As was long expected, Meyer Shank Racing confirmed earlier this week that four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves is set to return to the No. 06 Honda for the 110th running of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in May, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing confirmed that two-time winner Takuma Sato is set to return to the No. 75 Honda.
Four other one-off entries have been confirmed for the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana oval.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleConor Daly and Jack Harvey are set to drive the No. 23 Chevrolet and the No. 24 Chevrolet, respectively, for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, while Ryan Hunter-Reay is set to drive the No. 31 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren and Ed Carpenter is set to drive the No. 33 Chevrolet for his own Ed Carpenter Racing.
Indy 500 entry list taking shape for 2026
Including the 25 full-time entries across the sport's 10 full-time teams, there are now 31 confirmed cars on the entry list, but that number is really 32 with Andretti Global set to field a fourth Honda. It is expected that Colton Herta will drive that car, but that hasn't yet been confirmed.
Herta left IndyCar for a Formula 2 ride with Hitech Grand Prix and a Formula 1 reserve driver role with Cadillac after the 2025 season. Formula 2 does not have any races scheduled until June following the cancelations of the two events in the Middle East.
All things considered, this is unlikely to be the first Indy 500 since 1947 without at least 33 cars, which it once looked like it might be amid uncertainty over Prema Racing's future.
Prema Racing competed full-time with two cars in 2025, despite not having any charters, and shockingly took pole for the 109th running of the Indy 500 with rookie Robert Shwartzman in the No. 83 Chevrolet. But they have missed the first three races on the 2026 schedule, and there is no current timetable for a return.
Prema Racing could still be back in time for this year's Indy 500 with at least one car, and if not, there are reportedly other teams willing to add a car to ensure that the magic number of 33 is hit. Additionally, there are rumors that Abel Motorsports could field a car for the first time since 2023, and Katherine Legge is reportedly trying to put together a deal for the first time since 2024.
IndyCar came close to not having its traditional field of 33 four years ago, but DragonSpeed and Cusick Motorsports stepped up late to field an entry for Stefan Wilson.
Should there end up being two more cars added to this year's entry list, which is still a strong possibility, it would set up a fourth consecutive Indy 500 Bump Day for the first time in the DW12 era (2012 to present).
The entry list consisted of exactly 34 cars in 2023, 2024, and 2025. It hasn't featured 35 since 2021, and it hasn't featured 36 since 2019. It hasn't featured more than 36 since it featured 41 in 2011.
And if there are at least 34 cars, every single driver on the entry list would be at risk; although the 25 chartered cars are locked into every other race on the IndyCar schedule, nobody is locked into the field of 33 at Indianapolis.
In 2023 and 2025, it was a full-time driver who ended up failing to qualify, with Graham Rahal left on the outside looking in three years ago, before he ended up filling in for the injured Wilson, and Jacob Abel on the outside looking in one year ago.
Indy 500 practice is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 12, and qualifying is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17, with live coverage set to be provided by both Fox and Fox Sports 1 throughout the weekend. The race itself is set to be shown live on Fox from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 24.