INDIANAPOLIS - The last time the 33 drivers who will start Sunday’s Indy 500 were in their race cars on the track was Friday afternoon and it was a cool 15C.

But when the ‘Drivers start your engines’ command is given Sunday the prediction is for temperatures to be near 40C around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5 mile track.

It is like night and day, or as Toronto’s Paul Tracy put it so succinctly. “It’s the difference between heaven and hell.”

The hotter it is on the race track the slicker its gets.

Rookie James Hinchcliffe put it in a true Canadian fashion: “It will be like racing on ice without snow tires.”

The good/the bad

The best thing Alex Tagliani has going for him at the Indy 500 is that he will start on the pole where he can dictate the all-important early pace of the race.

Tagliani's biggest problem is that he is up against teams with way bigger budgets that pay for engineering that can make the difference between winning and losing on race day.

Dean picks his winner

I think experience at Indianapolis is a huge difference maker and Dario Franchitti has a fast car and the experience with a pair of Brickyard wins already on his resume. He is my pick to be drinking milk after 500 miles on Sunday.