Last year, Paul Dalbey of www.MoreFrontWing.com and I returned to our annual media center race morning pow-wow to establish the fun betting lines for the Indy 500, with Paul taking a late victory when I inexplicably met the turn four wall late in the day. This year, I will bring more focus and less Jaegermeister-induced haze to the festivities, with the goal of returning bragging rights to the www.PopOffValve.com offices, with a donation to Racing for Cancer on the line.

Below is the 2012 3rd Annual 33-Bet Indy 500 field:

1. Winner: Paul – Ryan Briscoe, Dale – Will Power (in a late charge will pass one of his teammates for the win)
2. Rookie of the Year: Paul – Newgarden, Dale – Rubens
3. Hardest Charger (most spots gained): Paul – Carpenter, Dale – Wade “Cat Power” Cunningham
4. Leader at 100 laps: Paul – Will Power, Dale – JR Hildebrand
5. Most laps led: Paul – Will Power, Dale – Ryan Briscoe
6. Highest finishing female: Paul – Ana Beatriz , Dale – Ana Beatriz
7. First in class (highest non-Penske or Ganassi): Paul – Ryan Hunter-Reay , Dale – Marco Andretti
8. Fastest race lap (driver): Paul – James Hinchcliffe , Dale – Alex Tagliani
9. First pass on lap 3: Paul – Franchitti, Dale – Marco
10. Highest finishing American: Paul – Hunter-Reay , Dale – Marco Andretti (can it be? after years of picking against Marco will he turn the proverbial corner?)
11. Highest finishing former full-season Firestone Indy Lights alum: Paul – Newgarden, Dale – Hinchcliffe
12. First driver black-flagged for blocking: Paul – Dixon, Dale – Jean Alesi
13. First post-race tweet (can occur while race still running): Paul – Simona, Dale – Sebastian Saavedra
14. First to white-wall turn 4: Paul – Viso , Dale – Tony Kanaan
15. First to stall on pit lane: Paul – Rubens, Dale – Legge
16. First rookie out of race: Paul – Alesi, Dale – Alesi (and our last view of Jean will be a string of French and Italian expletives)
17. First woman out of race: Paul – Simona, Dale – Legge
18. First running car to be lapped: Paul – Alesi, Dale – Alesi (could it be in the first five laps? is that theoretically possible?)
19. First mechanical out of race: Paul – Jakes, Dale – Conway
20. First crash out of race: Paul – Conway, Dale – Saavedra
21. : Will either Lotus finish the race? Paul –No , Dale – No (Gotta feel for Simona, as this season will probably derail her IndyCar career)
22. “Overly Optimistic” move of the race: Paul – Servia, Dale – Ed Carpenter (a frustrating month can still get worse)

OVER/UNDER
23. Average winning speed – 153.651 mph (avg since 2005): Paul – over, Dale – under
24. Margain of victory – 1.5 sec: Paul – under, Dale – under
25. Number of cautions – 7.5: Paul – under, Dale – over (track conditions and lack of practice will make a long afternoon)
26. First caution lap – Lap 13.5: Paul – over, Dale – under
27. Laps led by Penske & Ganassi (combined incl. Kimball & Rahal) – 165: Paul – under, Dale – under (Hondas will fare better in the race, but Chevy has a 30 hp advantage)
28. Number of green-flag pit stops by leader – 2.5: Paul – under, Dale – over
29. Number passed by Kanaan on lap 1 – 4.5: Paul – under, Dale – under (TK’s in-car on lap one is usually mandatory viewing, but this year he’s got fast guys in front of him)
30. Number of Penske/Ganassi cars finishing in top-10 (incl. Rahal & Kimball) – 4.5: Paul – under, Dale – under

31. Number of crashes by KV Racing Technologies Drivers – 1.5: Paul – under, Dale – under
32. Number of cars impacted by contact with Helio Castroneves – 2.5: Paul – under, Dale – over
33. Number of laps completed by Sebastien Bourdais – 74.5: Paul – over, Dale – under