IndyCar has confirmed a total of 36 entries for this year’s edition of the Indianapolis 500. The drivers for all bar two of the cars have been revealed.
As only 33 cars will start the race, three drivers will face elimination in the qualifying session one week before the 103rd running of IndyCar’s most famous race.Among this year’s entrants are Fernando Alonso, who is making his second attempt to win the race in a McLaren-entered car powered by Chevrolet. McLaren has won the Indy 500 on three previous occasions, once as a customer and twice as a constructor, between 1972 and 1976.
Alonso is seeking to become the second driver after Graham Hill to completed a ‘triple crown’ of motor racing successes in the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500.
Among his competitors are seven past winners of the race. They include series regulars Scott Dixon, Will Power, Tony Kanaan, Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato. They will be joined by three-times winner Helio Castroneves, who is aiming to tie the record for most wins in the race held by four-times winners AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears.
Former Sauber Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson will make his debut in the event, as will Formula 2 driver Jordan King, Felix Rosenqvist, Patricio O’Ward, Ben Hanley and Colton Herta. The occupant of the third Schmidt-Peterson entry and sole Juncos car are yet to be confirmed.
Both of the drivers who entered last year’s race but failed to qualify, James Hinchcliffe and Pippa Mann, will return for another attempt.
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2019 Indianapolis 500 entry list
| Car number | Driver | Team | Engine |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Josef Newgarden | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 3 | Helio Castroneves | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 4 | Matheus Leist | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson | Honda |
| 7 | Marcus Ericsson | Schmidt Peterson | Honda |
| 9 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi | Honda |
| 10 | Felix Rosenqvist | Ganassi | Honda |
| 12 | Will Power | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 14 | Tony Kanaan | Foyt | Chevrolet |
| 15 | Graham Rahal | RLL | Honda |
| 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | Coyne with Vasser-Sullivan | Honda |
| 19 | Santino Ferrucci | Coyne | Honda |
| 20 | Ed Carpenter | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 21 | Spencer Pigot | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Penske | Chevrolet |
| 23 | Charlie Kimball | Carlin | Chevrolet |
| 24 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold | Chevrolet |
| 25 | Conor Daly | Andretti | Honda |
| 26 | Zach Veach | Andretti | Honda |
| 27 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti | Honda |
| 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti | Honda |
| 30 | Takuma Sato | RLL | Honda |
| 31 | Patricio O’Ward | Carlin | Chevrolet |
| 32 | TBA | Juncos | Chevrolet |
| 33 | James Davison | Coyne with Byrd and Belardi | Honda |
| 39 | Pippa Mann | Clauson-Marshall | Chevrolet |
| 42 | Jordan King | RLL | Honda |
| 48 | JR Hildebrand | Dreyer & Reinbold | Chevrolet |
| 59 | Max Chilton | Carlin | Chevrolet |
| 60 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank | Honda |
| 63 | Ed Jones | Carpenter | Chevrolet |
| 66 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | Chevrolet |
| 77 | TBA | Schmidt Peterson | Honda |
| 81 | Ben Hanley | DragonSpeed | Chevrolet |
| 88 | Colton Herta | Harding Steinbrenner | Honda |
| 98 | Marco Andretti | Andretti-Herta | Honda |
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Mike Davies (@nanotech)
2nd May 2019, 0:19
Adding another entry to the mix is one way for SP to avoid last year’s mishap :(
Forrest (@forrest)
2nd May 2019, 2:16
Unless their plans have changed the third Arrow SPM car(#77) will be driven by Oriol Servià. He was at the recent Indy oval test in SPM coveralls, and one of the car had his name on it.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
2nd May 2019, 0:21
Trying to imagine what a 36 car F1 grid would like on the same weekend as the Indy 500. But can’t. Monaco is too small.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
2nd May 2019, 0:53
When there are enough cars entered bump day is the most tension filled, exciting & heartbreaking day of the year.
It’s a shame that many of the changes over the past 10-15 years or so have kinda neutered it a bit. When things were more open 20-25 years ago watching struggling teams pull out different combinations of chassis/engine/tyre trying to find something that worked & watching teams get hold of some combination the day before or something & throwing a driver who was wondering around the place looking for a drive into the car & just seeing what they could do really added to it.
It’s all so much more limited now with the spec chassis, compressed schedule & things like the top 9 shootout taking an hour off the end of qualifying with everyone able to do multiple runs in the same car. A lot of the tension & surprises have sadly been lost.
CC
2nd May 2019, 7:20
Fernando Alonso, car number 66. Not quite the mark of the beast.
Magnus Rubensson (@)
2nd May 2019, 9:54
Is it possible to watch any Indy live streams from Europe/UK?
Testing etc…?
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
2nd May 2019, 10:25
Testing was livestreamed by Indy on YouTube in 2017, I think at one stage they had over 5 million viewers watching Fred hammer it round the brickyard. Hopefully it will be the same this time round.
Quali and the race are behind the Sky Sports paywall, in the UK at least. A NowTV day or week pass would be the cheapest way to access this content legitimately
Hugh (@hugh11)
2nd May 2019, 14:34
Would definitely be worth getting a NowTV pass for Indy + Monaco imo, unless you’re used to illegitimate streaming.
Magnus Rubensson (@)
2nd May 2019, 15:54
I would like a legit stream so I’ll check out NowTV – thank you very much!
Yes, the 2017 Youtube streaming was great, I saw a lot of the testing that year. The YT stream provided a feeling of “almost being there”. I do hope they will stream again this year.
I would be perfectly happy to pay specifically for Indy (including the practice/testing/quali) but I do not see why this should require a Sky subscription and paying for a lot of other things that I neither need nor want … so I will pass on Sky as a matter of principle.
NowTV and a pass for Indy+Monaco sounds like the best option. :)
schooner (@schooner)
2nd May 2019, 14:28
I’m having some doubts that Alonso will be able to run as strongly this time as he did a couple years ago. Granted his engine did expire, but until that point he was definitely looking good for a high finish, possibly even the win. For that attempt, McLaren was partnered with the Andretti racing team…vast Indycar experience, and 5 wins at the 500. For this year’s attempt they have partnered with Carlin Racing…a large and successful racing team, but very little experience with Indycar and the Indy 500. Modern history shows that it is quite uncommon for a driver outside of the big established teams to win the big one. Since 2000, all but 3 winners have come from either Penske, Andretti or Ganassi. If Carlin along with Alonso can slay the giants it will be a HUGE story. At the very least it should be interesting to follow and watch.
Hugh (@hugh11)
2nd May 2019, 15:00
Interesting stat. I’d have thought that due to the layout of the track, it would be the other way round, with the drivers making more of a difference than the teams they drive for. Of course, I suppose that the better drivers to tend to be with those teams, but still, 3/18 isn’t as many as I’d have expected
Scott (@scott6428)
2nd May 2019, 16:46
I think the the 500 being a month long event there’s alot of engineering that go into setups etc and that favours the big teams which also have several cars and more data.
Mike
4th May 2019, 13:39
No chance for McLaren – good chance they will not make the field.
Not committed enough – needed one of the major teams to help and they weren’t interested or Zak was too proud.
Already had issues costing Alonso valuable seat time for feedback.
Zak blew this one – Alonso is a sacrificial lamb.
A “yoke” indeed.