IMS confirms 36 entries for 103rd Indy 500

In last week’s testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ran Oriol Servia in the #77 entry, but the Catalan, who has 10 previous Indy 500 starts to his name –including one with SPM – has not yet been confirmed.

The other car with no confirmed driver is the lone Juncos Racing-Chevrolet which last year provided 2017 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kaiser with his Indy 500 debut. The American will be sharing the Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R with Will Owen in this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Mid-Ohio, and has made the squad’s only start in the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series so far, at the Circuit of The Americas.

The list, which contains 18 Chevrolets and 18 Hondas, includes seven previous winners – Helio Castroneves (three-time winner), along with Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato and Will Power.

There are also seven rookies, including 2019 IndyCar full-timers Marcus Ericsson, Santino Ferrucci, Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist along with new part-timers Patricio O’Ward and Ben Hanley. Meanwhile Jordan King, who last year competed for Ed Carpenter Racing on IndyCar’s road and street courses, will make his oval racing debut in a third Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry.

The 36-car entry list also contains for the second time Fernando Alonso, now in an official McLaren Racing entry. Since he made his Indy debut in 2017, the two-time F1 champion and two-time Monaco GP winner has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and is thus aiming to become only the second driver in history to earn motorsport’s unofficial ‘Triple Crown’ by clinching an Indy 500 victory.

Crown Royal Armed Forces Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19. Thirty cars will earn a spot in the starting field Saturday. The top nine starting positions and positions 31 through 33 will be determined Sunday during the Fast Nine Shootout and Last Row Shootout, both of which will air on NBC.

(W) - Indianapolis 500 winner
(R) - Indy 500 Rookie of the Year candidate