PRUETT: Month of May observations

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A lot has happened since the month kicked off with practice for the Grand Prix of Indy on May 8. Some of the newsy tidbits didn't fit elsewhere, some fell through the cracks, and plenty of observations and opinions have been developed as the road race transitioned into practice and qualifying for the Indy 500. With the 98th running of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing almost here, I looked back through my notepad and captured everything of interest since the GP, starting with:

• By the time Saturday's rather meaningless time trials were completed, Chip Ganassi's team was being hailed as the disaster of qualifying. All four of his cars – including his satellite fifth entry with Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing for Sage Karam – missed the Fast 9. Moods were dark; the sky was expected to fall. Stepping back to widen our view, Ganassi's struggles in qualifying spoke to the amazing competitiveness that's been achieved with the Dallara DW12 chassis, engines from Chevy and Honda, and the professionalism of the teams in IndyCar.

And what was the margin separating at least one member of the Ganassi camp from making the Fast 9? 0.774mph. Yes, I realize we're dealing with a spec chassis, but with the setup variables allowed, downforce options, power differences between the engine manufacturers and the ability for teams to get things wrong, I marvel at the fact that 0.774mph was enough to make the reigning series champs look like they summarily failed. They found more speed on Sunday, and should be competitive in the race, but their ordeal reinforced how hard it is to find the final fractions of a second at the Brickyard.

• Trying to explain the new qualifying rules to diehard fans wasn't much easier than trying to break it down for those like my wife who follow IndyCar from the fringes. It's easy to bash the series for what was a wasted day on Saturday – wasted money, engine miles, tires and time, not to mention the unnecessary risk the drivers faced just to earn extra championship points, but those criticisms stem from a slight misfire on what was expected when the new Saturday/Sunday qualifying process was originated.

Without going into a lot of boring details, IndyCar crafted the two-day, made-for-TV qualifying procedure to get the most out of ABC televising the Fast 9 on Saturday and the run for the pole on Sunday. More than 33 cars were expected to participate and bumping was expected to add drama, but with only 33 cars and a number of changes to TV timeslots, we ended up with no bumping, no drama, and an odd situation where those who showed up to watch on Saturday went home without seeing a single grid position locked into place.

The series never intended for Saturday to be a processional exercise, but when it was over, it was hard to ignore how much it didn't go to plan. Sunday was far more interesting, and as the RACER staff had been saying throughout the week, one day of qualifying – a genuine, pressure-packed event – was all we needed. Polesitter Ed Carpenter shared the same opinion after setting his 230.662mph average and I hope IndyCar listens. Credit the series for swinging for the fences this year, and despite falling short of hitting it out of the park, a smart adjustment for 2015 would be to create a single must-see, go-or-go-home qualifying experience.

• James Davison's No. 33 KV Racing entry is being run by an assembly of many former Panther Racing crew members.

• Watching In-Car Theatre footage from the GP of Indy left me feeling like I needed to duck and dodge flying parts. The Indy Racing League was first to adopt suspension tethers to keep the corners from being separated in a crash, and I'm wondering if it's time to advance the theme and look for ways to keep smaller pieces like front wing end plates, main planes, and other breakaway items attached to the chassis.

After James Hinchcliffe was briefly knocked unconscious by a front wing end plate at well over 150mph and numerous other flying parts struck helmets, cockpit surrounds and bodywork, maybe we need to start thinking of broken items more like projectiles than bits that magically clear the following cars and drivers. Some have made another call for cockpit canopies – the same idea floated after Dan Wheldon's death – and I can't say I'm totally opposed to the idea. I'm not ready to start the "We must have canopies" campaign, but with the speeds drivers are traveling and the steady amount of parts-shedding contact that takes place at every round, it's getting harder to argue against them.

Whether it's a canopy or taller, stiffer, mandatory windscreens that can act as deflectors, the flying debris at the GP should be a trigger for IndyCar to look at enhancing driver safety in and around the cockpit. The time for waiting and seeing is over. Felipe Massa was hit in the head by a flying spring, was knocked out and, as a result, a Zylon visor strip was produced. IndyCar now requires the use of that visor strip, which Hinch was wearing, but that strip won't stop the effects of being drilled in the head by a big, heavy front wing end plate.

