Indy 500 2019: The team by team guide

The headline grabbing upset of qualifying is now history, it's nearly race day for the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

While IndyCar's 'big three' Penske, Andretti Autosport and Ganassi have shared the wins at the great Speedway for the past five years, Ed Carpenter Racing - three times a polesitter but not yet an Indy 500 winner - is in the thick of things with Penske at the front of the grid again.

With Chevrolet holding the qualifying edge, Honda's big guns Andretti and Ganassi start further down the grid but are sure to move forward on race day.

Throw in the classic Indy 500 underdog tales up and down the start order, and everything is in place for another ferociously competitive race. Here's our rundown of the field.

Team Penske

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying results: 1 Simon Pagenaud; 6 Will Power; 8 Josef Newgarden; 12 Helio Castroneves

When predicting form, Team Penske's total of 17 Indianapolis 500 victories in the past 50 years is probably less important than the fact that it has won two of the past four.

Will Power is the 2018 winner, Josef Newgarden and this year's polesitter Simon Pagenaud have started on the front row and led laps, and all have the self-restraint to avoid significant errors in the heat of battle.

Castroneves's part-time crew will be better drilled than most other teams' full-timers

Three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves is less familiar with the current car simply because he's a part-timer, and that probably contributed to his mistake last year. But he and his engineers will have learned from that. All three full-time crews are near-exemplary, while Castroneves's crew will be better drilled than most other teams' full-timers.

In the first couple of days of practice, Firestone's new rubber meant that Team Penske - and indeed, all teams - had to recalibrate its set-ups to find ones that allowed its cars to run comfortably in traffic but also swiftly out front.

By the second day, both Power and Pagenaud were notably comfortable running in the wake of other cars and were also not losing time after being passed - an absolutely crucial attribute that means a driver doesn't lose touch with their rival.

The other big part of the equation, of course, is the Chevrolet engine. Given how little the manufacturers were allowed to alter things in the off-season, it's not unreasonable to expect the Chevys to again have a slight edge - and the qualifying results certainly point in that direction.

That said, the Honda is notably more fuel-efficient even on superspeedways. If the Chevrolet cars have to run a slightly leaner fuel mixture more often, then any power advantage is likely to be negated, which is part of the reason why Scott Dixon, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi became very prominent on race day in 2018.

Despite Firestone's and IndyCar's best efforts to improve the cars' ability to run close and make passes, most drivers are reporting only a marginal improvement, at least in hot weather, so a lot of emphasis has been put on qualifying near the front. That should be good news for Pagenaud in particular.

Ed Carpenter Racing

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying results: 2 Ed Carpenter; 3 Spencer Pigot; 4 Ed Jones

Remember when Ed Carpenter was sneered at for being in the 'Lucky Sperm Club' as nephew of series chief Tony George, and regarded as a driver who only shone in the Indy Racing League era when keeping the throttle jammed open and steering was all that was required?

Those days are long gone: Carpenter has been an oval ace in several breeds of IndyCar, and is a wise and cool-headed team owner.

The three-time Indy 500 polesitter took just 3.1589 seconds longer than Power to complete last year's race, and all three ECR cars are fast again in 2019, qualifying second, third and fourth for Sunday's race.

The 2016 Indy Lights champion Jones, normally driving road/street courses in the #20 car, will be piloting the #63 Scuderia Corsa entry. Should their confidence be 100% intact - and ECR car set-ups do instil that - both 2015 Lights champion Pigot and Jones tend to bely their out-of-cockpit shyness with a fighting spirit similar to that of their boss.

Harding Steinbrenner Racing

Engine: Honda
Qualifying result: 5 Colton Herta

Colton Herta, the youngest ever IndyCar winner as his garage's sign proudly proclaims, looked at least as strong as his semi-team-mates at Andretti Autosport during practice - then he cranked it up, qualifying well ahead of them all in fifth place.

