Wide-open Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS - Today's Indianapolis 500 is believed to be the most wide-open race in years. There are no clear favorites and there's a group of new faces vying for attention. And with no Danica Patrick, there's a chance for some new stars to be born in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The front two rows for the start of the race are stacked with drivers from Penske Racing and Andretti Autosport, so it could be a shootout between those six guys. Penske has Ryan Briscoe on the pole, with Will Power and three-time race winner Helio Castroneves in the second row. Andretti has spots two through four with James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay on the front row, and Marco Andretti in the second row.

The Penske team is undefeated so far this season, with four wins and five poles.

Tens of thousands of fans glistening with sunscreen and toting coolers filled with ice and water descended on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday for what could be the hottest Indianapolis 500 on record.

Temperatures were forecast to climb into the mid-90s during the afternoon's race, and track officials spent much of the week urging fans to take precautions against the heat. The track brought in portable misting stations and cooling stations, but spokesman Doug Boles said track medical personnel expected to treat more than 1,000 fans before the race's conclusion.

The hottest race day on record was in 1937, when the National Weather Service said the temperature hit 92 degrees.

Even before the start of the race, those in attendance were feeling the heat. Pace car driver Guy Fieri, host of the Food Network's show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," said Sunday was hotter than when he was practicing in the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 pace car the last few days.

Fieri said he thought heat will be a factor in the race but that the drivers could handle it.

"I don't think I could do it -- I've got air conditioning in the ZR1," Fieri said.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said he was glad he was going to be in the air conditioning for his first Indy 500 - and felt for the race drivers.

"With the equipment they wear, it's going to be tough. It's going to be really tough," Lasorda said. "I feel sorry that they have to do it when it's this hot, too."

Laurie Smith, 47, of Fishers, Ind., and her 14-year-old son, C.J., weren't fazed.

Smith packed hats, bottles equipped with fans and misters and collapsible coolers that included plastic bags containing a damp washcloth and ice to cool down their necks. She also had a secret weapon: a black umbrella.

Smith said she's taken the umbrella on outings to amusement parks and other places to provide shade on hot days, but this was the first time in her four trips to the 500 that she'd brought it to the track.

"It brings (the temperature) down maybe five, six degrees," she said. "It makes it just a little cooler."

Smith planned to use the umbrella while walking around but said she wouldn't open it during the race unless they move to a higher vantage point where she wouldn't obstruct anyone's view.

"If I need to scoot up to the back couple of rows with my umbrella, that's an option," she said.

If that's not possible, she has a backup plan.

"If it gets a little warm, we'll just have to go underneath the stands and do a little shopping," she said.

Some fans, though, opted to sit this one out.

Paula Jarrett, 52, of New Palestine, Ind., just east of Indianapolis, has attended nearly every race for the last decade, and her husband, David Hill, has been going for about 20 years. They've sat through unseasonably cold days, heat waves and even severe thunderstorms in 2004 that spawned tornadoes in the city.

"We usually never miss a race," Jarrett said. "We've been at the track before when it's 55 and rainy and you're freezing your rear off and drinking hot chocolate and wishing the sun would come out, and we've been out there and fried in the sun."

This year, though, they decided to sell their tickets high in the third turn after seeing the forecast of record temperatures and heat indexes of 100 degrees.

Even on a cooler day, Jarrett said, the sun is "in your face all afternoon long. It's just hot as Hades up there. You're packed in with all those people up there. You can't keep sunscreen on."

The couple found takers for all four of their tickets. Jarrett said her husband had some "seller's remorse" and acknowledged they would miss seeing the action in person, Still, she said sitting this one out wasn't all bad.

"There's something to be said for staying at home and listening to it on the radio," she said.