Michael Andretti has downplayed the possibility of his Andretti Autosport IndyCar squad adding a sixth car to its planned 2019 Indianapolis 500 assault.
Andretti announced on Wednesday that Conor Daly would join the team’s regular drivers Alexander Rossi, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Zach Veach for the race.
Andretti ran additional cars for Carlos Munoz and Stefan Wilson last year, with Wilson coming close to victory on a fuel gamble that eventually came up short.
Running extra cars is a sizeable undertaking for a team, with a rise in affiliations between existing outfits and new squads often shortcutting staffing and rising costs.
Asked whether his team would run a sixth car at the announcement of Daly’s Indy 500 drive, Andretti said: “At the moment, no.
“I won’t say it’s definitely out of the question, but it’s not looking like it.”
Explaining the commitment it takes to run extra cars, Andretti added: “That’s definitely a challenge.
“It comes down to putting the right personalities together. That’s not only in the driver situation, but it’s also with the engineers, mechanics, so on. That’s always a challenge that we have.
“I think we do a good job. We have five great teams that have a real shot at winning the race.
“I don’t know the exact number [of people] because there’s guys at the shop that work on different programmes, not just IndyCar and things like that.
“I’d say probably in the area of 89 people are on this project.”
Andretti also confirmed that Daly was unlikely to contest the Indianapolis road-course race prior to the Indy 500, a warm-up approach favoured by Helio Castroneves.
Daly believes his Andretti seat will give him the opportunity to achieve his best finish in the Indy 500.
He scored his current best result last year when he finished 21st driving for Dale Coyne Racing.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity. No one doubts the fact that Andretti has had so much success at the track, at the event, the whole series in general,” said Daly.
“I have two Indy 500 champions [Rossi and Hunter-Reay] as team-mates, just an incredible wealth of experience.
“It’s going to be awesome, certainly my best shot at the race ever.”
2019 Indy 500 line-up so far
Andretti Autosport: Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Zach Veach, Conor Daly
AJ Foyt: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist Carlin: Max Chilton, Charlie Kimball*
Chip Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist
Dale Coyne Racing: Sebastien Bourdais, Santino Ferrucci
DragonSpeed: Ben Hanley
Ed Carpenter Racing: Ed Carpenter, Spencer Pigot, Ed Jones (Scuderia Corsa)
Harding Steinbrenner Racing: Patricio O’Ward, Colton Herta
McLaren Racing: Fernando Alonso
Penske: Josef Newgarden, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Will Power
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Jordan King
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports: James Hinchcliffe, Marcus Ericsson, Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing)