Current NASCAR driver Robby Gordon during his single seater days racing in the 1994 Indy 500. Watch and wait for the pass in traffic at around the  1:04  mark. It doesn’t get much closer.

By the end of May, 111 drivers in F1, NASCAR, IRL, ChampCar, NHRA Drag racing, and World Rally had qualified for inclusion the THE SPEED BLOG Overall Driver Rankings.

The Top 10 Drivers at the end of May are:

1. Jeff Gordon (NASCAR)
2. Jimmie Johnson (NASCAR)
3. Denny Hamlin (NASCAR)
4. Lewis Hamilton (F1)
5. Fernando Alonso (F1)
6. Tony Stewart (NASCAR)
7. Marcus Gronholm (WRC)
8. Scott Dixon (IRL)
9. Ronn Capps (NHRA)
10. Felippe Massa (F1)

Positions are calculated based on championship race results and number of events participated in each month. These are then added together and normalized for the year to date totals.

In his 156th NASCAR Nextel Cup start Hendricks Motorsports driver Casey Mears managed to turn what had many had planned as a splash-n-go strategy into a fuel presevation run giving him his first trip to victory lane. Mears, along with JJ Yeley, Kyle Petty and Reed Sorenson decided to gamble and stay out when race leader Tony Stewart and several other front runners headed for pit lane with just 6 laps to go.

Fifth place Brian Vickers ran strongly all day and at one point it looked possible that he would give Toyota their first victory in Nextel Cup. Pre-race favorite, Jimme Johnson, who always runs strong at the Lowes Motor Speedway, was involved in an early wreck that took out 13 cars, but left his comparitively undamaged allowing him to eventually finish 10th.

Another large multi-car wreck took out Jeff Gordon, his first DNF of the year, but he still held on to the championship lead.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Casey Mears
2.  J.J. Yeley
3.  Kyle Petty
4.  Reed Sorenson
5.  Brian Vickers
6. Tony Stewart
7. Ricky Rudd
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Jimmie Johnson

 A cut tire was the key to Dario Franchitti’s victory in one of the most chaotic Indy 500s of recent years.  The race started with pole sitter Helio Castroneves and Tony Kannan swapping the lead on several occasions. The race would involve a large number of lead changes and different leaders over the course of the afternoon, with Kannan appearing to be the most dominant car on track. However due to a large number of cautions, 11 in total, mainly the result of back markers getting offline and sliding into the wall, no real rythmn was established.The real story of the race was the rain, with the first heavy downpour arriving on Lap 111 with the AGR trio of Kannan, Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick in the first three places.  Just as the red flag flew the strongly running Franchitti cut a tire but didn’t have time to replace it before the cars were parked.

After a delay of three hours the race was resumed with Franchetti making an immediate pit stop to replace the cut tire. This put him “out of sequence” with the field and at the back of the pack.  What followed was an impressive charge as he picked off one car at a time. The task was made easier when several of the leaders, including Kannan and Patrick, pitted dropping them back into the field. Kannan became invloved in another back markers incident while Patrick fought back up to an 8th place finish. Marco Andretti tangled with pre-race favorite Dan Wheldon and ended up airborne and inverted before landing on all four wheels on the speedway infield.

By lap 137 Franchitti was  now out front with a second heavy rain fall forecast. The rain duely arrived around thirty laps later and the race was once again red-flagged, this time for good.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Dario Franchitti
2. Scott Dixon
3. Helio Castroneves
4. Sam Hornish Jr.
5. Ryan Briscoe
6. Scott Sharp
7. Thomas Scheckter
8. Danica Patrick
9. Davey Hamilton
10. Vitor Meria

F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso lead what was in all honesty a processional Monaco GP from flag to flag. His only real opposition should have come from his hard charging team mate Lewis Hamilton, but as Hamilton dutifully tucked in behind Alonso at the start, it appeared that the two Mclaren drivers had been told not to race each other and risk crashing out both cars. The team had been put before individual glory and Alonso was to take the win.

 Such was the dominance of the McLaren pair that they finished almost a full minute ahead of the third place Ferrari of Fellipe Massa, the only other car on the lead lap. The expecpted charge by the other Ferrari of Kimi Riakkonen from 16th on the grid, following a suspension failure in qualifying, never really materialized.  Perhaps the most impressive drive of an otherwise lack luster event came from  Scott Speed in the Torro Rosso, who dispite failing brakes managed to finish an excellent 9th having worked his way up from near the back of the grid.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Fernado Alonso (McLaren)
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Felippe Massa (Ferrari)
4. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault)
5. Robert Kubica (BMW)
6. Nick Heidfeld (BMW)
7. Alex Wurz (Williams)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
9. Scott Speed (STR)
10. Rubens Barrichelo (Honda)