Indy 500 announcement confirms 33rd car; Bump Day looms

As a seasoned gamer of Indy 500 races, I can’t help but feel a wave of nostalgia with the announcement of Ryan Hunter-Reay returning to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the 109th running of the Indy 500 in 2025. The Speedway at Indianapolis has been my home away from home for decades, and seeing familiar faces like Hunter-Reay never fails to stir up a sense of excitement.

It has been officially announced by Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports that Ryan Hunter-Reay will be rejoining the team for the 2025 Indy 500, a much anticipated news.

In recent years, the team has competed with two vehicles at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and they’ve announced their intention to do so again this coming May. Hunter-Reay will pilot the #23 Chevrolet, while Jack Harvey will take the wheel of the #24 Chevrolet. Previously, Conor Daly drove the No. 24 Chevrolet in a previous year (2024).

I’m thrilled to announce that the official lineup for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports for the upcoming 200-lap race at the Speedway Indiana oval, a four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) beauty, has been confirmed! This means we now have 33 drivers set to compete, and it’s still only December! What an exciting start to the racing season this promises to be!

Among these teams are 27 full-time vehicles, which consist of the two uncharted cars from Prema Racing and the 25 charted entries spread across the other ten organizations. Let’s take a peek at these 27 cars.

A.J. Foyt Racing, Chevrolet

No. 14 – Santino Ferrucci
No. 41 – David Malukas

Andretti Global, Honda

No. 26 – Colton Herta
No. 27 – Kyle Kirkwood
No. 28 – Marcus Ericsson

Arrow McLaren, Chevrolet

No. 5 – Pato O’Ward
No. 6 – Nolan Siegel
No. 7 – Christian Lundgaard

Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda

No. 8 – Kyffin Simpson
No. 9 – Scott Dixon
No. 10 – Alex Palou

Dale Coyne Racing, Honda

No. 18 – TBD
No. 51 – TBD

Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet

No. 20 – Alexander Rossi
No. 21 – Christian Rasmussen

Juncos Hollinger Racing, Chevrolet

No. 77 – TBD
No. 78 – Sting Ray Robb

Meyer Shank Racing, Honda

No. 60 – Felix Rosenqvist
No. 66 – Marcus Armstrong

Prema Racing, Chevrolet

No. 83 – Robert Shwartzman
No. 90 – Callum Ilott

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda

No. 15 – Graham Rahal
No. 30 – Devlin DeFrancesco
No. 45 – Louis Foster

Team Penske, Chevrolet

No. 2 – Josef Newgarden
No. 3 – Scott McLaughlin
No. 12 – Will Power

The announcement from Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports indicates that six more vehicles have been added to the roster, and here’s a look at them:

Andretti Global, Honda

No. TBD – TBD

Arrow McLaren, Chevrolet

No. 17 – Kyle Larson (with Hendrick Motorsports)

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports, Chevrolet

No. 23 – Ryan Hunter-Reay
No. 24 – Jack Harvey

Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet

No. 33 – Ed Carpenter

Meyer Shank Racing, Honda

No. 06 – Helio Castroneves

33 cars are accounted for, but 29 of them already have confirmed drivers. Remaining are three full-time entries that require drivers: Juncos Hollinger Racing and Dale Coyne Racing each need one more, while Andretti Global intends to field a fourth car, although they haven’t specified yet if it will be driven by Marco Andretti again following the ownership change.

Keep in mind that chartered entries aren’t guaranteed a spot in the race. If there are over 33 cars during qualifying, it would result in an additional Bump Day, meaning everyone would potentially face the possibility of not making it to the event.

It appears that the route towards a third consecutive Bump Day and a fourth in five years is looking quite evident. This is particularly because Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has fielded four cars consecutively for two years in a row. If they do it again, we’ll have 34 cars on the entry list.

Since the year 2021, no Indy 500 race has had a field of 35 or more cars participating, and the last time it had 36 was in 2019. The largest entry list for the Indy 500, which consisted of 41 cars, was seen back in 2011.

On May 25, 2025, the 109th edition of the Indy 500 race will happen. Live broadcasting of the event from Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be provided by Fox.

2024-12-10 18:32