Indianapolis 500 Driver Power Rankings

No. 22. Team Penske, Chevrolet. JUAN PABLO MONTOYA. #15. [Starting Position: 18th] — If there’s one driver in the field who can truly win the Indy 500 from anywhere, it’s Juan Pablo Montoya. He started the race in 15th in 2015 before falling back to 30th with multiple early issues, but he still went on to win his second Indy 500 in three attempts. But Team Penske and Chevrolet haven’t had the speed that other teams and Honda have had this month. Montoya, a driver who in four Indy 500 races has three top 5 finishes and two wins, didn’t have great speed last year before he crashed, and he doesn’t appear to this year either. He’s no true underdog, but he’s no true favorite either.

[Starting Position: 21st] — Believe it or not, 21st is actually Sage Karam’s highest career starting position at the Indy 500. In his rookie season as a teenager, he qualified in 31st and finished 9th. In 2015, he was taken out of competition in a first-lap crash after starting 22nd, and in 2016, he started 23rd and drove his way up into the top 5 before being involved in an accident. Whether Chevrolet as a whole is strong or not has never had an impact on the speed Karam shows in his one-off Indy 500 attempts, so even though Honda has the upper hand this season, that shouldn’t affect Karam much.. No. 24. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Chevrolet. SAGE KARAM. #14

No. 15. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda. GRAHAM RAHAL. #13. [Starting Position: 14th] — Graham Rahal is strong at the Indy 500 in pretty much every season that his team is strong. After a number of weak seasons at Indy, Rahal and his team in general look to have found some solid speed for this year’s race, and he will start in his highest starting position since 2012. Like his teammate Oriol Servia, Rahal’s career-high finish (3rd) came in a year (2011) when he started in a career-worst (30th) starting spot, so he has proven that he can get to the front regardless of where he starts.

#12. [Starting Position: 11th] — I am not ranking Ed Jones this high simply because of his strong qualifying run. In fact, he has been one of the strongest drivers all month. He turned the 2nd fastest lap of the month at over 233 miles per hour and was one spot away from making the Fast 9 on the first day of qualifying. Also, the 11th starting spot has been good to rookies as of late; just ask Alexander Rossi, who started 11th last year and won the race in his rookie season. With no drivers having won the Indy 500 from a top 10 starting spot in the DW12 era, Jones is in position to surprise a lot of people.. No. 19. Dale Coyne Racing, Honda. ED JONES

#11. [Starting Position: 17th] — Since his near-fatal crash during practice for the 2015 Indy 500, James Hinchcliffe has been amazing in his subsequent returns to the track. He returned to the track with a 3rd place finish at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last season before taking pole for the Indy 500 itself and going on to finish 7th place in the race. This season, his qualification run was a bit of a disappointment, but the Indy 500 can be won from anywhere, and Hinchcliffe has shown that he has great speed at the track.. No. 5. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda. JAMES HINCHCLIFFE