Of course the Indy 500 will have 33 starters

A reader asks, Dear AR1.com, With MSR now out of the Indy 500 that only leaves 32 drivers to qualify for the Indy 500. This is progress? A short Indy 500 field? Dave Beamer

Dear Dave, Don't believe all those stories you read, journalists are just writing to fill dead space before the 500. Of course there will be 33 cars starting the Indy 500. There are plenty of teams that have backup cars and rest assured come bump day some team owners will put a driver in the car and qualify. Even last place in the Indy 500 is not a bad payday. Everyone wishes we could return to the heyday of CART when Bump Day really meant something and 200,000 showed up for pole day qualifying, but Tony George thought he had a better idea, destroyed it all, so we must make do with what we have. The series is on a slow upswing so that is a positive sign. Mark C.