Actually, that's not true. Instead, it was their respective team owners - Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi - who confirmed that their charges would be absent from the month of may.
Both will instead concentrate on preparing for the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, which coincides with the 500.
Saturday PM: Pointers on points
Indianapolis Motor Speedway executive vice-president of communications Fred Nation is attending his first-ever Grand Prix of Long Beach, joining several other key IMS/Indy Racing League officials on site this weekend.
Nation confirmed talk of how the points are to be granted for CCWS and IRL drivers, who are racing in two separate events on two continents this weekend. The IRL is racing, or trying to race, at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan while the CCWS is racing at Long Beach. In order to be equitable for the CCWS drivers who have joined IRL, points will be granted to drivers in each race.
Saturday's attempt to run the IRL race in Japan has been rained out, as had been qualifying on Friday, nd, if the race doesn't run, then no drivers at
either race will receive points this weekend - which is why the drivers at Long Beach are really hoping that the Motegi race runs.
Further clarification was also made on the status of IRL running at the Grand Prix of Long Beach next year. Jim Michaelian, president of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, confirmed that an informal agreement exists for the IRL to run the Grand Prix of Long Beach for five years, but the formal contract has yet to be signed as it is being fine tuned.
Saturday PM: Manic Monday?
Champ Car spokesman David Higdon has said that, if the IRL race at Twin Ring Motegi gets rained out for a second time on Sunday, there's talk of running on Monday just so the race will happen.
