It was less than two weeks ago that we got the thirty-third entry confirmed for this year’s Indianapolis 500. For the past few years, we generally have either the required thirty-three or an extra car to mandate bumping for one car. While it’s much more dramatic and entertaining than qualifying thirty-three cars, it still makes Bump Day feel like a former shell of itself.
This isn’t the usual rant from an old-timer yearning for the old days of the 70s, 80s and 90s. I know how we got here, and I understand it. It’s all about the current manufacturer agreements and money. Instead, I’m looking to open up a discussion for a possible solution.
I’m not sure it’s as easy and the series landing that always-elusive third engine manufacturer. If I’m not mistaken, the current agreement is that Honda and Chevy have agreed to be able to support half the field, up to thirty-six entries (I could be wrong on the second part). This year, Chevy is carrying the heavy burden of fielding eighteen cars, while Honda will have fifteen.
I don’t know of many fans that are in favor of engine leases, but I do see how they are essential to the series. For whatever the cost of a lease is, teams get engines along with support from the manufacturers. The engines are supposed to be as equal as possible. I think that goal is achieved, because if any one team got favorable treatment from a manufacturer – we would all hear about it. Twenty years ago, there were “factory” teams. Team Penske was a factory team for Chevy and Andretti-Green racing was the factory team for Honda. Being a factory team meant that you got all of the latest parts and equipment. That didn’t always mean the best, because some of the improvements turned out to be inferior.
Thirty years ago, Penske was the Mercedes factory team, Newman/Haas was the Ford team, Ganassi was the Honda team, while Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers was the Toyota Team.
Before we go any further, what I describe here is more of a hypothetical wish that I know won’t happen. I say that before someone reads what I say and stops halfway to write out what an idiot I am in the comment section. Just hear me out while I dream of what I’d like to see.now, continue reading.
But from 1982 up until the second year of The Split in 1997, there was another engine made available for the Indianapolis 500 – the Buick, which later evolved into the Menard. While all of the engines in CART were turbocharged V8s, the Buick was a stock block turbocharged V6.
Both engines made horsepower in different ways. I freely admit that I’m not a gearhead, and I’m about to be talking out of my league and comfort zone. In the early 90s, the CART V8 engines were running 45-inches of boost in their turbochargers. In order for the Buick too be competitive, they were allowed to run 55-inches of boost. At other races sanctioned by CART, the Buick was eventually allowed to run 50-inches, but never 55.
While the Buick engine was ultra-powerful, it was also unreliable. In 1985, Pancho Carter put his Buick-powered March on the pole for the Indianapolis 500. He lasted six laps. Scott Brayton, whose family had a hand in the development of the Buick engine, qualified in the middle of the front-row and went out on Lap 19 with a blown cylinder wall.
That was pretty much the story of the Buick engine. It would excel in qualifying, but would blow up early in the race – much like the Novi years earlier. It wasn’t until 1992 that the Buick even lasted the distance for 500. That was when Al Unser carried his Menard’s Lola-Buick to a hard-earned third-place finish, ten seconds behind the famous Little Al/Scott Goodyear battle. That was also the year that Roberto Guererro Put his Lola-Buick on the pole, before infamously crashing on the second parade lap.
One bit of Buick trivia from 1992 that has gotten lost today is that twelve cars in the starting field that day were powered by Buick. Think about it. More than a third of the field was powered by an engine that hardly raced anywhere else for the rest of the season.
What drove teams to choose the Buick engine? Was it the massive power it produced? Was it a low-cost option that one-off teams couldn’t pass up? Or was it because the one-off teams were shut out by the engine manufacturers who held engine leases with the full-time teams? The first two were factors, but it was the latter that was the most attractive factor to the one-offs.
Looking over the starting grid in 1992, very few full-time drivers ran Buicks. Dale Coyne Racing switched his drivers from their normal Cosworth DFS to Buick for Indianapolis. Scott Brayton chose to abandon his reliable Chevy-A engine for his family’s Buick engine for the 500, only to blow up in the race in one of the largest plumes of smoke I have ever seen in-person. Other than those exceptions, most of the Buick engines in 1992 were run by one-off or part-time teams (Menard, King, Hemelgarn, etc). The only Indy-only effort I can tell that ran a Chevy was Dominic Dobson, driving for Burns Motorsports.
Regardless if the Buick was cost-effective or not, it was available to any team that wanted to run it.
Seven drivers, including three-time winner Johnny Rutherford, made qualifying attempts for the 1992 Indianapolis 500 and failed to make the field. That means forty drivers made qualifying attempts, not to mention those that crashed in practiced and were either seriously injured (Pancho Carter, Hiro Matsushita and Nelson Piquet) or fatally injured (Jovy Marcelo). It was tough to even make the field in those days, but at least a lot of drivers got the chance to try.
Although I seriously doubt that Chevy and Honda would allow it, it’s a shame that there is not an alternative engine available for the Indianapolis 500 in today’s current environment.
Wouldn’t it be great if Ford and Cosworth could partner up again, to develop an engine designed exclusively for the oval of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? The current IndyCar rules do not allow it, and if they did – I am almost certain that Honda and Chevy would bail out of the new agreement they signed just a few months ago, if it were to happen. Just imagine the publicity Ford (or any other manufacturer) would enjoy by knocking a full-time IndyCar team out of the Indianapolis 500. That’s why Honda and Chevy would never go for it.
Engine leases are not the only thing preventing one-off teams from entering the Indianapolis 500. Exorbitant costs have a lot to do with it also. But for 2026 – I think we would have more than thirty-three cars lining up for qualifying next weekend. It’ll never happen, but it’s nice to think about.
George Phillips
