Everything you need to know about the Indianapolis 500

The 2018 Indianapolis 500 is set for Sunday, and it promises to be an exciting race, as it is every year. It’s one of the biggest events in all of motorsports, and is part of the so-called “Triple Crown of Motorsport” along with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Drivers will start their engines at approximately 12:15 p.m. ET, and Green Flag (the start of the race) is scheduled for just five minutes later, at 12:20 p.m. The race will be broadcast on ABC, with online streaming via ESPN. Ed Carpenter has pole position, with Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden among the other big names to watch out for.

Below, we’re going to take you through everything you need to know going into the race, whether you’re new to the sport or not.

The Indy 500 is a 200-lap race around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s always held over Memorial Day weekend in late May, and is part of the Verizon IndyCar Series, though it is considered the biggest race of the sport itself. Nicknamed “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” it’s among the most prestigious motorsports events on the calendar.

The inaugural race was held in 1911, and was won by Ray Harroun. A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., and Rick Mears have all won the race four times. The only active driver to win it three times is Helio Castroneves, and he’ll be starting high on the grid so there’s a chance he can make history (but more on that later).

A total of 500 miles will be driven by each finishing driver by the time it’s all said and done, and the track is a traditional oval. Around the time the Indy 500 started, it often took upwards of five hours to actually complete, but these days the race can be expected to finish somewhere just past the three-hour mark.

It’s a race absolutely filled with tradition, including the unique nature of its qualifying format, pre- and post-race ceremonies and celebrations, a whole bunch of milk (also more on that later) and so much more.

IndyCar is pack racing, regardless of the circuit, and that always creates the potential for danger and, of course, excitement. It’s not just cars going around an oval counter-clockwise ... it’s cars going around an oval counter-clockwise extremely fast and extremely close to one another.

They are pushing the absolute edge of what these cars can handle, and they’re doing it within inches of one another. It’s not always an oval either, as IndyCar-spec vehicles must also be able to navigate the many courses on the calendar, some of which are road courses. The Indy 500, though, is always an oval, and it’s always right on the edge of how fast you can actually take a car around said oval without all 33 drivers annihilating one another.

The field for the Indy 500 is 33 drivers, and 35 of them took part in Bump Day (held on Saturday, May 19 this year), the first part of qualifying where the top 33 advance to the next stage, referred to as Pole Day (held on Sunday, May 20 this year).

The top nine drivers from the first day participate in a Fast Nine shootout over four laps, with the highest average speed over those laps getting Pole Position for the race.

Also on Pole Day, positions 10-33 will have another qualifying session to determine their set grid order. Their times from Bump Day are wiped out, and they all set new times in the new session.

This year, Ed Carpenter is on pole after posting an average speed of 229.618 mph. James Davison starts from the back of the pack with an average qualifying speed of 224.798 mph. If those two numbers seem very close to you, just know that in the world of racing ... they aren’t.

The starting grid is comprised of 11 rows of three drivers in the order they qualified.

Row 1: Ed Carpenter, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power
Row 2: Josef Newgarden, Sébastien Bourdais, Spencer Pigot
Row 3: Danica Patrick, Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon
Row 4: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist, Marco Andretti
Row 5: Zachary Claman DeMelo, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball
Row 6: Takuma Sato, Kyle Kaiser, Robert Wickens
Row 7: James Davison, Max Chilton, Carlos Muñoz
Row 8: Gabby Chaves, Stefan Wilson, Sage Karam
Row 9: Zach Veach, Oriol Servià, J.R. Hildebrand
Row 10: Jay Howard, Ed Jones, Graham Rahal
Row 11: Jack Harvey, Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly

As part of the IndyCar Series, the Indy 500 is the sixth race of the season. There were four different winners in the first five races of the season: Newgarden (x2), Rossi, Bourdais and Power. Newgarden leads the current driver standings with 184 points, with Rossi behind him at 176 points. In the manufacturer standings, Honda has the edge over Chevrolet, with 413 points to 356.

The Fast Nine all already have points from Indy, as there are points awarded for qualifying as well. The first-place winner of the Indy 500 will earn 50 points, with second place taking 40 and third place earning 35. James Hinchcliffe is fifth in the standings, but did not qualify for the Indy 500. More on that below.

Hinchcliffe bumped: A fan favorite, Hinchcliffe didn’t qualify in the top 33 drivers, alongside Pippa Mann, and was bumped on Bump Day. There were multiple rain delays, and Hinchcliffe had to abort one of his qualifying attempts due to vibrations in the car. He was lined up to set a time when the qualifying session expired. He’s notable for having won pole for the race in 2016, with his best finish being seventh overall.

Castroneves’ quest: The only active driver with three Indy 500 wins under their belt, Castroneves will be starting eighth on the grid as he tries to make history. As referenced above, only three others have won the Indy 500 four times, and Castroneves desperately wants to join that company. He had a disappointing qualifying session on Pole Day, but was the fastest of all drivers on Bump Day, and many are pulling for him to get it done again at 43 years of age.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get the pole position,” Castroneves said on ABC after qualifying, “but I prefer the win.”

Patrick’s swan song: While future one-off events are a possibility, Patrick is retiring as a full-time racing driver with this Indy 500. She is the only woman to have ever led a lap of the Indy 500, doing so in 2005 and 2011. The 2011 race was also the last time she raced the Indy 500, so the fact that she not only made it into the Fast Nine, but out-qualified both Castroneves and Dixon is pretty remarkable.

This will be Patrick’s eighth Indy 500, with her best finish being third — the best ever for a woman in the event — in 2009. She was also the first woman to lead a lap in the Indy 500.

Carpenter’s elusive win: While he has pole position for the third time in his Indy 500 career, Carpenter has never won the race. He’s a team owner, a 37-year-old driver with 14 starts in the Indy 500, and he’s the stepson of Tony George, a member of the family that owns the dang speedway he’s racing on. But he’s never finished better than fifth, which he did in 2008. Last year, he started second and finished 11th.

Date: Sunday, May 27

Location: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, In.

Green Flag: 12:20 p.m.

TV: ABC (from 11 a.m.)

Online Streaming: WatchESPN, ESPN App