Rinus VeeKay put his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet at the top of the times in Sunday morning warm-up for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. The Dutchman lapped 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1m08.4096s, 0.042s ahead of Chip Ganassi …
Rinus VeeKay put his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet at the top of the times in Sunday morning warm-up for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. The Dutchman lapped 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1m08.4096s, 0.042s ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon.
The main task for all teams and drivers was to assess tire degradation as the track temperatures are skewing far hotter than previously forecast.
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was the first driver to try out a long run on Firestone’s alternate tire, but after six laps, his drive was interrupted by a red flag caused by Sting Ray Robb. The AJ Foyt Racing driver got the fast, uphill Turn 6 slightly wrong, ran wide on the exit curbs and slid through the gravel. Thankfully the car hit a deeply stacked part of the tire wall, and while the right-rear corner of his car was heavily damaged, Robb alighted from his car under his own power.
Meanwhile, Robb’s Foyt teammate Santino Ferrucci was served a stop and hold penalty for a silly obstructive move on his Juncos Hollinger Racing bete noire Romain Grosjean.
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Penske’s Will Power had a spin through the same Turn 6 gravel as Robb, but kept it off the wall and continued without causing a red flag.
Agustin Canapino went to the top of the times in the final 10 minutes, setting a 1m08.5314s on primary tires, while Grosjean ran a 1m08.8558s on reds but impressively produced a 1m09.8170s 12 laps into his run, suggesting the alternates can hold on.
Dixon, who was also practicing fuel save, moved CGR to the top of the times, briefly, before VeeKay went P1.
Canapino was third, ahead of Linus Lundqvist (Ganassi), Herta, Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti), Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi) and polesitter Alex Palou.
The green flag waves for the start of the Firestone GP of Monterey at 3:30 p.m. local (Pacific) time.
The bravest person this year at the Indianapolis 500 wasn’t strapped into one of the 240mph missiles. In fact, Tim Broyles was merely standing on pit lane, dressed in dark pants and his Ed Carpenter Racing team shirt, making the ballsiest call of …
The bravest person this year at the Indianapolis 500 wasn’t strapped into one of the 240mph missiles.
In fact, Tim Broyles was merely standing on pit lane, dressed in dark pants and his Ed Carpenter Racing team shirt, making the ballsiest call of the event last weekend when his driver Rinus VeeKay was sitting towards the bottom of the qualifying results.
The young Dutchman’s crash Saturday morning set the No. 21 ECR Chevy program back as one would expect. Broyles, ECR’s general manager, oversaw the effort as their amazing crew members scrambled to repair VeeKay’s car.
With a ready machine to roll back out to the qualifying line to try and get in the show the heat of the day, blazing speed was not on their side.
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“Obviously, with how the whole morning played out, we thought we had a fast car with Rinus and we actually thought we had three fast cars with Ed [Carpenter] and Christian [Rasmussen], but then the incident happens with Rinus and you have all your nice, shiny, new, perfectly-fit parts on the car thrown into a bucket of crashed parts,” Broyles told RACER as he uncorked an epic tale.
“Right there, we made a quick decision to stick with that car instead of building up a backup car and just move some components from the backup car over, which was going to be [VeeKay’s] Detroit [street race] car, so it was not exactly your best Speedway stuff, but it should get him in the race.
“We put the car back together and used a qualifying attempt to actually do a leak check. I don’t know if a lot of people realize what was going on there. We went out on track and had Rinus run a couple straightaways, and they ended up waving it off, because he was going so slow, but we were just mainly leak checking and making sure everything was good after putting the car back in one piece.
“He brought it back, we tried to get some time to cool the engine down in pit lane — which you can really never get done in pit lane, and especially as warm as it was — but got it somewhere close to cool and he went out and made his initial run.”
With the limitations brought about by using a Speedway-tuned car that had some non-Speedway components installed out of necessity to get back on track, VeeKay did well to secure 29th in the 33-car field. He wasn’t at risk of being bumped, but it was a hollow feeling for Carpenter, Broyles, and the rest of the team which has grown accustomed to VeeKay charging onto the first two starting rows at the Indy 500.
It’s here where Broyles took a massive roll of the dice.
With ambient temperatures starting to come down and cloud cover having a modest cooling effect on the Speedway, faster runs in the final hour of Saturday’s qualifying session — one where the drivers in 13th though 30th like VeeKay would be locked into place and done for the weekend — meant there was limited time left to see if the repaired ECR Chevy could give qualifying another go and move VeeKay closer to the front of the field.
