This Sunday will cap the best weekend of the year for professional racing. Formula 1 in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, and the main event is the Indianapolis 500; the largest single-day sporting event in the world. Over 350,000 fans will pack the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch 33 IndyCars strive for racing immortality.
The winner will likely come from the front row starters of Alex Rossi, lil’ Davey Malukas, and Alex Palou—the defending Indy 500 winner. He’s also the reigning 4X IndyCar champion trying to defend the biggest win of his career from the pole position. If Palou achieves his goal, he’ll be only the 7th driver in history to win consecutive Indy 500s.
Forget the Vegas betting line—the sentimental dollars are betting on Helio Castroneves. Now 51 years old, Helio is chasing a fifth Indianapolis 500 win. Castroneves is currently tied with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears with 4 wins each. No driver in the race’s century-long history has ever won 5 times, so the odds are against Helio and time is running out on his ‘drive for five‘.
The history-making story to follow is Katherine Legge—she will become the first woman to attempt ‘The Double‘. Only 5 drivers in history have ever attempted to compete in the Indianapolis 500 then jump on an airplane and fly to Charlotte to compete in the Coca-Cola 600. Legge will run the No. 11 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing IndyCar then drive the No. 78 e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports. That’s 1,100 miles of racing, two vastly different disciplines. all on the same day.
Mick Schumacher, the son of F1 god Michael Schumacher, will compete in the 110th Indianapolis 500 in only his second race on an oval. The name carries a heavy weight—a blessing and a burden. Michael Schumacher was a seven-time F1 World Champion and a five-time winner on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course during the U.S. Grand Prix era. But young Mick will be running the oval, and will need to rely on his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Takuma Sato for pointers. Sato competed against Mick’s father, then like Mick made the move to IndyCar and has since won the Indianapolis 500 twice.
TV coverage will be on FOX starting at 10:00 am with pre-race traditions like the singing of ‘Back Home Again in Indiana’ plus the driver introductions and fly-over by air force jets. The actual race broadcast starts at 12:30 pm, and the green flag is scheduled to wave at 12:45 pm, weather permitting.