The pursuit of the latter occurs Tuesday when Mick Schumacher takes his first official step in practice for the 110th Running. The six-hour session begins at noon ET.<\/p>\n
Schumacher (photo, top) is the son of motorsports legend Michael Schumacher, a seven-time Formula One World Champion who won five races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in the 2000s. The second-generation driver has competed in six NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, including last weekend\u2019s Sonsio Grand Prix, but only once has he done so on an oval track, starting fourth and finishing 18th in the Good Ranchers 250 on March 7 at Phoenix Raceway. An air gun failure during an early pit stop knocked him off the lead lap.<\/p>\n
Schumacher has two F1 seasons on his resume, and his adaptation to the historic IMS oval will be one of the more interesting aspects of this year\u2019s event. He drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, giving him a wealth of team experience to draw from. Takuma Sato is a two-time \u201c500\u201d winner with 16 Indy starts; Graham Rahal is competing here for the 19th time. RLL is co-owned by 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal, who had 13 starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOval racing (requires) a very different approach; (it\u2019s) a very different beast,\u201d said Schumacher, who got his first taste of IMS during last month\u2019s two-day Indianapolis 500 Open Test (his best lap ranked 20th). \u201cThe good thing is we have a lot of days of (practice) here, which will hopefully bring us into a good mood and a good place to start the qualifying day. I think that\u2019s really where our eyes are focused on right now, just trying to figure out (qualifying speed).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to go quick around this place. I think we (will) have a good car, and it is just a matter of putting it all together and, hopefully then, have a good Indy 500.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schumacher is one of three Indy first-timers entered in the 33-car field, the others being Dale Coyne Racing\u2019s Dennis Hauger and AJ Foyt Racing\u2019s Caio Collet. Those two were 1-2 in the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone standings, and Collet posted the fastest speed of last month\u2019s Open Test. Jacob Abel is the fourth Rookie of the Year candidate, although he practiced before failing to qualify for last year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
At the other end of the experience spectrum are nine past winners, one short of the record set in 1992. Reigning champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing will bid to become the seventh driver in history \u2013 and third in this field \u2013 to win Indy in consecutive years. Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden accomplished the feat in 2002 and 2024, respectively.<\/p>\n
![\"Helio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-11-Castroneves.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Castroneves (photo, above) will take his fifth shot with Meyer Shank Racing w\/Curb-Agajanian at becoming the event\u2019s first five-time winner. Newgarden will aim to give Team Penske its record-extending 21st Indy victory.<\/p>\n
Two teams have entered two past \u201c500\u201d winners. CGR has Palou and 2008 winner Scott Dixon; Andretti Global has 2018 champion Will Power and 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson. Arrow McLaren has 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, and ECR has 2016 winner Alexander Rossi.<\/p>\n
Three other drivers have been tantalizingly close to winning Indy for the first time. Arrow McLaren\u2019s Pato O\u2019Ward finished second in 2022 and 2024, while David Malukas, who moved to Team Penske in the offseason, finished second with AJ Foyt Racing last year. Ed Carpenter finished second in 2018 with the team he owns.<\/p>\n
![\"Katherine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/05-11-Legge.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Katherine Legge (photo, above) of HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing is the only woman in the field.<\/p>\n
The race is Sunday, May 24 (10 a.m. ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). The green flag is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
Beginning Tuesday, teams will start preparing for PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying on the weekend. All cars will be allowed multiple four-lap qualifying runs Saturday, and the fastest 15 drivers will advance to Sunday\u2019s action. That\u2019s where the NTT P1 Award will be at stake, and it took a four-lap average of 232.790 mph to win the pole last year.<\/p>\n
Dixon is a five-time Indy pole winner, aiming to tie Rick Mears\u2019 record. Castroneves has won four poles and Carpenter three. Other former pole winners in this field include Palou (2023) and Team Penske\u2019s Scott McLaughlin (2024).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to get up to speed, oval style.<\/p>\n
CHEVROLET PARTICIPANTS<\/p>\n
Abel Motorsports: Jacob Abel<\/p>\n
Arrow McLaren: Pato O\u2019Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Nolan Siegel, Ryan Hunter-Reay<\/p>\n
AJ Foyt Racing: Santino Ferrucci, Caio Collet, Katherine Legge<\/p>\n
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing: Jack Harvey, Conor Daly<\/p>\n
ECR: Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter<\/p>\n
Juncos Hollinger Racing: Rinus VeeKay, Sting Ray Robb<\/p>\n
Team Penske: Josef Newgarden, David Malukas, Scott McLaughlin<\/p>\n
HONDA PARTICIPANTS<\/p>\n
Andretti Global: Marcus Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood, Will Power<\/p>\n
Chip Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson<\/p>\n
Dale Coyne Racing: Romain Grosjean, Dennis Hauger<\/p>\n
Meyer Shank Racing w\/Curb Agajanian: Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist, Helio Castroneves<\/p>\n
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Graham Rahal, Louis Foster, Mick Schumacher, Takuma Sato<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Andretti family have made a record 80 starts in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-436856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}