Everything from below the midpoint of a driver's helmet is protected by carbon-fiber, Zylon panels, foam, and deformable structures, but as Hinch demonstrated, there's enough of the head exposed to the airstream to be hit, and hit hard. Without sounding like an alarmist, do we need more strikes to the exposed portion of an IndyCar drivers' helmet and head to realize we can do better? Indy car racing, since its earliest days, has been a pioneer and innovator among most other forms of motor racing. The looks of the DW12 have never been met with glowing praise, which makes me think taking the lead on a revised approach to its cockpit opening – in the name of safety – could also help the sport distinguish itself with unique, futuristic visuals.

• James Hinchcliffe's return from that concussion to turn laps of 228mph within minutes of climbing into his No. 27 Honda was awe inspiring. Watching Hinch go out and nearly grab pole position was affirmation the guy is a very special talent.

• It was sad to learn of the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing sports car team's closure last week. MMPR team manager/engineer Brandon Fry, crew chief Daryl Fox and others from the ALMS LMP1 championship-winning outfit are spending the month moonlighting as Pippa Mann's crew at Dale Coyne Racing, and once the news spread about MMPR, it was good to see at least one significant IndyCar team express interest in one or more of Greg Pickett's former employees.

• The series took some flak for sticking to its guns on drivers meeting the 2500-mile engine change minimum last week. Due to the bad weather and rain, many teams were unable to meet the 2500-mile marker before installing a fresh engine for qualifying and the race. Most drivers reported going out and trying to drive up the mileage to meet the threshold, but a few still came up short. Others, like Team Penske's Will Power, were forced to go out and tack on the bare minimum of mileage – two miles, in his case – to meet the magic number of 2500 before he could have a new unit at his disposal. Chevy had almost all of its drivers get to 2500 miles successfully (Ed Carpenter lost an engine during practice, and Charlie Kimball lost a motor at Long Beach), which deserves high praise. A few drivers in the Honda camp were unable to turn enough laps to hit 2500, leaving them in an odd position getting there during qualifying. Honda also deserves praise for stepping in, taking a bullet for those drivers, and asking for their engines to be swapped, knowing they'd lose Manufacturer's Championship points for each premature change.

• IndyCar's pool of young talent suffered when Champ Car folded and its ladder system eventually fell apart. The Indy Lights series, at the time, had some rising stars but wasn't particularly deep, yet with the establishment of the Mazda Road to Indy and its three-tier ladder, IndyCar is finally starting to fill out with a bunch of badasses under the age of 30. With James Hinchcliffe (27) leading the pack from the middle of the front row, and Simon Pagenaud (who turned 30 on Sunday) and Marco Andretti (27) on the second row, you have three established stars, but behind them, a new generation is already nipping at their heels. Carlos Munoz (22), Josef Newgarden (23), JR Hildebrand (26) own Row 3, Jack Hawksworth (23) and Mikhail Aleshin (26) are on Row 5, Graham Rahal (25) and Carlos Huertas (22) and on Row 7, Charlie Kimball (29) is on Row 9, James Davison (27) and Martin Plowman (26) are on Row 10, and Sage Karam (19) and Sebastian Saavedra (23) are on Row 11. They all aren't destined for greatness, but compared to a few years ago when IndyCar lacked an underclass of future stars and new drivers to root for, almost half of the Indy 500 grid will be ready to carry the torch when some of the veterans call time on their storied careers.

• Thanks to an extra 35hp and big tows, top speeds during practice last week bordered on the ridiculous. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing's Josef Newgarden got his 2.2-liter twin-turbo Honda wound up to 239.515mph in the draft entering Turn 3, the best I came across, and many others touched 237 and 238 in tows. Compared to Arie Luyendyk's unofficial lap speed of 239.260mph during practice in 1996, Newgarden's top speed at one section of the track – in a tow – isn't all that impressive, but given the significant reduction in power and increase in drag he's dealing with, it warrants at least a golf clap. Look for Newgarden and others to crack the 240mph top speed barrier next year when drag-reducing aero kits arrive, and for the qualifying average to creep closer to 232.

