Indianapolis, IN

Get to know the IndyCar drivers and teams for the 2024 Indianapolis 500

Published

6 months ago

May 13, 2024

Get to know the IndyCar drivers and teams for the 2024 Indianapolis 500

The 108th Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for May 26, 2024, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Thirty-four drivers are set to compete for the traditional 33 spots on the starting grid. The race is 200 laps on the 2.5-mile oval.

Here are the broad strokes: Fourteen countries are represented, mostly from the United States (13 drivers). Eight former Indy 500 winners are competing. There are seven rookies, the most since 2014, when there were also seven.

Five teams, totaling 18 drivers, use Honda engines; six teams, also totaling 16 drivers, use Chevrolet engines.

Here are the details about the Indy 500 hopefuls:

Indy 500 2024 drivers’ ages

The average Indy 500 experience of the entrants is 6.5 starts, and the average age is 31.2.

There are two 19-year-olds this year: Nolan Siegel is one month younger than Kyffin Simpson. (A.J. Foyt IV, who raced on his 19th birthday in 2003, is the youngest Indy 500 starter.)

The oldest driver is Helio Castroneves at 49. (A.J. Foyt is the oldest-ever starter, at 57 years old in 1992. He is the grandfather of the youngest-ever starter.)

Indianapolis 500 2024 teams

Team: Driver (car number)

Team Penske: Josef Newgarden (No. 2), Scott McLaughlin (No. 3), Will Power (No. 12)

A.J. Foyt Racing: Santino Ferrucci (No. 14), Sting Ray Robb (No. 41)

Arrow McLaren: Pato O’Ward (No. 5), Callum Ilott (No. 6), Alexander Rossi (No. 7), Kyle Larson (No. 17)

Chip Ganassi Racing: Kyffin Simpson (No. 4), Linus Lundqvist (No. 8), Scott Dixon (No. 9), Alex Palou (No. 10), Marcus Armstrong (No. 11)

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Graham Rahal (No. 15), Pietro Fittipaldi (No. 30), Christian Lundgaard (No. 45), Takuma Sato (No. 75)

Dale Coyne Racing: Nolan Siegel (No. 18), Katherine Legge (No. 51)

Ed Carpenter Racing: Christian Rasmussen (No. 20), Rinus VeeKay (No. 21), Ed Carpenter (No. 33)

Dreyer and Reinbold/Cusick: Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 23), Conor Daly (No. 24)

Andretti Autosport: Colton Herta (No. 26), Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27), Marcus Ericsson (No. 28), Marco Andretti (No. 98)

Juncos Hollinger Racing: Romain Grosjean (No. 77), Agustin Canapino (No. 78)

Meyer Shank Racing: Helio Castroneves (No. 06), Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60), Tom Blomqvist (No. 66)

Indy 500 2024 drivers’ nationality

13 drivers are from the United States: Andretti, Carpenter, Daly, Ferrucci, Herta, Hunter-Reay, Kirkwood, Larson, Newgarden, Rahal, Robb, Rossi, Siegel

3 drivers are from England: Blomqvist, Ilott, Legge

3 drivers are from New Zealand: Armstrong, Dixon, McLaughlin

3 drivers are from Sweden: Ericsson, Lundqvist, Rosenqvist

2 drivers are from Brazil: Castroneves, Fittipaldi

2 drivers are from Denmark: Lundgaard, Rasmussen

1 driver is from each of these nations: Argentina (Canapino), Australia (Power), Bahamas (Simpson), Japan (Sato), Mexico (O’Ward), Netherlands (VeeKay), Spain (Palou), Switzerland (Grosjean)

Indianapolis 500 2024 engines

These teams use Honda engines: Andretti, Ganassi, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Meyer Shank, Coyne

These teams use Chevrolet engines: Arrow McLaren, Juncos Hollinger, Foyt, Penske, Carpenter, Dreyer and Reinbold/Cusick

Indy 500 2024 former winners in the race

Eight previous winners are entered in this year’s race: Castroneves (2001, ’02, ’09, ’21), Sato (2017, ’20), Dixon (’08), Hunter-Reay (’14), Rossi (’16), Power (’18), Ericsson (’22), Newgarden (’23).

