New Top Gun team completes 35-car Indy 500 entry list
A new startup IndyCar team, Top Gun Racing, will field a single-car entry for series returnee R.C. Enerson in this year's Indianapolis 500 to complete a 35-car entry.
The team co-owned by Gary Trout and Bill Throckmorton had planned to enter the 500 in 2020, but deferred its entry by a year when last year's race was held without fans in attendance.
Enerson, who finished fourth in Indy Lights in 2015, has made four starts in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing and Carlin, the most recent coming at Mid-Ohio in 2019 where he finished 17th.
The 24-year-old, an Indy 500 rookie, has driven for Top Gun in IndyCar's virtual iRacing Challenge event and made his testing bow with the team at Gateway earlier this week.
The Chevrolet-powered machine - one of 17 in the field, along with 18 Hondas - was dressed in a livery evoking the 1970 Indy 500 winning Vel's Parnelli entry piloted by Al Unser Sr.
Top Gun is one of three teams that are joining the IndyCar regulars for the year's biggest event.
Sage Karam has been entered by Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for its only confirmed outing of the year, while 2010 rookie of the year Simona de Silvestro returns for the first time since 2015 with the female-crewed Paretta Autosport entry, which has a technical alliance with Team Penske.
Further additional entries include two-time winner Juan Pablo Montoya - one of nine previous 500 victors, the most since 1992 - in a third Arrow McLaren SP machine, Marco Andretti and Stefan Wilson at Andretti Autosport, rookie Pietro Fittipaldi (Dale Coyne with Rick Ware Racing), Charlie Kimball and JR Hildebrand at AJ Foyt Racing, Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Santino Ferrucci (Rahal Letterman Lanigan).
RC Enerson, Carlin Chevrolet
Photo by: IndyCar Series
As a result, 'bumping' will return for the 2021 edition of the race - with 33 entries permitted to start - after just 33 cars were entered in 2020.
Fernando Alonso's McLaren entry was memorably bumped from the field in 2019 by a last-gasp effort from Juncos Racing driver Kyle Kaiser, while Marco Andretti bumped team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay from the field in 2011 before Hunter-Reay's backers reached a deal with AJ Foyt Racing to take over Bruno Junqueira's one-off entry.
Team Penske drivers Al Unser Jr and Emerson Fittipaldi famously failed to qualify in 1995.
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