Indy 500 test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: Entry list and how to watch on Peacock

By Apr 7, 2021, 12:00 PM EDT
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The 105th Indy 500 is more than 50 days away, but the NTT IndyCar Series will offer a major preview of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on Peacock when 32 drivers test Thursday and Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The test will be broadcast live on the Peacock streaming service from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET Friday.

The two-day session will feature a nearly full complement of teams for the 33-car field, which will have a healthy mix of veterans and youth. There are nine Indianapolis 500 winners at the test representing 13 victories: Defending winner Takuma Sato (who also won in 2017); Helio Castroneves (2001, ’02, ’09), Juan Pablo Montoya (’00, ’15), Simon Pagenaud (’19), Will Power (’18), Alexander Rossi (’16), Ryan Hunter-Reay (’14), Tony Kanaan (’13) and Scott Dixon (’08).

INDYCAR BROADCAST SCHEDULE: NBC Sports channels, times during the 2021 season

After a three-year absence from Indy, Montoya will return in the No. 86 Dallara-Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP as the Colombian attempts to win for the third time at Indy with three teams. After a 20-year run with Team Penske, Castroneves also moves to a new team and manufacturer in driving a Honda in a partial schedule for Meyer Shank Racing.

After three seasons with A.J. Foyt Racing, Kanaan also will be driving for a new team in returning to Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the No. 48 Dallara-Honda that Jimmie Johnson will drive this year on road and street courses (but not ovals).

While the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion won’t be on track, Scott McLaughlin, another heralded 2021 rookie, will be turning laps in a Dallara-Chevrolet for Team Penske as the three-time Supercars champion makes a transition to the IndyCar Series.

Simona De Silvestro, driving for new team Paretta Autosport, also will return to test after making five Indy 500 starts from 2010-15.

Other rookie drivers include NASCAR driver Cody Ware, who also tested at Texas Motor Speedway last week, and Pietro Fittipaldi, the veteran of Formula One and sports cars who will attempt to join his two-time Indy 500 winning grandfather, Emerson, as a starter at the Brickyard.

Here are the details for the Indy 500 test (all times are ET):

SCHEDULE: Thursday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (veterans 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; Rookie Orientation Program and Refresher 1-3 p.m.; open test 4-6 p.m.). Friday 10-4 p.m.

TV: All 13 hours of on-track action will be covered by NBC Sports on Peacock, which will become the new streaming home for IndyCar this season. The test will mark the start of more than 120 total hours on Peacock Premium, including live coverage of practice and qualifying sessions, Indy Lights races, race-day warmups and full-event replays. (For more information about IndyCar on Peacock, click here.)

Thursday’s NBC Sports broadcast will include play-by-play announcer Leigh Diffey and analyst Townsend Bell with Marty Snider and Kevin Lee reporting from the pits. Lee will move to play by play Friday.

ENTRY LIST: Here are the driver-team combinations entered in the test:

A.J. Foyt Racing: Sebastien Bourdais*, Dalton Kellett*

Andretti Autosport: Colton Herta, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi

Andretti Herta-Haupert Autosport w/ Marco Andretti & Curb-Agajanian: Marco Andretti

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport: James Hinchcliffe*

Arrow McLaren SP: Juan Pablo Montoya*, Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist

Carlin: Max Chilton*

Chip Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Tony Kanaan, Alex Palou

Dale Coyne Racing: Cody Ware^

Dale Coyne Racing with RWR: Pietro Fittipaldi^

Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan: Ed Jones*

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing: Sage Karam*

Ed Carpenter Racing: Ed Carpenter, Conor Daly, Rinus VeeKay

Meyer Shank Racing: Helio Castroneves*, Jack Harvey

Paretta Autosport: Simona De Silvestro*

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Santino Ferrucci, Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato

Team Penske: Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power

* — Required to complete Refresher Test

^ — Required to complete Rookie Orientation Program

INDY 500 INFORMATION: Practice will begin May 18 for the 105th Indy 500, and qualifying will be held May 22-23 with more than 33

The Indy 500 will be televised on NBC at 11 a.m. on May 30.

