INDIANAPOLIS — Practice for the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge began this afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with eight former winners and five NTT IndyCar Series champions among the participants.
There are 34 entries set to contest the 33 starting spots for this year’s edition of the 500. Practice is scheduled to start today, with PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying on May 17-18. All track activity on the historic 2.5-mile oval leads into Race Day, Sunday, May 25.
Josef Newgarden earned his second career 500 victory last May after passing Pato O’Ward on the final lap, his second straight Lap 200 pass to earn another spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
Newgarden became just the sixth driver to win The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in consecutive years, joining Wilbur Shaw (1939-40), Mauri Rose (1947-48), Bill Vukovich (1953-54), Al Unser (1970-71) and Helio Castroneves (2001-02). No driver ever has won three in a row, Newgarden’s target this May.
Other former winners aiming for a spot in the race this year include four-time winner Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021) and two-time winner Takuma Sato (2017, 2020), plus single winners Scott Dixon (2008), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Alexander Rossi (2016), Will Power (2018) and Marcus Ericsson (2022). The record for winners in one field is 10, set in 1992.
Castroneves earned a spot with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears in the most prestigious club in motorsports – four-time winners of the Indianapolis 500 – with his emotional victory in 2021, for Meyer Shank Racing. A record-breaking fifth would put Castroneves alone at the top with most victories. Additionally, Castroneves is 50 years old, and a victory would make him the oldest winner in 500 history, a record held by Unser, who won the 1987 edition just five days shy of his 48th birthday.
The field includes five past IndyCar champions: Dixon, Hunter-Reay, Newgarden, two-time reigning champion Alex Palou and Power.
2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson will attempt for the second straight year to become the fifth driver to complete the Memorial Day “double” of racing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day, joining John Andretti, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch. The last driver to complete the feat was Busch in 2014.
Larson earned 500 Rookie of the Year honors last year after qualifying fifth and finishing 18th. But he never turned a wheel in the NASCAR race at Charlotte due to rain ending the race early just as he arrived at the track.
Four drivers are competing for Rookie of the Year honors in 2025: Jacob Abel, Louis Foster, Nolan Siegel and Robert Shwartzman.
