Indianapolis 500 veterans Richie Hearn and Robbie McGehee are poised to return to the ꦓevent thisܫ season, having landed late deals with Sam Schmidt Motorsport and PDM Racing respectively.

Hearn's deal is notable in that it is also marks Sam Schmidt Motorsports' own return to the IRL, having leased a Panoz/G-Force-Toyota package from Indy-meisters Penske. The ch🐼ampion team looks set to run a pair of Dallaras for Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish and therefore had the G-Force going spare.

"Once again, Penske Racing and Toyota have provided me with the opportunity to compete for 🤡racing's greatest prize," said a grateful Schmidt, who ran Thiago Medeiros to the supporting Menards Infi▨niti Pro Series race pole, "I look forward to competing in my fourth Indianapolis 500 as an owner and hope to improve on our finish of last year."

Hearn, now 33, will drive a similarly-numbered car, returning to the Schmidt squad after taking a sixth-place finish together at Indianapolis in 2✅ꦜ002.

"Sam and I have competed together i𒈔n several IndyCar Series events over the past three years, and my experience at the Speedway and with the team gives me confidence for my fifth attempt at winning the race," he said.

Details of the team's sponsorsh🔯ip package will be released ♋soon.

McGehee, meanwhil🀅e, will attempt to qualify a PDM Racing Dallara-Chevrolet sponsored by Natoli Engineering, confounding rumours that the team had closed its do😼ors in recent weeks.

Although the deal came together late, the 1999 Indianapolis 500 R꧙ookie of the Year is confident that the operation will quickly get up to speed.

"It has been a long month," McGehee admitted, "But♊, now that we have gotten this programme with PDM completed, I'm really looking forward to getting on the track."

PDM Racing owner Paul Diatlovich - who had originally been hoping to run Britain꧃'s Ben🐼 Collins in the race - was equally excited by the deal.

"We have been working extremely hard to come up with a programme, but it came down to the eleventh-and-a-half hour," he explaine꧅d, "We are excited to have this opportunity to work with Robby, and feel like we have a strong package with the Dallara chassis and a Chevy eng🐷ine."

Earlier this month it appe🍷ared that McGehee would be a full-month participant at Indy, but a major sponsor backed out on the eve of Opening Day at the Brickyard, forcing him to find another route into the race. However, with the help of his agent, Howard Jaffe, and some of Jaffe's colleagues, a deal was struck with Carmen Natoli.

"I certainly would have preferred to get on the track earlier," McGehee admitted, "but we battled through some disappointment when our major sponsor backed out just prior to Opening Day, and are now ready to race. That hurt a bit, but the Indy 500 has𒅌 been important to me since I was a child, and I'm very excited with the programme we have put together. As long as the weather co-operates, we will have plenty of time to get up to speed."