2022 Indianapolis 500


The 2022 Indianapolis 500 was a 500-mile race in the 2022 IndyCar Series, held on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The month of May activities formally began on May 14 with the GMR Grand Prix on the combined road course. Practice on the oval opened on May 17, and time trials took place on May 21–22. Carb Day, the traditional final day of practice, along with the Pit Stop Challenge, took place on May 27.
Six-time IndyCar champion, and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon won the pole position, his fifth career Indy 500 pole. It was also Chip Ganassi Racing's seventh Indy pole. Dixon's qualifying speed of was the fastest Indy 500 pole speed until Scott McLaughlin broke the record in 2024 at, and was the third-fastest Indy 500 qualifying attempt in history. Dixon moved into second on the all-time list for poles at Indy, behind only Rick Mears, who had six. The top twelve starting positions saw a near even split with seven Hondas and five Chevrolets. During the race, Dixon became the all-time lap leader in the history of the Indy 500.
Dixon led the most laps, and dominated much of the race along with teammate Álex Palou. With 25 laps to go, however, during his final pit stop, Dixon was penalized for speeding entering the pit lane. Dixon was issued a drive-through penalty, which took him out of contention and handed the lead to his teammate, Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson held off a furious charge from Pato O'Ward on a restart with two laps to go to win the race. Ericsson became the second Swedish winner in the race's history, after Kenny Bräck in 1999.

Race background

Sponsorship

On January 31, 2019, it was announced that the online financial services company Gainbridge would become the new presenting sponsor of the 500 under a four-year deal. This will be the fourth year under the current deal.

Rule changes

  • During pit stops, crew members are prohibited from physically assisting with the car's exit of the pit box. A car must leave the pits under its own power and can not be pushed.
  • All pneumatic wheel guns must not have any electronic devices attached. "Smart" wheel guns, with electronic torque sensors, have been banned.
  • Championship bonus points will be awarded to the top twelve qualifiers. This reflects a new qualifying procedure. From 2018 to 2021, the top nine qualifiers earned bonus points. Now, the pole position winner receives 12 bonus points, down to 1 bonus point for the 12th qualifier. Points earned for the race finishing positions are unchanged. All finishers earn double championships points for the Indy 500.

    Qualifying changes

The Two-day format that began in 2019 has been expanded, based on the popularity of the three-round system used for most of the IndyCar road and street courses events. The system will continue to use the two day system, and cars will continue to utilize the traditional four-lap qualifying attempts. The top twelve cars from the first day will advance to a new second round that will take place on the second day. The top six cars in the second round advance to the final round to determine the pole position as well as starting positions two through six. If more than 33 entries take part in the event, the Last Chance Qualifying session will be used once again to set starting positions 31–32–33.
On Saturday, the procedure will be as follows:
  • Qualifying will be open from 12:00 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. All cars entered will be guaranteed at least one attempt. Additional attempts are allowed, time/weather permitting.
  • Cars ranking 1–12 will advance to second round qualifying.
  • Cars ranking 13–30 will be locked-in to those starting positions, and will not re-qualify.
  • Cars ranking 31 and lower will be entered into the Last Chance Qualifying.
  • If there are only 33 entries, the Last Chance Qualifying will not be held, and instead all positions 13–33 will be locked-in.
On Sunday, time trials will conclude as follows:
  • At 2 p.m. the Last Chance Qualifying session will be held. Entries that ranked 31st and lower on Saturday will have at least one attempt to qualify. Qualifying speeds from Saturday will be erased. Additional attempts will be allowed, time/weather permitting, until 3 p.m. Starting positions 31–32–33 will be filled. All other cars from 34th and lower will fail to qualify.
  • At 4 p.m., the second round of qualifying will be held. The cars that ranked 1st through 12th on Saturday will have one guaranteed attempt. Qualifying speeds from Saturday will be erased. Cars will go out in reverse order. The cars ranking 7th through 12th will be locked-in to those starting positions. The top six cars will advance to the final round.
  • At 5:10 p.m., the final round of qualifying will be held. The cars that ranked 1st through 6th during the second round will have one guaranteed attempt. Qualifying speeds from the Top 12 session will be erased. Cars will go out in reverse order. The top six starting positions will be set, including the pole position.

    2022 IndyCar Series

The 2022 Indianapolis 500 was the sixth race of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season. Four different drivers won the first five races of the season, including one first-time winner. Scott McLaughlin won the season opener at St. Petersburg, his first career IndyCar win. At Texas, Josef Newgarden won, passing McLaughlin coming off the last turn of the last lap. Newgarden followed up with another win at Long Beach and Pato O'Ward won at Alabama in a time-shortened race due to rain. The GMR Grand Prix was won by Colton Herta. Despite zero wins thus far on the season, Will Power entered the 500 as the series points leader.

