Second-year team among the early '500' favorites

“That seems crazy,” Ed Carpenter replies to the historical note.

Yes, it was 10 years ago when Carpenter won the inaugural Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. College graduation, marriage, three children, start-up racing business and 132 IZOD IndyCar Series races later, the team owner/driver will attempt to qualify for his 10th Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 18.

Carpenter, driving the Chevrolet-powered No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car, was quickest (220.970 mph) of the takers on Opening Day at the 2.5-mile oval May 11 and added 26 laps (best of 219.756 mph) in the primary car May 12 in blustery conditions. Considerably more laps will be turned as the weather forecast improves this week.

Click it: Ed Carpenter's Indianapolis 500 results

The 32-year-old Indianapolis resident earned his second IZOD IndyCar Series victory in the last race on a superspeedway (Sept. 15 at the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway) and has been pointing toward the “500” since the team unpacked from the 2012 season. Based on that result and his Indy car oval racing experience, Carpenter is among the favorites to win the 97th edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

"I felt like we were going to be strong coming in just because we've learned a lot since we were here last year, and the team has worked really hard,” Carpenter said. “You always have confidence when you win races. It was good to finish last year with a win; it did a lot for the team. It gave the whole team motivation to keep pushing over the offseason.

Last May, the first-year team working with the new Dallara chassis and Chevrolet 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 engine qualified 28th and Carpenter was jockeying for third with 20 laps remaining. A broken front wing adjuster caused a late-race spin and the No. 20 entry placed 21st.

“When I think back to the last month of May, we had a good race and a good car in the race. But really I have bad memories from last May because we really struggled a lot. We came in unprepared and we were lucky to get it sorted out by Race Day and have a chance to have a good finish. But, even then, we still didn't get a good finish.

“The whole team was really determined to come in prepared this year, and they've done that. Hopefully we can continue having a good month and be there when it counts.”