INDYCAR: Grace suspends Indy 500 plans

Grace Autosport has confirmed that it will not make an attempt to contest this year's Indianapolis 500.

"We met with many teams in the IndyCar paddock late last season to determine partnership feasibility and discovered numerous teams had chosen to scale back their plans for 2016," said Paretta (above). "We were ready to announce a team partnership for the Indy 500 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in mid-April but a change in terms proved unsound for Grace's sponsor partners and unfortunately we had to step away from the deal.

"The consolidation of teams and the decrease of entries in 2016 reduced the available options for us. Our partner spoke with Dallara about buying a new car after Long Beach but there wasn't a current 2016 car available in time for the 500. We evaluated an available chassis as late as last week, but there wasn't enough time to acquire all the needed parts to rebuild the car safely. Because of this sequence of events, we will not campaign a car in this year's Indy 500."

Despite having to halt the team's 2016 Indy 500 plans, Paretta said that the Grace Autosport project remains active.

"As I said last summer, Grace Autosport was not interested in just making the grid and running at the back," she said. "We wanted to put forth a respectable effort and we wanted to be competitive, while keeping safety at the very forefront of our program. We apologize to the many fans that have reached out to offer their support, which has been incredible. The good news is that we will not give up and are now working closely with our partners to map out Grace's future."