His win here last year in Indy Lights has of course made him relatively comfortable at the Speedway. But it's his productive relationship with race engineer Nathan O'Rourke that has made him a factor on all types of track in IndyCar. Herta is probably the rookie best prepared to win the Indy 500 since Marco Andretti in 2006.

Dale Coyne Racing

Engine: Honda
Qualifying results: 7 Sebastien Bourdais; 15 James Davison; 23 Santino Ferrucci

For some strange reason Sebastien Bourdais took about 10 years to shrug off the 'doesn't like ovals' tag, despite twice winning on the Milwaukee Mile and twice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

When he crashed so hideously at Indy in 2017, it was brought on by overconfidence in a car that would likely have made him contend for pole against Scott Dixon.

When he came back to qualify fifth last year, the four-time Champ Car champion was the fastest Honda driver in the field and everyone's admiration for him skyrocketed. The fact that he shunted the Vasser-Sullivan car on race day and had been struggling in traffic was regarded as being against the run of play.

Bourdais can't expect much help from rookie team-mate Santino Ferrucci because their driving styles are strikingly different

But Dale Coyne these days comes to the Speedway expecting his team to be a contender, and that truly signifies how far DCR has come by employing ace race engineers Craig Hampson, Olivier Boisson and Michael Cannon.

Alex Lloyd's fourth place for Coyne back in 2010 looked like a slightly freaky one-off, whereas Ed Jones's third place in 2017 was actually an anti-climax because he had looked like a winning contender until picking up car damage.

Bourdais can't expect much help from rookie full-time team-mate Santino Ferrucci, but he's well used to that already because their driving styles are strikingly different on all tracks. Bourdais and Hampson work superbly together, and form a combination capable of taking down the big three teams.

Ferrucci has done a fine job of keeping out of trouble and his personality is such that even a wall-banger would be unlikely to dent his confidence.

One-off team-mate James Davison immediately made an impression this year with his crash helmet, which pays tribute to his Second World War pilot ace grandfather Tony Gaze.

He headed into qualifying looking like a contender to DNQ, but is very brave and can cause surprises - witness his 15th-place grid slot.

Andretti Autosport

Engine: Honda
Qualifying results: 9 Alexander Rossi; 10 Marco Andretti; 11 Conor Daly; 22 Ryan Hunter-Reay; 29 Zach Veach

Wherever they start in the pack, you expect to see at least a couple of Andretti Autosport drivers contending for the win in the final stint.

Team owner Michael Andretti was phenomenally unlucky at the Brickyard as a driver - remember, he's winless despite leading a couple more laps here than four-time winner Rick Mears! But the gods have smiled on him (usually) as a team owner, and Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato have all won here in Andretti cars.

Marco Andretti has looked fast without a tow in the orange car that pays tribute to grandfather Mario's 1969 Indy-winning Hawk. Rossi, the 2016 winner, had two days of being supremely comfortable in traffic, but then struggled in Thursday's practice session. He found his pace again in qualifying, lining up ninth.

Conor Daly can't believe his luck at being in a team with a well-sorted chassis, a slick operation and reams of planning and detail

Series sophomore Zach Veach has looked fine on both counts - and impressively composed too. Perhaps surprisingly it's been 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay who has struggled most to find a handling balance that suits him, as well as ultimate speed. But heck, he won from 19th on the grid here five years ago, and this year starts 22nd; RHR and race engineer Ray Gosselin are almost indefatigable when it comes to hunting for strong race-day set-ups.

As for 'one-off' fifth driver Conor Daly, he can't believe his luck at being in a team with a well-sorted chassis, a slick operation and reams of planning and details for each day's programme. He has responded well in the strikingly handsome US Air Force car, qualifying just two places outside the Fast Nine pole shootout group.

As for the team itself, it is full of topline staffers, starting with chief operating officer Rob Edwards, and the pitcrews appear to give little or nothing away to those at Penske and Ganassi. Assuming Honda can match Chevy's race-day power, Andretti should be able to rival fellow HPD runner Ganassi and fight for the win.

Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

Engine: Honda
Qualifying results: 13 Marcus Ericsson; 19 Oriol Servia; 25 Jack Harvey; 32 James Hinchcliffe

This team, like its veteran ace James Hinchcliffe, knows most of the highs and lows offered by the Speedway. A monstrous crash in 2015 that put Hinchcliffe out of action for the rest of the season was followed by him winning an emotional 500 pole a year later, and then a gut-wrenching DNQ last season.

Self-examination focused on procedure both in the garages and in the qualifying line has helped prevent a recurrence of that faux-pas, while heavy investment by Arrow and a renewed emphasis on superspeedway pace should improve the team's performance.

Even so, Hinchcliffe only just made the field on Bump Day, while Formula 1 exile Marcus Ericsson topped the SPM quartet on his oval debut.

Jack Harvey and the Meyer Shank Racing part of the team are getting up to speed on left-turn-only tracks, and veteran Oriol Servia in the Indy-only entry is very switched on to engineering complexities. He and Hinchcliffe are ex-team-mates who know how a strong oval car should feel.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Engine: Honda
Qualifying results: 14 Takuma Sato; 17 Graham Rahal; 26 Jordan King

The team owned by 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Mike Lanigan is almost overflowing with talent in the engineering department, and there's nothing wrong with the driver line-up.

The 2017 winner, Takuma Sato, is obviously a great asset even if he's yet to find an oval set-up that suits him with the current IndyCar.

Graham Rahal - unlike his full-time team-mate - is quite brilliant at weighing up the feasible and the impossible and then making smart decisions on race day, although last week Rahal sounded like he was backtracking on his initially positive verdict on Indy's tweaked tyre/aero package and the ability to race close in dirty air.

One-off series returnee Jordan King, due to make his oval racing debut this weekend, breezed through his Rookie Orientation and qualified solidly, and should therefore be a strong contender for Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honours, but a hot and treacherous track will present a huge challenge for all drivers, especially the newbies.

AJ Foyt Enterprises

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying results: 16 Tony Kanaan; 24 Matheus Leist

This race takes priority over all others for team owner and four-time Indy winner AJ Foyt, and that's reflected in the squad's performance each year.

Last season was hellish for the team that operates one car out of Waller, Texas, and one out of Indianapolis. But at Indy, 2013 winner Tony Kanaan and rookie team-mate Matheus Leist qualified 10th and 11th, while on race day Kanaan led laps and Leist finished in the top 15.

In the opening couple of days of practice last week, Kanaan was in the top three in lap speeds set without a tow, although he eventually qualified 16th and his team-mate was 24th.

Race engineer Eric Cowden understands Kanaan and they both know exactly what's required to succeed at the Speedway. But desperation to succeed on one of the few tracks - perhaps the only one - where the team is likely to be competitive can often bring too much pressure...

Leist's flair gave the team its best finish for years - fourth place - in the wet race on the Indianapolis road course, and replicating that result in the 500 would be a very respectable outcome for the series sophomore.

Chip Ganassi Racing

Engine: Honda
Qualifying results: 18 Scott Dixon; 29 Felix Rosenqvist

Scott Dixon should probably have more than 'just' one Indy 500 win to his name, but maybe the payback for any misfortunes here was his being able to walk away - OK, hobble - from that spectacular race-day shunt in 2017. Ganassi has four Indy wins but none since Dario Franchitti led Dixon in a one-two back in 2012.

But the team and its five-time series champion are almost always a factor, whether it's through ambitious fuel strategy as per last year, or great pace and slick pitstops as per most years. If Honda is on it, you can pretty much guarantee that so too will be CGR and its 2008 Indy winner.

Felix Rosenqvist's shunt on the second day of practice will not help his confidence on ovals, at which he struggled (relative to his own high standards) in his part-time Indy Lights season back in 2016.

