Curt Cavin

curt.cavin@indystar.com

The Indianapolis 500 is close to gaining another car-and-driver combination, and this one involves a high school senior.

Sage Karam, the winner of last season's Indy Lights championship, is working toward having a program finalized with Indianapolis-based Ganassi Racing, a senior team official told The Indianapolis Star. The car number hasn't been identified, but the Nazareth, Pa., resident will drive a Chevrolet-powered Dallara alongside last year's 500 champion Tony Kanaan, reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, Charlie Kimball and Ryan Briscoe.

Steve Lauletta, the president of Chip Ganassi's team, confirmed the effort.

"We hope to get everything done early (this) week," he said. "It looks good."

Assuming Karam qualifies for the May 25 race, he will compete in the 500 on the same weekend he graduates from high school.

Assuming no other 500 program is confirmed before Karam's, he will become the 30th participant. Thirty-three is the traditional number. Dale Coyne Racing is currently being counted as having one car, although it will have two based on Leaders Circle commitments. Dale Coyne could end up with three cars in the 500 as he did last year.

Bryan Herta Autosport will not field a second entry as hoped, team co-owner Bryan Herta said.

The last remaining 500 entries figure to come from car owners Dennis Reinbold, Davey Hamilton and a yet-to-be-identified team that plans to field rookie driver Stefan Wilson.

Confirmed participants:

Chevrolet (13)

Ed Carpenter Racing: Ed Carpenter, JR Hildebrand

Ganassi Racing: Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball

Team Penske: Helio Castroneves, Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya

KV Racing Technology: Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastian Saavedra, Townsend Bell

Lazier Racing Partners: Buddy Lazier

Honda (17)

Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing: Josef Newgarden, Alex Tagliani

Andretti Autosport: Kurt Busch, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, Carlos Munoz

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports: Jacques Villeneuve, Mikhail Aleshin, Simon Pagenaud

A.J. Foyt Racing: Takuma Sato, Martin Plowman

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Graham Rahal, Oriol Servia

Dale Coyne Racing: Justin Wilson, plus TBA

Bryan Herta Autosport: Jack Hawksworth