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Texas starting lineup: Felix Rosenqvist back on pole; Scott Dixon qualifies second

By Apr 1, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
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FORT WORTH, Texas — For the second consecutive year, Felix Rosenqvist will lead the NTT IndyCar Series starting lineup to the green flag at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Arrow McLaren driver is hoping the third time will be the charm at the 1.5-mile oval, where he has run extremely well but has only a career-best 12th in five starts.

“We’ve always been good here, but this is a whole different confidence level compared to last year,” Rosenqvist told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “Let’s try to wrap it up (Sunday).”

In 2020, Rosenqvist was competing for a podium when he crashed with 10 laps remaining at Texas.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for speeds from Saturday’s time trials

INDYCAR AT TEXAS: Schedule, start times, how to watch on NBC, Peacock

Last year, he started first on an oval for the first time in his career but finished 21st because of a broken halfshaft.

“It’s definitely one of my favorite tracks, and naturally, I’ve always been OK here,” Rosenqvist said. “It was the first oval that made sense to me. Every year I’m building on that. But looking at the results, they don’t represent the speed I normally have.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, but I hope tomorrow is going to go a bit better and some luck our way would be nice. It’s been feeling super good. Arrow McLaren has been mega every session, so just keep it rolling.”

Arrow McLaren qualified all three of its Chevrolets in the top five, building on a second for Pato O’Ward and fourth for Alexander Rossi in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The March 5 season opener was a disappointing start for Rosenqvist who was squeezed into the wall by Scott Dixon on the first lap.

Dixon, a five-time winner at Texas, will start second Sunday, followed by Rossi and Josef Newgarden. O’Ward will start fifth alongside Takuma Sato, who will start on the outside of the third row in his Chip Ganassi Racing debut.

During nearly four hours of practice and qualifying (including a special high-line session), Saturday’s lone incident involved Conor Daly.

The Ed Carpenter Racing driver spun three times but stayed off the wall and in the frontstretch grass. Aside from a front wing change and new tires, there was no damage to his No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet during the incident midway through the 30-minute session in which drivers were limited to the high line.

“I hadn’t really had a moment before, but it snapped really aggressively,” Daly told NBC Sports after final practice. “Not ideal, but I do know my way around correcting a spin it seems like. I drove NASCAR last weekend and that seemed to help a little bit. I drove in the dirt a lot in USAC Midgets and seemed to be able to save something but not ideal or what we wanted to have happen.”

Daly will start 25th of 28 cars alongside teammate Rinus VeeKay in Row 13. Carpenter qualified 18th.

“Our three of our cars were clearly looking for something. Mechanical grip is for sure what we need. Qualifying we actually expected to be a lot better, but we found an issue there. We’ll see what happens. This race can change a lot. I’m confident in the team to hopefully figure some things out for tomorrow.”

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine and speed):

ROW 1

1. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Dallara-Chevy, 220.264 mph
2. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 219.972

ROW 2

3. (7) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Chevy, 219.960
4. (2) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevy, 219.801

ROW 3

5. (5) Pato O’Ward, Dallara-Chevy, 219.619
6. (11) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 219.508

ROW 4

7. (10) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 219.480
8. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 219.355

ROW 5

9. (18) David Malukas, Dallara-Honda, 219.256
10. (26) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 219.184

ROW 6

11. (28) Romain Grosjean, Dallara-Honda, 219.165
12. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Dallara-Honda, 219.146

ROW 7 

13. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Dallara-Chevy, 219.100
14. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Dallara-Chevy, 218.892

ROW 8

15. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Dallara-Chevy, 218.765
16. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 218.698

ROW 9

17. (77) Callum Ilott, Dallara-Chevy, 218.427
18. (33) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 218.375

ROW 10

19. (78) Agustin Canapino, Dallara-Chevy, 218.367
20. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Dallara-Honda, 218.227

ROW 11

21. (06) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 218.196
22. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 218.103

ROW 12

23. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Dallara-Honda, 217.676
24. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 217.611

ROW 13

25. (20) Conor Daly, Dallara-Chevy, 217.457
26. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Dallara-Chevy, 216.880

ROW 14

27. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Dallara-Honda, 216.210
28. (30) Jack Harvey, Dallara-Honda, 216.103