IRL expects to maintain field

There are currently 17 confirmed entries, with four cars from Andretti Green Racing, two apiece from Penske and Ganassi, and the Vision, Foyt, Dreyer & Reinbold, Panther, Newman/Haas/Lanigan, HVM, KV, Luczo Dragon and 3G teams all announcing one car each so far.

Several of the latter group are working on fielding additional cars, while Conquest, Dale Coyne, Pacific Coast and Rahal Letterman have yet to reveal their plans.

IRL commercial boss Terry Angstadt is confident that at least five more deals will be completed by the St Petersburg season-opener on April 5.

"I think we're looking at, I would say a low of 22 cars - and it could be 24 or 26," he said.

"We've got to have a couple things happen certainly to hit the high number. I think the low number is relatively secure. So we feel real good about that during this particular time.

"In a pretty tough time, I could not be more proud - of the drivers, of the teams, of the organisation - going forward."

But he added that the IRL would not provide any additional financial assistance to teams struggling to put programmes together, and confirmed that several of the incentive packages offered to ex-Champ Car teams last year had been withdrawn as planned, despite the changing economic situation.

"We have our own challenges in terms of making our series financially viable," said Angstadt. "As we know last year, to assist, we had the engine-based lease and chassis. This year it is just the chassis. It really is up to the talent of those teams to close the lease of the engine value gap.

"This is not news to anyone, certainly that we're in close touch with. We're not in a position to subsidise teams.

"We are working real hard to help secure sponsorship for teams with a dedicated sales team, doing presentations, doing research, trying to do all the things to assist. But writing cheques we just can't do."

Angstadt expects at least 18 cars to participate in next week's pre-season test at Homestead.