Fernando Alonso rejected McLaren boss Zak Brown's desire to "buy" a seat for the Spaniard in Sunday's Indy 500.
The British marque is embarrassed to have failed to qualify for the fabled race with its own entry.
"Fernando has done nothing wrong," the Associated Press quoted Brown as saying on Monday.
"He needs to be in the race and should be in the race and we do have a lot of partners who would like to be in the race."
McLaren identified the seat occupied by Oriol Servia, who qualified 19th, as an ideal one to buy for Alonso.
But Alonso rejected the idea.
"He said 'I know what it takes to get into this race and it doesn't feel right to me to take another driver out that has earned it because my team has bought the seat'," Brown revealed.
"There is a lot of pride within Fernando and McLaren."
