Indy Racing League president of competition Brian Barnhart has admitted that he expects to see new combinations attempting to qualify for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 next weekend, taking the numbers above the maximum permitted to start the race.
Speaking after he had confirmed that the second scheduled day of qualifying at the Brickyard was to be abandoned because of rain, Barnhart confirmed that he expected several teams and drivers to embark on limited practice before this weekend's qualifying and 'bump' procedures.
“I think, with the 33 that have run so far, there are at least three or four that have scheduled short programmes that begin next Wednesday," he reckoned, "I think you'll probably see a second Foyt car come out. Greg Beck is scheduled to start running, although he hasn't named a driver yet, Hemelgarn will come back with 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier, and American Dream Racing has talked about doing a programme as well. So, I think you might see us up around 37 combinations by the end of next weekend.”
American Dream Racing recently bought Playa Del Racing, which is entered for the 500 with the #21 Panoz, the only such chassis in the field.
Beck, meanwhile, is likely to choose between California natives Alex Barron and Roger Yasukawa for his lone entry. Barron has five Indy 500 starts, including last year for the Beck team after joining up the day before the second weekend of qualifying. With very little track time, he qualified 26th, ran as high as eleventh and finished 15th in the race.
Yasukawa has also had five Indy 500 starts, starting 23rd last year for Dreyer & Reinbold and finishing 21st.
Beck's team is also reportedly talking with Jaques Lazier, but everything depends on funding. Last year, Beck ran with no sponsorship, but he has no plan to do that again this year. The decision on a driver will be made in the next couple of days.
![Alex Barron - Beck Motorsports [pic credit: IRL/McQueeney]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/317631.jpg)
