Before the race we asked the question, “Can a Chevy engine win the Indianapolis 500 again?” The race is over and we have the answer to that question. NO. Not this year.
We boldly predicted that Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Kanaan or Ed Carpenter had excellent chances of taking home the Borg-Warner trophy. When it finally came to race day, we watched as Chevy driver after Chevy driver fell out of contention. Humbled by what we predicted and what we saw actually happening, we decided to break-down the final results for the Chevy drivers in order to determine where our prediction was flawed.
Breaking Down The Results
#2. Helio Castroneves/Team Penske: Starting position 2. Status: 200 laps, running. Led 38 laps in the race. Raced Ryan Hunter Reay hard for the win but just ran out of room at the finish line.
#5. Juan Pablo Montoya/Team Penske: Starting position 10. Status: 200 laps, running. Led 10 laps during the race. Was attempting to win with a fuel strategy race until he was caught speeding on pit road at lap 131.
#7. Sebastien Bourdais/KVSH Racing: Starting position 17. Status: 200 laps, running. Best Indy finish for the driver.
#8. Will Power/Team Penske: Starting position 3. Status: 200 laps, running. Ran strong until a pit road speeding violation halted his progress and hurt his chances. Led 22 laps in the race.
#9. Sage Karam/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports: Starting position 31. Status: 200 laps, running. Could have been selected as Rookie of the Race coming from 31st and finishing 9th as a 19-year old rookie driver.
#10. J. R. Hildebrand/Ed Carpenter Racing: Starting position 9. Status: 200 laps, running. Ran consistently in the top 10 all day long.
#15. Sabastian Saaverda/KV AFS Racing: Starting position 32. Status: 200 laps, running. Touched Villeneuve’s car a lap prior to Townsend Bell’s crash on 140. Incurred minor damage.
#16. James Davidson/KV Racing Technology: Starting position 28. Status: 200 laps, running. Nice run for the Australian rookie.
#18. Ryan Briscoe/Chip Ganassi Racing: Starting position 30. Status: 200 laps, running. Top finishing Ganassi driver.
#25. Townsend Bell/KV Racing Technology: Starting position 25. Status: 190 laps, crash. Ran as high as 2nd. Was the outside car in a three-wide turn that claimed Ed Carpetner and James Hihchcliffe’s cars. Crashed hard in turn 2 on lap 190 in a single car incident.
#26. Tony Kanaan/Chip Ganassi Racing: Starting position 16. Status: 177 laps, running but 23 laps behind. Led one lap of the race but ran out of fuel prior to his second pit stop. Finished the race 23 laps down but running.
#27. Ed Carpenter/Ed Carpenter Racing: Starting position 1. Status: 175 laps, crashed. Led 26 laps of the race. Had a car that could have won but got caught up in a three wide crash in turn 1. Carpenter blamed James Hinchcliffe for the incident.
#29. Scott Dixon/Chip Ganassi Racing: Starting position 11. Status: 167 laps, crash. Led 3 laps of the race. Lost control of his car in turn 4, hit the outside wall and slid back down the track to the inside wall in a single car wreck.
#31. Charlie Kimball/Chip Ganassi Racing: Starting position 26. Status: 149 laps, crash. Crashed in turn 2. Solo car crash. Nearly lost control a lap earlier in turn 3 when Takuma Sato passed on the outside.
#32. Buddy Lazier/Lazier Partners Racing: Starting position 33. Status: 87 laps, mechanical.
Final Analysis
Honda engine powered cars finished with three in the top five positions but only had four of the top ten cars at the finish. All four of those were Andretti Autosports’ cars which certainly makes this seem more of a team finish than an engine manufacturer’s great finish.
If Andretti Autosports had a great race, Chip Ganassi Racing can be said to have had a horrible outing. The highest finishing Ganassi Chevrolet was 18th place. Every Team Penske Chevrolet entry finished above the Ganassi cars. With the competitiveness between these two camps being at the highest level of any racing series, we can only imagine how the Ganassi team is taking this showing. Next year will probably have a much different outcome.
Look to see how the season stacks up and where the Ganassi drivers end up in the yearly standings. With a driver roster that includes Biscoe, Kanaan, Kimball and Dixon, one of the four entrants should have placed in the top half of the final results. We can expect to see some internal changes in this team before the next Indy 500.