Seven plot points to follow in the 2022 Indianapolis 500

When former IndyCar racer Sarah Fisher pulls off in the Corvette pace car and Whiplash actor Miles Teller waves the green flag to start the race, the field of 33 will have a single goal in mind - glugging the milk in victory lane and kissing the bricks with their victorious crew after 200 laps of racing.

Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, one of eight previous victors in the field, will start from pole for a fifth time at Indianapolis as he aims to take a first win since 2008.

Meanwhile seven drivers will be gunning for rookie of the year honours, including Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean, and become the first rookie winner since Alexander Rossi's shock victory on fuel mileage in 2016.

Here are the seven subplots you need to follow on Sunday.

Can Dixon take a first Indy 500 win since 2008?

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Because of Scott Dixon’s constant prominence in the IndyCar Series and his excellence at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, many find it hard to fathom that it’s been so long since the 41-year-old New Zealander drank the milk, but facts are facts and fate is fickle.

Take last year, for example. Helio Castroneves and Meyer Shank Racing shouldn’t take this ill, nor should Ed Carpenter Racing whose drivers led 72 laps, but many onlookers believe Dixon would have walked last year’s race. His car had looked so good in traffic throughout practice, he took pole, and then was happy to run in the wake of a couple of other cars to save fuel. It seemed only a matter of time before he surged to the front.

Then, of course, the pitlane closed due to a crash at its entrance, just when Dixon needed to make his first pitstop, and by the time the #9 had trickled into its pitbox with a fuel-starved engine, and it had been