Graham Rahal back in Indy 500 field, replaces hurt Stefan Wilson - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS — Graham Rahal will get a chance to keep his Indianapolis 500 start streak intact after all, replacing the injured Stefan Wilson on Tuesday in the Dreyer & Reinbold entry after failing to qualify for the race with his own team.

Wilson was hospitalized with a fractured vertebra following a crash in practice Monday. He was ruled out of the race, and that left car owners Dennis Reinbold and Don Cusick scrambling for a replacement less than a week before Sunday's green flag.

Rahal was their first choice, but he'd spent his career tied to Honda, which powers the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team, while Dreyer & Reinbold runs engines from rival Chevrolet. Rahal also has considerable sponsorship on his full-time IndyCar team, and all of that led to some tricky negotiations for clearance from both manufacturers and sponsors to get the deal done.

«I spent my entire career in a Honda. I've never driven anything other than that,» Rahal said. «I wasn't sure we would get the releases in place to make this happen. They really came together, two manufacturers, to allow this to take place, to allow us to race Sunday, and hopefully allow us to move his car to the front and have a really strong run.»

Wilson qualified 25th in the 33-car field, ahead of all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan entries. But the driver change means Rahal will start last, alongside his usual teammate Jack Harvey, who had bumped him in the final seconds of qualifying.

«Jack hasn't got rid of me yet,» Rahal said with a smile.

Wilson was about an hour into a two-hour practice Monday when he was hit from behind by Katherine Legge, one of the other Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entries. Their two cars careened into the outer wall, and while Legge was able to