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.

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

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...

Indy vs. Boston battle for America's best suburbs

Joining Carmel as one of the best places to live in America (and the world), neighbors Zionsville and Westfield are now also ranked in the top 10 in the newest ‘Best Small Cities’ study, according to WalletHub: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-small-cities-to-live-in/16581 Boston & Indy suburbs dominated the top of the list, with Lancaster (PA) taking the top spot. Not only is Indianapolis one of the fastest growing cities in America, it's the only city on the list not located in the South or West: https://www.inspectionsupport.com/resources/the-fastest-growing-metropolitan-areas-in-the-u-s/

Schrockstar § Galaxy of Stars

Search This Blog