More will come Wednesday on the championship battle between Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate Sage Karam and Gabby Chaves for the Firestone Indy Lights Series season finale.
Today, though, a brief look at the entry list for the Lefty’s Kids Club 100 (Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, NBCSN) reveals several other things.
Jack Hawksworth and Carlos Munoz will be eliminated when the race begins. Although they are within a mathematical range (35 and 36 points behind, respectively), they will not be able to gain enough points assuming Karam and Chaves both start the race.
The maximum available points gained this weekend will be 31 with nine cars entered – 53 for a win, pole and leading the most laps, and 22 for ninth place.
Kyle O’Gara returns for the first time since Indianapolis in a fourth SPM entry, with support from Wink Hartman, Hartman Oil and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. The silver, blue and black that has adorned Josef Newgarden’s No. 67 IndyCar most of this season will be on O’Gara’s entry.
Giancarlo Serenelli will make his first career oval start in the No. 6 Belardi Auto Racing entry. Team Moore Racing, which ran Peter Dempsey and Conor Daly at Houston, had one potential driver for its No. 22 car this weekend but funding has apparently fallen through for that. Bryan Herta Autosport also won’t race as it did at Houston, with driver Axcil Jefferies.
Of the nine drivers entered, only Munoz and Serenelli’s two Belardi teammates, Jorge Goncalvez and Juan Pablo Garcia, have Fontana experience. Munoz won the race handily last year.
The last driver in the field after Karam, Chaves, Hawksworth, Munoz, O’Gara and the three Belardi drivers is Zach Veach, Munoz’s Andretti Autosport teammate.
This is the last race for Firestone in the series, as it signs off before Cooper Tires takes over next year. Daly and Tristan Vautier have spent time testing the Coopers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile.
