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Indianapolis 500 secures 33-car field for 2012 race

The first Indianapolis 500 to be held under IndyCar's new technical regulations will feature a full field of 33 cars, with 34 entries being received for the event

Despite some fears that it may not be possible to supply enough equipment for the expanded Indy 500 field in the first year of IndyCar's new technical rules, there will be at least one non-qualifier on Bump Day.

Eight additional entries have been placed in addition to the 26 regular IndyCar competitors.

Andretti Autosport will expand from its usual three car line-up to five, adding Ana Beatriz and Sebastian Saavedra, with the former's entry run in collaboration with Conquest Racing.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan's second car will join the fray from Indianapolis onwards. This had been earmarked for GP2 convert Luca Filippi, but there have been reports that Champ Car race-winner and former Team Rahal driver Michel Jourdain Jr could make a single-seater comeback in the car for Indy only, with Filippi's IndyCar debut pushed back to Detroit.

The Ed Carpenter Racing, Sarah Fisher Hartman, AJ Foyt and Schmidt-Hamilton teams will also run additional entries. Brian Clauson and Wade Cunningham have been confirmed for Fisher and Foyt respectively, with 2004 Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice and event regular Townsend Bell linked to Carpenter and Schmidt.

The other extra entry is a return for Newman/Haas. Ex-Formula 1 driver Jean Alesi has announced that he will drive this car, which will be Lotus-powered. Alesi is now a Lotus advisor and will be making his first attempt at oval racing, a decade after retiring from F1. Newman/Haas withdrew from IndyCar at the end of 2011 due to a lack of sponsorship.

No.  Driver               Team (Engine)
2    Ryan Briscoe         Team Penske (Chevrolet)
3    Helio Castroneves    Team Penske (Chevrolet)
4    JR Hildebrand        Panther Racing (Chevrolet)
5    EJ Viso              KV Racing Technology (Chevrolet)
6    Katherine Legge      Dragon Racing (Lotus)
7    Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Racing (Lotus)
8    Rubens Barrichello   KV Racing Technology (Chevrolet)
9    Scott Dixon          Target Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
10   Dario Franchitti     Target Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
11   Tony Kanaan          KV Racing Technology (Chevrolet)
12   Will Power           Team Penske (Chevrolet)
14   Mike Conway          AJ Foyt Enterprises (Honda)
15   Takuma Sato          Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
17   Sebastian Saavedra   AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet)
18   Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)
19   James Jakes          Dale Coyne Racing (Honda)
20   Ed Carpenter         Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)
21   TBA                  Ed Carpenter Racing (Chevrolet)
22   Oriol Servia         Lotus DRR (Lotus)
25   Ana Beatriz          Andretti Autosport/Conquest (Chevrolet)
26   Marco Andretti       Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet)
27   James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet)
28   Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Autosport (Chevrolet)
38   Graham Rahal         Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing (Honda)
39   Bryan Clauson        Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (Honda)
41   Wade Cunningham      AJ Foyt Enterprises (Honda)
45   TBA                  Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Honda)
67   Josef Newgarden      Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (Honda)
77   Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports (Honda)
78   Simona de Silvestro  Lotus HVM Racing (Lotus)
83   Charlie Kimball      Novo Nordisk Ganassi Racing (Honda)
98   Alex Tagliani        Bryan Herta Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian (Lotus)
99   TBA                  Sam Schmidt Motorsports (Honda)
TBA  TBA                  Newman/Haas Racing (Lotus)

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