INDYCAR: Chaves scrambling for Indy seat

The 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year could be the final entry for May's 100th running of the Indy 500. The Colombian-American ace has seen most of the seats he's pursued filled with other drivers, leaving Shank or DCR as the last realistic destinations to land.

"Honda can do the engine; we're making sure it's the latest spec, which is what we're working through right now," Chaves told RACER. "Shank is interested, but we're still working on that, and we're still working on the budget part, which is really tight, and Bryan's chassis needs to be updated to all of the latest [2016] parts, so that will take money. Those are the things holding us up now. If we had all the budget we needed to update everything and cover the costs to go racing, it would happen. That's the last hiccup."

Chaves is known to have raised a significant portion of the budget required to race at Indy. With some teams asking for just over $300,000 and others seeking upward of $800,000 for the event, Chaves would need something between those sums to assemble a quality effort of his own.

"There's a lot more to it than just the financial aspect, but solving the finance side is the biggest one," he said. "And any help we can get – any additional sponsors we can find – will only improve our chances, so that's what we keep working on. We should know exactly where we're at in the next two or three days on where we're at with [all the pieces] and that will tell us how much we still need to raise."

With 34 entries anticipated, a Chaves/Shank/Honda partnership would push the number to 35. Dale Coyne could also have an available seat in one of its Indy-only programs that would be a good fit for Chaves.

Don't just watch the race, feel it with the INDYCAR Mobile app. Enjoy live in-car cameras, real-time leader board and team transmissions.