Scheckter joins Dale Coyne for Indy

The South African joins Coyne's full-time driver Justin Wilson, who claimed 15th on the grid last week, in the squad.

"We were working on several things in the off-season and talking to him for a while," said team boss Dale Coyne. "This kind of came together late, but we have a good second car and Tomas knows how to get around this place so we should be fine. Tomas and Justin will be a nice combination."

Scheckter, who had previously been linked to the new 3G team, said he had been impressed by Wilson and Coyne's form so far this year, and was also looking forward to being reunited with Bill Pappas, who was his engineer at Ganassi in 2003.

"I'm happy to be here and looking forward to it," said Scheckter.

"I had a great run at Indy with Bill and I like what Dale has done with the team and Justin has done in the car.

"I'm confident [Pappas] can give me a good car, and what's also good is that we don't have to build a relationship. We understand each other. Hopefully we can get up to speed quickly and start moving the programme forward."

Scheckter almost took victory in his first ever Indy 500 in 2002, only to crash out. He last contested a full IndyCar Series season with Vision Racing two years ago.