99th running of the Indianapolis 500: Final starting grid

INDIANAPOLIS - With Buddy Lazier bumped out of the field last weekend, 33 cars will start the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500.

By country (11 total)

United States - 11

Australia - 4

Colombia - 4

UK - 4

France - 3

Brazilian - 2

Spain - 1

Canada - 1

Switzerland - 1

Japan - 1

Monaco - 1

By team (11 total)

Andretti Autosport - 5

Team Penske - 4 

Chip Ganassi Racing - 5

A.J. Foyt Racing - 3

Dale Coyne Racing - 3

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports - 3

Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing - 3

KV Racing Technology/KVSH Racing - 3

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - 2 

Dreyer and Reinbold – Kingdom Racing - 1

Bryan-Herta Autosport - 1

The front row

Scott Dixon earned pole position with a four-lap average of 226.760mph, his second pole in the 500. He started from the top spot in 2008 when he went on to win the event. Will Power will start on the front row for the third time in his career and is looking to complete to the sweep after winning the GP of Indy. Simon Pagenaud is the first Frenchman on the front row for the 500 since 1919 when both René Thomas and Albert Guyot did so.

Driver changes

Since qualifying, three cars have changed drivers. Due to injuries that were originally described as life-threatening after suffering a heavy crash (blamed on right front suspension failure) in Monday practice, James Hinchcliffe will not be able to take part in the race after qualifying 24th. Ryan Briscoe will replace him, running his tenth 500.

Dale Coyne Racing brought on Tristan Vautier to qualify the No. 19 Honda while the planned driver competed in a Pirelli World Challenge event in Canada. Davison will race the car. His teammate Carlos Huertas has been taken out of the No. 18 after an issue with his inner ear. As a result, Vautier will race the No. 18 after qualifying the No. 19.

All three of these cars will be sent to the back row due to the changes, moving last-place qualifier Bryan Clauson up from 33rd to 30th on the grid.

Other stats

The field is split almost equally on the manufacturer side with 17 Hondas and 16 Chevrolets. Alex Tagliani is the oldest driver in the field at 41 years old. There are two rookies in the field with Gabby Chaves (2014 Indy Lights champion) and Stefano Coletti (7x GP2 winner).

Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Juan Pablo Montoya are the only drivers to win the Indy 500 in previous years. Castroneves has the most start of any other driver in the field at 14.

Complete starting grid

Row	Inside		Middle		Outside
1	9	Scott Dixon	1	Will Power	22	Simon Pagenaud
2	10	Tony Kanaan	3	Hélio Castroneves	25	Justin Wilson
3	11	Sebastian Bourdais	27	Marco Andretti	21	Josef Newgarden
4	6	J. R. Hildebrand	26	Carlos Muñoz	20	Ed Carpenter
5	32	Oriol Servià	83	Charlie Kimball	2	Juan Pablo Montoya
6	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	15	Graham Rahal	29	Simona de Silvestro
7	7	James Jakes	48	Alex Tagliani	8	Sage Karam
8	43	Conor Daly	24	Townsend Bell	14	Takuma Sato
9	63	Pippa Mann	98	Gabby Chaves	17	Sebastián Saavedra
10	41	Jack Hawksworth	4	Stefano Coletti	88	Bryan Clauson
11	5	Ryan Briscoe	18	Tristan Vautier	19	James Davison