And with IndyCar’s unique Indy 500 qualifying rules, teams have two lanes to choose from to send their drivers through: The “safe” lane where attempts can be made to improve your speed and starting spot where there’s no risk of losing your existing speed and spot if you don’t go faster, and then there’s the “fast” lane, which nobody uses, which requires teams to forfeit their driver’s starting spot — becoming unqualified — before making an attempt. Even the slightest issue during a fast-lane run could lead to failure and send the driver and car home. Slow, but safely in the field, VeeKay wasn’t in jeopardy of missing the Indy 500.
That was, of course, until Broyles’ brass balls entered the equation.
“I was sitting there around the five o’clock hour and the (safe) line was starting to get long,” he said. “We’re watching the weather and waiting for somebody that we thought would put in a reasonable time just to get a read on the track. And I think it was (Agustin) Canapino who went out and ran a 233mph and it was like, ‘OK, the track’s pretty good.’
“So I looked at the guys, and I’m like, ‘I’m probably going to live to regret this, but let’s go!’ I surprised everybody. I’m probably on the conservative side at times, but for all the effort that went in to get that car ready, and to know that we had a fast car but couldn’t show it, I said, ‘They deserve the opportunity, all of them as a group.’
“And the (safe) lane was only getting fuller, so I walked down there to the IndyCar race officials as the guys pushed the car into the (fast) lane, and saw (IndyCar president) Jay Frye and (race director) Kyle Novak and (race steward) Gary Barnard, walk up and hand Gary the withdrawal paperwork, and Jay says, ‘You know, you’re the only guy who would withdraw a car today…’ So I said, ‘I know…I’m probably gonna get the ‘Dumbass Award’ here today.’
“So Rinus fires the thing up and leaves and I walked up pit lane and tried to find a quiet spot by the scoring pylon, by myself, and Rinus did what we thought he would and sticks it into the Fast 12. I think it made it a pretty exciting day for the fans over here and everybody else. It’s fun when it works out.”
A collective achievement to celebrate for VeeKay and the ECR crew. Mike Young/Penske Entertainment
The mental toll of pulling VeeKay out of the Indy 500 and waiting to see if his plan would backfire and end in misery left Broyles in need of a long nap.
“Talk about being exhausted,” he said. “I have complete faith in our group; they have each other’s back. That’s the culture that we have here. And that’s what makes it fun, right? But you don’t want too many days like this one. After qualifying, you’re walking down pit lane, and it all hits you and you’re just so exhausted.
“One of our team owners, Stuart Reid, walked up and said, ‘Who had the balls to do that?’ And laughed about it at the time. Like I said, it’s those guys, they earned it. The best part about it was seeing the joy in their in their eyes and excitement they had when Rinus put up those big speeds that made it worth it.”
VeeKay’s crew chief was given the Clint Brawner Award for mechanical excellence after authoring the quick crash fixes and getting his driver into the Fast 12.
“It’s a really cool side story that Austin Shepherd won the Brawner Award, and that’s like a group award, right?” Broyles said. “That’s about all the guys around you, but to be recognized individually was pretty cool, too. The hardest thing I had to do is turn in that piece of paper and put myself in the running for the ‘Dumbass Award.’ They did the actual work, they got dirty, and I just had to walk down and hand in a piece of paper.”
It has been a long time since Ed Carpenter sprayed champagne. With the changes and adjustments he’s made to his team during the offseason, which include the shutting down of a separate car for himself on the ovals in favor of sharing the No. 20 with …
It has been a long time since Ed Carpenter sprayed champagne. With the changes and adjustments he’s made to his team during the offseason, which include the shutting down of a separate car for himself on the ovals in favor of sharing the No. 20 with Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen, the three-time Indianapolis 500 polesitter and three-time IndyCar race winner is focused on rediscovering his oval groove.
The last four seasons have been frustrating and unrewarding for the 43-year-old, and while placing fifth at Texas Motor Speedway in 2020 and fifth at the Indy 500 in 2021 were reminders of Carpenter’s oval prowess, there’s been little to celebrate after placing no better than 13th over the last two seasons.
And that’s where stepping out of the largely uncompetitive No. 33 Chevy entry, plus the recent addition of Indy 500-winning engineer Eric Cowdin, and the consolidation of ECR’s efforts to two cars for 2024 — barring Rasmussen’s shift to a third car at Indy — should contribute to making the team and its owner/driver more competitive.
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Wednesday’s rain-shortened test day at Indy didn’t tell us much, but Carpenter was back in familiar territory after posting the seventh-fastest lap of the day.
“I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t feel like I was capable,” he told RACER. “It’s been a strange couple of seasons, just the way things have worked out. I think it looks a lot worse than it’s felt at times. Still, I have a ton of fun doing what I’m doing; more fun when we’re running better than what we have been. But I’m really happy with where the team’s at right now.”
