Photo: Kevin Dejewski So who will fill the seats?įinding enough drivers to fill these larger grids will likely not be an issue, as driver interest in the sport is climbing ever higher. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan lineup is one of the as-yet undecided vacancies. These three additional entries alone will push the regular grid to 27 cars, and that does not include the usual spate of one-off entries that dot the track nearly every weekend. After all, the team is in the process of building a new 100,000 square foot race shop, and has already shown it has the manpower to efficiently operate three cars per weekend. RLL has not explicitly confirmed that the HyVee car will be run in addition to the two that the team currently fields, but it is widely expected to be so. The team has been running three cars at many of this year’s races, evaluating multiple drivers through single race deals in the #45 entry. It is also very likely that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will be running three full time entries in 2022, with HyVee stepping up as a major sponsor. To ensure they hit the grid running next year, the team is running the final three races this year in order to prepare itself for the busy season ahead. Photo: Kevin DejewskiĪlso confirmed is the return of Juncos Hollinger Racing, which will take a second stab at making the jump to Ind圜ar after its plans were derailed by the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. At times, there is not enough room on track for everyone. At least part of that dream will be realized next season when he has two consistent entries present on the grid for the entire schedule. Team owner Mike Shank has said that he doesn’t want to field a multitude of cars in the way Team Penske does, and will be completely satisfied to run two cars and fight for the win every weekend. The team was already on the cusp of a breakout result in recent years, but an Indianapolis 500 win with Helio Castroneves in May propelled the team’s already popular profile even higher. There has already been confirmation of one team expansion for next season, with Meyer Shank Racing set to run a second car for the full 2022 schedule. That number could be the norm in 2022, however, rather than the outlier. Last month, when the series was visiting the Indianapolis road course for a second time, there were an incredible 28 cars on the grid. This season has already seen some of the largest fields in the sport in a decade, with 24 full time entries being augmented by more and more single race agreements. But just how many new cars are we going to see in 2022? It is now becoming clear that the added attention is most certainly going to lead to larger grid sizes in the near future. The NTT Ind圜ar series has been on an upward trend the past few years, gaining popularity both among fans and participants all while navigating the unknown of a worldwide pandemic.

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