Penske hints Barron could get Indy shot
Roger Penske has left the door open for American driver Alex Barron to race for his team in the Indianapolis 500
Penske has said that his team is committed to running two cars at Indy, but once regular drivers Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran have safely qualified for the race, Barron might receive the nod to qualify a third car.
"At the moment, our whole focus is to get the two cars in the field," said Penske. "We wouldn't put anybody in the third car to practice until we had both cars in the race."
The Penske team has entered four cars into this year's race to ensure its regular drivers the best chance of qualifying. But Penske has also conceded that he might offer the third car to Barron is it appears that the field might fall short of the standard 33 car grid.
"The way I look at it, if we have three cars in the race, our statistical chances of winning the race are that much better," said Penske. "Three in 33 is better than two in 20-whatever it might be. But at this point, I'm not really in a position to say whether we'll run three or not."
Barron subbed for de Ferran at the Motegi race last month while the Brazilian recovered from injuries sustained in a crash in March at Phoenix.
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