Arrow McLaren always figured to run a fourth car for the 110th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this coming May, even with Kyle Larson ruling out a third consecutive attempt at the Memorial Day Double.
Despite Larson's reluctance to attempt the Indy 500 again at this stage of his full-time NASCAR Cup Series career, McLaren still made a huge splash by confirming that Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2014 Indy 500 winner and 2012 IndyCar champion, is set to drive the No. 31 Chevrolet, alongside full-time drivers Pato O'Ward, Christian Lundgaard, and Nolan Siegel at Indy in 2026.
The announcement also confirmed that there are now 30 cars on the entry list ahead of next year's running of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing", even with more than six months to go.
Indy 500 entry list already at 30 for 2026
This 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile, (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana oval is historically limited to 33 drivers, and there has been a Bump Day for each of the past three editions, marking the first time with three consecutive Bump Days during the DW12 era (2012 to present).
There are 25 chartered cars across 10 different teams (three on five teams, two on the other five), plus Prema Racing's two full-time non-chartered entries.
Of course, charters don't lock anybody into the Indy 500 like they do the other 16 races on the IndyCar schedule, but charters do lock them onto the entry list.
Aside from those 27 full-time cars and Hunter-Reay's No. 31 Chevrolet, confirmed entries include the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda and the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet.
Meyer Shank Racing are the only other full-time team that have confirmed an expansion for the 2026 Indy 500 thus far, having announced that team co-owner and four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves is set to be back for his fifth attempt at the "Drive for Five" behind the wheel of the No. 06 Honda.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have confirmed that Jack Harvey is set to be back behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet. With Hunter-Reay set to move to McLaren, whether Dreyer & Reinbold Racing run a second car, the No. 23 Chevrolet, again in 2026 remains to be seen.
The other three part-time cars from 2025 include the No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, the No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, and the No. 98 Andretti Global Honda.
It's not hard to imagine Ed Carpenter coming back and running the No. 33 car again, and it's certainly not hard to imagine two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato coming back and running the No. 75 car again, especially after he started a career-best second and led the most laps in 2025. And although Marco Andretti has since retired, a fourth Andretti car is also still potentially in play.
All things considered, the fact that we're still a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, and the entry list has already hit the thirties, bodes well for a fourth consecutive Bump Day in 2026.
It may not be the first Bump Day with multiple DNQs since 2021, the first with three since 2019, or the first with more than three since 2011, but any time the NTT IndyCar Series shows up to the "Racing Capital of the World" for Indy 500 qualifying with nobody locked into the race, things are that much more exciting.
2026 Indy 500 qualifying is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17. The race itself is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 24.