Luca Giotto was 27th and last in his first session driving an Indy car on Friday at Barber Motorsports Park. The Italian, a race-winning veteran from Formula 2 and European sports car racing, completed 39 laps around the wild road course and …
Luca Giotto was 27th and last in his first session driving an Indy car on Friday at Barber Motorsports Park. The Italian, a race-winning veteran from Formula 2 and European sports car racing, completed 39 laps around the wild road course and returned Saturday morning to turn 27 more laps and improve to 24th.
With all of 66 laps of IndyCar knowledge to draw from, Ghiotto put his 24 hours of experience in the series to good work in qualifying by claiming an impressive 21st-place starting spot among the 27-deep field. Ghiotto even out-qualified his Dale Coyne Racing teammate Jack Harvey, recording a 1m06.4788s lap in the No. 51 Honda to Harvey’s 1m06.7969s in the No. 18 Honda.
“It was a crazy experience,” Ghiotto said. “I’m happy because we kept improving, even now in qualifying we were closer to the top. The car felt good. Of course, there’s some more in myself as I still need to fully be on the limit of the car. I feel like already being 11th (in his qualifying group) and putting some cars behind us is a decent result and is honestly far more than I expected.”
As most new drivers do, Ghiotto will wake up Sunday morning and have more confidence to attack and push harder throughout the race.
“It’s been a crazy learning curve from Friday morning, and I just can’t wait for the race,” he said. “With 90 laps in the race there’s plenty of time to learn more.”
One NTT IndyCar Series team has set its lineup for the race weekend in Long Beach. Find out which organization and drivers will compete!
The NTT IndyCar Series is ready for its second race weekend of the 2024 season. In the first race, Josef Newgarden started his year on the right note and claimed the victory in St. Petersburg. Now, one IndyCar Series team has made a few decisions with its driver lineup ahead of the race weekend in Long Beach, California.
[autotag]Dale Coyne Racing[/autotag] announced that Jack Harvey and Nolan Siegel will drive its entries in Long Beach this weekend. Harvey will drive the No. 18 Honda, an added start to his previously announced part-time schedule. Siegel will replace Colin Braun in the No. 51 Honda, as the latter was contracted to race for the team in the season’s first race.
The two drivers provide a good duo for Dale Coyne Racing, with Harvey serving as the group’s veteran. Meanwhile, Siegel is the Indy NXT points leader after leading all the laps in St. Petersburg en route to victory. IndyCar is ready for its return to points racing, and Dale Coyne Racing has a lineup that could raise some eyebrows in Long Beach.
Nolan Siegel and Jack Harvey are committed to sharing the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda throughout the season, but the team’s sister No. 51 Honda is in a different position, where most of its races do not have an assigned driver. For this weekend’s …
Nolan Siegel and Jack Harvey are committed to sharing the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda throughout the season, but the team’s sister No. 51 Honda is in a different position, where most of its races do not have an assigned driver. For this weekend’s Long Beach GP, Coyne has turned to an in-house option and nominated Harvey to step in and drive the No.18 – which had previously been assigned to Siegel – while Siegel will slide across to the No.51.
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“When Dale called me, I was scheduled to go to Long Beach and help Nolan, just as I did at Thermal, and he said, ‘Do you want to drive?’ I said, ‘Of course!’” Harvey told RACER.
“I want to do whatever I can to help the team, and I love Long Beach. I take it as a positive sign that they’ve asked me to do a race I wasn’t signed to do.”
Learning he’ll drive a few days before the event means the Briton, who turned 30 today, has been given a welcome birthday gift.
“I’m staying ready,” Harvey said. “I haven’t done any simulator prep since I wasn’t scheduled to be there, but I have been staying connected with the engineers to get ready. Having a good result would great for us.”
This story has been updated since its original publication to reflect Harvey being entered in the No.18, and Siegel in the No.51.
Katherine Legge will return for her second straight Indianapolis 500 driving the No. 51 car for Dale Coyne Racing in 2024.
