Honda Indy Edmonton: Race Preview and Writers' Picks

The IZOD Indycar Series continues its trek through Canada when the drivers take on the Edmonton Airport course in Sunday afternoon's Honda Indy Edmonton. 

This will be the second consecutive race north of the border for the series, completing a pair of temporary street courses for the series.

Edmonton will mark the last temporary street course for the 2010 season, as the series has two permanent road courses left and finishes the season with another round of ovals.

Will Power has dominated temporary street courses so far this year, winning every temporary course except for Long Beach, where Ryan Hunter-Reay triumphed. 

To make matters tougher for the drivers hoping to catch Power in the series championship, the Aussie was able to win at Edmonton last season in a part-time ride with Penske Racing.

The course features 14 turns over 1.96 miles (3.154 kilometers for our Canadian friends).  Its location on the Edmonton City Centre Airport gives the course a very unique layout.

Turns One through Eight are very narrow, similar to the setup at Toronto and other temporary street courses.  There are some areas for passing, but drivers must be careful not to cause a carbon fiber festival like last week. 

The course opens up at Turn Nine, however, and has a very large path for the cars all the way through the start-finish line and back into turn one. 

Essentially, these wide portions of the track are run directly on the runways and taxi lanes of the airport. 

This extra space allows drivers to set each other up more and run more aggressively because they will not damage their cars if they lose grip.

Turns One and 10 are going to be the major passing areas this weekend.  Both are steep turns after a straightaway. 

Turn Nine can also be used to set up a pass.  If a driver can get a good run out of the turn, the large tarmac will allow him to pass while accelerating toward turn 10. 

Finally, the drivers may have a chance to pass going into 11 before making the quick turn at 12.

There should be plenty of action at the track this weekend. Edmonton tends to be one of the bumpiest tracks of the season, and the drivers who are able to keep their cars on the ground will fare the best.

A unique challenge exists this week, as Indycar has gained a "group of death."  At road courses, the IZOD IndyCar Series uses knockout-round qualifying. 

Typically, the field is evenly divided in two groups to start, from which the best six in each group move on.

The random draw at Edmonton, however, will result in interesting starting positions for several drivers.  Every driver who has earned a road course pole award this year is in Group One. 

All of Team Penske is in Group One, as well as Dario Franchitti, Justin Wilson, and Alex Tagliani. 

Danica Patrick, Paul Tracy, and Rafa Matos are other very fast cars that make up the first group.  In all, eight of the top twelve times from practice are in the group.

Group Two by contrast features possible favorites Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay only.  All other drivers in Group Two have not been as fast on road courses this year, with the small exception of Marco Andretti who has been hit and miss.

What this means is that several drivers from Group One will miss the fast 12 and fast six that could be very fast on race day. 

This will result in lots of passing once the race gets going.  It should make for an exciting qualifying show, which can be seen on Versus at 6 p.m. ET.

Sunday's 95-lap race will get underway at 5 p.m. ET on Versus.  Bob Jenkins will handle all the coverage from the booth as the series switches back to the cable network after several races on ABC.

So enjoy the race, and enjoy our picks for the Honda Indy Edmonton.

Chad Smith

*Note, Chad will be covering the Brickyard 400 for Bleacher Report this weekend.  Be sure to check out all he has to say for up-to-date news and inside stories.

First to crash: Mario Romancini…just a hunch.

Dark Horse: Takuma Sato. He obviously knows how to drive, and he is really coming along nicely outside of the ovals. He will be a contender in the final laps of the race.

Third Place: Paul Tracy. He is trying to get back into the groove, and what a better place to do it? If he is able to start up front, I see him being a factor in the end.

Second Place: Ryan Briscoe. Move over, teammate. I think Ryan is due for a good showing. Who would have thought Helio might be the third-best driver for Penske this year?

Race Winner: Dario Franchitti. It’s really hard not to go with Power here, but I think he needs to settle back down and share a little. When Power isn’t winning races, it’s almost always because of this guy.

Ryan Worden

Okay, I should preface all these picks by saying I am taking the BAR exam on Tuesday. 

So, I have not had my time to do my homework.  So, I am taking the Penske sweep.

Ganassi has the pole at Indy, so Penske will attempt to dominate the streets of Edmonton.

Win: Will Power
Place: Ryan Briscoe
Show: Helio Castroneves

Dark Horse: Paul Tracy. Tracy doing well is good for the series, as he is a great personality.  If he can do well, then maybe he could get a full-time ride next year.

First to Crash:  Takuma Sato. I always pick him when he does not crash.  When I don't pick him, he finds the wall.  So I am trying to help KV Racing this week, who has too large of a bill already with 21 crashes so far this season.

Christopher Leone

Win: Power
Place: Helio
Show: Dixon
Dark Horse: Simonaaaaaaaaa!
First to Crash: Viso… the KV car-nage count continues.

Control Pick: Random car numbers drawn this week.

Win: No. 2 Rafa Matos
Place: No. 10 Dario Franchitti
Show: No. 26 Marco Andretti
Dark Horse : No. 77 Alex Tagliani
First to Crash: No. 3 Helio Castroneves.