IndyCar: Guaranteed entries for the Indianapolis 500? Give me a break

By Asher Fair | Apr 19, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 27: Drivers pose for a photo prior to the 102nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motorspeedway on May 27, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Guaranteeing entries into IndyCar’s most prestigious race, the Indianapolis 500, is one of most ridiculous ideas in the history of the event.

Two prominent IndyCar team owners made headlines earlier this week by stating their beliefs that full-time IndyCar drivers should be guaranteed entries into the series most prestigious race, the Indianapolis 500, and a third recently backed them up.

A total of 33 drivers compete in the iconic 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana each year, and the entry list for that race typically contains more than that amount. As a result, drivers risk being bumped from the field and missing out on the opportunity to compete.

But Team Penske team owner Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing team owner Chip Ganassi and Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti believe that this risk must be eliminated for full-time drivers who are committed to competing in each race on the IndyCar schedule.

While this argument makes sense from a commitment standpoint and from an economic standpoint in that these drivers and the teams for which they drive are committed to competing in every race on the schedule as well as the fact that there are no other races for which they risk being bumped out of the field throughout the season and the fact that their sponsors also commit to sponsoring them for a full season, that’s about all the sense it makes, and in the grand scheme of things, that really doesn’t mean much.

More from IndyCar

I’m not one to compare IndyCar and NASCAR; they are two different series with two different set of rules for each series. The standards of one should not be judged based on the standards of another.

But it may be worth noting that both Penske and Ganassi own NASCAR Cup Series teams, and NASCAR guarantees their full-time drivers who drive for chartered teams (most of the full-time drivers and all of the top-tier full-time drivers) starting positions in each race, including the Daytona 500, which is the NASCAR equivalent of the Indy 500 and one of the few races for which the entry list actually exceeds maximum capacity.

Whether or not Penske and Ganassi are using this idea to formulate their thoughts on why the Indy 500 qualifying process should change is unknown. But their thoughts about it clearly illustrate the underlying concept presented by NASCAR’s charter system.

And as far as NASCAR’s charter system is concerned, there is nothing wrong with it.

But NASCAR’s official Daytona 500 qualifying, aside of the fastest two qualifiers in single-car qualifying, is in the form of two heat races at Daytona International Speedway that take place on the Thursday before the main event on Sunday.

So without a charter, a driver could be third fastest in single-car qualifying and miss out on getting into the field because they got caught up in somebody else’s wreck in a pack race-style heat race.

For the Indy 500, qualifying is nothing of the sort, and it never will be. If that concept was even rumored for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, it wouldn’t be surprising if half the fanbase either fled the Brickyard completely or flocked to the Indy 500 Snake Pit to join other like-minded individuals who tend to care absolutely nothing about the race itself.

The entry list for the Indy 500 has not featured more than 35 drivers since 41 drivers were on the entry list for the 95th running of the race back in 2011.

If you are a full-time driver driving for a full-time team, even if you are a championship contender, and you cannot be one of the fastest 33 qualifiers for the biggest race of the season, especially with only 34 or 35 drivers attempting to qualify for the race, you do not deserve to be in the field for that race. Period.

It is about a whole lot more than the word “tradition”.

Just ask James Hinchcliffe, who became the first full-time driver to be bumped from the Indy 500 field since the 2011 Indy 500 when five full-time drivers failed to qualify for the race. With 35 drivers on the entry list for last year’s Indy 500, Hinchcliffe was not one of the top 33 qualifiers.

He had not finished any of the season’s first five races outside of the top nine, yet he didn’t get the opportunity to compete in the season’s biggest race, a double points-paying race at that.

Hinchcliffe handled it with class and dignity and never once hinted that he felt he deserved to be in the field, even after taking the pole position for the race just two years earlier. He even publicly called out fans for placing blame on anybody but himself and his team.

And in this particular instance, he was 100% correct on every level.

Of course, this year’s Indy 500 entry list will likely feature at least 36 or 37 drivers, with the maximum possibility looking like 39 drivers at this point.

But should a full-time IndyCar driver who only managed to record the 36th fastest time in qualifying end up stealing a starting position in the Indy 500 away from the team and driver who put all of their resources into the Indy 500 to qualify in 33rd place just because the 36th place driver competes in all of the other races on the schedule?

Give me a break.

It is not 1996, and this is not the time for another 25/8 rule, nor anything even remotely like it — not that there was ever even a proper time for it to begin with.

While this may provide additional incentive for more teams to join the series on a full-time basis, it probably wouldn’t make a difference, and for two reasons.

First of all, as stated above, the entry list sizes for the Indy 500 have not been all that big over the course of the last decade or so, so the risk of actually failing to qualify for the race is minimal, even for the majority of the smaller teams.

Secondly, teams, particularly the small and underfunded teams, and drivers who put all of their resources into one race aren’t suddenly going to be able to compete in 17 times the amount of races that they originally planned on just so they can guarantee themselves a spot in the only one they actually care about, especially since the risk of actually failing to qualify for that race is minimal.

Top 10 Indianapolis 500 drivers of all-time. dark. Next

Guaranteeing starting positions in the Indy 500 is not a route that IndyCar should take by any stretch of the imagination. If you are good enough to compete in the race, prove it by qualifying in the top 33, not simply by showing up to compete the races at Barber Motorsports Park, Road America, Iowa Speedway and all of the other venues on the IndyCar schedule.

While there are many angles to consider when it comes to this debate, that’s really what it all boils down to.