IndyCar has confirmed 35 entries have been accepted for this year’s Indianapolis 500, meaning two drivers will not qualify for the 33-car field.
Nine former winners will contest this month’s event including Juan Pablo Montoya, who is returning to the Brickyard for the first time since 2017, with McLaren SP.Three rookies – Scott McLaughlin, Pietro Fittipaldi and RC Enerson – will attempt to compete in the race for the first time. Romain Grosjean, who joined the IndyCar series from Formula 1 this year, is not taking part as he is only racing in the road and street course rounds. Fittipaldi will drive his car, as he did in Texas.
Ed Carpenter Racing revealed a new sponsor for Rinus Veekay’s car at this year’s race. Cryptocurrency Bitcoin will brand his car and their logos will also appear on the team’s other entries for Conor Daly and Carpenter himself.
Carpenter said the partnership, through Bitcoin payment handling service Strike, was personally important to him, “To bring my personal interest and immersion in Bitcoin to our industry is historic. Just as Bitcoin is revolutionising our financial system, I see it as an opportunity to transform how we operate within our own motorsport industry.”
The Bitcoin car will be supported by donations handled through Strike, using a non-fungible token (NFT). In a release today, Ed Carpenter racing said that “a unique QR code enables the world’s first peer-to-car contribution model, allowing anyone in the world to donate.”
Bitcoin will not just be used to sponsor the car but be made available as a form of payment to all employees, as an alternative to US dollars, for the event. However there have been strong environmental criticisms of Bitcoin, with each coin of the cryptocurrency taking around 72 terawatts of electricity to mine.
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2021 Indianapolis 500 entry list
| Number | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JR Hildebrand | Foyt |
| 2 | Dalton Kellett | Foyt |
| 3 | Pato O’Ward | Foyt |
| 4 | Josef Newgarden | Penske |
| 5 | Scott McLaughlin | Penske |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | Ganassi |
| 7 | Scott Dixon | Ganassi |
| 8 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer-Shank |
| 9 | Felix Rosenqvist | McLaren SP |
| 10 | Will Power | Penske |
| 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | Foyt |
| 12 | Alex Palou | Ganassi |
| 13 | Charlie Kimball | Foyt |
| 14 | Ed Jones | Coyne |
| 15 | Ed Carpenter | Carpenter |
| 16 | Graham Rahal | RLL |
| 17 | Simona De | Paretta |
| 18 | Sage Karam | Dreyer and Reinbold |
| 19 | Stefan Wilson | Andretti |
| 20 | Rinus VeeKay | Carpenter |
| 21 | Simon Pagenaud | Penske |
| 22 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti |
| 23 | James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Steinbrenner |
| 24 | Colton Herta | Andretti |
| 25 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti |
| 26 | Conor Daly | Carpenter |
| 27 | Tony Kanaan | Ganassi |
| 28 | Takuma Sato | RLL |
| 29 | Santino Ferrucci | RLL |
| 30 | Max Chilton | Carlin |
| 31 | Jack Harvey | Meyer |
| 32 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Coyne/Rick Ware |
| 33 | RC Enerson | Top Gun |
| 34 | Juan Pablo | McLaren SP |
| 35 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta-Haupert |
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IndyCar
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- Motorsport Games suspends work on official IndyCar title
- Grosjean joins Juncos to remain on IndyCar grid for 2024
- Pourchaire considering IndyCar and Super Formula as F1 hopes fade
- Ilott confirms split from Juncos Hollinger
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
12th May 2021, 21:52
I hit buzzword Bingo twice reading through this rather short piece.
Also, don’t you just love how this supposed sponsorship combines contributions (“Give me money, please”) and NFTs (“If you give me money, I’ll put something on a blockchain somewhere, for whatever good that’ll do you.”) for maximum value transfer and minimum deliverables to the people footing the bill?
ColdFly (@)
13th May 2021, 7:26
Add Bitcoin and NFT and get some free press. And it will probably see Strike decals rather the Bitcoin logos anyway.
Other cars have been sponsored by banks in a certain currency with fans able to contribute directly and put their name on the car.
@proesterchen
Nothing really novel here.
I’m still waiting for a QAn0n sponsored car with Ponzi scheme funding and staff being paid pizza.
ColdFly (@)
13th May 2021, 7:28
A bit scary that this site does not allow comments mentioning QAn0n (if spelled correctly).
