As 2026 nears, the countdown to the Indy 500 has dipped below five months, and once the calendar flips to January in just a few more days, there will only be three additional months ahead of the 110th running during which the answer to the famous "Is it May yet?" question will still be "no".
The entry list for the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval is coming together nicely, and it is looking like there will need to be bumping to set the field of 33 once again.
Whether there are 34 cars for the fourth consecutive year or 35 for the first time since 2021 remains to be seen, but there haven't been more than 35 since 2019 (when there were 36), and that is unlikely to change this time around. There haven't been more than 36 during the DW12 era (2012 to present).
The Indy 500 has also not seen Bump Day in four consecutive years during the DW12 era, and it had not even seen three in a row until 2025. Though 25 cars are chartered entries, those charters do not guarantee anybody a spot in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing"; even if only one car misses the event, every single driver is at risk of being that one.
The full-time driver lineup is nearly set, with just one of the 27 seats remaining without a confirmed driver following the recent confirmation that Mick Schumacher is set to replace Devlin DeFrancesco behind the wheel of the No. 30-turned-No. 47 Honda at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
And the team that still needs to solidify their lineup is exactly the team you'd expect to be the last to solidify their lineup (because let's face it; they almost always are).
Here's a breakdown of three categories: confirmed driver/team entries (part-time denoted by an asterisk), confirmed full-time entry (without a driver), and unconfirmed but expected entries.
Confirmed 2026 Indy 500 entries
Team | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | No. 4 Chevrolet | Caio Collet (R) |
A.J. Foyt Enterprises | No. 14 Chevrolet | Santino Ferrucci |
Andretti Global | No. 26 Honda | Will Power |
Andretti Global | No. 27 Honda | Kyle Kirkwood |
Andretti Global | No. 28 Honda | Marcus Ericsson |
Arrow McLaren | No. 5 Chevrolet | Pato O'Ward |
Arrow McLaren | No. 6 Chevrolet | Nolan Siegel |
Arrow McLaren | No. 7 Chevrolet | Christian Lundgaard |
Arrow McLaren | No. 31 Chevrolet* | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Chip Ganassi Racing | No. 8 Honda | Kyffin Simpson |
Chip Ganassi Racing | No. 9 Honda | Scott Dixon |
Chip Ganassi Racing | No. 10 Honda | Alex Palou |
Dale Coyne Racing | No. 18 Honda | Dennis Hauger (R) |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | No. 24 Chevrolet* | Jack Harvey |
Ed Carpenter Racing | No. 20 Chevrolet | Alexander Rossi |
Ed Carpenter Racing | No. 21 Chevrolet | Christian Rasmussen |
Juncos Hollinger Racing | No. 76 Chevrolet | Rinus VeeKay |
Juncos Hollinger Racing | No. 77 Chevrolet | Sting Ray Robb |
Meyer Shank Racing | No. 06 Honda* | Helio Castroneves |
Meyer Shank Racing | No. 60 Honda | Felix Rosenqvist |
Meyer Shank Racing | No. 66 Honda | Marcus Armstrong |
Prema Racing | No. 83 Chevrolet | Robert Shwartzman |
Prema Racing | No. 90 Chevrolet | Callum Ilott |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | No. 15 Honda | Graham Rahal |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | No. 45 Honda | Louis Foster |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | No. 47 Honda | Mick Schumacher |
Team Penske | No. 2 Chevrolet | Josef Newgarden |
Team Penske | No. 3 Chevrolet | Scott McLaughlin |
Team Penske | No. 12 Chevrolet | David Malukas |
Full-time 2026 IndyCar entry, no confirmed driver
Team | Car |
|---|---|
Dale Coyne Racing | No. 51 Honda |
Expected 2026 Indy 500 part-time entries
Team | Predicted Car | Predicted Driver |
|---|---|---|
Andretti Global | No. 98 Honda* | Colton Herta |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | No. 23 Chevrolet* | Conor Daly |
Ed Carpenter Racing | No. 33 Chevrolet* | Ed Carpenter |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | No. 75 Honda* | Takuma Sato |
Another potential entry is an Abel Motorsports entry, especially if the second Dale Coyne Racing seat does not go to Jacob Abel. Abel was the lone driver who failed to qualify in 2025.
Abel Motorsports fielded a single-car effort in 2023 but have not been back since, though they have continued to run several cars in Indy NXT.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's second entry is technically confirmed, but a driver isn't; Conor Daly is still believed to be in the running for Dale Coyne Racing's second full-time seat as well, along with Linus Lundqvist, Romain Grosjean, and potentially others such as DeFrancesco and Abel.
Indy 500 qualifying is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 ahead of the race itself on Sunday, May 24 (10:00 a.m. ET on Fox).