33 cars will take to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a two-day NTT INDYCAR SERIES test this week in preparation for next month’s 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 (11 a.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Schedule

Thursday

11-1 pm: Veterans

1-3 pm: ROP/Refreshers

3-6 pm: All Cars

Friday

10-4 pm: All Cars

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Specifics

Admission: Free

TV: Peacock

Computer: racecontrol.indycar.com

Radio: SiriusXM 160 (3-6 pm on Thursday, 10-1 pm on Friday)

Honda (17)

Andretti Autosport (5) – Colton Herta (No. 26), Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27), Romain Grosjean (No. 28), Devlin DeFrancesco (No. 29), Marco Andretti (No. 98).

Chip Ganassi Racing (4) – Marcus Ericsson (No. 8), Scott Dixon (No. 9), Alex Palou (No. 10), Takuma Sato (No. 11)

Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing (4) – Graham Rahal (No. 15), Jack Harvey (No. 30), Katherine Legge (No. 44), Christian Lundgaard (No. 45).

Meyer Shank Racing (2) – Helio Castroneves (No. 06), Simon Pagenaud (No. 60).

Dale Coyne Racing (2) – David Malukas (No. 18), Sting Ray Robb R (No. 51).

Chevrolet (16)

Arrow McLaren SP (4) – Pato O’Ward (No. 5), Felix Rosenqvist (No. 6), Alexander Rossi (No. 7), Tony Kanaan (No. 66)

Team Penske (3) – Will Power (No. 1), Josef Newgarden (No. 2), Scott McLaughlin (No. 3)

Ed Carpenter Racing (3) – Conor Daly (No. 20), Rinus VeeKay (No. 21), Ed Carpenter (No. 33)

AJ Foyt Racing (2) –Santino Ferrucci (No. 14), Benjamin Pedersen (No. 55)

Juncos Hollinger Racing (2) – Callum Ilott (No. 77) and Agustin Canapino (No. 78)

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (2) – Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 23), Stefan Wilson (No. 24)

There is a 34th entry but as of now it hasn’t been formally announced nor do we know if they’ll be at the test. Abel Motorsports and RC Enerson have a deal but that hasn’t been announced yet. Do they test? That’s a dangerous game because by not having the 34th or even 35th car here at this week’s test, you risk not making the field. The two cars that didn’t test in 2021 were the only two cars to miss the field in that’s year’s race.

The bottom eight on the 2021 open test speed chart saw five of which start 25th or worse.

Last year, while there was no bumping, 5 of the bottom six on the second day speed chart started 25th or worse including 4 of which taking spots in the last 2 Rows. Stefan Wilson was the only entry not to test and he started last.

The question now is, do we see a 35th car come out? There are two car-engine packages open with 1 each for Chevy and Honda.

Honda has pretty much already made mention that they won’t use theirs. The only path that I can see it coming out is if Dale Coyne Racing finds a way to use it for Linus Lundqvist. I don’t think though that Honda is going to let that happen. Outside of that factor, 35 will be our max.

But, will it be 35? I’ve heard Chevrolet may cap their limit at 17 too.

AJ Foyt Racing is the only real Chevy option to make it happen if there is expansion. One thing I was hearing that ABC Supply was willing to return and if either car of Santino Ferrucci or Benjamin Pedersen found a sponsor for the ‘500, then Foyt would have to bring out a third car for the ABC Supply deal. If they didn’t, then expect Ferrucci and ABC Supply to team up for the Month of May.

If they added a third car on their own, Sage Karam and JR Hildebrand would make the most sense here.

AJ Foyt Racing has run three cars in six of the last seven years (2019 the only exception) but has run four cars just twice this century (2000, 2021). In both years, they didn’t get all four cars in. Roberto Guerrero didn’t make the race in the 20T entry in 2000 and Charlie Kimball in the No. 11 in 2021. In fact, in four of the five years that they ran four cars here, one of the cars didn’t make the race. The only time that four cars for Foyt made the race was in 1987.

Which is why I don’t see them adding a fourth car but the third is a possibility.

Paretta has a driver but needing help. Does INDYCAR step in and help these two merge forces and allow a 35th car? It may not be as likely now that a female is on the entry-list (Katherine Legge), but having two in May after a year without any is a step in the right direction as well.

The thing is, it’s going to take low 7 figures for Foyt to even break even by bringing out a third car on their own. However, why break even? There’s not many drivers on this list to come in and give them a chance at their first win in a decade and first Indy win since 1999. Is it worth it?

I think we’re set at 34…

Drivers With Ties

• Simona de Silvestro – Locked in with Paretta. Can they pair with someone or get that final Chevy lease?
• Sage Karam – Shocking departure from DRR leads him here. The kid can flat out drive and would be a great addition for any team looking for a driver.
• Linus Lundqvist – Won the Indy Lights championship for HMD. Didn’t have a full-time budget but could for Indy only. Tested at Texas for RLL.

Breakdown of Drivers

There’s currently 4 rookies on the entry-list with Canapino, Pedersen, Robb and Enerson. There’s also 9 former winners including Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021), Ericsson (2022), Sato (2017, 2020), Pagenaud (2019), Power (2018), Rossi (2016), Hunter-Reay (2014), Kanaan (2013) and Dixon (2008) on the list.

This also has a wide range of experience vs. inexperience among this current field too. You have 6 drivers (Kirkwood, Grosjean, DeFrancesco, Malukas, Ilott, Lundgaard) attempting to make their 2nd ‘500 and two drivers (McLaughlin and Legg) trying to make their third. Combine that with the 4 rookies and 12 of the 34 drivers (35.2%) are making their 1st, 2nd or 3rd attempts.

You also have two drivers (Palou, VeeKay) making their fourth attempt and six trying for their fifth (Ferrucci, Herta, O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Ericsson and Wilson).

Combined, that’s 20 of 34 (58.8%) of the current field with 4 or fewer Indy 500 starts at the moment.

Then you have some big veterans. This is Jack Harvey’s 7th attempt, Alexander Rossi’s 8th. Everyone else has double digits.

Conor Daly (10th attempt), Simon Pagenaud and Josef Newgarden’s 12th attempt, Takuma Sato and Hunter-Reay’s 14th, Graham Rahal’ and Will Power’s 16th, Marco Andretti’s 18th, Ed Carpenter’s 20th, Scott Dixon’s 21st, Tony Kanaan’s 22nd and Helio Castroneves’ 23rd.

That’s a lot of experience with the youthful drivers.

JHR will roll out a combined 1-year experience between their 2 drivers. Foyt has 4 total years, all by Ferrucci and a rookie in Pedersen.

Andretti has 17 past Indy 500’s for Marco Andretti but 7 combined between the other 4 (Herta 4, Kirkwood, Grosjean, DeFrancesco 1). Rahal is in a similar situation. Graham Rahal has 15 Indy 500’s but Jack Harvey has 6, Katherine Legge 2 and Christian Lundgaard with 1.

Penske has some experience with just 2 Indy 500’s from McLaughlin but 12 from Newgarden and 16 from Power.

Ganassi has a good mix with 20 Indy 500’s from Dixon, 14 from Sato, 5 from Ericsson and 4 from Palou.

McLaren is similar with 21 starts out of Kanaan, 8 out of Rossi and 5 each out of O’Ward and Rosenqvist.

ECR has Carpenter approaching 20 starts, Daly approaching 10 and VeeKay approaching 4.

MSR may be the most experienced of all with 22 years from Castroneves and 11 out of Pagenaud.