Team driver Phil Giebler was released from the hospital Sunday but not cleared to drive because of a cervical sprain from a crash during practice on Saturday. His car's Panoz chassis was heavily damaged in the crash.
"Phil is doing better. That's just the way this game is played, but we are proud of our team," American Dream owner Eric Zimmerman said Sunday.
The team also has an entry in the developmental Indy Lights Series races at Indianapolis on Friday and at Milwaukee next week, but its only IndyCar races likely will be at Texas and then at Chicago in September, Zimmerman said.
"Phil is still our driver, and we back him 100 percent," Zimmerman said. "Until he gets better, Jaques will be in the car, but Phil is our driver."
The team plans to compete in the full schedule of races next year, he said.
In the meantime, Lazier was working as a spotter for rookie driver Mario Dominguez, whose last-minute attempt to qualify ended with a crash.
"We definitely had some productive talks, and I know Eric and all the guys over there," said Lazier, younger brother of former Indy winner Buddy Lazier. "But the reality is at some point you have to step back and ask yourself if it's worth trying to go forward and trying to do a banzai-type run, and the reality of that is no. It's just too far down and too late in the month."
The younger Lazier has driven in seven previous Indy 500s but was unable to put together sponsorship this year.
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CAUTIOUS BUDDY: Former Indy winner Buddy Rice has some advice for the 11 rookies in the Indianapolis 500: Take it slow and easy.
Newcomers account for one-third of the lineup, the most since 13 rookies started the race in 1997 and a potentially dangerous situation in heavy traffic on race day.
"I think some get it and some don't," Rice said of new drivers, many of them experienced at other tracks but still unfamiliar with Indy's flat, narrow oval and changing weather conditions. "This place demands a lot of respect. It will bit you in a hurry. It will do a lot of things you have never seen a track do. With the wind, the weather and everything else, it is totally different."
There were 13 crashes since the track opened May 4 -- nine of them by rookies, and just one of the other four involving a driver with more than two previous races at Indianapolis.
"When you get your bell rung by this place, you start really paying attention. That's why you see the veterans progressively get to the front," said Rice, the 2004 winner.
"There are some young guys that come in, get in the good cars and go really fast. I was no different than they are. Once this place bites you, you start to pay a little more attention to it and start to pay attention to what's going on in the saddle."
Rice, who started from the pole in his win four years ago, qualified for his fifth Indy start at 222.101 mph, giving him a spot in the middle of the sixth row. Eight of the rookies will be starting behind him.
The fastest rookie qualifier was Hideki Mutoh of Japan, who took the spot with Andretti Green Racing that became vacant when last year's Indy and IRL champion Dario Franchitti left for NASCAR. Mutoh will start ninth, on the outside of the third row, with a four-lap average of 223.887 mph.
The other rookies in the lineup are Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Alex Lloyd, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Oriol Servia, E.J. Viso, Mario Moraes, Enrique Bernoldi and Jaime Camara.
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FORMAT FOE: Davey Hamilton would just as soon go back to Indy's old format for qualifying.
Hamilton, earning only his second start since he was seriously injured in a crash almost seven years ago, qualified on the outside of the sixth row. But had he been able to keep the speed he had on the first day of qualifications a week earlier, he could have had a spot one row closer to the front and gained a week's head start in race setup preparations.
"It's a terrible system. It's not exciting," Hamilton said. "The top 11 guys, they're way ahead of us, no doubt about it. It's going to be a tough year for all the guys who weren't in the top 11 and getting that extra track time in."
Under Indy's new format, in place since 2005, only 11 spots are available each of the first three days of qualifying, with bumping on each of those days. That's why Hamilton, who was bumped twice on the first day and couldn't qualify the second day because of rain, had to wait until the following weekend to qualify.
"We wouldn't have been sitting around all week waiting for qualifying to come around," he said. "The time we did have on track, we could have been doing race sims (simulations)."
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LUG NUTS: Sunday was Armed Forces Day at the track, including a fly-over by an Indiana National Guard F16 jet and an oath of enlistment ceremony for military recruits led by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. ... The 10 drivers in the annual Pit Stop Competition on Friday will be Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske; Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti of Andretti Green Racing; Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon of Ganassi Racing; and rookies Will Power of KV Racing, Justin Wilson of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and Ryan Hunter-Reay of Rahal Letterman Racing. ... The fastest lap in practice all month was 228.318 mph by Marco Andretti on May 10. ... Two-time Indy winner Al Unser Jr. is now an IRL driver coach and consultant, leaving the starting lineup without at least one member of his family for only the third time in the past 46 years.
Rookies begin practice for Indianapolis 500
Briscoe making most of second chance