• I'm sure there's a statistic somewhere to determine the answer to this question: has any driver, at the same facility, in a span of a little more than a week, qualified so far apart? Sebastian Saavedra's started on the pole – P1 – for the GP of Indy and will start P32 for the Indy 500. Front row to back row in 10 days. His KV Racing crew deserves massive credit for turning Seb's tattered, broken-in-half GP of Indy car into a runner by Tuesday last week. His team co-owner Gary Peterson is also owed a giant debt for reaching into this pocket to make it happen. The No. 17 Automatic Fire Sprinkler Chevy, which Carlos Munoz drove to second-place at Indy last year, was rough around the seams, lacked the proper aerodynamic body fit which robbed it of crucial speed, and after a poor qualifying run, was sent off for a body fit and some TLC to improve the team's odds in the race. Like Jack Hawksworth Bryan Herta Autosport team which repaired his crashed No. 98 car, and Kurt Busch's Andretti Autosport crew which had a late crash with the No. 26 to recover from, this year's Indy 500 will feature a few entries with mechanics, composites specialists and paint experts who haven't gotten much sleep.

• By virtue of earning points for being fastest during the first day of Indy 500 qualifying and snagging the pole the next day, Ed Carpenter earned enough points to be ranked 24th in the standings. Carlos Huertas, who has contested all four rounds so far, is 22nd. Graham Rahal is only 27 points ahead of Ed in 21st....

• As a longtime Ayrton Senna fan, seeing Simon Pagenaud unveil a family-approved Senna tribute helmet was moving. Seeing the rapid Frenchman, who sits second in the points going into Sunday's race, lapping Indy wearing Senna's unmistakable helmet colors, has been something in between surreal and spine tingling.

• Where's Tag? I expected Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing recruit Alex Tagliani to feature this month, but he's been all but invisible in the second SFHR car. The former Indy 500 polesitter knows how to stand on the gas, but even with his foot planted on the throttle, the speed hasn't been there for the No. 68 Honda. Indy should be Tag's annual reminder to the world that he's someone to be feared at the Speedway. So far, he's been mostly forgotten.

• At the other end of the spectrum, his young and comparatively inexperienced teammate Josef Newgarden has been a rocket since opening day. He and his new engineer, Jeremy Milless, have clicked and it clearly shows with JNew sitting eighth on the grid. Newgarden also sits eighth in points, ahead of 3/4ths of the Ganassi team and half of the Andretti squad. We'll see how he performs in his third Indy 500, but from the indicators he's given so far this year, the kid's starting to look like the real deal.

• Paul Tracy was awesome in the NBCSN booth at Long Beach, will be back for Carb Day, has a few other events planned and also had two more IndyCar dates added to his commentary schedule. Can't wait until he's the full-time Sh*t Disturber-in-Chief on the airwaves.

• Race and gender barriers have been broken many times at Indy throughout the years, which make visiting the pits of the No. 22 Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing Chevy entry for Sage Karam a treat. I can't say if it's a first, but knowing how long women were banned from pit lane, it's pretty cool to see a visibly pregnant Anna Chatten, Panther Racing's former ace gearbox mechanic, working over the wall and tending to Karam's transmission this month. Along with team owner Sarah Fisher – who getting close to having her second child – on pit lane looking after Josef Newgarden's car, it's awesome to see some of the prejudices of past being further dismantled and left where they belong.

• The last two Indy 500s have been won and lost on the rate of engine development between Chevy and Honda. Honda was woefully short on power through qualifying in 2012, only to show up with monster power and fuel mileage for the race, which Dario Franchitti won for the Japanese manufacturer. Chevy learned their lesson, returned in 2013, and pummeled Honda into submission as Tony Kanaan led a 1-2-3-4-6-7 for the Bowtie. The mandatory switch to twin turbos this year has resulted in exceptional parity between both companies, which should benefit IndyCar fans. Race engines have been in since qualifying, and based on the speeds, there's no telling which brand will be celebrating in Victory Lane.

• To couch that statement slightly, Honda-powered cars went silent on Monday when an engine-based fuel leak was found on one of the Andretti Autosport cars. It was the second leak of its kind this month, and something Honda believes it has solved, yet deserves monitoring throughout Carb Day and the race. Hopefully, it's not an issue.

