IndyCar: Multiple drivers will miss the 2021 Indy 500
By Asher Fair
With 35 IndyCar drivers confirmed on the entry list for the 105th running of the Indy 500, multiple drivers will fail to qualify for the race.
The entry list for the 105th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was confirmed on Wednesday, and it exceeded 33 cars following the additions of Andretti Autosport’s Stefan Wilson and Top Gun Racing’s RC Enerson, meaning that Bump Day will prove significant in 2021.
With the field limited to 33 cars, multiple drivers, two to be exact, will miss this year’s edition of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana. Nobody, not even full-time IndyCar drivers, are locked into the field.
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Last year, there were only 33 cars on the entry list for the race, so while the field was full, there was no bumping to get into it.
The last time there was bumping was in 2019, when three of the 36 drivers who attempted to qualify for the race failed to do so.
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In 2019, the 103rd running of the race saw the highest entry list total since 2011, when there were 41 cars vying for 33 positions in the race’s 95th running, which marked its 100th anniversary.
In 2018, two of the 35 drivers who attempted to qualify for the 102nd running of the race failed to do so. Prior to 2018, there hadn’t been bumping since 2015, when just one of the 34 drivers who attempted to qualify for the 99th running of the race failed to do so.
This year will mark the third time in the last four years that multiple drivers will fail to qualify for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.
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Qualifying for the 105th running of the Indy 500 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 22 and Sunday, May 23. The race itself is set to be broadcast live on NBC from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 30.