Indianapolis 500 2024 rookies

These drivers are attempting to make the race for the first time: Armstrong, Blomqvist, Larson, Lundqvist, Rasmussen, Siegel, Simpson.

Indy 500 2024 driver facts

Includes car number, driver name, age, nationality, team, engine, Indy 500 history

No. 98 Marco Andretti: 37 years old from the United States (Nazareth, Pa.); drives for Andretti Global (Honda); 18 Indy 500 starts with a best finish of 2nd in his rookie season of 2006. He was the pole-sitter in 2020.

No. 11 Marcus Armstrong: 23 years old from New Zealand; drives for Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda). He is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 66 Tom Blomqvist: 30 years old from England; drives for Meyer Shank Racing (Honda). He is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 78 Agustin Canapino: 34 years old from Argentina; drives for Juncos Hollinger Racing (Chevrolet); he finished 26th as a rookie in 2023.

No. 33 Ed Carpenter: 42 years old from the United States (Indianapolis); drives for Ed Carpenter Racing (he’s IndyCar’s only owner/driver; Chevrolet); 20 Indy 500 starts with a best finish of 2nd in 2018. He is a three-time pole-sitter (2013, ’14, ’18).

No. 06 Helio Castroneves: 49 years old and is from Brazil; drives for Meyer Shank Racing (Honda); 23 Indy 500 starts, winning a record-sharing four times (2001, ’02, ’09, ’21). A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears have also won the race four times. Castroneves is a four-time pole-sitter (2003, ’07, ’09, ’10).

No. 24 Conor Daly: 32 years old from the United States (Noblesville, Indiana); drives for Dreyer and Reinbold/Cusick (Chevrolet); 10 Indy 500 starts with a best finish of 6th in 2022.

No. 9 Scott Dixon: 43 years old from New Zealand; drives for Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda); 21 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2008. He is a five-time pole-sitter (2008, ’15, ’17, ’21-22).

No. 28 Marcus Ericsson: 33 years old from Sweden; drives for Andretti Global (Honda); 4 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2022.

No. 14 Santino Ferrucci: 25 years old from the United States (Woodbury, Conn.); drives for A.J. Foyt Racing (Chevrolet); 5 Indy 500 starts (top-10 finish in all), with a best finish of 3rd in 2023.

No. 30 Pietro Fittipaldi: 27 years old from Brazil; drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda); he finished 25th in the 2021 Indy 500.

No. 77 Romain Grosjean: 37 years old from Switzerland, though he was born in France; drives for Juncos Hollinger Racing (Honda); best Indy 500 finish of 30th in 2023.

No. 26 Colton Herta: 24 years old from the United States (Valencia, Calif.); drives for Andretti Global (Honda); 5 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 8th in 2020.

No. 23 Ryan Hunter-Reay: 43 years old from the United States (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.); drives for Dreyer and Reinbold/Cusick (Chevrolet); 14 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2014.

No. 77 Callum Ilott: 25 years old from England; drives for Arrow McLaren (Chevrolet); 2 Indy 500 starts with a best finish of 12th in 2023.

No. 27 Kyle Kirkwood: 25 years old from the United States (Jupiter, Fla.); drives for Andretti Global (Honda); 2 Indy 500 starts; finished 17th as a rookie in 2022.

No. 17 Kyle Larson: 31 years old from the United States (Elk Grove, California); drives for Arrow McLaren and Hendrick (Chevrolet); he is an Indy 500 rookie attempting to drive Indy and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

No. 51 Katherine Legge: 43 years old from England; drives for Dale Coyne Racing (Honda); 3 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 12th in 2012. She is one of 9 women to race in the Indy 500.

No. 45 Christian Lundgaard: 22 years old from Denmark; drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda); 2 Indy 500 starts, finishing 18th in 2022.

No. 8 Linus Lundqvist: 25 years old from Sweden; drives for Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda); he is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 3 Scott McLaughlin: 30 years old from New Zealand; drives Team Penske (Chevrolet); 3 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 14th in 2023.

No. 2 Josef Newgarden: 33 years old from the United States (Hendersonville, Tenn.); drives for Team Penske (Chevrolet); 12 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2023.

