While the Indycar season so far has been a bit lackluster--St. Petersburg and New Orleans were messes of different sorts, while Long Beach was duller than usual--one thing that has become apparent is that the aero kits have definitely made the cars faster--two percent quicker at St. Pete and Long Beach, enough for lap records on both circuits, and it wouldn’t at all surprise me, weather permitting, that another one will be set at Barber and at the Indy road course.

Expect fewer wings and flip-de-doos in a couple weeks.

But then the ovals come into play, and there will naturally be a completely different aero setup for Indianapolis compared to the road courses. The Month of May will open with an open test on the 3rd, and if they’ve optimized the oval package as well as they’ve optimized the road course package... well put it this way: last year’s pole speed was 231.067mph. A two percent speed increase, like they’ve had on the road courses, would bump that up to around 235.7mph--the fastest pole speed ever, and close enough to Arie Luyendyk’s qualifying record that it wouldn’t take a lot of tweaking to get there. They may dial down the boost a little--the powers-that-be have talked about wanting to shoot for a new record next year, the 100th Indianapolis 500, and I don’t know if they’ll be interested in hitting it a year early. But then of course I’d love that to happen...