[autotag]Katherine Legge[/autotag] is returning for her second straight Indianapolis 500 in 2024. On Tuesday morning, [autotag]Dale Coyne Racing[/autotag] announced that Legge will drive the No. 51 car as she attempts to make her fourth Indianapolis 500 in late May. The 43-year-old driver competed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in last year’s event and finished in 33rd place after an accident.
Legge also competed in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for a 26th-place finish. However, her best finish in the event came with Dragon Racing in 2012 after a 22nd-place effort. Legge will now attempt to make her fourth Indianapolis 500 for a fourth different team. She has been successful on ovals during her IndyCar career outside of the Indianapolis 500, too.
The hope is that Legge can make the event and push for her first top-10 finish in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. This is the first time in over a decade that Legge is going for back-to-back starts in the event. The expectations shouldn’t be too high since Legge doesn’t race in IndyCar much, but she has proven she can finish in the top 10 spots on an oval.
Dale Coyne Racing No. 18 Honda: Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel (24th in 2023 championship/rookie) No. 51 Honda: Colin Braun/Others (rookie) THINGS TO KNOW: Major rebuild in progress An early offseason that was loaded with optimism for recruiting a top …
Dale Coyne Racing
No. 18 Honda: Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel (24th in 2023 championship/rookie)
No. 51 Honda: Colin Braun/Others (rookie)
THINGS TO KNOW:
Major rebuild in progress
An early offseason that was loaded with optimism for recruiting a top Formula 2 talent and those who would come with an influx of funding has not panned out for the spirited team from Illinois.
Efforts to find drivers to pilot both cars has been a painstakingly long and setback-filled process, and to that end, three days before cars are on track for the season opener, the Coyne team finally confirmed its lineup for St. Petersburg.
In 2024, the team’s composition will look far more like an IMSA program with 2-3 drivers rotating through both entries, and that’s not what we’re accustomed to seeing with Coyne. Jack Harvey is in for most of the races in the No. 18 Honda, but not all, as rising American Indy NXT talent Nolan Siegel is plugged in for four races, including the Indianapolis 500, in preparation for going full-time next year.
Nolan Siegel will have four chances to make a rookie impression in IndyCar this year with DCR, including the Indy 500. Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment
Colin Braun is finally getting his shot in IndyCar with the No. 51 Honda, but for how many races? He’s in for St. Petersburg and The Thermal Club, but who’ll get the nod at Long Beach, Barber, and so on? Braun isn’t bringing funding to the party, and while his schedule isn’t completely open due to IMSA LMP2 and SRO GT3 obligations, he could drive for Coyne at most events if there’s a need.
The revolving door within Coyne’s engineering group is another area that’s made it hard for the team to make year-to-year progress. Ross Bunnell led the team’s engineering efforts in 2022 and looked after David Malukas in the No. 18 Honda, but he was hired away by Chip Ganassi Racing to become Scott Dixon’s race engineer last season. His replacement was engineering assistant, Alex Athanasiadis, who was promoted to full race engineer, and he and Malukas did well together.
And then Athanasiadis recently left to work for Roger Penske as a race engineer on the Porsche Penske Motorsport FIA WEC team, so another engineering reboot was required. Don Bricker, who has run Coyne’s second car, the No. 51 Honda, as its race engineer, has been moved over to the No. 18, and like its drivers, it took until the final days of the offseason for the team to hire an engineer to run its second car. Racing veteran Steve Newey is headed to St. Pete to engineer Braun and he brings plenty of knowledge from CART, the ALMS, and managed Bryan Herta’s IndyCar team during the early years of the DW12 formula.
Thanks to the engineering turnover, Coyne has not been able to invest in the kinds of offseason R&D projects it’s accustomed to carrying out, and that means it will start well behind the other nine teams in that regard. Where the race to win in 2024 began for most teams in the days after the Sept. 10 season finale in Monterey, Coyne’s operation is having to start that process now, on the cusp of the new championship run.