ECR was among the welcome surprised to open the season at St. Petersburg with Rinus VeeKay in the No. 21 Chevy rating among the fastest entries during the event while rookie teammate Christian Rasmussen was smart and measured on his IndyCar debut. Their respective finishes of 10th and 21st offer promise of what’s to come from the team as it looks to fight among the bigger and wealthier programs.
VeeKay’s fighting form at St. Petersburg was a promising start for the refreshed ECR program. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images
“Rinus has made another step, and we haven’t fully shown yet with Christian but internally, we’re really happy with where he’s at,” Carpenter said. “You can see what’s going to be coming as he gets some more experience and gets fully acclimated to IndyCar. Rinus is off to a really competitive start. It’s still a small sample size this year, but every time we’ve been out, he’s been quick and consistent and the execution has been there. So we’re really encouraged with that, and excited for a Christian to show his full potential here soon.”
Most of the 2023 season was filled with disappointment for ECR as its cars were rarely found in the mix with drivers who were fighting for the championship. Left with a massive amount of improvements to make, next week’s race on the streets of Long Beach will give Carpenter more data to determine of his team’s efforts to find more speed on road and street courses has been a success.
“There’s credit to the drivers, and there’s credit to the group of people we have that have been working hard to make sure we put ourselves in a better position,” he said. “I don’t feel like there’s an area the team as a whole didn’t take very seriously and come up with a good plan in preparation to start the year. So that makes it exciting for me to get back to racing.
“Part of what has me excited too is we’ve added we added Eric (Cowdin), but other than that on the engineering side, it’s largely our same group of personnel. You know, we’ve added some young guys over the past couple of years, and we’re seeing them start to develop into confident, additive pieces. And Eric didn’t start until the last day of February, so I don’t really think we’ve started to feel his impact yet. So the fact that we’ve started the season better than we finished it, I think we still have room for growth, which is exciting.”
Sadness and a sigh of relief were my two main responses to Ed Carpenter Racing’s announcement of 2023 Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen as its newest IndyCar driver. The sigh of relief was for the NXT series and Rasmussen. With Linus Lundqvist …
Sadness and a sigh of relief were my two main responses to Ed Carpenter Racing’s announcement of 2023 Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen as its newest IndyCar driver.
The sigh of relief was for the NXT series and Rasmussen. With Linus Lundqvist dominating the championship in 2022 and finding no takers for his services until a seat opened late last season at Meyer Shank Racing due to injury, there was a sizable concern that Rasmussen would also be passed over for an IndyCar opportunity.
Although he was drawing interest elsewhere in the paddock, Carpenter was the only team owner who was serious about giving the kid a shot, and if he wasn’t selected to drive its No. 20 Chevy, Rasmussen was at risk of being passed over in the same vein as Lundqvist and having to fight among a half-dozen other names chasing similar or lesser seats.
Thankfully, ECR chose the fiery 23-year-old Dane, who has all the markings of a seriously fast and formidable talent to develop, and because of that choice, Penske Entertainment has avoided seeing back-to-back NXT champions relegated to the sidelines to open the following season. What a relief.
Rasmussen’s addition adds to a strong contingent of Indy NXT grads in the IndyCar lineup. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images
Rasmussen’s nomination by ECR means IndyCar will have every Indy Lights/NXT champion since 2018 in the field next year, led by Pato O’Ward at Arrow McLaren, Kyle Kirkwood at Andretti Global, and Lundqvist at Chip Ganassi Racing. The only exception — bearing in mind the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID — is 2019 title winner Olver Askew, and that’s where the sadness comes in.
If you were fortunate to see Askew in action during his mollywhopping Mazda Road to Indy years, there was no doubt as to whether the lanky kid from Florida — just like his friend and in-state rival Kirkwood — was destined for IndyCar stardom. However, a rough introductory season in the big leagues with Arrow McLaren rarely went according to plan, and to be honest, he wasn’t viewed or signed with the same enthusiasm as O’Ward.
His McLaren stablemate thrived while he found the car a handful to drive, and with a mid-season crash that left Askew with a concussion and a need to step out of the cockpit for a few races, the wave of momentum he rode into IndyCar was lost.
Since then, Askew’s gone wherever the opportunities have presented themselves in IMSA, Formula E, and on occasion in IndyCar. The chance to land the No. 20 ECR Chevy was an important one for Askew, which makes its loss a sad outcome for the 26-year-old. Partnering with Rinus VeeKay was his best chance of returning to IndyCar, but like Rasmussen, it wasn’t his only option. I’m aware of at least one other team that has an interest in Askew, but now he’s in that same multi-driver fight to find his way into the series.
Also, Askew turns 27 in December, and while he’s far from old, the door to IndyCar won’t remain open forever — not with so many other young and funded drivers waiting to fill any available openings. If Askew isn’t on the grid next year, the IndyCar chapter of his life might be over.
