Indianapolis 500 kicks off with sold-out grandstands and thunderous chants

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A swarm of people poured through the gates at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Some were shirtless, some wore American flag overalls, others checkered flag mini-skirts.

As they entered the main tunnel nearly five hours before the Indianapolis 500, a large group began a thunderous “Let’s Go Pacers!” chant; The Indiana Pacers host Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks a few hours after the 109th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

The grandstands are sold out for the first time since 2016 and IndyCar expects 350,000 people will be on IMS property for Sunday’s race. One tunnel at the speedway had to be closed to motorized vehicles four hours before the race to handle the pedestrian volume.

Pato O’Ward, a two-time Indy 500 runner-up, and two-time reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou are the co-favorites, listed at +500 by BetMGM. O’Ward starts third and would be the first Mexican winner; Palou, winner of four of the first five races this season, would be the first Spanish winner should he earn his first career victory on an oval track.

Robert Shwartzman, a dual national of Israel and Russia, will be the first rookie to lead the field to green since 1983 in the Indianapolis 500 debut for Prema Racing. The Italian team is dominant in Europe but new this season to IndyCar, and Shwartzman has never raced on an oval.

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The 25-year-old drives under the Israel flag and is the first Israeli in the field.

All eyes will be on Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Will Power, who will start 32nd and 33rd following inspection failures that dropped them to the back of the field. Newgarden is the two-time defending race winner and trying to become the first in history to win three-straight Indy 500s.

No driver has ever won from starting on the last row. Rivals have already declared the Penskes the fastest cars in the field and have said they look forward to watching them pick their way through traffic.

Kyle Larson will draw attention from the NASCAR crowd as he attempts for the second consecutive year to complete 1,100 miles of racing in one day. His bid at completing “the double” failed last year because a rain delay in Indianapolis made him miss the Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina.

Larson and Hendrick Motorsports have promised NASCAR that Larson will be at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the start of the Cup Series race. He’s starting second in Charlotte and 19th in the Indy 500.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing