The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course which takes place on Saturday.
On Thursday, the top five in the championship, Marcus Ericsson, Pato O’Ward, Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean took part in a pre event press conference.
Notably absent from the conference were six-time series champion Scott Dixon and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Will Power.
It has been a relatively quiet start to the season for Dixon and Power while Newgarden took victory in Texas last month, both Power and Dixon has yet to visit victory lane in 2023.
Power, the defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion swept the month of May here in 2018, winning both the Grand Prix and the Indy 500.
Dixon, who celebrates his 350th race start for Chip Ganassi Racing this weekend won the Indy 500 in 2008 and took victory in the Grand Prix in 2020.
Of the three, Newgarden is the only one who has yet to win the GNR Grand Prix of Indianapolis and he will be hoping to rectify that on Saturday.
Newgarden, Power and Dixon are together in the championship right now with Newgarden sixth on 105 points, 25 behind Ericsson, Power is seventh on 104 points, 26 back while Dixon is eighth, 32 behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate.
This season, Dixon is on the hunt for his seventh championship while both Newgarden and Power are hoping to join the three-time champion club.
All three drivers will be hoping that they can claim victory in both the Indianapolis 500 and the championship in 2023, the last time the double was done was in 2010 when three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and four-time series champion Dario Franchitti did it.
Franchitti is still heavily involved in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES as he works with Chip Ganassi Racing as a driver coach.
Speaking during Thursday’s press conference, the drivers said that you can never discount Newgarden, Power and Dixon so, we can expect the trio to be extremely competitive this weekend as the month of May gets underway.