I had a third reaction to Rasmussen’s signing, and it was concern. VeeKay ran a close second to Askew in that 2019 Lights championship, and in the four seasons he’s spent with ECR, the Dutchman has matured into one of IndyCar’s finest young talents. His talents have also been largely wasted by ECR. It’s here where I hope the story changes with the kid nicknamed “Razz.”
Since Josef Newgarden’s departure from ECR for Team Penske in 2017, the team has attracted significant talent and burrowed itself into IndyCar’s midfield pack with alarming consistency. JR Hildebrand, the 2009 Indy Lights champion, ran 15th in the 2017 championship for ECR, and his full-time replacement, 2015 Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot, led the team in 2018 and 2019 with runs to 14th. Upon VeeKay’s arrival in 2020, the rookie maintained Pigot’s form and finished 14th in the standings.
He’d earn his first and only win to date in 2021 and carried the No. 21 to 12th, its best championship placing since Newgarden captured fourth overall in 2016. VeeKay held station in 2022 with another strong effort to hold onto 12th in the standings, and despite a truly impressive sequence of performances to close the 2023 season, ECR regressed, with the No. 21 falling back to a familiar 14th in the championship.
Rinus VeeKay’s fluctuating form with Ed Carpenter Racing is cause for both optimism and concern for new ECR recruit Rasmussen. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
As a whole, the team has gone from being a contender to fluctuating between 12th and 14th with its best entry. And that’s not the car Rasmussen will be driving, which is where the concern is formed.
Under the rideshare program with the No. 20 where he’s headed, the likes of Jordan King, Ed Jones and Conor Daly were occasionally competitive on road and street courses, and as we saw last season, Daly and his replacement Ryan Hunter-Reay were rarely in the hunt for quality finishes. On the ovals, Carpenter was the car’s most effective driver, earning second-place finishes at the Indy 500 in 2018 and Gateway in 2019.
Since then, the best oval outing for the No. 20 with Carpenter behind the wheel was a fifth at Indy in 2021, and with his move to the No. 33 Chevy on the ovals from 2022-23, the results were consistently dreadful. Parking the No. 33 as a part-time third ECR entry makes plenty of sense, but it also takes the team back to a practice with the No. 20 that has rarely benefited the road and street course driver.
To find the last — and only period — where ECR’s rideshare plan worked, we need to say hello to 2014, the amazing Mike Conway and the infancy of the Dallara DW12 chassis when the Briton captured wins at Long Beach and Toronto in the No. 20 while Carpenter added a third win for the entry at Texas and placed third at Fontana to close the season.
Since then, the last decade has offered glimpses of potential during ECR’s two-drivers-for-one-car routine, but the results haven’t been flattering for the No. 20’s revolving door of road racers. And so, after a two-year experiment of running the No. 20 as a full-time entry for one driver, Rasmussen and Carpenter will take turns in 2024, with the 42-year-old American in for six races and the Dane in for 11, with a third entry due for him to drive at Indy 500.
It’s not a bad deal for Rasmussen by any means, but he also enters a team that needs to make vast improvements to challenge for meaningful results. After making no changes to its team in 2023 and paying the price for standing still, ECR is said to have Indy 500-winning race engineer Eric Cowdin on his way there once he completes a non-compete period with Chip Ganassi Racing. Assuming he’s eventually confirmed, Cowdin would be a powerful addition to the group of veteran engineers on ECR’s staff.
VeeKay, its best driver, heads into the final year of his contract with ECR, and unless the team takes a big leap forward in 2024, his tenure in the No. 21 Chevy is likely to reach its end. One team came close to making it happen for next season, and with potential openings at two top 10 contenders for 2025, we can expect the 23-year-old newlywed to attract quality offers to upgrade his personal and competitive fortunes.
That might benefit Rasmussen who, in the absence of VeeKay, could have a full-time seat in the No. 21 on the horizon, and with the talented and well-funded NXT racer Josh Pierson signed as ECR’s development driver, the team should have another young driver to integrate into its IndyCar program in the near future.
After two seasons of being routinely lapped and forgotten in the No. 33 entry, getting back into the No. 20 should be a palate cleanser for Carpenter. He’ll embark on his 21st consecutive attempt to win the Indy 500, and although I’m less than fond of Rasmussen being hired as a part-timer, Carpenter’s call to ditch the No. 33, rely on the stronger engineering team supporting the No. 20, and get back to being relevant on ovals is what’s best for him in the twilight of his career.
