Friday, March 27, 2015

Introducing the 2015 IndyCar Team line-ups...



This is solely intended to be a helpful guide to who's in what for this weekend's season opening IndyCar race at St Petersburg, Florida. With the grid most likely fluctuating and doesn't include Indianapolis 500 only participants and hence, is by NO means Official, and as always, is subject to change.

there were three Rookies initially contesting this year's championship when I began scribbling this; with reigning Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves making his debut with Brian Herta Autosports, in the seat vacated by Jack Hawksworth. While the worst kept secret was 2013 Indy Lights champion Sage Karam replacing Ryan Briscoe at Chip Ganassi's "G2" Squad.

The third "rookie" is Luca Filippi, who'll take over Mike "Ice-Ice, Baby!" Conway's empty seat at CFH Racing for the "twisties" portion of the calendar, now that Conway's decided to focus upon Sports Car racing as a Toyota Factory driver in the World Endurance Championship. (WEC)

Then, there's the requisite Silly Season shuffle, in NO particular order: Simon Pagenaud leaves Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for the rarefied confines of Team Penske. With James Hinchcliffe leaving Andretti Autosport to takeover Pagenaud's vacated seat.

Thus leaving No Fenders Numero Uno IndyCar Pilote' Justin B-I-G' UNIT Wilson on the Outside looking In towards continuing his career in Open Wheel Racing...

On March 9th, just 20-days prior to "Kickoff!" KVRT announced that its vacant second seat, now the No. 4 would be piloted by GP2 winning driver  Stefano Coletti. Leaving just the two Dale Coyne entries plus one Andretti seat available... Which all three were filled, As Andretti took on crowd darling "Symona-Symona," leaving Justin Wilson out in the cold; SHIT!

While Dale Coyne, who typically leaves his Driver announcements to the eleventh hour, announced his two drivers on March 16th, signing Carlos Huertas for a second year, and  surprisingly Italy's Francesco Dracone for the first four races...

Team/Car No/Driver)
(1) AJ Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Honda
14. Takuma Sato; Japan
41. Jack Hawksworth; UK

(2) Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
25. Simona de Silvestro; Switzerland
27. Marco Andretti; USA
28. Ryan Hunter-Reay; USA

Andretti/HVM Racing (+1)
(Hola Viva Mexico)
Engine: Honda
34. Carlos Munoz; Columbia


(3) Bryan Herta Autosport
Engine: Honda
98. R-Gabby Chaves; Columbia

(4) Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
20. Ed Carpenter; USA (Ovals Only)
20. R-Luca Filippi; Italy (Road/Street Courses)
67. Joseph Newgarden; USA

(5) Dale Coyne Racing
Engine: Honda
18. Carlos Huertas, Columbia
19. R- Francesco Dracone, Italy

(6) KV Racing Technology
Engine: Chevrolet
4. R-Stefano Coletti; Monaco

KVSH Racing (+1)
Engine: Chevrolet
11. Sebastian Bourdais; France

(7) Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
15. Graham Rahal; USA

(8) Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Engine: Honda
5. James Hinchcliffe; Canada
7. James Jakes; UK

(9) Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
9. Scott Dixon; New Zealand
10. Tony Kanaan; Brazil

‘G2 – Chip Ganassi Racing  (+2)
Engine: Chevrolet
8. R-Sage Karam; USA
83. Charlie Kimball; USA

(10) Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
#1. Will Power; Australia
2. Juan Pablo Montoya; Columbia
3. Helio Castroneves; Brazil
22. Simon Pagenaud; France

(R Denotes Rookie Driver)