How INDYCAR drivers can win the month of May – and fight for the Indy 500

IN Driver’s Eye included James Hinchcliffesix o’clock INDYCAR the winner will put you in the mind of a racer as you break down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans.

Spring in Indianapolis is a beautiful thing. The snow melts, the weather warms, flowers begin to bloom. But that has nothing to do with it.

What makes spring in Indianapolis so beautiful is that we are in the “month of May” – as we like to call it in the sport.

When the calendar turns to May 1, something changes in the air in Indy. It’s hard to explain, but it’s undeniably felt by everyone who lives there. Smells are stronger, colors are brighter and there is an energy in the air that is palpable.

For INDYCAR teams and drivers, it is the most important month of the year.

The Indianapolis 500 is the biggest motorsports event on the calendar. In fact, it is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. There is no non-religious gathering of people on Earth greater than the Indy 500. To be fair, some would argue that the Indy 500 is their religion.

So how do drivers and their teams at Indianapolis Motor Speedway fare throughout the month and the biggest race of the year?

2 KEYS TO INDY 500 SUCCESS

In order to be successful in the month of May and at the Indy 500, there are two things that each team must focus on more than anything else.

The first is the three Ps: preparation, preparation and preparation. So much of your fate at the Indy 500 – and the crucial qualifying events leading up to it – is decided before the cars ever come off the trailer.

The offseason work back in the shop with engineering and pit stop practice, the hours dedicated to building the cars, the countless runs in the simulator – all of these things add up and set the tone for how your month of May could go.

It’s the difference between confidence and speed versus being miserable and frustrated for an entire month.

The other thing is simply execution.

There are so many things you have to do perfectly as a team during the month, and slip-ups can be costly. Throughout 500 miles of the iconic 2.5-mile course, there are plenty of uncontrollables and can negatively affect your race, so you can grab every element you can control is essential to success. Especially when you also need a little luck.

Let’s break down how INDYCAR drivers and teams are attacking the month leading up to the Indy 500, which this year is set for Sunday, May 24 (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).

WEEK 1: INDY 500 TEST

The first week of the month is about what we call the Indy 500 Open Test.

The month of May started with the two-day test which ironically was in the last week of April this year. The teams hit the speedway for the first time this season and dusted off the cobwebs before returning in anger later this month for the opening day of official Indy 500 activities.

This is usually to confirm and ensure that all systems on the car are working correctly so that time is not wasted when official practice begins.

This is also a great opportunity for the one-time entries – cars that aren’t full-time INDYCAR competitors – to get the team together on a race track for the first time in a year, if not ever. There are only so many meetings and practice pit stops you can do in the shop before you have to go and do it for real.

[INDY TESTING: Mick Schumacher’s First Time Driving Indy Oval]

WEEK 2: INDY ROAD TRACK RACE

After the Indy 500 Open Test, the second week switches to the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which resides inside the famous 2.5-mile oval. This year it is Saturday 9 May.

Racing on any configuration at IMS is a rush, but when the world’s greatest race is just around the corner, the Grand Prix can sometimes feel like the annoying little brother of the 500.

But it’s not something you can overlook, as it gives just as many points as any other race. It can also give your team momentum heading into the rest of the month. Just ask Will Power, Simon Pagenaud or Alex Palou – all of whom took the confidence from winning the Indy Grand Prix to a 500 victory a few weeks later.

But more on that next week…

WEEK 3: QUALIFICATION AND MANY ROUNDS

When the Indy track race is done and dusted, the series makes the teams take a mandatory day off.

The garages are closed and all engineers, mechanics, officials, volunteers and drivers are given one last day to rest and recharge before the marathon run up to Memorial Day Weekend and the Indy 500. After that, the teams are given a day without on-track action to switch the cars from road to oval configuration.

This is where week 3 really begins and it’s all about laps.

The practice week has four days with a total of six hours of practice. That is to say a ton of track time, but that’s because there’s a ton of work to be done. Teams will prioritize evaluating any updates or changes they have developed during the offseason and then begin to go down a path on the setup.

The first days of the week are focused on the setup for the Indy 500 specifically. Drivers will spend a lot of time running in traffic and getting the car comfortable in racing trim. Logging as many miles as you can is essential.

On Friday, the horsepower will be cranked up to qualifying levels – it’s all speed, speed, speed – and the focus will shift to the four-lap qualifying race that will determine the starting grid and the coveted pole position.

Saturday and Sunday are all about driving fast and figuring out where you start in The Greatest Spectacle In Racing. The last six Indy 500 pole winners’ qualifying speeds were at least 231 miles per hour.

There is no greater thrill—and no more nerve-wracking challenge—for an INDYCAR driver than a flat qualifying run at IMS.

WEEK 4: THE BIGGEST SPECTACLE IN RACING

Once you’ve survived the qualifying weekend and your heart rate drops, week 4 is all about planning your 500 miles. How you approach this final week and the final two training sessions – a Monday and a Friday, affectionately known as Carb Day – depends entirely on how the previous weekend went.

If you qualify well, you work on dialing in the car to run at the front and fight for the win at sheer pace.

Starting near the back? Well then you have to throw as much at the car as you can to make sure you can weave through the traffic. Because if you have to pass more than 30 cars, it means that you will spend a lot of your day in traffic!

After that, there are only 800 left turns left between you and becoming the racing king!

Easy, right?!

[INDY 500: Everything To Know For Busy Month of May in Indianapolis]

SOUNDS LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT

After just watching the open test, I’m so excited for this year’s Indy 500. And I’ve already got my eye on one team in particular: Arrow McLaren.

Zak Brown’s team is fielding four cars — three full-season drivers in Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel, plus a one-off entry for 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay — and each has a very different story heading into it.

From Lundgaard you’ve got a driver in his second year with the team, and he’s coming off a seventh-place finish in 2025 – his best in four Indy 500s. He has two podiums on the season but has never finished an oval race in the top three. With a year of experience with this team, he should be brimming with confidence. In addition, he has the advantage of learning from an Indy expert in…

Ryan Hunter-Reay. RHR joining this team is by far the most exciting combination of one-time contributions. A former race winner for Andretti, he nearly took the W last year in a backup car for a team that only competes in one race — the 500 — each year. Put him in a program with McLaren’s resources and watch out.

Nolan Siegel, the focus of the latest episode of FOX Sports’ docuseries “All In,” has a lot to prove to team manager Tony Kanaan this season, and the year isn’t off to a great start. But a strong Indy 500 performance can save a driver’s season. And career.

Finally, you’ve got the series’ most popular driver in Pato O’Ward. Pato’s track record at Indy is exemplary: four top-5 finishes in his last five starts. Outlier was a crash with a handful of laps to go while, you guessed it, running in the top 5. Only Alexander Rossi, another to watch, has been as consistently competitive over the last decade as Pato, fueled by recent memories of bitter defeats.

Indy owes nothing to any of the 33 drivers lucky enough to participate in the 500. But if there’s one driver you feel deserves a career- and life-changing checkered flag, it’s Pato.

But deserving doesn’t make you someone to watch.

However, the way he drove and the way his car performed at the open test is more than enough to place him right at the top of the list of favorites heading into the 110th race of this amazing race.

MORE DRIVER’S EYE: