Here is a primer for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500, a note for each of the 11 rows that make up the 33-car field:

ROW 1: Pole sitter Alex Tagliani (pictured above with car owner Sam Schmidt) is without a victory in 29 career IZOD IndyCar Series starts.

ROW 2: Will Power, who starts in the middle of the row, is the series points leader.

ROW 3: Buddy Rice, on the inside, has won the 500 once, while Dario Franchitti, on the outside, has two Indy wins.

ROW 4: California native JR Hildebrand is an IndyCar rookie.

ROW 5: Bertrand Baguette, in the middle of the row, drives for the team co-owned by TV personality David Letterman.

ROW 6: Helio Castroneves, a fan favorite and member of the fabled Team Penske, starts 16^th.

ROW 7: Jay Howard and Tomas Scheckter make their IndyCar season debuts in the Indy 500.

ROW 8: Tony Kanaan, who hasn’t led a lap in four races this season, starts alongside Simona De Silvestro, who was injured in a horrifying practice crash.

ROW 9: Plenty of name recognition with Danica Patrick on the inside, Penske driver Ryan Briscoe in the middle and Marco Andretti on the outside.

ROW 10: Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal are U.S.-born, Chip Ganassi Racing drivers.

ROW 11: Ryan Hunter-Reay got an 11^th-hour ride in an A.J. Foyt car.