Jay Howard Enters 99th Indianapolis 500

Two hundred and one days until the 99th Indianapolis 500 and the entry list slowly trudges toward a full-field of thirty three cars.

Bryan Herta Autosport has announced they will field the #97 Green1 Dallara-Honda for 2006 Indy Pro Series champion Jay Howard. The British driver's last appearance was at the abandoned Las Vegas season finale in 2011 and last start was the 2011 Twin 275s from Texas Motor Speedway. This will be Howard's fifth time trying to make the Indianapolis 500. Howard has only been successful on one of his previous four attempts, however, two of those were out of his control. In 2008, Howard was set to make his Indianapolis 500 debut for Roth Racing. In his first four starts that season, Howard had finished 13th twice, 14th and 22nd but was removed from the car and replaced by John Andretti prior to Indianapolis. Howard would make one more start that season when Marty Roth sat out the Watkins Glen round and Howard ran for the Canadian.

It would be two years before Howard would make an IndyCar start as he was given the opportunity by Sarah Fisher Racing to put together a five-race deal. After having his Indianapolis 500 warm-up at Kansas end prematurely because of an accident, Howard found himself, Sebastián Saavedra and Paul Tracy fighting for the final spot in the 33-car field. After Saavedra had a practice accident on bump day, it appeared it would be between the former champion Tracy and Howard for the final spot. Both drivers ended up pulling times that would have been fast enough to make the race only to not be able to replicate or better that speed on following attempts. Saavedra ended up making the field and giving Bryan Herta Autosport their IndyCar debut.

Third time was the charm for Howard as he ran a dual-effort between Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He ended up being a first day qualified, ending up 20th ahead of the likes of Tony Kanaan, Paul Tracy, Danica Patrick, then-Penske driver Ryan Briscoe, Marco Andretti, Ganassi drivers Charlie Kimball and Graham Rahal, and Ryan Hunter-Reay. In the race, Howard was not as fortunate as he retired after 60 laps and finished 30th, the lowest rookie. The following year, Howard tried to make an Indianapolis return with Mike Shank Racing but with a shortage of engines, he and Shank never turned a wheel in 2012.

The Herta-Howard partnership is poetic justice. Had Howard kept his time in 2010, Bryan Herta Autosport misses the 94th Indianapolis 500 and who knows if he would have been able to make it back to Indianapolis in 2011 with Dan Wheldon as his driver. In a way, Herta owes Howard (and Tracy) for everything that has happened to him an IndyCar team owner. Without their lack of judgement, Herta might not be an Indianapolis 500 winning car owner and might not be a full-time team on the current IndyCar grid.

In the Racer.com story linked above it is stated that Herta is still working on a full-time entry for the 2015 season. News on a driver and sponsor could be coming in the next few weeks for the full-time entry.

With 201 days before the 99th Indianapolis 500, Jay Howard is the 20th entry announced for the famed race and 3rd one-off entry.

Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay will return with Andretti Autosport as should his teammates Marco Andretti and Carlos Muñoz.

Penske will be field four full-time cars with defending champion Will Power, Indianapolis 500 winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Hélio Castroneves and recently announced Simon Pagenaud as their fourth driver for 2015.

Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball should all return with Ganassi Racing.

A.J. Foyt Racing announced they will run Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth full-time in 2015.

The newly merged CFH Racing with field co-owner Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden.

James Hinchcliffe will driver for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Graham Rahal will be back with RLLR. Sébastien Bourdais is expected to be back at KV Racing.

The other announced one-off entries for 2015 are Bryan Clauson with Jonathan Byrd's Racing and Buddy Lazier with his family's team, Lazier Partners Racing.

There are still a few full-time entries still waiting to be announced, one of which is Bryan Herta Autosport. Andretti's #27 UFD Honda is open after Hinchcliffe moved to SPM. The #8 NTT Data Chevrolet appears to either be for Ryan Briscoe or Sage Karam. Mikhail Aleshin has not been confirmed as returning to the #7 SPM Honda but a return is possible. KV Racing has yet to announce if Bourdais will be joined by Saavedra for a 3rd consecutive season or if the Frenchman will have a new teammate. Finally, there are the two Dale Coyne entries which probably won't be announced until March 5th at the earliest.

With an estimated 24 full-time entries, along with the three known one-offs, the Indianapolis 500 entry list is currently estimated at 27 entries. No word on if Kurt Busch will return with Andretti but a 5th car isn't out of the question for that team. CFHR could field two Indianapolis 500-only teams. Other teams that fielded Indianapolis 500 one-offs last year were KV Racing, who fielded two cars, Coyne, RLLR, SPM and Dreyer and Reinbold Racing. Should all those one-offs return, the 99th Indianapolis 500 would have 36 entries and then there is the possibility of Fan Force United returning with Stefan Wilson as their driver.

Once again, we are 201 days away from the 99th Indianapolis 500 and 124 days away from the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season opener in Brasilia.