What’s next? Not able to mention Streisand?
anon
13th May 2021, 8:31
@coldfly you have to bear in mind that there are individuals within that organisation who have been found recruiting individuals for extreme right wing terrorist organisations in Europe, and at least one affiliated organisation in the UK has become a proscribed organisation in the UK because it was caught planning a terrorist attack.
ColdFly (@)
13th May 2021, 9:37
I understand that, @anon.
But I trust that we are equipped with enough fact knowledge and wit to ‘argue’ with the weirdos (do it every day here).
I don’t like cens0rship, even if it seems to be for a noble cause.
RandomMallard (@)
13th May 2021, 16:54
I think Santino Ferrucci trying to run a MAGA livery in F2 in 2018 is probably the closest we’ve got so far @coldfly. The FIA denied it as they didn’t want any cars to be running extremely political messaging (especially in Europe, where running essentially a massive advert for Trump would not have gone down very well considering differing political viewpoints and political advertising policies)
Biggles209 (@biggles209)
12th May 2021, 23:48
The terawatt is a unit of power. If you are talking about the the production of a single Bitcoin, the measurement should be energy, not power – probably terawatt-hour
RandomMallard (@)
13th May 2021, 6:54
Well knowing how volatile and unregulated the market is, I would not be surprised if Bitcoin crashes before the Indy 500 in a few weeks time. And not just the car crashing
RandomMallard (@)
13th May 2021, 6:55
Sorry meant as an original post not a reply
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
13th May 2021, 9:11
@biggles209 exactly, and the number isn’t right either. According to Cambridge researchers it consumes more than 120 terawatts-hour a year
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
12th May 2021, 23:58
Here you go, I found it: “Silvestro”
Luke H
13th May 2021, 8:45
Is the entry list correct? O’Ward is listed under Foyt?
barkun (@barkun)
13th May 2021, 9:38
yeah.. was thinking the same thing
Danny
13th May 2021, 13:36
Also, Veekay drives the 21 car but is number 20 on the list of entries.
falken (@falken)
13th May 2021, 9:18
When’s this on TV?
Don
13th May 2021, 14:53
Indy GP (road course) this Saturday, Indy 500 (the biggest race in the world) May 30th.
Asanator (@asanator)
14th May 2021, 9:59
By what metric?
Qeki (@qeki)
13th May 2021, 22:02
I was going to ask that same thing
Silfen (@silfen)
13th May 2021, 13:24
Still waiting for Cody Ware to be confirmed for Dale Coyne as he passed his Rookie Orientation test last month.
Christopher Kyriazis (@ckyriazis2006)
14th May 2021, 1:51
Due to lack of sponsorship the #52 of Cody Ware is not entered.
Christopher Kyriazis (@ckyriazis2006)
14th May 2021, 3:38
Better Indianapolis 500 Entry List
#1-J.R. Hildebrand (Foyt)
#2-Josef Newgarden (Penske)
#3-Scott McLaughlin (Penske)
#4-Dalton Kellett (Foyt)
#5-Patricio O’Ward (SPAM)
#06-Hélio Castroneves (MSR)
#7-Felix Rosenqvist (SPAM)
#8-Marcus Ericsson (CGR)
#9-Scott Dixon (CGR)
#10-Álex Palou (CGR)
#11-Charlie Kimball (Foyt)
#12-Will Power (Penske)
#14-Sébastien Bourdais (Foyt)
#15-Graham Rahal (RLLR)
#16-Simona de Silvestro (Paretta)
#18-Ed Jones (DCR with VS)
#20-Ed Carpenter (ECR)
#21-Rinus VeeKay (ECR)
#22-Simon Pagenaud (Penske)
#24-Sage Karam (DRR)
#25-Stefan Wilson (Andretti)
#26-Colton Herta (Andretti)
#27-Alexander Rossi (Andretti)
#28-Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti)
#29-James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Steinbrenner)
#30-Takuma Sato (RLLR)
#45-Santino Ferrucci (RLLR)
#47-Conor Daly (ECR)
#48-Tony Kanaan (CGR)
#51-Pietro Fittipaldi (DCR with RWR)
#59-Max Chilton (Carlin)
#60-Jack Harvey (MSR)
#75-R.C. Enerson (TGR)
#86-Juan Pablo Montoya (SPAM)
#98-Marco Andretti (AH-HA with MA & C-A)