A lot has happened since I last posted about car-count for the Indianapolis 500 this past Wednesday. We discussed a lot of scenarios, but we got confirmation on several of them over the past few days. As suspected, Colton Herta will not be available to run in this year’s Indianapolis 500. His F2 duties come first, and trouble in the Middle East has forced F2 to run some re-scheduled races in May – one over Memorial Day weekend.
Although many predicted that Andretti Global might choose not to run the fourth car if Herta was unavailable, I always thought that they would – given that they already had a coveted engine lease to run a fourth Honda. I was wrong. Dan Towriss announced on Thursday that they would focus their attention on preparing their three fulltime cars and not fool with a fourth entry.
Then on Friday, PREMA confirmed what everyone had long suspected – that they would not be a participant in the Month of May, but that they did hope to be back on track in some form or fashion later this season. This confirms that last year’s pole-sitter will not be in this year’s Indianapolis 500. Personally, I think we have seem the last of PREMA. I would be beyond shocked if either of those beautiful red cars ever make another appearance on an IndyCar grid again.
I don’t take pleasure in saying that. It always pains me to see a fulltime team go away. But it doesn’t surprise me. When we first learned that PREMA was confirmed to run the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series, I posed the question; How is this different than Carlin a few years earlier? If you recall, Carlin came in with a long pedigree of success in the junior formulas in Europe, as well as Indy Lights. Some “experts” claimed that it wouldn’t take long before they were an elite team in IndyCar too.
With Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton as their drivers, they got out of the gate with a thud in 2018. Kimball finished 17th in points, while Chilton finished 20th. Kimball had four Top-Ten finishes, while Chilton had none. Ouch! The next year saw Kimball split his ride with Pato O’Ward, Sage Karam and even RC Enerson; while Chilton split his with Conor Daly. When different drivers are in and out of the seat, it seldom produces good results. 2020 saw the series dealing with COVID, and Carlin dropped down to one car split between Chilton and Daly. The same duo finished out the 2021 season, with the writing on the wall that Carlin would be going away at the end of the season. They did.
Four years later, we were told to get ready. There was a new Italian team named PREMA coming to IndyCar, that had conquered every series they had entered. I was skeptical. I asked here on this site, as well as a lot of people I personally know that are closely connected to the series; how this was going to be different from Carlin. Everyone assured me that this wasn’t even close to the Carlin situation. That turned out to be true. Carlin lasted four seasons, PREMA only lasted one.
The reason I don’t think we will see PREMA back on an IndyCar grid is two-fold. First, the current owners will probably not be able to raise any more money at this late hour and are certainly not going to throw more of their own at the problem. And second, why would any other group buy them? If they had one or two charters, that would add some value to the team. But without charters, all you are getting are the PREMA assets; which consists of a building and some cars that will be obsolete one year from this fall. I am hopeful that Callum Ilott will become a free-agent immediately, and no longer be held to his contract. He is a good driver, but his career has been star-crossed regarding the Indianapolis 500.
Since we heard all of this news, there has been a lot of hand-wringing by a lot of fans; saying they will not be able to fill the field and that bumping is out of the question. While this is certainly not ideal, and it’s a black-eye for the series – I have no doubt that we will have 33 entries confirmed by the time the Open Test comes around in a couple of weeks. Bumping? Probably not, and that is a shame.
We old-timers lament the days when there were twice as many entries as there were starting positions. Even as recently as 2011, there were 40 entries for 33 slots on the starting grid. Having only 34 entries has been a little embarrassing, but it sure has created drama on Saturday for the teams jockeying for position to avoid the last row shootout. The drama has intensified on Sunday to find out who will be the driver without a chair when the music stops. It’s not designed this way, but the bump session on Sundays for the last few years has provided a lot more entertainment than the run for the pole later in the day.
While I feel certain that we will have 33 entries, I have no idea where it will come from, although I would bet that Katherine Legge is at the top of the short list for whoever is considering another entry, especially if Ilott is unavailable.
The Abel Motorsports entry for Jacob Abel brings the count up to 32, so they still need at least one more. I say “at least”, because I’ve heard some rumblings that Abel may have made that offer a contingency offer, meaning they will run it as long as the series does not accept a 34th entry. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I’ve heard it from more than one person in the IndyCar media – and the real media, not lowly bloggers like myself. But, again I will stress, they have also qualified it as strictly a rumor, so who knows?
If that is true, I may understand it but I don’t like it. The Indianapolis 500 is about come one, come all. It’s not about clearing the deck so I can show up and make the race with no pressure. If we have just 33 cars by happenstance, so be it. But I don’t like cars being made available, only if they can be guaranteed they will make the race.
It seems like something like this happened in the 2012 race, in order to essentially guarantee that the Jean Alesi entry powered by Lotus would make the field. That pretty much robbed Pippa Mann the opportunity to even qualify that year. It’s been fourteen years, so my memory is a little hazy, but I think that is what happened behind the scenes.
Keep in mind, this is just my opinion as a fan with no skin in the game other than loving tradition. If I’m Doug Boles, I make that deal. If I’m Bill Abel, I make that deal. It makes good economic sense. But as a fan freely spending someone else’s money and risking none of my own, I don’t like it.
One thing is certain – even though we are in the midst of a three-week gap between races, there has been no shortage of things to talk about. Something tells me there will be some deals discussed inside the IndyCar paddock at Long Beach this weekend. Oh, to be a fly on the wall…
George Phillips