It’s everything they didn’t want to happen, but it’s their reality.
The Mitch effect
Despite all of the aforementioned obstacles to clear, Coyne hired the right person to rebuild the team in Mitch Davis, who led the outfit to its first win many years ago and has vast experience running IndyCar and IMSA teams.
Davis steps in for Terry Brown, who managed the team in recent years but has embraced semi-retirement while consulting for Coyne. In Davis, the team has a focused leader who folks tend to gravitate towards, and while it’s been a rough offseason in so many ways, he’s pushed for Coyne to hire Braun and attracted some good new crew members to complement the loyal veterans.
Davis is the right guy to take the baton from Brown, and although we won’t see it in the beginning of the championship, I do expect him to round the program into shape and make it better in many ways. There’s also no doubt that Davis has a hellacious amount of work ahead to get Coyne up to speed.
A callback jor Jack
Harvey’s formative years in IndyCar were spent with the part-time, single-car Meyer Shank Racing team where he delivered his best performances. It’s here where the 30-year-old from England could hold significant value within the underprepared Coyne program as it attempts to settle itself and take on its rivals in the bottom half of the field.
Harvey was asked to do more than just drive when he was with MSR, and if Coyne welcomes his input on the engineering, strategy, and operational sides, it could help to accelerate their progress. Doing more with less was common for Harvey in those early days, and if he can tap into his approach that helped MSR to shine, it’s possible for similar things to happen with his new team.
The gamer
For Braun, the 35-year-old’s introduction to IndyCar racing is a proverbial baptism by fire. But he’s a gamer, among the most experienced drivers within the IndyCar paddock, and has spent most of his teens and adult life jumping from one radically different car to another. And that’s why he’s accepted the offer to race for Coyne with a single day of experience in these cars. Sure, it’s a daunting situation, but this is the right guy for such a crazy proposition.
The Texan has raced everywhere — the high banks at Talladega to Le Mans to the Nurburgring to Road America — and because of his non-stop career, there’s a well-refined comfort that lives within Braun when it comes to taking on wild things like lining up to race against IndyCar’s best after one day spent at Sebring in a DW12.
Braun was faster than Harvey at that test, which isn’t a dig at his teammate. It just confirmed for the umpteenth time that Braun can be thrown into anything and impress in an instant.
Where Coyne goes with the No. 51 in April and beyond is a point of interest. Ketherine Legge, a favorite of Honda who drove for Coyne in Champ Car in 2007, is said to have the No. 51 for the Indy 500 and other ovals, but the identity of who’ll steer the car for most of the unassigned races is a mystery.
Even so…
When a driver and their race engineer are meeting for the first time in the paddock at the opening round, expectations must be lowered to match the situation they’re in. Drawing from all we’ve covered so far, the Coyne team should be slowest in every session and again in this weekend’s race.
Even so, be open to the possibility of Braun or Harvey delivering beyond the confines of their circumstances.
Will the sports car champion hurl the No. 51 into the Fast 12 on Saturday? Not unless miracles are involved. But if he’s anything other than last, Coyne and Company will deserve all the beer and balloons that can fit in their paddock space. The same goes for Harvey, who has the experience to run higher than last, but can only go as fast as his underdeveloped car will allow.
From the 10 teams that make up the field of 27 cars, this is the one — and the only one — that has a giant caveat placed over every aspect of its season. From management to engineering to drivers, it’s a fresh start and it’s a late start. Be kind when they struggle and cheer when they don’t.
Coyne will likely be among his team’s biggest sponsors this season, and that alone deserves respect. Hope for a better 2025 starts now.
Dale Coyne Racing will use NTT IndyCar Series veteran Jack Harvey and IMSA champion Colin Braun to conduct the final pre-season test of the year in his Nos. 18 and 51 entries. The two-day test, which runs across Monday and Tuesday at Sebring …
Dale Coyne Racing will use NTT IndyCar Series veteran Jack Harvey and IMSA champion Colin Braun to conduct the final pre-season test of the year in his Nos. 18 and 51 entries.
