40 Entries for the Indy 500

[cosworth151]

There are 40 entries for the 33 starting slots at this year's Indy 500. This includes 4 former winners (Castroneves, Dixon, Franchitti, Wheldon) 4 women (Fisher, Duno, De Silvestro, Patrick) and 2 former F1 drivers (Sato, Wilson)

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/images/news/2010/IMS_Entry_List_4_21_2010.pdf

[Jericoke]

That's good.  I know the last few years they've been really scraping to get to 33. 

Didn't Mario Andretti attempt qualifying a couple years ago?  (Nothing against Mario, but it doesn't speak well when one of your series' driver's grandfather is racing.  Aw, hell, I'd like to see him out there again.)

[cosworth151]

Mario was testing at Indy back in 03. He had a bad shunt.



He also ran an LMP car for Don Panoz at Le Mans a few years ago. It's the only major race he never won.

[Scott]

There are 40 entries for the 33 starting slots at this year's Indy 500. This includes 4 former winners (Castroneves, Dixon, Franchitti, Wheldon) 4 women (Fisher, Duno, De Silvestro, Patrick) and 2 former F1 drivers (Sato, Wilson)

I would have thought someone would lure Montoya and JV for one-off's.  They both have a ton of oval experience from CART.  Good for advertising also.

[Jericoke]

There are 40 entries for the 33 starting slots at this year's Indy 500. This includes 4 former winners (Castroneves, Dixon, Franchitti, Wheldon) 4 women (Fisher, Duno, De Silvestro, Patrick) and 2 former F1 drivers (Sato, Wilson)

I would have thought someone would lure Montoya and JV for one-off's.  They both have a ton of oval experience from CART.  Good for advertising also.

NASCAR schedles the Coca Cola 600 against the Indy 500 (You do 500 miles?  Well we'll do 600 miles!).  In the past drivers, notably Jeff Andretti, have raced both, but this year the 600 starts earlier, so there's no time to do both.  That would rule out Montoya.

I'm not sure why Jacques isn't there.  He's the last champ from before the split, so in my eyes the last 'real' champ.  He might feel that IRL is a step down for an F1 champ.  He might have burned bridges (Engine supplier = Honda.  Oops.  BAR tried to get him into CART for Players Cigarettes last year there, so maybe he's earned a difficulte reputation.) 

Or maybe he's just resting on his giant pile of money thankful he's not in a Stefan GP being passed by Kovaleinen.

[cosworth151]

Robbie Gordon and Tony Stewart have also done both Indy & Charlotte on the same day.

There are still 6 cars with no driver listed, so JV might still make it back to Indy.

[Ian]

Wow Cos, it certainly was'nt Mario's time to go was it, one helluva crash.

[Jericoke]

Robbie Gordon and Tony Stewart have also done both Indy & Charlotte on the same day.

There are still 6 cars with no driver listed, so JV might still make it back to Indy.

That's one thing I love about Indy, it's about the car, not the driver!

[lkjohnson1950]

Some of these entries are cars that haven't turned a wheel since they tried to qualify last year. The winner will be in a Penske, Ganassi, or Andretti prepped car, with the first 2 the likeliest. Patrick is the only woman with a car that might possibly be good enough to win. Unfortunately. As long as it's a Spec series, there won't be any surprises unless a freak accident takes out the front of the field.

Lonny

[Dare]

Some of these entries are cars that haven't turned a wheel since they tried to qualify last year. The winner will be in a Penske, Ganassi, or Andretti prepped car, with the first 2 the likeliest. Patrick is the only woman with a car that might possibly be good enough to win. Unfortunately. As long as it's a Spec series, there won't be any surprises unless a freak accident takes out the front of the field.

Lonny

In the good ol days the best cars had the best chance to
win but unreliability caused some surprise finishes