100th Indianapolis 500 entry list revealed

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The formal entry list for the 100th Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil has been released with no surprises for the expected full field of 33 cars.

The breakdown of cars is 17 Honda primary cars and aero kits with 16 Chevrolet primary cars and aero kits. Backup cars (T-cars) aren’t listed as in past years.

Buddy Lazier’s team, which was the only team that hadn’t done a formal unveil of its program, has been confirmed with a number switch to the No. 4 and a renaming of the team to Lazier Burns Racing, with additional investment coming from past team owner Tom Burns.

Conor Daly’s usual No. 18 Jonathan Byrd’s Hospitality Honda will have a new primary sponsor to be revealed soon, with the Jonathan Byrd’s colors and signage moving to his Dale Coyne Racing teammate, Bryan Clauson, for the month of May on his No. 88 Honda. Clauson’s car is entered as the No. 88 Cancer Treatment Centers of America Honda.

A Grace Autosport entry is not present despite its announcing its intentions last May, which leaves Katherine Legge in the unfortunate position outside a ride for the third straight year.

All told, there are six past winners in the field:

  • 2-Juan Pablo Montoya, 2000 and 2015
  • 3-Helio Castroneves, 2001, 2002 and 2009
  • 4-Buddy Lazier, 1996
  • 9-Scott Dixon, 2008
  • 10-Tony Kanaan, 2013
  • 28-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2014

There are also five rookies in the field, all of whom competed at the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis this weekend. Although Daly is a series rookie owing to the few number of starts he had before this season, he has two past Indianapolis 500 starts (2013, 2015)

  • 8-Max Chilton
  • 16-Spencer Pigot
  • 25-Stefan Wilson
  • 61-Matthew Brabham
  • 98-Alexander Rossi

Lazier, at 48, is the oldest driver entered with Sage Karam, still only 21 but set for his third 500, the youngest.

The full entry list is linked here.

Practice begins today with rookie orientation program and refresher runs from 12 to 2 p.m., with all cars able to go on track from 2 to 6 p.m.

Winner Josef Newgarden earns $3.666 million from a record Indy 500 purse of $17 million

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33.  Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports