Indy 500 Pole Day sets several records

The first ever all-234mph front row in Indy 500 history also resulted in the closest gap between 1st & 3rd spot. The 4-lap averages of Alex Palou & Felix Rosenqvist were just 0.103mph apart, beating the previous record of 0.112mph between James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2016.

Palou’s & Rinus VeeKay’s gap of 0.006mph is the second-smallest gap between 1st & 2nd in Indy500 history, the narrowest difference being 0.003s between Ryan Briscoe & Hinchcliffe in 2012.

The result means that the 3 front-row starters come from 3 different teams and both of IndyCar’s engine manufacturers, Honda & Chevrolet, are represented. While neither of those stats are unusual, what is remarkable is the fact that the trio’s combined number of Indy500 starts is only 10. That’s the lowest since 2004, when Buddy Rice, the late Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti started 1-2-3 and had only 3 starts between them.

A not-surprising corollary of that stat is that this is the 3rd-youngest front row in history. The only younger ones are 2013 – Ed Carpenter, Carlos Munoz and Marco Andretti (26 years and 9 months) – and 1930 – Billy Arnold, Louis Meyer and Shorty Cantlon (25 years, 7 months).

It is also the first time Indy 500 history that the front row consists entirely of European-born drivers; Palou is from Spain, VeeKay from the Netherlands and Rosenqvist from Sweden.

64-team bracket BLANK

Go ahead and knock yourself out with this blank bracket, but I ( and Joe Lunardi ) find it more enjoyable setting the field before Sunday...

Fishers Medals Again

In the bustling Nickel Plate District of Fishers, Indiana, Tracy Gritters can recall a time when things looked very different. “It was a two-lane road 17 years ago,” she said of the property around her boutique store, Gallery 116 , where she has sold locally made goods since 2002. “We were worried about Target coming to town.” The retail giant eventually did — it's located about an 11-minute walk from her store — but the city's expansion hasn’t been the scenario she feared. Fishers, which was named MONEY's Best Place to Live in 2017 , officially upgraded from a town to a city and swore in its first mayor on January 1, 2015. Mayor Scott Faddness is still in office, and in the years since his inauguration, the city itself has been transformed. The newly developed downtown area became the Nickel Plate District , now home to an outdoor amphitheatre, plenty of retail stores and restaurants, a brewery, luxury apartments, and a high-speed internet coworking sp

Hyperbolic Obit for Hyperbolic Orbit

Did you see the lunar eclipse this morning? Did you see the one last month!? Do you even watch the sky, bro?? Comet Leonard [ not named after Colts All-Pro Shaquille Darius Leonard ] aka "c/2021", the year's best & brightest, will make it's first and only appearance in the East before sunrise (between Big Dipper's handle & Arcturus) and then in the western sky after sunset starting on the 14th, looking towards the sun (ouch!) I say "only" appearance because this happened might've happened 80,000 years ago but let's be honest they probably didn't have the tools we have now, and we're not yet positive this'll even be visible to our unaided eye. But we do know it's hyperbolic path will fling the comet out of the Milky Way, and possibly into another solar system lightyears away. RIP Comet Leonard 12/12/21 You're a Star (& comet!)

Schrockstar § Galaxy of Stars

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