Dale Coyne has been an IndyCar entrant since 1984. In the five decades since the Illinois native joined the CART IndyCar Series as an owner/driver, carried the outfit into the Champ Car World Series, and migrated to today’s NTT IndyCar Series, he’s taken on a number of co-entrants. But he’s also refused to sell the team that bears his name.
The 70-year-old’s steadfast commitment to IndyCar is unwavering, and as a result, Coyne is receiving the upcoming introduction of Penske Entertainment’s new IndyCar charter membership structure in a different way. With no interest in relinquishing his team, Coyne finds no value in the ability to sell his two charters — his team’s two guaranteed entries on the grid — and cash out and leave. What piques Coyne’s interest is seeing how much money he can raise, and not on the back end, but now, by offering a stake in the charters to investors.
For those who might want to own a share of an IndyCar team’s entries without owning part of the team itself, and don’t mind waiting to reap the future profits whenever Coyne and his wife Gail decide to sell and retire, DCR is open for business and looking to frontload the financial benefits of having charters.
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“We’ve had a lot of interest, and people have talked to us about partnering up, so the charter is going to be very good for us,” Coyne told RACER. “We’re looking to get partners in here that help either bring sponsorship or some capital, so we’re open to how that looks and what type of partnerships they could be. That’s the way business should work.”
The looming rollout of Penske Entertainment’s 25 charter memberships across IndyCar’s 10 teams has Coyne busy on his usual hunt for next year’s drivers for the Nos. 18 and 51 Honda, and to find the best investment partners for each entry’s charter.
“It could look a lot of different ways because it depends on what the partner is looking for,” Coyne said. “If a partner just wants to come and be part of racing, that’s fine. If it’s somebody who has good marketing relationships and can bring them to the table, that’s another thing to consider. There’s ways it could work that I’m sure we haven’t thought of yet. But we see the charters as a way we can make things better for our team right away. It all helps.”