zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
The Indy 500 Might Have A Full 33-Car Field After All
The Indy 500 Might Have A Full 33-Car Field After All-February 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:04

Image for article titled The Indy 500 Might Have A Full 33-Car Field After All

The Indianapolis 500 traditionally runs a 33-car field with its eleven rows of three cars. The health of sport can often be intuited by the number of cars over the 33 car limit that have entered—but with the coronavirus pandemic not only rescheduling the race but also taking a financial toll on smaller teams, 33 cars actually sounded too ambitious for 2020.

Thankfully, the Ben Hanley and the No. 81 DragonSpeed Chevy has joined the field at the last minute, rounding out the grid with a solid 33.

reported on August 4 that several teams were aiming to negotiate deals to get their cars on the grid but were cutting it close to the start of practice, which begins on August 12. It’s unlikely that we’ll see any more cars added now that the we have a full 33; it was already pretty unlikely that we’d see an entry added this late in the game.

The No. 81 car was supposed to have made its debut already this year. DragonSpeed had entered the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg that ended up being cancelled due to COVID-19 right at the start of the race weekend. With so much uncertainty, the team tucked away its open-wheel program in favor of its more experienced sports car teams.

The DragonSpeed announcement comes just days after confirmed his entry with a multi-faceted partnership between Rick Ware Racing, David Byrd, Brian Belardi, and Dale Coyne Racing.

So far, the entry list is as follows:

No. 4 Charlie Kimball

No. 14 Tony Kanaan

No. 41 Dalton Kellett

No. 26 Zach Veach

No. 27 Alexander Rossi

No. 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay

No. 29 James Hinchcliffe

No. 88 Colton Herta

No. 98 Marco Andretti

No. 5 Patricio O’Ward

No. 7 Oliver Askew

No. 66 Fernando Alonso

No. 59 Max Chilton

No. 8 Marcus Ericsson

No. 9 Scott Dixon

No. 10 Felix Rosenqvist

No. 18 Santino Ferrucci

No. 51 James Davison

No. 55 Alex Palou

No. 81 Ben Hanley

No. 24 Sage Karam

No. 67 J.R. Hildebrand

No. 20 Ed Carpenter

No. 21 Rinus Veekay

No. 47 Conor Daly

No. 60 Jack Harvey

No. 15 Graham Rahal,

No. 30 Takuma Sato

No. 45 Spencer Pigot

No. 1 Josef Newgarden

No. 3 Helio Castroneves

No. 12 Will Power

No. 22 Simon Pagenaud

There are still technically a few possible entrants coming from Juncos or Top Gun Racing, but again, it seems highly unlikely that either team will secure the funding or have the time to get their programs off the ground.

It’ll also be important to keep watch over some of these smaller, last-minute entries and extra cars. While 33 cars means no one will be in qualifying, a nasty crash could leave underfunded teams scrambling to scrape together parts at the last minute, or an unproven car could simply prove to be too slow or dangerous to be worth the risk.

The Indy 500 airs on August 23 at 1pm ET on NBC.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Fox Sports Really Shouldn't Be Trusted To Broadcast Motorsports, Ever
Fox Sports Really Shouldn't Be Trusted To Broadcast Motorsports, Ever
Hey, guys, do you like watching motor racing? On TV? When the schedule says there's going to be motor racing? Too bad, there's college basketball or something else to show. . Fox Sports 2, the same network that cut to some no-name college football game right as things got interesting...
Feb 12, 2026
The Two Factory Porsche 911s Took Each Other Out At The Rolex 24
The Two Factory Porsche 911s Took Each Other Out At The Rolex 24
I seem to recall posting something about how the CORE Autosport/Porsche works team's 911 RSR drivers were at this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona. Well, they just took each other out. Driver Earl Bamber of the number 912 Porsche claims that the 007 Aston Martin of The Racer's Group was...
Feb 12, 2026
Bill Auberlen Lays The Verbal Smack Down On Nick Tandy After Accident
Bill Auberlen Lays The Verbal Smack Down On Nick Tandy After Accident
, driver of the #25 BMW Z4 GTE, let the nice folks on television know exactly what he thinks of #911 Porsche 911 RSR driver Nick Tandy. Tandy collided with Auberlen early in today's race, forcing the BMW to fall behind in order to make repairs to the car. Here's...
Feb 12, 2026
Shane Van Gisbergen's Car Goes Nuts At Night Time
Shane Van Gisbergen's Car Goes Nuts At Night Time
There is but one driver who can make the press room (well, the better chunk of the press room that follows V8 Supercars, anyway) giddy, and it's Shane van Gisbergen. Best of all, he'd like to come over to the United States to do more sportscar racing, and may do...
Feb 12, 2026
Rubbin's Racin' At Daytona, Even When It's Not NASCAR
Rubbin's Racin' At Daytona, Even When It's Not NASCAR
I'll give Nick Tandy one thing: he and the rest of the #911 Porsche crew are amusingly aggressive. Here's Tandy bump-drafting earlier in this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona. Tandy and fellow Brit Oliver Gavin were out on track at the same time. They're both friends. So, hey, why not...
Feb 12, 2026
Porsches + Coolant = Worst Idea Ever
Porsches + Coolant = Worst Idea Ever
That's not smoke. That's a busted radiator letting loose a cloud of radiator steam. The "Coffee Rocket" Porsche may be done, but hopefully they caught the leak before it did major damage. The number 80 GB Autosport Porsche 911 GT America has been running without a rear bumper for the...
Feb 12, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved