All out at this year's Indy 500

The Indianapolis 500 is more than a mere race. It's a statistician's heaven where legends are made and heroes felled. So what should we look out for in 2025? John Oreovicz goes bullet-point on the Brickyard possibilities

- John Oreovicz

Many American racing fans (and even a few drivers) still believe winning the Indianapolis 500 is a more prestigious or important honour than collecting an IndyCar Series championship. Set to run for the 109th time at the end of May, 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' often lives up to its tagline and no other motor sport event outside of Le Mans raises as much annual anticipation.

The 'all or nothing' nature the Indy 500 creates an intense level of pressure for the drivers, whether hunting for their first victory, building on their established Brickyard legend or just trying to qualify for the 33-car field. Riding the bubble on Bump Day is excruciating, and recent years have seen big names including Paul Tracy, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal feel the agony of failing to make the cut.

Things can change quickly. Marcus Ericsson won Indianapolis in 2022, came a very close second to Josef Newgarden in '23, then barely scraped into the field and finished dead last in 2024. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a deceptively simple-looking, fast four-corner rectangle on paper, but no other circuit or race in the world messes more with a driver's mind.

Here are nine talking points ahead of this year's 'International Sweepstakes'...

1 Perfect Palou

Álex Palou is already a threetime IndyCar Series champion, and he opened the 2025 season with wins in the first two races.

Palou's victory in Round 2 at The Thermal Club was especially impressive; he turned an 11sec deficit into a 10sec margin of victory, passing and leaving pole winner and long-time leader Pato O'Ward far behind with a crushing final stint.