98th Indianapolis 500 Pre-Race

We are getting ready to head out to the Indy 500 tomorrow. Packing is always a pain. Although, we don't have the flying restrictions, so that's a good thing. Janet will be assisting with the presentation of the winner's quilt Monday morning. That starts at 8:00 a.m. So who is going to win the quilt (and the race!). Traditionally, my brother and I split the field with the loser from the previous year picking first. Since I lost last year (although I was extremely happy for Tony Kanaan), I will be making the first pick this year. I am looking at the line-up and am struggling with the first pick. I like Penske, however, Will Power's strength is the road courses. He has only one oval course win. If you look at the stats, nearly 70% of the winners come from the first seven cars. I'm not sold on Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliffe seems to have inherited the Andretti bad luck. Who gets hit in the helmet with flying debris and not be involved in an accident? He got the car stopped and had to be hauled away in an ambulance. I'm thinking Helio is a good pick, but I don't want to give up two of the front row if I'm wrong. Such a dilemma! I don't know how much photography I will get in because I don't have a photo credential. I will try to get in as much as humanly possible. I may be shooting from the grandstand so I'm bringing my longest lenses. I will let you know how this all works out. We are looking forward to catching up with some of our Indy friends that we haven't seen in a while since they stopped coming to Chicagoland. I need to put what IndyCar  photos I do have into an album/collection. Maybe when I get back. Here are some of photos from a few years back.

P.S. I ended up selecting Will Power with my first pick. My brother surprised me and went directly to the second row and picked Helio. I was hoping he would pick another front rower and then I would pick Helio, who I really think has the best shot of winning.