2012 Indianapolis 500 Entry List (as of May 11th)

Photo Credit: LAT

After four opening races for the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series, the illustrious 96th Indianapolis 500 will be the first oval event. The most sought-after single victory in open wheel and auto racing in general, making the traditional 33-car Indy 500 starting grid is the great race.

While much news has surrounded the 2012 Rolex 24 of Daytona winning team Michael Shank Racing attempt to field the 33rd entry, examination of the entry list for the 2012 Indianapolis 500 appears to indicate there is already 34 cars entered even before Pole Day and Bump Day qualifying sessions (where a lot of deals with unattached drivers and share cars come together). While Newman/Haas Racing withdrew an entry shortly after Lotus announced they were repositioning their resources in the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series, Michael Shank Racing was not included in the initial list published by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With a deadline imposed by team owner Michael Shank passing and the contractual release of driver Jay Howard, there is little-to-no chance of seeing plans coming to fruition.

Driver deals prior Townsend Bell has been announced as the driver of the #99 car for Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports. With Bell's appointment to the entry list for the Indianapolis 500, the only ride yet to receive a driver is the second car Ed Carpenter Racing will be fielding for the event. Michel Jourdain Jr is also making a return to open wheel competition in a second entry for Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing. The Andretti Autosport team will also support Conquest Racing and AFS Racing efforts for the Indy 500 "Month of May" festivities. Ana Beatriz, Bryan Clauson, Sebastian Saavedra and Jean Alesi are some of the other drivers not part of the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series regular roster entered in the 2012 Indianapolis 500.
Drivers have not been the ingredient in short supply for IZOD INDYCAR Series entrant in the 500-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Due to turmoil with Lotus, teams and cars have been requiring engines. For Dragon Racing (a team initially spared from Lotus' engine circulation costs announced ahead of the Brazilian street race), team owner Jay Penske has pressed his organization into a multi-million dollar lawsuit alleging representative of the British sports car name has been making false claims about the race team. Speculation indicate Chevrolet could power the Dragon Racing cars at Indy. As for two teams that Lotus had dropped in efforts of better focusing their engine development, Bryan Herta Autosport picked up Honda power while Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has appeared to reform a relationship with Chevrolet. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing last ran Chevrolet engines during the 2004 IndyCar season. According to May 11th's entry list, only the HVM Racing car driven by Simona de Silvestro and the #64 Lotus – FP Journe – Fan Force United (based off an Indy Lights organization) fielding former Formula 1 winner and Lotus brand ambassador Jean Alesi are set to run Lotus engines.    

As for one IZOD INDYCAR Series regular, Dario Franchitti will not be sporting has traditional #10 he had worn to three-consecutive championships the past three seasons and the 2010 INDY 500 race win. To commemorate Target Department Stores' 50th anniversary, Franchitti's Target/Chip Ganassi Racing entry will be wearing the #50 for only this race.



2012 IZOD INDYCAR
Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Entry List

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine Supplier
1	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
2	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
3	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
4	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
5	6	Katherine Legge	England	Lotus-Dragon Racing	TBD
6	7	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Lotus-Dragon Racing	TBD
7	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
8	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
9	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
10	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
11	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
12	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
13	17	Sebastian Saavedra	Columbia	AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
14	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
15	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
16	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
17	21	TBA	TBA	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
18	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
19	25	Ana Beatriz	Brazil	Andretti Autosport/Conquest Racing	Chevrolet
20	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
21	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
22	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
23	30	Michel Jourdain Jr	Mexico	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
24	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
25	39	Bryan Clauson	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
26	41	Wade Cunningham	New Zealand	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda
27	50	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
28	64	Jean Alesi	France	Lotus – FP Journe – Fan Force United	Lotus
29	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
30	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
31	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
32	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
33	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
34	99	Townsend Bell	United States	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda

2011 IZOD INDYCAR Driver Statistics After First 3 Races

Photo Credit: Dan Helrigel

As the 2011 IZOD INDYCAR Series completed with the running of the first 3 races, patterns for the new year is beginning to form. Examining some statistics during the rounds at St Petersburg, Barber and Long Beach sheds light on a very interesting IZOD INDYCAR Series season for 2011.

Below, I have collected some key numbers based largely on early calculations. Every driver who has competed so far in the 2011 IZOD INDYCAR Series.

2011 IZOD INDYCAR Points After 3 Races

122 Franchitti, Dario
115 Power, Will
87 Kanaan, Tony
80 Servia, Oriol
74 Conway, Mike
73 Tagliani, Alex
66 de Silvestro, Simona
66 Dixon, Scott
66 Briscoe, Ryan
64 Meira, Vitor
57 Patrick, Danica
57 Matos, Raphael
56 Sato, Takuma
56 Castroneves, Helio
54 Andretti, Marco
49 Hildebrand, JR
44 Hinchcliffe, James
44 Wilson, Justin
44 Kimball, Charlie
43 Saavedra, Sebastian
42 Rahal, Graham
40 Jakes, James
40 Hunter-Reay, Ryan
34 Bourdais, Sebastien
34 Viso, EJ
28 Beatriz, Ana
24 Pagenaud, Simon
14 Paul Tracy



