33 entries confirmed for Indy 500
Verizon IndyCar Series newcomer Juncos Racing is expected to announce Sebastian Saavedra and Spencer Pigot as the drivers for its Indianapolis 500 debut. With the two Chevy-powered Juncos cars in place, the 31st and 32nd entries have been filled.
RACER has also received assurances that Buddy Lazier and his Lazier Partners Racing team, which faced larger financial obstacles than usual entering the month of May, will receive the necessary funding to complete the field of 33 with its Chevy-powered entry.
A five-time starter at Indianapolis, Saavedra will bring his experience to a joint entry formed by his longtime backer Gary Peterson of AFS Racing and Ricardo Juncos. Pigot, who won two Mazda Road to Indy championships with Juncos before graduating to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2016, will be reunited with the Argentinian team owner.
An Indy 500 rookie in 2016, Pigot will briefly move from Ed Carpenter Racing, where he races the No. 20 Chevy on road and street courses, to join Juncos and complete its roster.
Calls to Juncos and Peterson were not immediately returned.
Former members of the KV Racing team, which sold the Indy cars and equipment to Juncos, will form some of the management and staffing solutions, and a number of veteran race engineers, including Tom Brown, David Cripps and Steve Newey, have been mentioned as options.
Saavedra's association with Peterson dates back to 2009 when the young Colombian drove an AFS-sponsored Indy Lights entry for Andretti Green Racing. His most recent IndyCar exploits came with five races in 2015 when Chip Ganassi Racing was hired to look after Peterson's Dallara DW12-Chevy chassis. Since then, the 26-year-old has tried Global Rallycross and IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship while plotting AFS Racing's next move.
Pigot distinguished himself as a young American open-wheeler on the rise after earning the 2014 Pro Mazda and 2015 Indy Lights championships before making the leap to IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. A mid-season move to ECR gave the California-born, Florida-raised Pigot a chance to continue his growth, and with the strong road racing pace he's shown this year, a chance to gain more IndyCar oval experience with Juncos can only advance his aspirations to become a full-time driver in the series.
In addition to his new collaboration with Juncos at Indianapolis, Peterson has been actively pursuing a partner team to field an LMP2 effort in IMSA's WeatherTech Championship Prototype class. Multiple sports car team owners have received inquiries from Peterson, and with the recent Juncos union in mind, it's possible the two could explore a continuation of the Juncos-AFS Racing program outside of IndyCar.
Although it would be a welcome surprise, there are no known plans at this time for a team to campaign a 34th entry, which would create bumping during time trials. Practice for the 101st Indy 500 and its 33 entries begins on Monday, May 15.
2017 INDIANAPOLIS 500 PREDICTED ENTRY LIST
AJ FOYT RACING (Chevrolet)
No.4 Conor Daly
No.14 Carlos Munoz
No.40 Zach Veach
ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT (Honda)
No.26 Takuma Sato
No.27 Marco Andretti
No.28 Ryan Hunter-Reay
No.29 Fernando Alonso (with McLaren Honda)
No.50 Jack Harvey (with Michael Shank Racing)
No.98 Alexander Rossi (with Curb Agajanian)
CHIP GANASSI RACING (Honda)
No.8 Max Chilton
No.9 Scott Dixon
No.10 Tony Kanaan
No.83. Charlie Kimball
DALE COYNE RACING (Honda)
No.18 Sebastien Bourdais
No.19 Ed Jones
No.63 Pippa Mann
DREYER & REINBOLD (Chevrolet)
No.24 Sage Karam
ED CARPENTER RACING (Chevrolet)
No.20 Ed Carpenter
No.21 JR Hildebrand
HARDING RACING (Chevrolet)
No.88 Gabby Chaves
JUNCOS RACING (Chevrolet)
(TBA) Spencer Pigot
(TBA) Sebastian Saavedra
LAZIER PARTNERS RACING (Chevrolet)
(TBA) Buddy Lazier
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN (Honda)
No.15 Graham Rahal
No.16 Oriol Servia
SCHMIDT PETERSON MOTORSPORTS (Honda)
No.5 James Hinchcliffe
No.7 Mikhail Aleshin
No.77 Jay Howard
TEAM PENSKE (Chevrolet)
No.1 Simon Pagenaud
No.2 Josef Newgarden
No.3 Helio Castroneves
No.12 Will Power
No.22 Juan Pablo Montoya