• Two rookies deserve a pre-race nod: Mikhail Aleshin (ABOVE) and Carlos Huertas. Both are competing in their first oval race – of any kind – and have looked like veterans. Aleshin is the racier of the two, while Huertas has been smooth as silk. That Aleshin outqualified his Indy 500-winning teammate Jacques Villeneuve by 12 spots is impressive. Huertas, as part of Dale Coyne's three-car effort, is someone I expected to fall well behind Justin Wilson and Pippa Mann, but he'll start 21st to Wilson's 14th and one spot ahead of oval veteran Mann.

• Fun with numbers: The middle car in the first three rows use car numbers 27, 77 and 67. Car No. 17 is in the middle of the last row. The row with the closest trio of car numbers belongs to Row 6 with 10, 11 and 16. Car No. 25 is starting sixth. Car No. 6 is starting 25th.

• The global nature of the drivers on the grid is quite interesting. Colombia (4) has had a big year-to-year growth. Kiwis and Aussies have also gotten a boost to its figures (4), England (4), Canada (3), Brazil (2), France (2) Japan (1), Spain (1) and Russia (1) are also represented. The USA has one-third of the grid (11).

• Having known Sam Schmidt when he was a racecar driver and later worked for him when he became a team owner, it was heartwarming to see him turn laps on Sunday in a specially modified Corvette C7 that allowed him to control the car through head inputs. The cheer that went up from those in attendance won't easily be forgotten.

• With the addition of an extra practice day on Monday, May 19, drivers were being dispatched a day late to most major North American markets to drum up interest in the Indy 500. Oddly, no drivers traveled past the state of Colorado, leaving the western states without drivers headed to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas or other logical stops. Ninth-place qualifier JR Hildebrand, from the San Francisco Bay Area, was sent to Denver. Los Angeles-based Townsend Bell, who qualified 25th, was the only driver set to miss the media tour due to a sports car test he's had scheduled at New York's Watkins Glen circuit. Knowing that California holds three Verizon IndyCar Series races and contains approximately one in every eight Americans – more people that live in all of Canada – I'd argue having a few drivers dispatched to the West Coast was a higher priority than making sure they got back in time for press duties in and around Indy on Wednesday.

• Sonoma Raceway unveiled a smart promo in the crossover spirit of Kurt Busch's attempt to "Do the Double." The track is offering half-price tickets to its IndyCar race in august for all those who buy tickets to its NASCAR race in June.

• How excellent has E.J. Viso been? Add him to the list of Month of May specialists going forward.

• It could be a coincidence, but four out of the six rookie drivers in the Indy 500 are powered by Honda. The one American rookie, Sage Karam, is a perfect fit for the Bowtie's old "Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet" slogan. Karam, along with the other rookies, visited Louisville and the famed home of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat manufacturer. The picture taken by IndyCar of one American who knew how to hold a bat and the five who may as well been handed broomsticks ranked high on the unintentional comedy scale.

• Charlie Kimball's engineer Brad Goldberg and his wife are expecting their first child this month. No pressure for Charlie to perform and make sure the Goldberg's have plenty of prize money to start a college fund....

• Kurt Busch has had an IndyCar rule informally named in his honor by some members of the paddock. Busch, who was required to move to Marco Andretti's spare car for the race after smashing his own car against the Turn 2 wall on Monday, is allowed to take his 12th-place starting position on the grid despite having to use an entirely different chassis.

Rule 8.4.3.9, aka the "Busch Rule," states: If a Qualified Car is involved in a crash, the Entrant may replace the Qualified Car with another Car and start the Race in the Qualified Car's position. If a Qualified Car is unable to start the Race for any other reason, INDYCAR shall determine if the Entrant is permitted to replace the Qualified Car with another Car and start the Race in the Qualified Car's position or if the Entrant is required to start the Race from the rear of the starting field. For those who've followed the "500" for a while, the thought of a driver forfeiting absolutely nothing after crashing and being forced to use a different car might be hard to accept. Nothing against Kurt; I'd be saying it for any driver in his position, but anything other than starting at the back of the field is pure nonsense.

• Dallara's IL15 Indy Lights car will be unveiled today (Thursday).