A reset in the No. 20 could be just what owner/driver Ed Carpenter needs while also serving his young teammates well. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Other than his 13th at Texas, Carpenter finished 20th or worse at every other oval last season, and that’s no way for a three-time Indy 500 polesitter to head into the sunset. NXT held two oval races in 2023, and Rasmussen won both with HMD Motorsports, so while he only has the Indy 500 on his oval schedule during his rookie IndyCar campaign, he should complement the team at the Speedway.
If ECR can break free from the midfield and fire VeeKay in and among the Penskes and Ganassis and McLarens on a semi-regular basis, its odds of keeping him will improve. And if that doesn’t happen, Rasmussen could be the beneficiary, if being handed the keys to the midfield during an ongoing rebuild is considered a gift.
ECR deserves a lot of credit for hiring top talent from Indy Lights and NXT. Other than Andretti Global, no team comes close to ECR’s efforts in signing the best prospects from American junior open-wheel racing, and we’re fortunate to have Carpenter’s ongoing commitment in this regard. We’re less fortunate to watch many of those top-tier drivers languish as their stars fade while in the program.
The upcoming season is a pivotal one for Carpenter, VeeKay and Rasmussen. The young ones need to receive consistent speed and competitiveness from ECR to make the most of their prodigious talent. The veteran needs to feel fast and significant in the oval discipline he mastered long ago.
For most of the teams ECR hopes to catch, 2024 will be business as usual as they trade wins and podiums at each round. And for ECR, another season of “business as usual” is the last thing it can afford.
Reigning Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen has been chosen by Ed Carpenter Racing as its newest driver for the No. 20 Chevy, and in a twist, the team will revert to its former practice of ride sharing with the car. Rather than place the …
Reigning Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen has been chosen by Ed Carpenter Racing as its newest driver for the No. 20 Chevy, and in a twist, the team will revert to its former practice of ride sharing with the car.
Rather than place the 23-year-old from Denmark in the No. 20 as Rinus VeeKay’s full-time teammate, ECR will park the uncompetitive No. 33 Chevy driven by Carpenter on the ovals and pair the team owner with Rasmussen, with the newcomer handling road and street courses and his team owner stepping into handle the oval in the No. 20.
The only exception will take place in May when Rasmussen is placed in a third ECR entry to make his Indianapolis 500 debut.
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“I am very excited to join Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season.” Rasmussen said. “It is a dream come true and something I’ve been working towards for a long time now. I want to thank Ed Carpenter and Tim Broyles for the opportunity and I’m ready to get to work and show everyone what we can do!”
Rasmussen and 2019 Indy Lights champion Oliver Askew took part in a shootout for the seat, which led to almost a month of analysis before a decision was made.
“He did an excellent job when we tested him at Barber Motorsports Park last month and showed that he is fully ready to take the next step into the NTT IndyCar Series,” Carpenter said. “We are excited to add him to our lineup and we are anticipating a successful 2024 season.”
A pair of junior-open wheel champions left Barber Motorsports Park on Monday feeling pleased about their performances during Ed Carpenter Racing’s shootout to see who’ll get the nod to become IndyCar’s newest full-time driver. Oliver Askew, the 2019 …
A pair of junior-open wheel champions left Barber Motorsports Park on Monday feeling pleased about their performances during Ed Carpenter Racing’s shootout to see who’ll get the nod to become IndyCar’s newest full-time driver.
Oliver Askew, the 2019 Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) title winner and Christian Rasmussen, crowned two weeks ago as the 2023 NXT champ, were given their own Chevy-powered Indy cars to drive at the high-speed and high-commitment road course in Alabama, and according to multiple sources, Rasmussen was the faster of the two at the 2.4-mile, 16-turn facility.
But outright lap speed wasn’t the only point of evaluation as ECR seeks the right driver to complement its race-winning incumbent Rinus VeeKay. Everything from the quality of their engineering feedback to average pace on used tires was taken into account by the team as it pursues a significant increase in competitiveness at all the unique tracks on the IndyCar calendar.
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Where Carpenter and the team’s top brass will lean is unknown; that will take a few days, at minimum, to process. In the case of Askew, who has 17 IndyCar races to his credit across 2020-21, and has been out of open-wheel racing since completing the 2022 FIA Formula E championship with Andretti Global, and Rasmussen, who put five big NXT wins on the board with HMD Motorsports, both say the chance to drive for ECR brought out their best.
“In the beginning, it was expected that I’d be a little bit rusty,” Florida’s Askew told RACER. “So in the morning, I just wanted to make sure that I got myself grounded and understood what I need to do to get the most out of the car again, and to get that blood pumping. It’s a beast of a car, and I felt like I was able to find my mojo again in the afternoon.
“I was really happy with my long-run pace, and my pace on old tires when the track got a little bit hotter as well. I felt like I was pretty strong and in a rhythm then. And we got through so many setup changes — more than I can ever recall doing in a one-day test. I love everything about it.”
