VICS: Indianapolis 500 Race Preview

This weekend the Verizon Indycar Series will run the 98th annual Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which opened in 1909. This will be the fifth stop for the series in 2014 as they have 13 race events left in the year.

Numerous drivers will be making either their Indianapolis 500 debuts or returns to the race after sitting out for awhile. Some of these drivers include, Jacques Villeneuve, Mikhail Aleshin, Carlos Huertas, Sage Karam, Kurt Busch, James Davidson, Martin Plowman, Pippa Mann, Buddy Lazier and Jack Hawksworth. Although being a rookie, they'll still be a threat to win as numerous rookies has won the historic event in the past. One of the favorites going into the race, respectivly, is NASCAR driver Kurt Busch.

During pole day, which was this past Sunday, Ed Carpenter won the pole after running a four lap average speed of 231.067 mph. However, this isn't the first time Carpenter has won the pole for the Indianapolis 500, as he also did last season behind the wheel of the No. 20 for Ed Carpenter Racing. This Sunday afternoon will be the first event for Carpenter in the Indycar Series this season.

Kurt Busch will be the first driver in awhile to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same weekend. Both teams nearly have the timeline for the driver broken down as the 500-mile race should be complete by 3:30. This will give Busch about a two hour window to get to Charlotte and run the 600-mile race, NASCAR's longest race of the year. If he is able to complete both on the lead lap, he'll log 1,100 total miles behind the wheel of a race car. During Monday's practice session, Busch had a crash where his car got loose off of the turn two corner and pounded the inside wall. He was cleared to race shortly after and will most likely move to a backup for the 500 on Sunday.

Every year during the race, two teams go into the event as pretty much everyone's favorates, such as Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing. During qualifying, Team Penske showed some strenth as two of the three teams, excluding Juan Pablo Montoya, made it into the fast nine shootout. However, none of the Ganassi cars made it into the top-nine and was much of a surprise. This Sunday will certainly be interesting to see how those teams will perform but I think they'll definately be going for the race win despite not so good qualifying efforts.

The Indianapolis 500 can be viewed this Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Et, live on ABC. The IMS radio network will provide the live radio coverage side of things. Tony Kanaan will go into the race as the defending race winner.