Andretti to Andretti

John Andretti will be returning to Indy this year in the #43 machine in a joint venture between Richard Petty and Andretti Autosport.

Last year J. Andretti and R. Petty competed as driver and owner respectively in conjunction with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. They started 28th (Andretti's lowest qualifying position ever at Indy) and finished 19th.

As a prelude to Indy, John Andretti will also be running at Kansas with Andretti Autosport and Richard Petty. This will be John's first time in a Dallara on a track other then Indy since his stint with Roth Racing in 2008.

The car will feature the familiar Petty colors and will carry Petty's famous #43.

This puts Andretti Autosport up to 5 cars for Kansas and the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, but more or less rules out J.R. Hildebrand running the fifth car for AA.

Perhaps this means rumors of J.R. starting his own team are more then simply fiction.

34 Confirmed

Once you count 1 Rahal-Letterman car (Servia) and the third KVRT car (Townsend Bell), we've just hit 34 cars confirmed. So we've basically confirmed bumping, unless someone doesn't make it to qualifying due to crash damage or something along those lines.

With Rookie Orientation finishing tomorrow due to the rain, we should see who is here for the full month tomorrow.

So let's recap the confirmed one offs.

• A.J. Foyt IV - A.J. Foyt Enterprises
• Buddy Lazier - Hemelgarn
• Scott Sharp - Panther
• Paul Tracy - KVRT
• Nelson Philippe - HVM
• John Andretti - D&R
• Davey Hamilton - D&R
• Alex Lloyd - Sam Schmidt
• Townsend Bell - KVRT
• Oriol Servia - RLR
• Will Power - Penske

Sure, I threw Will Power in there as a one-off, simply because the kid is in such a difficult position, and he is basically a one-off unless HCN or the Briscoe gets hurt (knock on wood) at some point during the season.

This has to be the most talented one-off fields since the split. You could make a strong argument for atleast 10 of the 11 to have a full time ride in the ICS, and you could pick 3 winners from this group (Power, Tracy and Sharp) and multiple outside bets (Servia, Lloyd, Foyt IV, and Bell). I'd be willing to bet money (with odds of course) that one of the one-offs will win this years version of the 500.

Whatever happens, this years race is shaping up to be quite a doozy. This much talent + the most historic track in the world = A Dream, and we get to live it.

Edit: Jeff over at MyNameIsIRL has informed me that Stanton Barrett's lack of sponsorship might drop him out of 500 contention.