Polesitter Dixon is 41 while teammate Johnson is 46 as is Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.
HELIO CASTRONEVES 2021 INDY 500 DRIVERS
Palou, at 25-years-old is the reigning drivers champion while Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Andretti Autosports’s Colton Herta all posted multiple wins last season and have attracted interest from Formula 1.īut at the notorious Brickyard experience, bravery and smarts count as Herta’s Carb Day crash testifies that anything can happen on those perilous banks, of the required elements to win the race there will be plenty of drivers with them on Sunday’s grid. Ind圜ar has seen a pack of hard-charging newcomers emerge over the last two seasons but when it comes to the Indy 500 the old guard has been less willing to pass the torch. “That’s hard to achieve with two or three cars, it’s difficult with five – really tough.” Old Guard versus the Young Guns Right now is probably is one of the times where I have seen the whole team all smiling. “That’s hard to come by and keep that as an even keel. “The team Chip and everybody has put together is very unselfish but also have the common goal to just want to win. “I think we have a good mix of some veterans and also some younger guys,” said Dixon, a six-time Ind圜ar champion who sits third on the all-time win list with 51. Not far back in row four is Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion seen as a dark horse pick despite making his Indy 500 debut.
Starting alongside the New Zealander will be his young Spanish team mate Alex Palou, runner-up at last year’s 500, while Row Two will have two more Ganassi employees in Swede Marcus Ericsson and Brazilian Tony Kanaan. The ‘Iceman’ also started from pole in 2008 when he claimed his only Indy 500 win. Perhaps the biggest roadblock in his drive-for-five is a powerhouse Chip Ganassi Racing outfit which will have five drivers near the front led by Scott Dixon, snatching pole with a record speed of 234 mph. Chip Ganassi Racing will be their biggest stumbling block While it is nice to dream, the reality is Castroneves will start 27th – near the back of the 33-car field in a car that has not shown it is capable of running up front. Is it going to happen, we are going to see on Sunday. “I’ve tied the record, now it would be phenomenal to do something nobody has ever done. I want to do something nobody ever did,” said Castroneves, who joined AJ Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as a four-time winner. He completed the hat-trick in 2009.īut it took 12 years to bag number four and at 46-years-old the window is closing for the charismatic Brazilian to make Brickyard history, in Indycar’s showcase race. Having joined the Indianapolis 500’s most exclusive club of four-time champions last year, Helio Castroneves will try to move into a league of his own on Sunday by becoming the first to win the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on five occasions.Ĭastroneves exploded onto the Ind圜ar scene by winning the 500 on his first two tries in 20.
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