Drivers Average Qualifying Position

Power, Will 1.00
Dixon, Scott 4.67
Franchitti, Dario 5.33
Wilson, Justin 5.33
Castroneves, Helio 6.33
Briscoe, Ryan 6.33
Conway, Mike 7.67
Servia, Oriol 8.33
Hinchcliffe, James 9.50
Andretti, Marco 10.00
Tagliani, Alex 10.33
Hunter-Reay, Ryan 11.00
Rahal, Graham 12.67
Kanaan, Tony 14.00
Sato, Takuma 14.67
Meira, Vitor 15.00
de Silvestro, Simona 16.00
Matos, Raphael 16.33
Viso, EJ 18.67
Bourdais, Sebastien 19.67
Patrick, Danica 20.33
Saavedra, Sebastian 21.67
Hildebrand, JR 22.33
Kimball, Charlie 22.67
Pagenaud, Simon 23.00
Jakes, James 23.33
Beatriz, Ana 23.50
Paul Tracy 25.00



Drivers Average Finishes After 3 Races

Franchitti, Dario 2.33
Power, Will 4.33
Kanaan, Tony 5.67
Servia, Oriol 6.67
Pagenaud, Simon 8
Tagliani, Alex 8.67
Meira, Vitor 9.67
de Silvestro, Simona 11
Patrick, Danica 12
Dixon, Scott 12
Matos, Raphael 12.67
Castroneves, Helio 13
Hildebrand, JR 13.67
Briscoe, Ryan 13.67
Sato, Takuma 14
Hinchcliffe, James 14
Conway, Mike 15.33
Paul Tracy 16
Rahal, Graham 16
Beatriz, Ana 16.5
Wilson, Justin 17
Saavedra, Sebastian 17.67
Andretti, Marco 18
Jakes, James 18.33
Kimball, Charlie 18.67
Hunter-Reay, Ryan 19.33
Bourdais, Sebastien 21
Viso, EJ 22.33



Drivers Percentage of Laps Completed in 2011
(Reflects only the percentage of races a driver has run.)
Tagliani, Alex 100.00
Servia, Oriol 100.00
Power, Will 100.00
Paul Tracy 100.00
Pagenaud, Simon 100.00
Meira, Vitor 100.00
Kanaan, Tony 100.00
Hildebrand, JR 100.00
Franchitti, Dario 100.00
Patrick, Danica 99.64
de Silvestro, Simona 98.91
Sato, Takuma 98.55
Dixon, Scott 98.18
Beatriz, Ana 97.84
Rahal, Graham 97.82
Castroneves, Helio 94.55
Matos, Raphael 89.82
Wilson, Justin 87.27
Briscoe, Ryan 86.18
Hunter-Reay, Ryan 80.00
Jakes, James 77.09
Saavedra, Sebastian 76.36
Hinchcliffe, James 71.43
Kimball, Charlie 70.55
Viso, EJ 70.18
Conway, Mike 47.64
Andretti, Marco 46.18
Bourdais, Sebastien 42.55

Preliminary Set-up for 2011 IZOD IndyCar Grid (as of January 3rd)



Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/XSL Speed Reporter


As of the beginning of January 2011, it appears 20 IZOD IndyCar Series rides are assembling what could be a 27-30 race car grid for the upcoming 2011 series.

Prior to the new year, a multitude of changes were seen for the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series lineup (a major change from previous years where even major team/driver combinations were left decided within a month or even weeks prior to the season opening race). Added to the grid in December was the two-car team of Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing with an assured commitment to the full schedule. Just before Christmas, former Andretti Autosport veteran Tony Kanaan has signed to drive the de Ferran/Dragon Racing ride for 2011.

While a fair share of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series has formulated, several rides and drivers are still left unsettled. Similar to last year, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has left to declare their team lineup. While signs indicate Hideki Mutoh is not returning to the team, Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing is actively testing Canadian Firestone Indy Lights standout James Hinchcliffe and veteran open wheel driver Oriol Servia for either one ride or possibly two rides.

The following list is the possible make-up for how the upcoming IZOD IndyCar Series season set to open in St Petersburg late March:


Car # | Team | Driver

#02 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing ??? (Tested James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia in December)
#06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing ??? (Tested James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia in December)#2 de Ferran/Dragon Racing  Tony Kanaan

#3 Penske Racing Helio Castroneves
#4 Panther Racing J.R. Hildebrand
#5 KV Racing Takuma Sato
#6 Penske Racing Ryan Briscoe
#7 Andretti Autosport Danica Patrick
#8 KV Racing EJ Viso
#9 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon
#10 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Dario Franchitti
#11 Andretti Autosport  ???
#12 Penske Racing Will Power
#14 AJ Foyt Racing Vitor Meira
#18 Dale Coyne Racing ??? (Milka Duno may return)
#19 Dale Coyne Racing ??? (Alex Lloyd may return)
#22 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing Justin Wilson
#24 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing Mike Conway
#26 Andretti Autosport Marco Andretti
#32 KV Racing ??? (Mario Moraes may return)
#34 Conquest Racing Bertrand Baguette
#36 Conquest Racing ???
#37 Andretti Autosport Ryan Hunter-Reay
#38 Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing Graham Rahal
#67 Sarah Fisher Racing Ed Carpenter (team to run 9 events for 2011)
#77 FAZZT Race Team Alex Tagliani
#78 HVM Racing Simona de Silvestro
#83 Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing Charlie Kimball

Noteworthy Unattached Drivers

Ana Beatriz
Raphael Matos
Mario Romancini
Sebastian Saavedra
Paul Tracy
Dan Wheldon