Denmark’s Rasmussen was all smiles after his outing with ECR.
“I think the day went super well,” the 23-year-old said. “I got very comfortable and got up to speed super, super quick. Obviously, it’s a new car for me and you can definitely feel it’s a step up in terms of the physical challenge. I was fast, which is really all I can ask for on my first full day in an Indy car, especially with the experience that [Askew] has. I’m hungry for more, so hopefully we can figure something out and I can be the driver next year. I feel like I’m in a good spot right now. I feel ready, I feel fast, and think that it could be good.”
As the veteran driver at the test, 26-year-old Askew focused on playing that role throughout the day.
“We tried to go on track at the same time with the same tire strategy so we could compare some things more easily, and my approach was to come in and be as much of a leader as I can,” he said. “I naturally want to help Christian and the team out as a whole and I think that’s what I did. I was very open with what I was feeling with the car throughout this whole experience and I was helping Christian where I can — it was important for me to do that because I have that extra experience. That was my mindset going into the day, and we were pretty closely matched. In the afternoon, there wasn’t much between us at all.”
Rasmussen loved pulling into the pits and having a full timing stand of ECR engineers to interact with and to watch all the mechanics envelope his car as different setups were applied to his ride.
“To all of a sudden have that crew around you is a pretty cool feeling, and I think we all worked super well together,” he said. “Because this was my first real go in an Indy car, a lot of my time to start was on learning the car, and I did the best I could. On the feedback side, we went through some changes and got the car into a good window and made some improvements. But for sure there’s improvements to be made there from me with giving better feedback with more time in the car when everything is not new to me. I think some of that is to be expected, but I know I can be better.”
With the test completed, Askew and Rasmussen will wait by their phones and hope to receive a life-changing call from ECR with an invite to partner with VeeKay in 2024.
“Honestly, that’s something that I’m concerned about because it’s out of my control,” Askew said. “I’m proud of my performance today, felt like I got the most out of myself and I was proud of the effort that I put forward. I can be a leader for the team with Rinus, and he and I have shared countless podiums together, like 30 or 40 podiums throughout our years karting and through the Road to Indy as well, so I know that I can push him in ways that he hasn’t been over the last couple of years, and he can do the same for me in return.”
Rasmussen added: “I feel like I have shown everything that I needed to show now, and I can’t really ask for much more than being quickest. I have done everything that I can do to show them that it is me that they should choose. I just need to keep the phone charged and see where it goes with Ed and his team.”
Ed Carpenter Racing has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to a pair of Indy NXT champions to take over the No. 20 Chevy. After parting with Conor Daly after the Detroit round in June and replacing him with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the rest of the …
Ed Carpenter Racing has narrowed its shortlist of candidates to a pair of Indy NXT champions to take over the No. 20 Chevy.
After parting with Conor Daly after the Detroit round in June and replacing him with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the rest of the championship, ECR spent the final weeks of the season developing a cast of contenders to join Rinus VeeKay in 2024. That roster has been defined as 2019 NXT title winner Oliver Askew and new NXT champion Christian Rasmussen.
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The pair recently shared a day on Chevrolet’s driver-in-the-loop simulator in North Carolina ahead of an upcoming test at Barber Motorsports Park where ECR is expected to evaluate the results and choose Askew or Rasmussen as the full-time driver for the No. 20 entry.
“We’re testing both of those guys on Monday at Barber,” Carpenter told RACER. “That’s where our plan lies now.”
For Florida’s Askew, who completed his rookie IndyCar season with Arrow McLaren in 2020 and subbed for an injured VeeKay and placed 12th at Road America for ECR in 2021, there’s a familiarity with the team that drew the interest of Carpenter, general manager Tim Broyles, and the rest of ECR’s leadership.
With Denmark’s Rasmussen, the team sees a bright young talent who took command of the NXT championship with five wins and seven podiums for the HMD Motorsports team.
“I’m excited to see both of them in the car,” Carpenter said. “With Christian, for the first time, and with Oliver, we have one race of experience with him when he filled in for Rinus and we want to give him another look, especially since he’s been more so on the sidelines than doing what he should be doing.
“He made a good impression back then, so we’ll see how things go at the test with him and Christian and have conversations and see what we can put together from there.”
Questions remain as to whether ECR would take whoever does not earn the full-season contract and pair them alongside Carpenter to drive his No. 33 Chevy on road and street courses. Carpenter says it isn’t ECR’s first priority, but it isn’t an impossibility.