The two-day test, which runs across Monday and Tuesday at Sebring International Raceway’s short course, has the entire field onsite to shakedown and tune their 2024-specification Dallara DW12s before the March 8-10 season opener two hours northwest in St. Petersburg.
For Harvey, his use at Sebring is a continuation of the testing he conducted for DCR in the No. 18 Honda at the Homestead-Miami roval in January. For the 35-year-old Braun, it marks his first appearance in an Indy car after turning pro at the age of 16 in 2005 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
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A three-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title winner and three-time winner of the Rolex 24, Braun caught the attention of IndyCar team owners during the most recent IMSA season where he partnered with Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 hybrid GTP car.
Braun’s speed and consistency alongside Blomqvist, the 2022 IMSA DPi champion who was signed by MSR to drive this season in IndyCar, often equaled or exceeded his teammate and led to at least one other IndyCar team taking a look at the Texan.
RACER expects Harvey to be confirmed for St. Petersburg and other races in the No. 18. The outcome of Braun’s IndyCar testing debut on Tuesday will likely dictate whether he will get the nod to race the No. 51 at round one. With full-time commitments in multiple sports car series, Braun’s availability to compete for DCR would be subject to his availability after St. Petersburg. As of Friday, the team had its engineering staff set for Harvey’s No. 18 but was unable to confirm who would engineer the No. 51, which could be the reason behind running Harvey on day one and Braun on day two instead of testing both cars at the same time.
Among the other drivers who are anticipated to be part of DCR’s rotating cast in 2024, RACER understands open-wheel veteran Katherine Legge and Indy NXT title challenger Nolan Siegel are in play. Former A.J. Foyt Racing driver Benjamin Pedersen has also been mentioned as a possibility for DCR to use.
With transporters due to move into the St. Petersburg paddock in four weeks’ time, the clock continues to wind down on the launch of a new season while Dale Coyne Racing – the last NTT IndyCar Series team to declare its 2024 drivers – works to fill …
With transporters due to move into the St. Petersburg paddock in four weeks’ time, the clock continues to wind down on the launch of a new season while Dale Coyne Racing — the last NTT IndyCar Series team to declare its 2024 drivers — works to fill its roster.
Nine of IndyCar’s 10 full-time teams have signed and declared their drivers for the upcoming season, and according to the veteran team owner who runs his two-car program out of Plainfield, Illinois, their identities could be known in a matter of days.
“We tested Jack Harvey and Nolan Siegel down in Homestead, and we’ve had Jack in the simulator this week and that went really, really well,” Coyne told RACER. “We learned a lot about him and that was pretty interesting. But is there anything finalized yet? No, but we’re very close, I would say. By the middle of next week, I think we’ll know exactly where we’re at.”
Coyne had a pair of young drivers last year with David Malukas, who left for Arrow McLaren, and Sting Ray Robb, who departed for A.J. Foyt Racing, which has presented DCR with a range of options on which direction to take his program.
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In previous seasons, Coyne often paired a veteran with a rookie, which could make someone like Harvey, who made his IndyCar debut in 2017, a prime candidate to consider for one of the seats. Coyne also prefers to have his drivers bring some funding to offset annual operating expenses for the car which, in Harvey’s case, could come with the need for the Briton to raise a few million dollars to offer the team.
For Siegel, his plans are already set for 2024 with HMD Motorsports in the Indy NXT series where he’s expected to vie for the championship during his sophomore season, but if the rumors are true, the teenage Californian could already be scheduled for his IndyCar debut with DCR in 2025.
Although Coyne wouldn’t be drawn on the topic, he was clearly impressed by Siegel’s performance during his first IndyCar test.
“It was a very pleasant surprise,” he said. “It reminded me of when we tested with Danial Frost, and then he went out and beat Marcus Armstrong and Juri Vips, and we said, ‘What the hell have we got here?’ Nolan goes out and beats [Scott] McLaughlin and [Romain] Grosjean, and you go, ‘Wow, what’s this?’ And it’s not like those guys weren’t trying. He didn’t get weak or tired in the car. He didn’t get worn out mentally in the car, so we liked that.”
