Townsend Bell becomes latest stand in for Justin Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold

Wilson has been sidelined since fracturing a vertebrae in a practice incident at Lexington. Simon Pagenaud deputised for him that weekend, before Tomas Scheckter was called in at Loudon, and Giorgio Pantano was recruited for the following road and street races. But the team was looking for a different driver for the remaining oval rounds at Kentucky and Las Vegas.

Bell previously drove for Dreyer & Reinbold in a partial campaign in 2008. Since then his only outings have been in one-off drives at each season's Indianapolis 500.

"First off, I want to thank Justin for letting me borrow his racecar for these two events and I hope that he is recovering well," said Bell.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I'm really impressed with the technical commitment that the team has made since Indianapolis to give themselves the best chance for success on the mile and a half ovals, so it will be fun to see that put into action."

Team co-owner Dennis Reinbold said Bell would find the squad much stronger than when he was last part of the line-up three years ago.

"We are excited about having Townsend back with us and being able to put him in our car at Kentucky and Las Vegas," Reinbold said.

"We've both grown significantly since we worked together in 2008 and we feel Townsend will represent DRR and our partners very well to close out the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season."

The 36-year-old American will test for Dreyer & Reinbold at Kentucky today alongside team-mate Ana Beatriz.