“I wouldn’t say I think that’s highly likely, but at this point [we’re] just trying to get the 20 car fully put together,” he added. “And then we’ll go to the next phase from there.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay was asked to complete the season in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy and share insights on how the team might improve its cars and improve its processes. As he prepares to complete that mission for his close friend Carpenter, …
Ryan Hunter-Reay was asked to complete the season in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy and share insights on how the team might improve its cars and improve its processes.
As he prepares to complete that mission for his close friend Carpenter, the 2012 IndyCar Series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner says he is not looking to return to the No. 20 or any other IndyCar entry on a season-long basis after Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey is run.
“I’m focusing on the 500 and some other opportunities outside of full-time IndyCar racing,” Hunter-Reay told RACER. “That’s where I’m at. The most solid thing that I’m working on is the 500, and once I get that put together, I’ll know more about where everything else falls. But nothing’s set in stone.”
Hunter-Reay had an immediate effect on young teammate Rinus VeeKay, who noticed the veteran began taking copious notes in their first post-session engineering debrief. Having filled countless notebooks with his observations of how each session or race went along with the chassis changes, track conditions, and other items to preserve for future consultation, Hunter-Reay’s record-keeping practices—something done by many seasoned drivers—stood out as something for the rapid Dutchman to adopt.
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After their first weekend together at Road America, VeeKay bought a notebook and has followed Hunter-Reay’s lead, and in kind, the 42-year-old has picked up a few things from the kid who turns 23 on Monday.
“I think I brought in a new perspective, and I highlighted areas that I think are their strengths and areas that I believe we should all work on to improve for next year,” said the driver who will start his 293rd IndyCar race on Sunday.
“We’ve certainly had lots of meetings on this and spent lots of time on improving the team in ways that are positive and should be positive moving forward. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Rinus. He obviously has as much natural raw talent as anybody in the series.
“I think something that I take away from him is being upbeat. Optimism is really a quality trait and something that you need. For me also, coming in midseason, it’s been drinking from the firehose when everybody was already up to speed, but we’ve never stopped working on finding all the little details that we can improve and I know the team will be the better for it going into next year.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay heads into an adventure this weekend that’s new, old, and awkward as the replacement for Conor Daly. The IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner also happens to be perfectly suited for the task at hand as he shoulders the …
Ryan Hunter-Reay heads into an adventure this weekend that’s new, old, and awkward as the replacement for Conor Daly.
The IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner also happens to be perfectly suited for the task at hand as he shoulders the responsibility of starting Ed Carpenter Racing’s rebuilding process from the cockpit of the No. 20 Chevy.
The job isn’t solely his to accomplish, but he has been brought in for one reason, and one reason alone, and that’s to help his old friend Ed Carpenter to dig the team out of competitive irrelevance and find a way forward where new teammate Rinus VeeKay and whomever drives the No. 20 entry in the years ahead can give frontrunners like Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing fits at every race on the calendar.
But it won’t be happening in a few days at Road America, or the next round at Mid-Ohio, or in a short time period whatsoever. Mid-season rebuilds are never about today; Road America is simply the start of helping ECR to find its way out of the darkness.
“It is a tough situation,” Hunter-Reay told RACER. “I’ve been on both ends of this. I’ve been on the side where I’ve been replaced, and I’ve been the one coming in doing the replacing, once at Rocketsports on the first side, and then second, at Rahal coming in midseason at Mid-Ohio, replacing Jeff Simmons. I think what a lot of people don’t understand is these scenarios are multifaceted.
“This one came about very fast, and it was one that I was not pursuing. That was not my objective at all. Ed called me about wanting help to take the team forward. This is a scenario where you have a lot of people working within a racing organization, and there can be a number of reasons why the competitive side is not firing on all cylinders. I’ve seen it many times and been a part of it when things aren’t working. And it is a complex situation. It is not straightforward. There is no silver bullet that will fix things. It’s an arduous process to go through.
Having Hunter-Reay take over the No.20 is the first step in what the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner warns will be a very long process to steady the ship at Ed Carpenter Racing. Motorsport Images
“And it’s a tough situation for Conor. Conor is my friend. I have a lot of respect for him, and in no way does that have anything to do with where we are today. It’s just the intricacies of this sport that we love. It’s also cruel sport. And here we are today. It is a massive undertaking.”
Hunter-Reay enters into the rebuilding process with a big mountain to climb. In a perfect world, Friday morning’s opening practice session wouldn’t be he first time participating in an IndyCar road race, with a new team, in 18 months, but there were no other options available to expedite the process.
“I’m jumping into the most competitive racing series in the world, and I’m jumping in with no testing with a program that is new to me, a team I have never gone racing with,” he said. “The one thing that’s made it more straightforward is I know a lot of people there. I’m friends with them, obviously starting with Ed [Carpenter], [general manager] Tim Broyles, [engineering director] Matt Barnes, Peter Craik, my engineer. Jeff Grahn, my crew chief. A lot of these folks I knew and worked with at Andretti Autosport.