But the Swede, who starts 29th, is a spectacular talent who is smart enough to learn from the error, resilient enough to bounce back to form, and is in a team that will deliver him a highly competitive car.

Carlin

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying result: 20 Charlie Kimball

Trevor Carlin's team rather astonished everyone this time last year when Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton qualified 15th and 20th for the squad's first Indy 500.

But this year the shockwaves were reverberating for rather different reasons when only one of the team's cars made the cut in qualifying. Charlie Kimball will pilot Carlin's sole Chevrolet-powered entry after qualifying in 20th place.

Indy has taken a chunk out of Carlin in its sophomore year

Chilton, who led 50 laps of the 2017 Indy 500 for Ganassi, spectacular rookie Patricio O'Ward and, generating the biggest headlines, McLaren Racing's affiliated entry with Fernando Alonso won't be on the grid on Sunday.

Indy can bite hardest on its freshers, but in this case it's taken a chunk out of Carlin - one of the greatest ever teams in spec racing series - in its sophomore year.

Kimball used to be too aggressive for his own good, yet always behaved and performed well around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - the high point was third place in 2015. He also has several years of Ganassi experience, helping to steer Carlin through new territory, and his input remains valuable.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying results: 21 JR Hildebrand; 31 Sage Karam

DRR is one of the most respected Indy-only teams of the past few decades. Team owner Dennis Reinbold has shown faith in Sage Karam, who is driving for him for the fifth time in six years. Reinbold believes the 2013 Indy Lights champion's natural pace, especially on ovals, is astonishing.

Still, the fearless 24-year-old hasn't finished an Indy 500 since his debut in 2014, so that stat needs to change. But his storming run to outpace James Hinchcliffe and Fernando Alonso in last row qualifier was a reminder of what Reinbold sees in him.

JR Hildebrand is one of the brightest drivers, but you can't help but wonder if his last-corner/last-lap disaster at Indy in 2011 will remain his best ever chance of winning on Memorial Day weekend.

The D&RR team will surely provide him with a fast car and Chevrolet should be the best engine, but it's so hard for a part-time team to go up against the 'big three' and Ed Carpenter Racing at the Speedway.

Reinbold occasionally talks about running more rounds - the team last competed full-time in IndyCar in 2012 - and until he does so, the consensus is that a fifth or sixth place at Indy is likely to be considered the equivalent of a victory.

DragonSpeed

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying result: 27 Ben Hanley

The well-worn phrase about drinking from the firehose is very apt here, but team owner Elton Julian should be in the IndyCar Series full-time: unlike in F1, good drivers can be good team owners here.

DragonSpeed has started just two races so far, but each time driver Ben Hanley has been impressively close to the pace given his lack of experience in open-wheel at this level. At Indy, that trend has continued and Hanley has made it in comfortably, starting 27th.

Clauson-Marshall Racing

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying result: 30 Pippa Mann

Pippa Mann has become one of the most popular members of the Indy-only entrants due to her fan-friendly savvy, determination and genuine appreciation for the Indianapolis 500.

Her DNQ last year would cause weaker folk to buckle, but her burgeoning relationship with the Clauson family helped make this happen, while the fact that the team owners have a third AJ Foyt Racing Dallara-Chevrolet has helped ensure she's in the show.

It will be an uphill battle from her 30th-place grid slot, but everyone involved has the grit to make it to the chequered flag.

Juncos Racing

Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying result: 33 Kyle Kaiser

It was sad for 2017 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kaiser that ahead of qualifying the prime talking point surrounding Juncos Racing's third crack at the Indy 500 was primarily about the team's stark lack of funding, after two prime sponsors backed out.

Then Kaiser bumped double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso out of the race, despite a scramble to get a back-up car ready following a practice crash.

That certainly put the spotlight on Ricardo Juncos's team, and helped his endeavours to ensure that the car doesn't start all-white...