Through the Field: 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500

It's been about a year and a half since I took a leave of absence from blogging about the IZOD Indycar Series following the tragedy in Las Vegas.  I've recently rediscovered that flame to get back into writing and analyzing the sport, so without further ado, a new addition to the Across The Bricks publications, I give you Through The Field, a brief look at who's 'hot' and who's 'not' going into this year's edition of the Indianapolis 500.

Hot:
- Dario Franchitti: Can't ever rule this guy out at Indy. Ever since his '07 win, he has been constantly at or near the front, and I don't expect this year to be any different.

- Ed Carpenter: With his hard charge at the end of the 500 and his MAVTV 500 win in SoCal last year, his mastery of oval skills seem to be coming to fruition. Ed's got to be in the conversation for the Borg-Warner this time around.

- Marco Andretti: As consistently strong and confident as he's been this year, and as dominantly quick as he was last year, if he can qualify near the front, I think he'll be hard to beat in the closing laps. Especially since he's found almost every way to lose this race in his 7 prior starts.

- Tony Kanaan: He loves Indy, and Indy loves him. Luckless in 11 prior starts though. He's shown a lot of brilliance at Indy and a lot of resilience, but he's getting old, and running out of time to notch a victory in this race before he starts looking seriously at retirement.

- James Hinchcliffe: Riding the wave of two victories in four attempts this season, Hinchcliffe is arguably the hottest driver in the series coming into Indianapolis. He had a good month of May last year, but fell a little short in the race. Given that Andretti has upped their game since last year and Penske and Ganassi seem to be caught in some kind of rut, a cold bottle of Milk might not be out of the question for Hinchcliffe, especially with wingman support from Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti.

- Scott Dixon: Indy is as much a race about handling and agility as it is about mental fortitude, and Dixon is arguably the coolest driver under pressure that the series has seen. He was in the mix at every oval the series raced at last year but bad luck, bad timing, and mistakes kept him from capitalizing. He's won this race before so he knows what it takes to get the job done, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him up there again this year too.

- Takuma Sato: Last year's bridesmaid at this race.. Takuma's "No Attack, No Chance" attitude is what kept him from winning this race last year, but this time around, he's riding the wave of consecutive top-two finishes, and the Foyt team is notorious for saving their good stuff for Indianapolis. This team has been slightly lacking in the speed department at Indy the past few years, but this time around I genuinely think they might have an outside shot at taking the crown jewel back to Texas with them.

- Graham Rahal: Graham's historically been pretty quick at Indianapolis, and the last time that he and his dad paired up for this race in 2010, they were one of only a few cars that could hang with Dario Franchitti. The Rahal team was fast when it counted last year with Takuma Sato, and with a year of development and massaging in their cars now, it's not unreasonable to suggest that Graham might be able to capitalize this time around.

- Oriol Servia: This time last year, Dreyer and Reinbold was switching Oriol's cars over to accept a Chevy powerplant, and with very little experience engineering on the Chevy engine, Oriol drove from a lap down to finish 4th. This time around, it's Dreyer and Reinbold's swansong for the immediate future, and the last serious chance Servia may have to record a solid result for a long time before going back into free agency. They say that you're only as good as your last race, and if Oriol is going to try and impress future employers, he needs to go out there and show the world what he's made of.

Not:
- Will Power: Will's miserable run of fortune thus far in 2013 has the deck stacked against him, and historically, he has been way below the "Penske Standard" on ovals. He is either routinely outclassed by his teammates or is taken out of contention through mistakes or accidents not of his own doing. Especially given the Penske team's apparent struggles at Indianapolis in race trim for the past few years, it wouldn't surprise me to see Power on the outside looking in once again.

- Alex Tagliani:  Fan-favorite Alex Tagliani, who sat on the pole for this race just two years ago, has been out to lunch with his Bryan Herta Autosport team for the past four races and is mired back in 19th in the points standings. The Herta-led team isn't known for giving up though, and if they're going to be contenders they need to right the ship and put the hammer down. Where better of a place to do it than Indianapolis?

- Sebastien Bourdais:  For a driver who is renowned for his skill on street/road courses, in four starts this season with the Dragon Racing team he has failed to produce any noteworthy results. Bourdais has seen limited success at Indianapolis in the past, most notably running in the top 5 back in 2005 before cutting a tire on lap 199. Either Bourdais or his team needs to step up their game, because Indianapolis isn't a place where you can win if you're suffering from deficiencies on either side of the pit wall.

Lukewarm:
- J.R. Hildebrand: Hildebrand and the Panther team showed a lot of promise the last time they raced this aerodynamic configuration at Fontana in September, but come into the Indianapolis at a rather stagnant point of their season; they haven't been setting the world on fire but they haven't been backmarkers either. The Panther team has shown they have the potential to get it done around Indianapolis in the past, and with a year of development on their chassis now, it's not unreasonable to suggest that this might be J.R.'s best chance at the Borg-Warner yet.

- Charlie Kimball: To this point in the season, Kimball has had just one noteworthy result, a 4th place result coming at Barber Motorsports Park, which he followed up with his best impression of a pinball the following weekend at Long Beach. To his credit, he had a regular presence in the top-10 during last year's 500, and can be a frontrunner-caliber driver when he works at it, but his lack of consistency keeps him from earning 'Hot' status on this one.

- A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger comes into this year's Indianapolis 500 moonlighting from the Sprint Cup Series in Roger Penske's #2 entry vacated by last year's Indianapolis 500 polesitter Ryan Briscoe. The only things keeping the 'Dinger from 'Hot' status on this one have been his lack of results in his prior two starts this season, but his strong runs in Sprint Cup with the underfunded Phoenix Racing team have shown that he can wheel a car against the best of them. Looking at the facts, there's really no way that A.J. can't enter the month of May as anything less than a very serious darkhorse contender for the Indianapolis 500 win. Penske cars have won the Indianapolis 500 fifteen times previously, and Penske has never gone more than 3 years without taking home a Baby Borg. Do the math.

- Helio Castroneves: The Penske organization in general has been slightly off-kilter since their failure to secure the Series Championship at Fontana last September, and this includes Castroneves. For whatever reason, Castroneves started the season looking like a stud and has gradually slipped further and further back in the field with each proceeding race. He isn't in the 'Not' category for the sheer fact that he's posted 3 top-10 results in 4 races, but after his most recent showing in Brazil where he hit everything but the pace car, the most I can give him is 'lukewarm'. Helio typically starts turning his seasons around starting with Indianapolis, and hopefully that's the case this year as he chases down his fourth 500-mile-race victory.