The Indy 500 (practice and Qual thread)

[Alwaysfirst]

Whilst we already have a thread for the grid throughout the year I thought we should have a tread purely dedicated to the 500: Confirmations, rumours etc. Just to keep them all together in the one thread.

Confirmed Teams Drivers

Andretti-Green-Tony Kanaan
Andretti-Green-Danica Patrick
Andretti-Green-Hideki Mutoh
Andretti-Green-Marco Andretti
Ganassi-Scott Dixon
Ganassi-Dan Wheldon
Ganassi-Alex Lloyd
Penske-Helio Castroneves
Penske-Ryan Briscoe
Luczo Dragon-Tomas Scheckter
NHL-Justin Wilson
NHL-Graham Rahal
Rahal/Letterman-Ryan Hunter-Reay
Panther-Vitor Meira
Dreyer & Reinbold-Buddy Rice
Dreyer & Reinbold-Milka Duno
Dreyer & Reinbold-Townsend Bell
Roth-Marty Roth
Roth-Jay Howard
Vision-Ed Carpenter
Vision-AJ Foyt IV
Fisher-Sarah Fisher
Beck-Roger Yasukawa
Foyt-Darren Manning
Rubicon-Max Papis
Conquest-Franck Perera
Conquest-Enrique Bernoldi
Coyne-Bruno Junquiera
Coyne-Mario Moraes
HVM-EJ Viso
KVR-Will Power
KVR-Oriol Servia

Possible Extra Entries

Andretti-Green-Raphael Matos
Rahal/Letterman-Robert Doornbos or ?
Vision-Paul Tracy or Davey Hamilton
HVM-Nelson Philippe
Playa Del-Al Unser Jr or Jacques Lazier
Playa Del-Al Unser III or Phil Geibler

Outside Chance Entries

Andretti-Green-Michael Andretti (may fancy just one more go...again!)
Penske-Sam Hornish Jr (If he can't get an automatic grid place in NASCAR)
Panther-PJ Cheeson or Buddy Lazier or CR Crews or ?
Vision-Davey Hamilton or Paul Tracy or ?
Foyt-Pablo Donoso
Foyt-Robbie Pecorari or ?
KVR-Jimmy Vasser
Red Bull-AJ Allmendinger
Red Bull-Scott Speed
Red Bull-Robert Doornbos or ?
Mann-Robbie McGehee or ?
Racing Professionals/Hemelgarn-Jon Herb or Richie Hearn
Walker-Simon Pagenaud or Matt Halliday or ?
PCM-Mario Dominguez or Alex Figge or David Martinez Jr or ?
Sam Schmidt-Buddy Lazier or ? (if I remember correctly Schmidt is now helping to run Roth. If this is the case then there is always the chance of an independant entry. If not then this is more likely)
Curb-Alex Barron or ?
PDM/American Spirit-Jimmie Kite or Tiago Medeiros or ?
Team Leader/Dollander-PJ Jones
Chastain-Stephan Gregoire or ?
Samax-Mario Dominuez or Jeff Mitrisin or ?

Even less likely is Kingdom racing, which will probably never happen.

All of the above is based on hearsay & rumors apart from the already confirmed & full time entries. I've just tried to gather it all into one. In the lists above there are 32 confirmed entries, 6 possibles & 20 outside chances, of which no more than one or two can be expected to appear. If anybody knows of any more entries it seems like this thread would be a good place to add them.

[climb]

Have indy500.com released a provisional entry list, at last?

[johntt]

Another one to add to outside chance may be Dario Franchitti in a Ganassi car.

[Alfa Fan]

Move Lloyd from Ganassi to Rahal Letterman as the car's going to be run by the RLR team alongside Hunter-Reay.

[indycool]

I hear the entry list may be released tomorrow or early next week.....they just had a media tour at the Speedway the last two days and there were a number of announcements, including Lloyd to the joint venture between Ganassi and Rahal-Letterman. Eddie Cheever goes to the booth for the telecast. Mac Tools signed up for a promotional program with the IRL. The Indiana National Guard announced a hero card program for both Panther and service personnel. Jim Nabors will be back to sing Back Home in Indiana as part of the pre-race, a tradition that was missed last year. Emerson Fittipaldi had some comments on driving the pace car that is fueled by 85% ethanol. Lot of stuff right now at www.brickyard.com.