Race schedules

The 2022 IndyCar Series schedule was announced on September 19, 2021. The Indianapolis 500 was for Sunday, May 29. Practice, time trials, and other ancillary events are scheduled for the two weeks leading up to the race. The GMR Grand Prix, including the Road to Indy races, will again serve as the opening weekend of track activity, on May 14. The Freedom 100 for the Indy Lights was left off the schedule for the third year in a row, with Roger Penske citing safety as an issue. The 2022 Indy Lights season will only include a race on the road course during GMR Grand Prix weekend.

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Entry list

All entries utilized the Dallara DW12 chassis with the Universal Aero Kit 18, with Firestone tires.
A total of 32 car/driver combinations were made official in time for the Open test on April 20. Paretta Autosport announced on April 19 that they would not enter, electing instead to focus on road/street course races during the summer months. The 33rd and final entry was announced on May 5, with DragonSpeed and Cusick Motorsports joining to field a car. The official entry list was published on May 16, 2022.
File:Helio Castroneves 2018 Indy 500.jpg|thumb|225px|Four-time Indy 500 winner Hélio Castroneves had the most previous starts in the field with 21.
File:Takuma Sato.jpg|thumb|Two-time winner Takuma Sato won the race in 2017 and 2020.

October 2021

A private offseason Firestone tire test was scheduled for October 8. Hélio Castroneves and Pato O'Ward were scheduled to participate. Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean were scheduled to complete the Rookie Orientation Program during a separate session on October 6.
Rookie Orientation consists of three phases. Phase 1 was ten laps between, Phase 2 was fifteen laps between, and Phase 3 was fifteen laps over. Lingering rain hampered track activity, but the track was dried and Johnson and Grosjean both completed Phase 1 and Phase 2. Both drivers completed about half of Phase 3 before a downpour closed the track for the day at 4:15 p.m.. Series officials announced that both drivers had completed a satisfactory amount of laps, and would be eligible to participate in the full-field Open Test scheduled for April.
On Friday October 8, Castroneves and O'Ward conducted baseline testing, as well as preliminary KERS testing. No incidents were reported, and no speeds were announced.

Veteran Only Test — Wednesday April 20

  • Weather:, light rain early, cloudy in the afternoon
  • Summary: A full-field open test was scheduled at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for April 20–21, 2022. All 32 confirmed entries for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 were present for the test. Light rain delayed testing by roughly 90 minutes, with the veterans only session beginning at roughly 12:30 p.m. Scott Dixon was fastest in the opening session at, while Scott McLaughlin was second. McLaughlin was fastest in the "no-tow" rankings – laps set without the benefit of aerodynamic drafting. The only significant incident of the opening session came when Alexander Rossi spun in the pit exit lane during his first installment lap, but avoided any contact and continued on.

    Rookie Orientation / Refresher tests — Wednesday April 20

  • Summary: At 2:30 p.m., the track was opened to drivers needing to complete Rookie Orientation and veteran Refresher tests. Eight drivers took to the track during the session, with all rookies and two of the veterans completing their tests. Juan Pablo Montoya and Sage Karam did not pass their refresher programs, but had completed enough to be allowed on track for the full-field session later in the day. The fastest time in the session came from rookie Callum Ilott at. No incidents were reported.

    Open Test — Wednesday April 20

  • Summary: The track was opened to the full field at 4:30 p.m. and was scheduled to stay open until 6:30 p.m. This session saw two significant incidents. At roughly 5:10 p.m., Hélio Castroneves lost control of his car in the warm up lane heading into turn 2. Castroneves spun nearly 360 degrees before impacting the outside wall. About twenty minutes later, Will Power spun from the warm up lane in turn 1 and out onto the racing surface. Colton Herta narrowly avoided Power's car, but lost control of his own in the process, suffering light damage to the rear of the car as he brushed the outside wall at the exit of turn 1. Marcus Ericsson narrowly avoided Herta's spinning car and continued on back to the pit lane with no damage. IndyCar elected to end the session 40 minutes early to allow officials and representatives from Firestone to examine the pit exit lane for a potential cause for the three incidents that occurred during the day. Scott Dixon returned to the top of the time sheets, turning a lap at. Only ten drivers completed "no-tow" laps during the session, but Scott McLaughlin was fastest again with a lap at.