Indianapolis 500 drivers to visit 18 cities in annual multi-city media tour

We wonder where they had Fernando Alonso going?

In what has become another Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge tradition, the 33 participating drivers in this year's race will fan out across North America on Tuesday to spread the word about the upcoming running of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

This year, the 103rd Indianapolis 500 field is scheduled to visit 18 cities in less than 24 hours. Drivers will meet with local media in each location to discuss the race and partake in activities to increase the already-surging interest in the Indianapolis 500, the world's largest single-day sporting event set for Sunday, May 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Defending Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power, who will start the race from the second row, will visit Washington, D.C., and attend the Ambassador's Event at White Oaks, the official residence of the Australian Ambassador to the United States, the honorable Joe Hockey. Power is a native of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

Simon Pagenaud, the 2016 NTT IndyCar Series champion who captured the pole position for this year's Indy 500 with a qualifying speed of 229.992 mph in the Fast Nine Shootout on Sunday, will visit St. Louis. The Midwest city is home of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline, the NTT IndyCar Series race Aug. 24 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. Joining Pagenaud will be Andretti Autosport driver Zach Veach, who is set to appear on NBCSN's pregame coverage of the NHL Western Conference Game 6 playoff between the San Jose Sharks and host St. Louis Blues.

A trio of Indianapolis 500 champions will visit New York: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi. Castroneves is chasing a history-tying fourth victory at the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," which would extend Team Penske's record wins count to 18. Andretti Autosport teammates Hunter-Reay and Rossi have each won the race once.

Three-time Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Ed Carpenter, who qualified second on Sunday, and Carlin's Charlie Kimball will visit Dallas/Fort Worth ahead of the DXC Technology 600 under the lights at Texas Motor Speedway on June 8. The pair will give Golf Channel's "The Morning Drive" host Gary Williams an escort in a TMS pace car and INDYCAR Experience street-legal two-seater to the Colonial Country Club ahead of its annual PGA Tour event.

Ed Carpenter Racing teammates Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones, who complete the 2-3-4 qualifying effort for ECR along with Carpenter, will visit Pigot's hometown of Orlando and challenge fans to a social media scavenger hunt at the Universal Orlando resort and theme park.

Toronto native James Hinchcliffe will visit with hometown media following Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' remarkable effort to qualify him in 32nd position for the race, after Hinchcliffe crashed on the first day of qualifying Saturday. The Honda Indy Toronto is the 11th race of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series season on July 14.

Hinchcliffe's fellow last-row qualifiers, Kyle Kaiser of Juncos Racing and Sage Karam of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, will visit Cincinnati and Fort Wayne, respectively.

The full list of markets to be visited and drivers attending is below:

Chicago: Marco Andretti, Oriol Servia

Cincinnati: Kyle Kaiser, Pippa Mann

Columbus: Takuma Sato

Dallas-Fort Worth: Ed Carpenter, Charlie Kimball

Dayton: Conor Daly, Marcus Ericsson, Jordan King

Detroit: Graham Rahal

Fort Wayne: Santino Ferrucci, Ben Hanley, Sage Karam, Felix Rosenqvist

Indianapolis: Colton Herta

Louisville: JR Hildebrand

Nashville: Josef Newgarden

New York: Helio Castroneves, Jack Harvey, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi

Orlando: Ed Jones, Spencer Pigot

Philadelphia: Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist

Pittsburgh: Scott Dixon

St. Louis: Simon Pagenaud, Zach Veach

Tampa-St. Petersburg: Sebastien Bourdais, James Davison

Toronto: James Hinchcliffe

Washington: Will Power

Coverage of the 103rd Indianapolis 500 begins at 11 a.m. ET Sunday on NBC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. Plenty of Tickets are available at IMS.com.