Barron to replace Luyendyk at Mo Nunn

After Luyendyk withdrew from the race following a crash in practice last Friday, the team was quick to hire Barron, who shared rookie of the year honours and won one race in last year's championship, but has been out of a drive since Blair Racing went bust. He has raced just once this year, standing in for the injured Gil de Ferran at Penske for the Motegi round.

"I'm very happy because this is a terrific opportunity for me with a first-rate team and a great engine-chassis package that I'm really familiar with," said Barron. "It's not the greatest of circumstances because I'm driving in place of a true legend here at the Speedway, but I hope we can carry on the team's goal of fielding a potential race-winning effort."

Mo Nunn said the decision to hire Barron wasn't hard. "It wasn't a very difficult decision to go with Alex, when you really think about it," said Nunn. "We feel Alex comes to us with the highest credentials available. He tested here. He raced this package in Japan. I have every reason to expect that we can keep working toward our goal in the relatively short time we have left."

Nunn is fielding a three-car effort for this year's race, with Barron competing alongside regular drivers Tora Takagi and Felipe Giaffone.