No. 5 Pato O’Ward: 25 years old from Mexico; drives for Arrow McLaren (Chevrolet); 4 Indy 500 starts, finishing 2nd in 2022.

No. 10 Alex Palou: 27 years old from Spain; drives for Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda); 4 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 2nd in 2021.

No. 12 Will Power: 43 years old from Australia; drives for Team Penske (Chevrolet); 16 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2018.

No. 15 Graham Rahal: 35 years old from the United States (Lexington, Ohio); drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda); he has been in 16 Indy 500s, with a best finish of 3rd in 2011 and ’20.

No. 20 Christian Rasmussen: 23 years old from Denmark; drives for Ed Carpenter Racing; he is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 41 Sting Ray Robb: 22 years old from the United States (Payette, Idaho); drives for A.J. Foyt Racing (Chevrolet); he finished 31st as a rookie in 2023.

No. 60 Felix Rosenqvist: 31 years old from Sweden; drives for Meyer Shank Racing (Honda); 5 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 4th in 2022.

No. 7 Alexander Rossi: 32 years old from the United States (Auburn, Calif.); drives for Arrow McLaren (Chevrolet); 8 Indy 500 starts, winning as a rookie in 2016.

No. 75 Takuma Sato: 47 years old from Japan; drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda); 14 Indy 500 starts, winning in 2017 and ’20.

No. 18 Nolan Siegel: 19 years old from the United States (Palo Alto, California); drives for Dale Coyne Racing (Honda); he is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 4 Kyffin Simpson: 19 years old from The Bahamas; drives for Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda); he is an Indy 500 rookie.

No. 21 Rinus VeeKay: 23 years old from the Netherlands; drives for Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet); 4 Indy 500 starts, with a best finish of 8th in 2021.

IndyCar Series points standings

(Through May 11)

Alex Palou, 152
Will Power, 140
Colton Herta, 127
Scott Dixon, 127
Felix Rosenqvist, 107
Scott McLaughlin, 88
Pato O’Ward, 88
Kyle Kirkwood, 86
Christian Lundgaard, 84
Alexander Rossi, 70
Marcus Armstrong, 68
Graham Rahal, 63

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Indianapolis, IN

IMPD partners with the Indianapolis Colts to help drive recruits

Published

2 hours ago

November 20, 2024

Press Room

IMPD partners with the Indianapolis Colts to help drive recruits

INDIANAPOLIS — A big partnership for IMPD in its efforts to recruit more officers.

The latest numbers show IMPD is short almost 300 officers. Officials hope working with the Colts will help them score more recruits to serve the city.

Colts center Ryan Kelly spent his evening at the IMPD training academy with Pre-Academy Reediness (PAR) participants. The PAR program helps prepare candidates for the physical and mental demands of training camp.

WRTV

Kelly is from Cincinnati, Ohio. His father served with the Ohio State Police Officer for more than 30 years before retiring.

Kelly’s message Tuesday night was it takes a special person to wear the badge and Indianapolis needs you.

“The reason you would be here today is because somebody believed in you along the way, that you would be a good fit for this community to make it better. Right? There’s crime, there’s violence no matter where you go, but the right people on the right side of the law are the ultimate ones that bring the community back together,” Kelly said.

As of now, there are 1,455 sworn officers with IMPD. The department is budgeted for 1,743 sworn officers.

IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said having the Colts on board to help with this effort may be the push they need to bring more folks on board.

“The Colts have a nationwide audience. Every Sunday when they’re in town, there are 65,000 plus people in there. We have some advertising in the scout magazine that you see every weekend at the Colts game. It’s another opportunity for us to reach a large group of people,” Bailey said.

According to IMPD, Colts fans will see IMPD recruitment messages featured on outdoor marquees during select games, in publications like the Colts Scout and Yearbook, and hear radio spots on 93.5/1070 The Fan, as well as 97.1 Hank FM.

Additionally, IMPD recruiters have had a visible presence at various Colts games and in American Family Insurance Touchdown Town, giving them a chance to connect directly with community members who may be interested in a career in public safety.

Kelly stuck around to help participants in the training academy with their workouts.

The most recent city budget includes a four percent increase for IMPD and much of that money will go towards the department’s recruitment and retention efforts.

The starting salary for new IMPD officers is around $72,000 a year.

