The wait is finally over. What is being dubbed as “The Most Important Race in History” is finally here! Hours from now is the 100th anniversary of the first Indianapolis 500.
After the long weekend of races across the city (Freedom 100, Hoosier Hundred and Night Before the 500), it’s time for the marquee event. For some of us, it is a day that is even bigger than Christmas. The parties are over (unless you’re in the Coke Lot)…It’s time for predictions.
I can honestly say that this year I think the field is so wide open compared to recent years. There are many potential winners on the grid, but all of them would need to have certain breaks go their way.
The last few years, I have picked the same driver to win, but he hasn’t. But, this year, I think he has a certain swagger to him. Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing receives my vote as the 2011 race winner. He’s already won it before and has showed how fast he is all month long. (And because he’s won it before, he understands the significance of winning at this Sistine Chapel of Speed.) Plus, no one has been hotter than Chip Ganassi at Indy the last few years.
Sure, I would love to see someone on some sort of “underdog” team to win the race, but unfortunately, I have a feeling that something will go wrong during the race to ruin that hope for some of the drivers like Tag, Bell, etc. And what can go wrong? Well, there can be mechanical issues, a slow pit stop or numerous other small things that might not necessarily take them out of the race, but affect them too much to win.
With that being said, here is my top 5 for later today:
- Scott Dixon
- Dan Wheldon
- Will Power
- Vitor Meira
- Ryan Briscoe
The good part is with all my racing predictions, we can go back and laugh at how wrong I was after the race.