Rumor: Penske may have to open his wallet if he wants 33 cars in 500

Reaching the traditional 33-car grid number for this year’s Indy 500 may require that IMS and NTT IndyCar Series owner Roger Penske open his wallet and pay a team to run an extra car.

A survey by David Malsher of Autosport at this weekend’s Long Beach race revealed that no teams plan to enter any additional cars, and right now, the count is stuck at 32 cars with May approaching quickly.

For years, the Hulman George family had to pay teams to run extra cars just to fill the 33 car field.

Current 32 Indy 500 Car Count

AJ Foyt Racing 3 Cars (Chevrolet)

4 – Dalton Kellett
11 – JR Hildebrand
14 – Kyle Kirkwood

Andretti Autosport 5 Cars (Honda)

26 – Colton Herta
27 – Alexander Rossi
28 – Romain Grosjean
29 – Devlin DeFrancesco
98 – Marco Andretti

Arrow McLaren SP 3 Cars (Chevrolet)

5 – Patricio O’Ward
6 – Juan Pablo Montoya
7 – Felix Rosenqvist

Chip Ganassi Racing 5 Cars (Honda)

8 – Marcus Ericsson
9 – Scott Dixon
10 – Alex Palou
48 – Jimmie Johnson
TBC – Tony Kanaan

Dale Coyne Racing 2 Cars (Honda)

18 – David Malukas
51 – Takuma Sato

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 2 Cars (Chevrolet)

23 – Santino Ferrucci
24 – Sage Karam

Ed Carpenter Racing 3 Cars (Chevrolet)

20 – Conor Daly
21 – Rinus VeeKay
33 – Ed Carpenter

Juncos Hollinger 1 Car (Chevrolet)

77 – Callum Ilott

Meyer Shank Racing 2 Cars (Honda)

06 – Helio Castroneves
60 – Simon Pagenaud

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 3 Cars (Honda)

15 – Graham Rahal
30 – Christian Lundgaard
45 – Jack Harvey

Team Penske  3 Cars (Chevrolet)

2 – Josef Newgarden
3 – Scott McLaughlin
12 – Will Power

Mark C. reporting for AutoRacing1.com