Inside The Garage: INDYCAR World's Attention Shifts to Upcoming Indy 500

Here's what's happening this week Inside The Garage: Long Beach, Calif. — There are 10 days left in April. But as far as the INDYCAR world is concerned, the Month of May has pretty much started. With Long Beach in the rearview mirror, drivers and teams will now focus on the next five weeks in Indianapolis. Yes, some teams could have a test at another track, but for the most part, preparations for the Indianapolis 500 have begun. Drivers and teams have a week to get ready for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway open test being held April 28-29. For many, this will be their first laps on the oval since last May. A little more than a week later will be the Indianapolis Grand Prix weekend on the IMS road course and then practice for the Indianapolis 500 begins May 12. The test next week will be pivotal in many ways. Will Power, who changed teams in the offseason, will get his first laps in the Andretti Global No. 26 car after 17 seasons at Team Penske. The Penske team prides itself on its Indy 500 prowess. "That will be an important test," Power, who won the 2018 Indianapolis 500, told me and other reporters last weekend at Long Beach. "We’ve got a lot of things to try. That will be interesting, too. I think about [my] 17 years in a Penske car. "It’ll definitely be something new, but I’m looking forward to it. I think we'll be good. We’ve got some good stuff happening and hope to be competitive when it comes time." Power’s replacement at Team Penske, David Malukas, will also get his first laps in a Penske car at IMS. "Just getting comfortable right before the big month of May [is the goal]," Malukas said. "The Indy 500 and knowing Team Penske’s success there, ... [I’ll] just try to get comfortable, take things nice and slow because we have a lot of time for it and see how things play out." There is a new patch of pavement between Turns 1 and 2 where the speedway took care of a bump by removing the previous asphalt before pouring new asphalt. Some drivers got a chance to test tires there after the patchwork and don’t believe it will be an issue. ECR No. 20 car driver Alexander Rossi, who was among the drivers at that test, had totally forgotten about the patchwork in that area. "They asked me afterwards, ‘How's the repave?’ I was like, ‘What? ... Oh it was fine," Rossi told me and other reporters this past weekend at Long Beach. Defending race champion Alex Palou is looking forward to getting back on the track at Indy. He’s been to the speedway for many events since that defining moment in a career that has included four INDYCAR titles in the No. 10 car for Chip Ganassi Racing. [INDYCAR TAKEAWAYS: Alex Palou Earns First Long Beach Win] Palou did the tire test last fall. He said he didn’t feel much difference at the test, knowing he had won in May. "It doesn't really feel different," the Chip Ganassi Racing driver told me and other reporters last weekend at Long Beach. "I think it's going to feel different when the fans are there and maybe they call you ‘Champion’ for the first time." As with any test, the key isn’t just to find out what works well — it’s to find out what doesn’t. "You're not reinventing the wheel, and you're kind of just seeing is there any dramatic things that need to be addressed," Rossi said. "And assuming not, you're kind of just getting used to being back at the speedway and getting running traffic." Will Talladega Stage Change Work? NASCAR is changing the stage lengths for the Cup race at Talladega, making the first stage 98 laps and the final two stages 45 laps. Typically, the final stage is the longest. But by making the final two stages less than the length of a fuel run, NASCAR is hopeful drivers won’t be saving fuel. In recent races at Daytona and Talladega, the drivers have saved fuel so they could spend less time on pit road fueling their car in order to get to the end of the stage. NASCAR doesn’t see this as the grand solution to the issue and plans to have a test at Daytona next January to work on ideas to encourage drivers to race at full throttle. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won at Talladega in 2024 and has two victories there, said drivers still might save fuel so at the stage break they only need nine seconds on pit road to change tires and fill the tank. "I don't know if you're going to spend a lot of time saving, but you're still going to save fuel," said Stenhouse, who drives for Hyak Racing, during his media availability earlier this month at Bristol. In The News — Abel Motorsports confirmed its entry into the Indianapolis 500 with Jacob Abel, who will be driving the No. 51 Chevrolet. Abel was the lone driver to get bumped from the field last year in his rookie INDYCAR season, but he should make the race this year with there being an expected 33 entries for 33 spots. Abel has been without a full-time open-wheel ride this year but has been competing in sports-car racing. — INDYCAR had a failure in its push-to-pass software that did not disengage the system on the drivers’ cars for the one restart at Long Beach. The system, which gives the drivers a boost in speed, is supposed to be disengaged until the driver hits the alternate start-finish line on the first lap of green. INDYCAR said 12 drivers used it before reaching the alternate start-finish line but won’t be penalized because the system is not supposed to be operable at that time. Only Marcus Armstrong made a pass during that time. Both Armstrong and the driver he passed, Santino Ferrucci, used about the same amount of push-to-pass (drivers got 200 seconds for the entire race) before the system was supposed to be operable. — INDYCAR has hired Chip Ganassi Racing engineering executive Mike O’Gara as the INDYCAR Vice President of Competition for race engineering. He will be heavily involved in the development of the new car for 2028 as well as the technical portion of the rulebook. — Lee White, a former team executive whose stops included Roush Racing and Newman Haas Racing before he served as president of Toyota Racing Development for 15 years, died earlier this month at age 78. White played a pivotal role in Toyota’s entry into NASCAR. Social Spotlight They Said It "This kid is on fire. I don't know if I can cool him down." — 23XI Racing owner Michael Jordan on Tyler Reddick after Reddick earned his fifth win of the season with Sunday's victory at Kansas. In Inside The Garage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the motorsports world the way only he can.