Indianapolis 500 shaping up as a Team Penske party

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews can be seen here and in the Cruisin’ News, "Oregon, Nevada and California's classic auto news & marketplace."

The Indianapolis 500 will be run for the 108th time on May 26, and Mark Glover has attended more than half of those classics. Here's his take on the race to come:

Ordinarily, some 20 drivers annually have a chance to win the Indianapolis 500, and it could sort out that way this year.

The race doesn't always go to the fastest qualifiers.  And then there are untimely caution periods, crashes, pit stop mishaps and a hundred other things that can go wrong over 500 high-speed miles.

But I will be surprised if this year's winner is not one of the three Team Penske pilots starting on the front row -- Scott McLaughlin, Will Power or defending champ Josef Newgarden. Their cars are that good, byproducts of exhaustive testing, engineering and development.

I'm not sure I've seen three more perfectly balanced cars on the famed 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in all the time I've been going to the race ... and that dates back to 1961. The Chevrolet engines in the three Penske machines are a cut above the Honda power plants and the other Chevys in the field.

And it shows.  McLaughlin, Power and Newgarden posted four-lap average speeds well in excess of 233 miles per hour (234 mph, in McLaughlin's case), and the Penske team appears to have the engines wound for maximum performance ... but not to the breaking point. Look for them to share the lead at the drop of the green flag.

Certainly one of those three will win it.  McLaughlin, a three-time Australian Supercars champion, is not known to the general sporting public, but his skills are top-drawer.  He could become a household name worldwide by Sunday night.  Power has as much experience as anybody out there, and Newgarden's competitive flame burns white hot.

Dark horses?  Two of them, right on the heels of the Penske three on the speed charts.

Yes, NASCAR's Kyle Larson can win it.  Of all the people to attempt the Memorial Day weekend double (the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day) the Elk Grove native is, in my view, the most capable.  He can win seemingly in any kind of car on any kind of surface.

Northern California's own Alexander Rossi, the 2016 Indy 500 winner as a rookie, has a very good car and a chip on his shoulder.  He has to have several things go right to catch the Penske cars, and he's very close to them in terms of horsepower.  He could pull it off.