[Stefvh]

Here it is,

red are rookies.

Car Driver Entrant
2 A.J. Foyt IV Vision Racing
3 Helio Castroneve Team Penske
4 Vitor Meira Panther Racing
5 Oriol Servia KV Racing Technology
6 Ryan Briscoe Team Penske
7 Danica Patrick Andretti Green Racing
8 Will Power KV Racing Technology
9 Scott Dixon Target Chip Ganassi Racing
10 Dan Wheldon Target Chip Ganassi Racing
11 Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing
12 Tomas Scheckter Luczo Dragon Racing
14 Darren Manning A.J. Foyt Enterprises
15 Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
16 Alex Lloyd Rahal Letterman Racing
17 Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman Racing
18 Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne Racing
19 Mario Moraes Dale Coyne Racing
20 Ed Carpenter Vision Racing
21 TBA Playa Del Racing
22 TBA Vision Racing
23 Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
24 Jay Howard Roth Racing
25 Marty Roth Roth Racing
26 Marco Andretti Andretti Green Racing
27 Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green Racing
33 E.J. Viso HVM Racing
34 Franck Perera Conquest Racing
36 Enrique Bernoldi Conquest Racing
41 Larry Foyt A.J. Foyt Enterprises
44 Max Papis Sam Schmidt Motorsports
67 Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher Racing
77 TBA Team Penske
83 TBA Panther Racing
91 TBA Hemelgarn Johnson
98 TBA CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports
99 Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
02 Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
06 Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
TBA TBA PDM Racing

[Down F0rce]

39 enteries, great! Interesting that Penske have a third car listed with Sam Hornish's Sprint Cup number. Wonder who will be driving that one then?

[marcus]

Tony Stewart

good list with some TBA's on there , should make for a great month of May

[Alwaysfirst]

I must admit to being slightly disappointed. Whilst I can see that 39 entries is good I just felt that there was potential for so many more. Maybe the number of entries will increase in future years as more chassis & engines become available. I suppose I was just hoping for too much but I would have liked to see a second Playa Del entry, the rumored PCM entry for Dominguez & Walker manage to get enough money for an entry. I would have liked to see a few of the smaller teams such as Team Leader/Dollander & Chastain continue to enter cars & I would have like to see another Andretti/Green entry for Matos & even another KVR entry to give Vasser another try at the 500. Matos must be really regretting not taking that Conquest seat when he could as there is Perera driving around in a full season when he doesn't even get a shot at the 500. It may turn out to be a much better move in the long term but I can imagine that there is a bit of jealousy at the moment. I'm also a bit sad that drivers like Tagliani aren't on that list yet. I'm surprised that there are no Laziers or Unsers on there yet, though I can imagine that they may be added later. I'm also very surprised that Larry Foyt is in the second car rather than one of the more expected candidates for the drive.

Also, is the Sam Schmidt entry what was originally the Rubicon Racing entry under a different name or has that been cancelled without any comment & replaced with Schmidt, or was the Rubicon entry just the Schmidt entry wit a different name...or has Mad Max just switched teams?

[indycool]

Matos was fastest in the Indy Lights test today at the Speedway....shouldn't be too unhappy with one of the best teams in the business.

Larry Foyt surprised me, too, but he's managing the team and MAY have just put his name on there for a second driver for the moment.

Papis was named to that ride earlier, and the team is being run by Jim Freudenberg, who is back to a team deal after promoting races for CC.

There are a number guys I've heard who are hopeful for a ride and doing some talkin' -- the Laziers, Stephan Gregoire, Davey Hamilton, Richie Hearn, Jimmy Kite. Before the month of May is over, IMO, we'll see at least some of those.

[Alwaysfirst]

So that's 7 more drivers to come with the possibility of a few more getting added a bit late in the T cars once the main car is qualified.

