We’re less than a month away from the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500. At present, there’s only 30 drivers entered for the August 23 race.
Prior to the pandemic setting in, there was no doubt of bumping taking place. Now, we’re in danger of even getting to 33 cars to fill the 33 available spots. We currently have 15 Honda cars and 15 Chevy ones available. But, if the list is to grow between now and Aug. 11, it’s going to come down to the bow ties to make it happen.
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If we get to 33, it’s going to come from a second Carlin entry, one that hasn’t raced yet all season, a DragonSpeed car that hasn’t raced all year, a car at Juncos, an extra at Coyne, an added Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry and a team that’s never ran a race before. Four of those six would have Chevy power.
Not looking good.
Here’s the confirmed cars –
Chevrolet (15)
Team Penske (4) – Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves
Ed Carpenter Racing (3) – Ed Carpenter, Conor Daly, Rinus VeeKay R
Arrow McLaren SP (3) – Pato O’Ward R, Oliver Askew R, Fernando Alonso
AJ Foyt Racing (3) – Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball, Dalton Kellett R
Carlin (1) – Max Chilton
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (1) – Sage Karam
Honda (15)
Andretti Autosport (6) – Zach Veach, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta, Marco Andretti
Chip Ganassi Racing (3) – Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Ericsson
Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing (3) – Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Spencer Pigot (Citrone/Buhl partnership)
Dale Coyne Racing (2) – Santino Ferrucci, Alex Palou R
Meyer Shank Racing (1) – Jack Harvey (Andretti alliance)
Maybes (ranked in order for most likely)
DRR – A second car is still expected and JR Hildebrand is the favorite to be there.
DragonSpeed – They will enter with a TBA driver. All signs point to Ben Hanley but money is needed still. The team still has to get here from Europe too.
Carlin – They have a car but no driver. This ride needs money and resources in help to get from Europe to USA in a pandemic.
DCR – Money is tight. They need a pay driver in this car.
Juncos – They need an Aeroscreen fitted and running out of time. Kyle Kaiser is rumored to be the favorite but he doesn’t have full funding yet. If someone can bring more money, then it’s their seat. But, time is running out.
Top Gun Racing – I will believe this team when I see it. RC Enerson is supposed to be in the car. They have no engine partnership yet and August is here this weekend.
Free agents
Sebastian Bourdais, JR Hildebrand, Carlos Munoz, Oriol Servia, James Davison, Kyle Kaiser, Pippa Mann, RC Enerson