APRIL 14, 2005

Indianapolis hits 33 entries

There had been fears that the Indianapolis 500 this year would not have a full field of cars but the announcement that Champ Car team Newman Haas Racing will field two cars means that there are now 33 cars on the entry. The field includes only three previous winners: Helio Castroneves (2001 and 2002), Buddy Lazier (1996) and Buddy Rice (2004) and there are a total of eight rookies in the field, including Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Briscoe, Jeff Bucknum, Patrick Carpentier, Tomas Enge and Danica Patrick. The full entry is as follows: Tomas Enge, Tomas Scheckter, Buddy Lazier (Panther Racing); Helio Castroneves, Sam Hornish Jr (Team Penske), Adrian Fernandez (Mo Nunn Fernandez Racing), Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti (Andretti Green Racing), Scott Sharp, Kosuke Matsuura (Fernandez Racing), Scott Dixon, Darren Manning, Ryan Briscoe (Chip Ganassi Racing), AJ Foyt IV, Scott Mayer, Larry Foyt (AJ Foyt Enterprises), Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick, Vitor Meira (Rahal Letterman Racing), Ed Carpenter, Jeff Ward (Vision Racing), Jacques Lazier (Playa del Racing), Roger Yasukawa, Jeff Bucknum (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing), Marty Roth (Roth Racing), Bruno Junqueira, Sebastien Bourdais (Newman Haas Racing), Alex Barron, Patrick Carpentier (Cheever Racing), Richie Hearn (Sam Schmidt Motorsports), Paul Dana (Hemelgarn Racing) plus entries from PDM Racing and Beck Motorsports, which have yet to nominate drivers.