Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog!
As most of you probably have noticed, race day is quickly approaching!
So in these days between qualifying and race day I thought I’d give you some quick post qualifying thoughts and race day predictions.
Lets get to it!
I already wrote previously about day one of qualifying so I just wanted to touch on day two real quick.
Ed Carpenter was the man who was able to get it done with a 230 mph lap that stunned us all, which helped him in rightfully claiming the pole.
As much as I wished it would have been a Penske front row, if someone was going to spoil the Penske party I’m glad it was Ed Carpenter.
Ed Carpenter Racing has been strong all month, they managed to qualify all three of their drivers before the first Ganassi car even appears in the lineup. Thats pretty freaking impressive.
And I’ve just gotta give a shout out to Spencer Pigot for qualifying SIXTH, his highest start in his IndyCar career and it just so happens to be in the biggest race of the year.
I’ve been rooting for him ever since he stepped in an ECR car and I can’t wait to see what race day has in store for him.
I never anticipated his breakout race to be on an oval, but I guess we’ll see!
And you know I gotta give a shout out to Chevy as well cause I’m a Chevy girl and they crushed it in qualifying. They brought the heat y’all!
I was also thoroughly impressed by the rookies in the field, specifically Zachary Clamen De Melo and Matheus Leist. They brought the speed on Sunday that’s for sure!
And then we had poor Alexander Rossi who qualified 32. That was a bummer.
So before I move on to race day predications I feel like I need to further address the whole bump day debacle.
In my last blog I talked about it, but I didn’t really give my opinion. So I thought I owed it to y’all to let you know what I really thought.
Yes, I was sad to see Pippa not make the field I was dumbfounded that Hinch didn’t, but I wasn’t upset that it happened per say.
I never quite made a firm stance going into the 500 if I was for bumping or against it with 35 cars and I never quite made up my mind anyways.
But after the bumping happened I didn’t want IndyCar to go back on its word and say “nah, never mind, we’re going to start 35 cars anyways”. That would have been a cop out and that would have pissed me off.
And I wasn’t to keen on the idea of SPM buying Hinch a ride either, it didn’t seam fair to the driver who worked hard to qualify their car and get to the 500 in the first place.
Hinch didn’t make the feild and that should have been the end of the story, and luckily it was days later when Hinch officially announced he would not run in the race.
Yes, I’m heartbroken for him, but he didn’t earn his way in so he has to pay the price.
If I’m being honest he should have withdrawn his time and made a new attempt right away after Oriol Servia made his first guaranteed attempt.
However, somewhat related to that I do think IndyCar needs to rethink the way it does qualifying.
I’m all for bumping on Sunday.
And I don’t think I’m too keen on the whole 25/8 rule giving guaranteed spots, although I see its merit.
I think that perhaps they should make the 500 not worth double points and just award points as a regular race. By doing that it allows full time drivers who do not make the race to still be in contention for the championship.
Yes, they will still miss out on a ton of points, but this early in the season you can still make that up, its not a championship killer like missing out on a double points race is.
Thats a big part of where my hear breaks for Hinch not making the race in the fact that he is currently 5th in the championship so him missing the race essentially ruins any potential run for the championship from here on out.
And just a disclaimer, this points thing is not entirely my idea. It was inspired by something I read in Robin MIller’s Mailbag so I can’t claim this idea.
Okay, let move on from all this qualifying drama and on to race day.
Who do I think is going to win the 102 running of the Indy 500?
A lot of people.
I think all four Penske’s have a really great chance of winning and I’d love to see any of them win.
I’d love to see Ed Carpenter win and I think he has a great shot, all the ECR cars I think have a shot.
Yes, even Danica.
As for Spencer I’m not quite sure if he is able to put together a win at Indy yet, but I anticipate a good finish.
And to be fair you can’t count out the Andretti cars, even if they didn't have any speed in qualifying.
Typically, I would put Graham Rahal in the mix even if he qualified in the back, but I don’t know if he has the speed this year to get it done.
You can’t count out Scott Dixon or Sebastian Bourdais- I think they will be the strongest Honda’s.
And after last year I wouldn’t count out James Davidson or Ed Jones.
And I gotta put in my man JR Hildebrand, I still have faith in you JR!
Okay, so I just mentioned like half of the field, so who do I really want to win?
I think I honestly would cry if Helio won his 4th.
And you know I’m a Newgarden fan so of course I want to see him win.
And I love a good first time win and I would love to see Ed carpenter and Will Power finally win an Indy 500.
And because the 9 year old girl who grew up in IndyCar obsessed with Danica Patrick I think it would be pretty freaking cool if she won on Sunday.
And how awesome of a career ender would that be?
And on that note, I’ll see you after race day when we crown a new champion.
xxkaitlyn
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