IMPD’s push to hire has been going on for a while.

About two years ago, the department put billboards up in cities in other states, including Detroit and Cincinnati, encouraging anyone interested in a law enforcement career to “make a move” to Indianapolis.

If you are interested in joining IMPD, visit JoinIMPD.Indy.gov and apply.

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Indianapolis, IN

IMPD unveils technology to track traffic stop demographics

Published

10 hours ago

November 19, 2024

Press Room

IMPD unveils technology to track traffic stop demographics

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The technology to track the demographics of everyone pulled over by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was approved to be taught to officers by the General Orders Board.

If you’re pulled over on the streets of Indianapolis, the pilot program is aimed to find out if that traffic stop was racial profiling.

“This is not about us making more work for the officers. This is not that we believe the officers are doing anything wrong,” said IMPD Deputy Chief Kevin Wethington.

The program was created by IMPD, “It’s easy to use. It’s drop downs. No fill in the blanks,” Wethington said.

Things like sex, race, how long the stop lasted, why the stop was started, was the person searched, was the car searched, and why was the car searched are all categories officers will have to enter before submitting the form.

If done efficiently, IMPD said it could take 20-30 seconds.

“I don’t know that the line officers are going to be excited about a new mandate to do another step in traffic stops, but I believe the officers will embrace the why behind this,” Wethington said.

The why is to get a detailed picture of who they’re stopping, where, and why, even if that person doesn’t get a ticket or get arrested.

“This will actually answer those questions for the first time,” Wethington said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana fully supports the implementation of the program because of what the end data could show. It could lead to major changes in how policing is done in Indianapolis.

Is there any concern that there might actually be some sort of profiling, or racial profiling, that’s actively going on, but is just not known because there is no data?

“Yes. At the ACLU we have just seen example after example nation wide of police departments, even those who have policies in place and have good intent, engaging in racial profiling,” said Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana.

Wethington does not have those concerns about what the data will show.

“We stop criminals. We stop traffic offenders. We stop people that need to be stopped,” Wethington said.

IMPD told I-Team 8, once this program is up and running, they’ll have to pair up with a research team that will sift through all of this data to determine if there is any racial profiling going.

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Indianapolis, IN

Allegiant & Frontier add Indy flights as rival Spirit hits turbulence

Published

18 hours ago

November 19, 2024

Press Room

Allegiant & Frontier add Indy flights as rival Spirit hits turbulence

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — America’s largest ultra low-cost air carriers are on decidedly different flight paths this week.

One is struggling to survive, while two others are announcing expanded schedules – including new flights into and out of Indianapolis.

Spirit Airlines declared bankruptcy Monday in an attempt to reboot as it struggles to gain financial altitude lost during the pandemic travel swoon and the airline’s scuttled sale to JetBlue.

Spirit has worked out terms with its stakeholders leading to the Chapter 11 filing, and the carrier says it will keep operating as normal.

Now, Allegiant and Frontier announced Tuesday are rolling out new flight schedules.

In Allegiant’s case, it’s the company’s largest ever – with 44 new routes and service to three new cities.

“We’re excited to announce that Allegiant is expanding nationwide, offering even more travel options to our customers,” Drew Wells, Allegiant’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement accompanying the new schedule. “These additions reflect our ongoing commitment to meet customer demand. By connecting more cities, we’re making it easier for travelers to visit family and friends, access top leisure destinations, and create new memories.”

The headline addition for Indiana readers is a non-stop route between Indianapolis (IND) and Portland, Oregon (PDX), beginning May 23, 2025.

Allegiant is starting service to Gulf Shores, Alabama (GUF), Colorado Springs, Colorado (COS), and Columbia, South Carolina (CAE).

The additions bring Allegiant’s service map to 51 cities in all.

Frontier’s new Indianapolis offerings are non-stops to Tampa and Atlanta, allowing customers to skip the customary Denver connection that currently adds several hours and thousands to those routes.

The Tampa flights will debut March 6, 2025 and take off three times per week.
The Atlanta flights begin the next day, March 7, 2025 and also repeat three times each week.

Both airlines are offering introductory fares well below regular price. Frontier’s new IND flights start as low as $19. Allegiant’s begin at $79.

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