IndyCar: Round 5, the 95th Running of the Indianapolis 500?

This is bigger than the Super Bowl of IndyCar. It is the Indy 500 of IndyCar. Simply the biggest single event of any sport in the world, celebrates its centennial anniversary this Sunday as 33 drivers take on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So, with the date closing in quickly, who's going to drink the milk?

Alex Tagliani grabbed his first pole in an IndyCar, and first pole since 8 years ago in CART. This very well could be the year for the little guys to overthrow the red cars at the top. Yet, there will be a mad Scotsman behind the wheel of the number 10 car in defending champion Dario Franchitti, and his teammate Scott Dixon has been the most consistently fast driver of the month. Just as well, Briscoe and Castroneves will be driving hard too, and Will Power is poised to get his first oval win. Yet, guys like Ed Carpenter, Buddy Rice, Dan Wheldon, Towsend Bell, and Oriol Servia are looking to stir up some action, trying to get a huge win for the little teams, all making the top 9. I've even left some major players out of the discussion, which leads me to say that this will be the most competitive Indy 500 in decades, and very possibly ever.

My heart says Tony Kanaan. My longtime favorite driver, whose KV-Lotus team has struggled with qualifying setups all year, but have given him great racecars every week, which added with the talent of Kanaan behind the wheel can definitely make him a bigtime contender late (remember, he brought his car from dead last to 2nd and with a couple things going his way, could have won last year).

But my head says differently. Unlike in nascar, more often than not, the best car and best team win the race at the end. That's why the red cars have dominated. With that said, I have to pick Scott Dixon to win his second Indy 500 in four years this weekend. Like I said, he's been the most consistently fast driver of the month, being that he would go out on a practice day, turn 15-20 laps max in the morning, then call it a day, and still end up in the top 3 times for the day. No doubt he will have a bigtime challenge, but the best car and best team will prevail.

Oh, and in respect towards the driver that gave him his first pole since returning to the Indy 500 in 2001 and has since been kicked out of a 500 starting spot TWICE, Chip Ganassi donates the winning earnings to Bruno Junquiera to find sponsorship, in which he later signs Bruno for the remainder of the season as a 3rd car of his Target-Ganassi stable.

If only the world could work like that. Anyway, enough dreaming, Who ya got in victory lane on Sunday?