21 Playa Del-Jacques Lazier or Al Unser III
22 Vision-Paul Tracy or Davey Hamilton
77 Penske-Sam Hornish Jr or Buddy Lazier or ?
83 Panther-John Andretti or CR Crews or Robert Doornbos or Davey Hamilton or PJ Chesson or ?
91 Hemelgarn-Richie Hearn or Phil Giebler or Buddy Lazier
98 Beck-Roger Yasukawa or Alex Barron or PJ Jones or ?
TBA PDM-Jimmie Kite or Cyndie Allemann or ?

It still isn't beyond the realms of fantasy that once both Ganassi's are qualified the spare car may be given to Dario Franchitti if he hasn't managed to get his automatic place on the NASCAR grid back. KVR may also put the spare out for Vasser if he wants to do it. Foyt often keeps a car back if they see a chance of getting it on the grid & it wouldn't surprise me to see a few more entries appear in the second week of May, or even on bump day.

[Down F0rce]

Not sure Ganassi would enter a third car. They did outsource some of thier staff and Alex Lloyd to Rahal Letterman after all.

This is Franchitti though - if he does fail to qualify for the 600, he could always hop on a plane and get to Indy in time for bump day. Ditto Sam Hornish, although Penske are maybe already thinking of running him...?

I wouldn'y worry about there being "only" 39 entiries. There will always be a few more as the month of May goes on.

[Pro Racer]

i was expecting a few more, no PT.

[Down F0rce]

Remember that there are still TBA drivers. I'll bet that PT will be in the Vision car unless something better comes along.

[indycool]

Under the circumstances, I don't think we'll see a third Vision car. TG would not want to bump someone out who is committed to running the series.

Beck and Yasukawa have already been announced for Motegi and Indy.

Last I heard a couple days ago, PDM didn't have anything going at this point, but they'll have Kite if they do.

Agree with DownForce.....farming out Lloyd to Rahal-Letterman, Ganassi's gonna stick to two.

[Mr Pink]

I don´t really know much about personalrelationships in american OW-racing but isn´t it a possibility that Tracy will drive the 77 Penske?

[indycool]

I suppose. They didn't part ways on very good terms before. But time changes things sometimes.

[courageous]

Don't get excited by the 3rd Penske - they always enter an extra car, then withdraw it (expect a couple of others to withdraw as well, but then a couple of T cars bought in to play, so overall number to stay about the same).

Interesting to see the Playa Del & PDM entries are both listed as Panoz chassis.

I do hope for a big name to appear in one of the TBA seats, but even Tracy is looking a bit of a long shot now.

Just glad to see the entry list isn't bulked out with the T cars this year (so we can avoid the annual arguement over whether it's 30 or 60 entries).

[indycool]

I imagine T cars are legally entered.....they just eliminated them to clean it up....maybe even so we can see the picture more clearly.

[Geva-Nelson]

all in all a good list. 40+ is pushing it because there probably arent enough chassis' out there. I'd say Alex Barron for Beck and Doornbos for Panther but that is just me hoping like hell!

[Alwaysfirst]

Chassis aren't really the problem from what has been said here & elsewhere. Engines seem more of a problem. Honda has kept up with demand but suddenly that demand has risen dramatically & they don't seem to have kept up.

[Knowlesy]

There is a rumour Sam Hornish may be entered in the third Penske and David Stremme take his place for the Coca Cola 600.

I'd be surprised at this.

[indycool]

Honda has certainly kept up so far.......first I've heard of any shortage there.

[Down F0rce]

Davey Hamilton is in for Kingdom Racing:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...0,351474.shtml

A South African driver called Tschops Sipuka passed his rookie test it seems, but will probably only be in the 100 mile Indy Lights race:
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=192357

[climb]

Originally Posted by indycool

I imagine T cars are legally entered.....they just eliminated them to clean it up....maybe even so we can see the picture more clearly.

I think so, and it's a good thing, after all who cares about T-cars at this stage?

I saw they're already 39, so we've got the bump day back