in Friday’s practice too. He started last in 33rd. Graham Rahal was 23rd, 12th and 33rd on single lap speed and 31st on the four-lap average chart. He was bumped out of Harvey in the final seconds on Sunday.