Defending champion Scott Dixon and former winners Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti are among the 28 drivers on the initial entry list for the May 24 Indianapolis 500.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced 40 entries Monday, with a total of 77 cars eligible to compete for the 33 starting spots. Twenty-two cars among 12 entries have no drivers listed yet.
The early entries also include four rookies, headed by last year’s Firestone Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos, along with Stanton Barrett, Mike Conway and Robert Doornbos.
With Castroneves’ acquittal on tax charges, he’ll be one of three drivers for Team Penske, along with Ryan Briscoe and Will Power.
Also entered is John Andretti, driving the first cars entered at Indy by seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty.
Franchitti won Sunday’s race at Long Beach and leads the IndyCar standings by 15 points over Power after two of 17 races. The series heads to Kansas City, Kan., this week, the last stop before Indianapolis.
Franchitti, the 2007 Indy winner, missed the race last year while he was competing in NASCAR, and he and Dixon are teammates with Ganassi Racing this season. Wheldon, who drove for Ganassi last year, is now with Panther Racing and will team with veteran Scott Sharp, who missed last year.
Also entered for the first time in seven years is veteran Paul Tracy, the runner-up to Castroneves in the contested 2002 finish. He’s driving a KV Racing Technology entry co-owned by former driver Jimmy Vasser.
The entries also include Danica Patrick, one of the four Andretti Green Racing drivers, and Sarah Fisher, who runs her own team. Venezuelan Milka Duno, who drove the past two years, is not on the early entry list.
Andretti Green also entered cars for Tony Kanaan, Hideki Mutoh and Marco Andretti, the son of co-owner Michael Andretti.
The other entries include two with no driver listed for Rahal Letterman Racing, which is not competing full-time in the IndyCar Series this season while the team searches for sponsorship.
The track will open for the annual rookie testing on May 5, with full practice starting the following day. The first of four days of qualifications will be May 9.
© 2009 Associated Press. Displayed by permission. All rights reserved.
