2017 IndyCar Grand Prix

The Month of May is finally upon us! For the fourth consecutive season, the most anticipated time of the year for race fans the world over begins with the Verizon IndyCar Series contesting a race on the infield circuit at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the final event before the 101st Indianapolis 500.

Simon Pagenaud has won two of the three races held thus far on the road course at Indy, and coming off of his first career oval victory at Phoenix in April, he is undoubtedly one of the favorites to win it again. The only other winner in the short history of this race is his Team Penske teammate Will Power (who finished runner-up to Pagenaud at Phoenix). Other drivers to watch out for based on past statistics include Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball, and Hélio Castroneves. Over the past two seasons, Rahal has finished 2nd and 4th (after starting from 17th and 24th), Kimball has finished 5th twice, and last year's runner-up Castroneves has finished no worse than 6th in any of the three races.

This week also marks the return of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya to the series for the first time since he was replaced by Josef Newgarden as the driver of the #2 car. Montoya will be driving a fifth car for the Captain, carrying the number 22 vacated by Pagenaud as he uses the defending champion's #1. The fifth Team Penske car is also the only "Month of May" entry this year, contesting both the Grand Prix and the 500. While this race attracted four extra Month of May entries last season in the Ed Carpenter #6, the RLL #16, the Foyt #35, and the Team Murray #61, none of those cars are back.

Coverage of the race begins on Saturday at 3:30 P.M. (ET) on ABC, with the green flag schedule to wave shortly thereafter at 3:50.

Team Penske puts a car on the pole position for the fifth time in as many races this year, as Will Power will lead the field to the start. Starting on Power's outside will be Hélio Castroneves, while the remainder of the Fast Six consists of Newgarden, Dixon, Montoya, and Bourdais.

Power has topped all of the practice charts, and Team Penske, in general has been as strong as ever this weekend with all five of its entries well inside the top ten in every session (Pagenaud missed the Fast Six, but will still start from the seventh position).

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Pretty bleh race. It got kind of racey in the middle, but that was it. GW Power.

Well that sucked. Fix your non Indy oval stuff please.

Kinda lackluster race for the most part. Although i've heard ABC mailed it in production wise.

Can't call a title contender yet, i'll really near the 500 to give a shout on who's got it this year.

I think that the only thing that has made these Indy GP races less interesting than they should be is utter Team Penske domination, which definitely takes away some excitement but hardly means that there's any fundamental problem with the layout of the track or with the cars. This year was a lot like last year; there was a ton of good, hard racing throughout most of the field all race long, it's just that Penske was better than everyone else. I hope that in the years to come there will be more competition at the front, because I think that this course has the potential to put on more memorable and exciting races compared to what we've seen so far.

I feel really bad for Sébastian Bourdais and Marco Andretti. It was a fantastic start to the season for the entire #18 team, but the last two races have begun to undo that quickly. This time Andretti is the one who threw the wrench into his own race with that first-lap collision with Kanaan, despite continuing to show promising speed in practice. One also has to feel sorry for the other retirement in Charlie Kimball, who, for the very first time, finishes this race in a position other than 5th. I really hope that all three teams get their luck turned around for Indianapolis.

That was a stellar drive from Spencer Pigot to work his way through the field so quickly and eventually obtain a 9th-place finish despite stalling in the pit lane. It's good to see that he's really making the most of the part-time ride that he has with ECR. Also, for the third year in a row, Graham Rahal manages to charge through the field, himself, this time climbing from 20th to finish 6th. Over the past three years, Rahal has improved a collective total of 49 positions from where he started in this race, with an average start of 20th and an average finish of 4th.