The 2022 Indy 500 has here, and Helio Castroneves is hoping to make racing history on the biggest day of the year.
One way to look at starting from the pole position for the Indianapolis 500 is to claim that Scott Dixon has put 32 difficulties behind him. It’s a good spot to be in because it means you’ll start with the lead and clear air in front of you if you can hold off the other two cars on the front row.
With four Indy 500 victories, Castroneves is tied with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and Al Unser for the most. If he wins on Sunday, the 47-year-old Brazilian will become the first driver to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” five times.
The Indy 500, on the other hand, isn’t only about speed. It’s an endurance race with constantly shifting strategies and conditions that puts the drivers and their crews to the test in every way possible. It’s a race where you may make a mistake and still wind up in Victory Lane, or you can never recover and wonder what could have been.
Castroneves will have to win from the rear of the grid, as he will start 27th out of 33 drivers. Last year, he wasn’t thought to be in contention for the race win, but he ended up winning. Perhaps luck will be on his side once more.
First 21 times in the past 105 tournaments has the driver who started first also finished first, including Dixon’s only Indy 500 victory in 2008. Simon Pagenaud was the last driver to do it in 2019.
Of course, catching drivers like Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Rinus VeeKay, and others at the front of the field will be difficult. Castroneves’ quest for a fifth Indy 500 triumph, though, will be one of the race’s many compelling stories.
The 106th Indianapolis 500: How to Watch It
29th of May
29th of May Indianapolis Motor Speedway is located in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a racetrack in Indianapolis, Indiana. Time: 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
NBC at 12 p.m. ET
What channel is the Indianapolis 500 broadcasting today?
Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts the 106th Indianapolis 500.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosts the 106th Indianapolis 500. The date is Sunday, May 29th.
The 29th of May 11 a.m. ET start time (12:45 p.m. ET green flag)
TV channel: NBC, 11 a.m. ET (12:45 p.m. ET green flag)
Peacock | NBC Live Stream | fuboTV
On NBC, coverage of the 2022 Indianapolis 500 will begin at 11 a.m. ET. NBC used to start coverage of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on the NBC Sports Network earlier in the year. That channel, however, is no longer available.
The Indy 500 will be broadcast on NBC from around 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. The Indy 500 will be televised on the network for the fourth consecutive year.
The top 40 TV markets in the United States are shown here, along with the local NBC station for each.
NBC is a popular television network in the United States (Digital) 4 New York (35) Los Angeles 4 (36) Chicago 5 Los Angeles 4 (36) Los Angeles 4 (36) Los Angeles 4 (3 (33) San Francisco-Bay Area: 10 (28) Dallas: 5 (24) Philadelphia: 10 (28) Dallas: 5 (24) 13 Washington, D.C. a) (34) 2 Houston (35) Boston is ranked 15th (32) Tampa-St. Petersburg 8 (10) Atlanta 11 (10) Phoenix 12 (12) (7) 5 (Seattle) (25) 4 for Detroit (32) Minneapolis-St. Paul is a city in Minnesota. 11th (11) Miami has a 6-point lead (31) Denver has a score of 9. (9) 2 orlando (11) Cleveland three (19) 3 Sacramento (35) Charlotte is 36 years old (24) Portland has a score of 8 points (8) Indianapolis has a total of 13 points (13) Baltimore Raleigh-Durham 11 (12) (17) 4 – Nashville (10) San Diego has a score of 39. (17) San Antonio 4 (23) Salt Lake City 5 (28) Kansas City has a score of 41. (36) New Haven-Hartford 30 (31) 38. Columbus (35) Milwaukee has a 4-1 record (32) West Palm Beach is a city in Florida (12) Greenville 4 Cincinnati 5 (20) (30) Austin 36 (32) Las Vegas 3 (22) (21)
Mike Tirico of NBC and studio anchor Danica Patrick will provide pre-race coverage. Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., a former NASCAR driver, will join the two in the Peacock Pit Box.
Leigh Diffey will perform play-by-play duties alongside Townsend Bell during the event. As a racing analyst, James Hinchcliffe will make his Indy 500 debut, while pit reporters Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, Dave Burns, and Dillon Welch will make their debuts.
Who to keep an eye on
Dixon is the obvious driver to back. Not only has he won from the pole, but his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates have also been consistently fast in the build-up to the Indy 500. The defending series champion, Alex Palou, will start second, Marcus Ericsson will start fifth, 2013 winner Tony Kanaan will start sixth, and Jimmie Johnson will start 12th on the fourth row of the grid.
Johnson could be a pleasant surprise. He’s been fast since his car arrived on the transporter, and he was third fastest on the Monday after qualifying, when the teams switched the cars from qualifying to race trim. It’s also worth noting that Palou set the fastest time, followed by Dixon, putting Ganassi Racing in first place. Johnson finished sixth at the Texas oval in March, his best finish in the series.
Schedule for the Indianapolis 500
The Indy 500 always has a lot of build-up, thanks to pre-race qualifying and other activities. Now that they are mostly in the books, racing fans will begin to concentrate solely on the race itself.
Those who want to watch the Indy 500 live can get tickets starting at 6 a.m. ET. The vehicles won’t be driven onto the track until 9 a.m. ET. After that, fans will have to wait an hour and a half for the vehicles to be transported to the course’s frontstretch.
Driver introductions will commence at 11:47 a.m. ET, along with other pre-race activities such as the national anthem and a rendition of “Back Home Again in Indiana.” The race will then begin at 12:45 p.m. ET.
Helio Castroneves, the defending champion who is aiming for a record-breaking fifth victory at the Brickyard, is the sentimental favorite. He’s got the wits to pull it off, but he’s beginning from the back of the pack in 27th place. While chance plays a role in every Indy 500 winner, it’s possible that Castroneves would require much too much of it for the race to fall into his lap.
However, the driver starting 26th, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, has shown himself to be a racy oval driver this season, so who knows? Colton Herta, who would have started from the 25th position on the same row, has had his fortunes and starting position thrown off after a hard accident on Friday’s Carb Day. And, while anything can happen in 500 miles at the Brickyard, Herta’s uphill battle has just gotten a little tougher.
What is the best way to watch the Indy 500 online?
NBCSports.com | Peacock | fuboTV | Peacock
The Indy 500 will also be streamed live on NBCSports.com for those who have cable. The event will also be broadcast on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, as well as fuboTV, which offers a free trial.
Two additional drivers who are very than capable of winning this race are Grosjean’s colleague, 2016 winner Alexander Rossi, and Power’s Team Penske stablemate Josef Newgarden — who has 22 wins and two season championships in eight seasons but has yet to win the 500.
At the Indianapolis 500, there are 33 different narratives to follow. Only one of them ends happily ever after with a large bottle of milk.