Recent speculation regarding a part-time return to DCR for Takuma Sato was recently put to rest, but the concept of Coyne splitting one of his entries between an oval specialist like the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and a dedicated road racer continues to make the rounds. Drivers from Formula 2 to IMSA have been on the team’s radar, but as is often the case with DCR in the final stage of the offseason, there’s a bit of intrigue and mystery surrounding who will race for the team.
Coyne says the field of candidates has been narrowed, and with the season almost upon us, the 26th and 27th full-time entries will soon have names attached to both cars for the 17-race championship.
“Most people know what they’re going to do this year now,” he added. “So it’s quieted back down, which is OK because we’ve still got plenty of serious people looking at us, so it’s all good.”
It’s the second week of January and nine out of the NTT IndyCar Series’ 10 full-time teams have their drivers signed and ready to go for the March 10 season opener on the Floridian streets of St. Petersburg. That’s a testament to the stability of …
It’s the second week of January and nine out of the NTT IndyCar Series’ 10 full-time teams have their drivers signed and ready to go for the March 10 season opener on the Floridian streets of St. Petersburg.
That’s a testament to the stability of the paddock as the majority of the teams — all privately-owned businesses — have secured the budgets, personnel, and driving talent to have their programs locked in at a comparatively early point in the year. It’s a notable change from how the process usually works.
Getting into late January and early February with two or three incomplete rosters has been common throughout the years, and on more than one occasion, the season’s final full-time driver has rocked up at Round 1 to meet their new team and pose for official series photos the day before the opening practice session. But that shouldn’t be the case in 2024, as 25 of the 27 drivers who’ll comprise the grid across 17 rounds are signed and confirmed.
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The 10th and final team to nominate its drivers is Dale Coyne Racing which, historically, is not unexpected due to the frequent rotation of rookies and veterans through its pair of Honda-powered entries. Two-year Andretti Global driver Devlin DeFrancesco has been mentioned on a regular basis as someone who is likely to join the Illinois-based team, but the Italian-Canadian pilot was non-committal when asked about the matter.
“I’m leaving that to my managers,” DeFrancesco told RACER. “I’m definitely working to come back in ’25, full-swing, if ’24 does not happen. But I will definitely be back, one-million percent. It’s just a matter of when, not if.”
Along with DeFrancesco, former Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Jack Harvey, Indy NXT and Coyne-affiliated driver Danial Frost, former A.J. Foyt Racing driver Benjamin Pedersen, and others have been spoken of as potential options for Coyne to consider.
The grid won’t be set until the 26th and 27th entries have “To Be Determined” removed from their placeholders, so for now, here are the 25 new or returning team and driver combinations.
A.J. Foyt Racing
No. 14 Chevy, Santino Ferrucci
No. 41 Chevy, Sting Ray Robb (replacing Benjamin Pedersen, joining from Dale Coyne Racing)
Andretti Global
No. 26 Honda, Colton Herta
No. 27 Honda, Kyle Kirkwood
No. 28 Honda, Marcus Ericsson (replacing Romain Grosjean, joining from Chip Ganassi Racing)
Arrow McLaren
No. 5 Chevy, Pato O’Ward
No. 6 Chevy, David Malukas (replacing Felix Rosenqvist, joining from Dale Coyne Racing)
No. 7 Chevy, Alexander Rossi
Chip Ganassi Racing
No. 4 Honda, Kyffin Simpson (rookie, new entry)
No. 8 Honda, Linus Lundqvist (rookie, replacing Marcus Ericsson)
No. 9 Honda, Scott Dixon
No. 10 Honda, Alex Palou
No. 11 Honda, Marcus Armstrong
Dale Coyne Racing
TBD
TBD
Ed Carpenter Racing
No. 20 Chevy, Christian Rasmussen (rookie, road and street courses) and Ed Carpenter (ovals)
It’s good to be Dale Coyne. The IndyCar driver turned IndyCar team owner finds himself in the familiar position of having two coveted NTT IndyCar Series seats to offer and plenty of drivers who are hustling to make one of the Honda-powered cars …
It’s good to be Dale Coyne. The IndyCar driver turned IndyCar team owner finds himself in the familiar position of having two coveted NTT IndyCar Series seats to offer and plenty of drivers who are hustling to make one of the Honda-powered cars their own.
