INDYCAR YouTube channel<\/a>. Allen Bestwick will be the host, with James Hinchcliffe serving as analyst Tuesday and Georgia Henneberry reporting from the pits both days.<\/p>\nChip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Alex Palou is foremost on the list of drivers to watch as he is the reigning \u201c500\u201d and series champion. He also has won the past two series races \u2013 on a road course and a street circuit \u2013 and three of the season\u2019s first five races to build a 17-point lead over Andretti Global\u2019s Kyle Kirkwood. Overall, Palou has won 11 of the past 22 races, including a pair on ovals last year (Indy and at Iowa Speedway).<\/p>\n
Palou earned his first \u201c500\u201d victory last year in dramatic fashion, overtaking 2022 champion and former teammate Marcus Ericsson with a bold move approaching Turn 1 on Lap 187 of 200. Ericsson blamed himself for leaving too much room to the inside, which practically begged Palou to go for it. Palou did and was never headed.<\/p>\n
Ericsson, who is Kirkwood\u2019s teammate, has been one of the best performers at the Speedway in recent years, losing a chance at consecutive wins in 2023 when Team Penske\u2019s Josef Newgarden passed him on the last lap. Ericsson has led 60 laps over the past four years.<\/p>\n
![\"Indianapolis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/04-27-Open-Test-Inside.jpg\")
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Ericsson and Newgarden are both hoping to make amends for penalties incurred last year. Newgarden and then-teammate Will Power had to start the race on the last row for infractions discovered in qualifying. Newgarden, a two-time Indy winner, was powering through the field in pursuit of an event-first three-peat when his car suffered a mechanical issue just after he got to sixth place. The cars of Ericsson and Kirkwood were stripped of their second- and sixth-place finishes after post-race inspection.<\/p>\n
Power hasn\u2019t had strong results in recent Indys, but he is another driver with a legitimate chance to earn another likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy (he won in 2018). A win this time would be with Andretti Global, which won the race with Dan Wheldon (2005), Dario Franchitti (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Alexander Rossi (2016) and Takuma Sato (2017). This will be Power\u2019s first chance to race in the \u201c500\u201d with a team other than Team Penske since his rookie year in 2008 with KV Racing Technology.<\/p>\n
Sato is back in the field to chase a third Indy win. As is the case with his 2020 victory and last year\u2019s front-row start, he will drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He led a race-high 51 laps last year with RLL. Only 10 drivers have won three or more \u201c500s,\u201d the most recent to join that group was Franchitti in 2012.<\/p>\n
Hunter-Reay has joined Arrow McLaren, which should be a boost to Pato O\u2019Ward, who has been one of the best at the Speedway in recent years. Either driver could win this year\u2019s race as Hunter-Reay showed last year when he led 49 laps and appeared on his way to victory with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing until the car ran out of fuel coming to the final pit stop as the leader.<\/p>\n
It has been 18 years since Scott Dixon won the \u201c500,\u201d but his five poles in the event illustrate how fast he has been with CGR over the years. ECR also seems to regularly have fast cars at the Speedway, which bodes well for Rossi and last year\u2019s Milwaukee winner, Christian Rasmussen, who finished sixth last year at Indy. Rossi led 14 laps last year before retiring early with mechanical failure.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the only four-time winner in the field, and it\u2019s a safe bet that Helio Castroneves will have something to say about the outcome of this year\u2019s race in his Meyer Shank Racing w\/Curb Agajanian machine.<\/p>\n
Four drivers will be prepping for their first chance to start an Indy 500: Mick Schumacher (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports), Caio Collet (AJ Foyt Racing) and Dennis Hauger (Dale Coyne Racing).<\/p>\n
This test is being held later in April than in some years, which means it\u2019s closer to the start of official practice Tuesday, May 12. Thus, it will be interesting to see the approach the various teams take. Some will focus on making long runs to test tires and fuel while others will do more qualifying simulations.<\/p>\n
There are storylines aplenty, and INDYCAR.com will spend the weeks leading up to the race detailing them. For now, it\u2019s time to get to work. It begins Tuesday.<\/p>\n
CHEVROLET PARTICIPANTS<\/p>\n
Abel Motorsports: Jacob Abel<\/p>\n
Arrow McLaren: Pato O\u2019Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Nolan Siegel, Ryan Hunter-Reay<\/p>\n
AJ Foyt Racing: Santino Ferrucci, Caio Collet<\/p>\n
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing: Jack Harvey, Conor Daly<\/p>\n
ECR: Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter<\/p>\n
HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing: Katherine Legge<\/p>\n
Juncos Hollinger Racing: Rinus VeeKay, Sting Ray Robb<\/p>\n
Team Penske: Josef Newgarden, David Malukas, Scott McLaughlin<\/p>\n
HONDA PARTICIPANTS<\/p>\n
Andretti Global: Marcus Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood, Will Power<\/p>\n
Chip Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson<\/p>\n
Dale Coyne Racing: Romain Grosjean, Dennis Hauger<\/p>\n
Meyer Shank Racing w\/Curb Agajanian: Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist, Helio Castroneves<\/p>\n
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Graham Rahal, Louis Foster, Mick Schumacher, Takuma Sato<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Action Streaming Live on INDYCAR YouTube Channel Nine former winners of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-413735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}