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Good Morning from IMS

Brian Carroccio

UPDATE

The 98th Indianapolis 500 will be underway shortly

With a few minutes from the command to the start engines, here are a few last minute updates from IMS.

  • With the temperatures around 80 degrees, today will be the hottest day all month teams have run
  • We heard from some teams that they still didn't quite have an accurate handle on fuel mileage, as many did not do as many "full tank" runs as they would have liked.
  • We still are estimating the pit window to be about 30 green flag laps.
  • The drivers are in their cars. We should get the command to start engines shortly.
  • For live in-race updates, I will be on the AR1 Twitter feed @AutoRacing1.

Brian C. reporting from IMS.

05/25/14

Lovely morning here at IMS.

It's about 6 a.m. here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There is a beautiful sunrise to our east looking out towards turn 3 from the Pagoda. It's a somewhat humid morning with temperatures currently in the high 50s, and expected to be in the high 70s around race time. There is currently zero chance of rain forecast.

When we arrived about 45 minutes ago, it was smooth sailing coming in through the Turn 3-4 Tunnel. However, many of the lots inside the Speedway were already full, there was the smell of campfires in the air, and the media center is already pretty active.

Yesterday, we did a little reconnaissance on a few items for the race. Teams were pretty coy about the pit-stop window, and it seems a few of them aren't entirely sure what themselves what the window will be. However, from talking to the teams and some AR1 math, we're expecting the window to be around 30 laps with Honda teams having a small fuel mileage advantage over Chevrolet.

Therefore, if the final stint is caution free a la 2011, expect fuel mileage to be a factor, and Honda to have an advantage. If the last 20-25 laps are interrupted by caution, expect Chevrolet's small advantage in terms of top speed to play a factor in the outcome.

We spent some time with Dale Coyne yesterday. Coyne seemed quietly confident about the . He also was very complimentary of Colombian rookie Carlos Huertas, who Coyne noted is a very quick learner. When we asked him what exactly were the chances Huertas would do more oval races, he was non-committal. Ditto for the possibility of Pippa Mann doing more races with the team, although we imagine Mann will likely race at some of the larger ovals like Pocono and Fontana.

Check back in to AR1 for updates throughout the day.

Brian C. reporting from Indy.