With so few openings left for drivers to find their way onto the IndyCar grid, Dale Coyne Racing has become the most popular destination for those in search of a home next season, and true to form, Coyne is in no hurry to fill those slots.
DCR ran David Malukas and Sting Ray Robb last year, and with Malukas signing to drive for Arrow McLaren for 2024, Robb is among at least a half-dozen racers who are vying to sign with the Illinois-based team.
There’s Devlin DeFrancesco who, like Robb, has a budget to offer, and Enzo Fittipaldi, brother of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Pietro Fittipaldi, who tests for DCR next week and is also said to have funding. DCR development driver Danial Frost, who won the opening Indy NXT race in 2023 but faded afterwards, is in the frame along with ex-RLL driver Jack Harvey and NXT championship contender Hunter McElrea. Then there’s IndyCar’s newest free agent, Callum Ilott, and more.
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“We’re talking to all the usual suspects, and there’s some surprises,” Coyne told RACER. “So watch this space, but yeah, we’re talking to Sting Ray. We’d love to have him back again. Devlin’s talking to us, so you don’t know what could happen there. And Danial Frost is in the game, too. When we tested him at Sebring about a year ago, he was really quick. We have a lot of time for Danial.”
Coyne also says interest from Europe is higher than ever. Formula 2 championship leader Theo Pourchaire, who recently acknowledged his desire to race in IndyCar, is among an ever-growing number of drivers who find themselves locked out of Formula 1 and need to find a different series to launch their professional careers. One of them could land with Coyne.
“The whole road to Formula 1 is not always clear,” Coyne said. “You look at some of the guys that have won the championship and they’ve gotten nothing. Even Mick Schumacher won a championship, went there, wasn’t there for long, and hasn’t gotten back to racing [in F1]. And the Brazilian kid [Felipe] Drugovich, he won a championship but never got there.
“Those guys really want to be in Formula 1 so bad, but you just can’t go every weekend and sit there and eat quiche because you’re a reserve driver. That’s a nice lifestyle, but a true racer doesn’t really want to do that forever. Those guys get trapped in that, so they think about coming over here. And some of them are really good.”
Dale Coyne Racing has rehired Mitch Davis as its new team manager. Davis, a veteran of the CART IndyCar Series and the NTT IndyCar Series, looked after the Illinois-based team when it won its first race in 2009 with the late Justin Wilson at Watkins …
Dale Coyne Racing has rehired Mitch Davis as its new team manager. Davis, a veteran of the CART IndyCar Series and the NTT IndyCar Series, looked after the Illinois-based team when it won its first race in 2009 with the late Justin Wilson at Watkins Glen, and comes back to the team after helping the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti IMSA GTP team during its title-contending 2023 season.
“I’m excited to be back at Dale Coyne Racing and thankful to Dale for this opportunity,” said Davis, pictured above in 2012. “Dale has put together a strong team of people with who I look forward to accomplishing great things. I can’t wait to get this next season started.”
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Coyne’s lifelong friend Terry Brown has served as DCR’s team manager since 2018 and will shift to a new role managing special projects for the organization.
“We’re extremely pleased to have Mitch join us once again as team manager,” Coyne said. “Not only does he bring a wealth of experience and expertise with him, but he is also very well respected within the racing community, and I know he will be a great addition to our team.
“I also want to take this opportunity to thank Terry Brown for his continued commitment to the team, including these past six seasons as team manager and for his thirty plus years with us before that.”