“I’ve got a huge undertaking here in getting up to speed. Obviously, I knew the nuances of Road America since I’ve driven a Skip Barber car, but they are no longer because it’s a new surface, so we have that thrown in the mix as well. We didn’t have the luxury of testing a Road America, which would have been nice, so we’ll start from scratch and go from there.”
If there’s one underreported aspect of Hunter-Reay’s recruitment by ECR, it’s in what he can offer outside of the car. From an operational standpoint, his 12 years as a leader within the Andretti organization will be a huge benefit to ECR as its needs go well beyond the Xs and Os of how to tune an IndyCar. It’s in the processes, approaches, and mindsets of how ECR administers its race weekends — and how it breaks down the event that just happened and game plans for the next — where the 42-year-old veteran can shape the program in significant ways.
“I’ve been spending endless hours going through their approach, how they approach a weekend, and how I have been accustomed to approaching a weekend, what I might need or may not need and the race car that they are currently that they are currently deploying on a race weekend,” he said.
“Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly are really great racing drivers. This isn’t about, ‘Hey, go out there and get those 0.4s out of it that we need right now.’ It’s about opening up some new vantage points of potential. I’m not saying what I do is correct and what they’re doing is incorrect. It’s more that this is a new partnership, a new way of potentially going about things and hopefully, some of those conversations and some of the ways that we might tweak our approach may open up some room for progress.
As well as trying to get ECR back up to speed, Hunter-Reay will have some cobwebs of his own to clear out at Road America this weekend: it will be his first IndyCar road course race since Laguna Seca in 2021 (above). Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
“How do we go about our qualifying sessions? What is our approach on pre-empting the track and its progression; how quickly it progresses? In IndyCar, you cannot react all the time. You can’t just react and say, ‘Okay, let’s go out there and see what the track has, see how it likes the primary ties and then adjust for alternates.’ No, you have got to preempt that change, know what to expect as the track inevitably grips up or loses grip, and you have to be two steps ahead of it so that you’re within that operating window you want to be in the session and not always reacting to it and being a step or two behind.
“These things are all scenarios that we have to be cognizant of. And there’s a million things going through my head every day, waking up in the middle of the night jotting down notes, but [also] of things that I think worked when I was at the same program for 12 years. I’m trying to do my best to also be an advocate for this team, because they have great people, and to be someone that can just bring in a fresh perspective. This isn’t, ‘Hey, Conor is out Ryan’s in, and Ryan, you fix it, go faster.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth. This is a very, very complex situation that will take time, and it’s one I take very seriously.”
As much as he doesn’t want it to be the case, Hunter-Reay knows that by coming in cold to Road America, there’s a very real chance he could end Friday at the bottom of the speed chart. For the proud winner of 18 IndyCar races, it’s a chance he’s willing to take while starting ECR’s much-needed overhaul.
“I’ve always looked at things from a realistic standpoint, and I am optimistic as I can possibly be about anything in racing, but I understand that when you look at the depth of the field, and see really top notch championship-winning and Indy 500-winning drivers down in the 20s – guys who have won numerous races down in the 20s – it could be where I start things off,” he said.
“I have prepared myself mentally for that, and that would not make me happy, but I also have to understand and I have to respect the fact that I’m jumping in after not being in the car for a year and a half while they are in the middle of the season and everybody’s in their groove, so to speak, when I’m trying to find my footing. And I have to have respect for the fact that this is a period of transition, it’s not a session of transition. So I have respect for that situation, but I have to be fair to myself as well in curbing my expectations.
“I’ve been accustomed to seeing my name up there on the happy part of the timesheets, so I have to be fair also to myself in that I’m the one that’s going to be tasked with adapting the most of anyone else out there. Everything will be new for me, but if I just keep my blinders on, and I’m sure some people will have opinions about me being there, but I’m there to work with the team and I’m there to be the best that I can for them. And that process is one step at a time. I won’t even say one session at a time. It’s one outing at a time, one lap at a time. We’ve got a whole lot to catch up on and adapt to, and it starts now.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay has been asked to help Ed Carpenter Racing in its quest to find the consistent speed and competitiveness that has been largely absent in recent years. The 2012 IndyCar Series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner steps into the …
Ryan Hunter-Reay has been asked to help Ed Carpenter Racing in its quest to find the consistent speed and competitiveness that has been largely absent in recent years. The 2012 IndyCar Series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner steps into the No. 20 ECR Chevy after the team and now former driver Conor Daly split following a disappointing run during the seven opening races of the season.
Renowned for his technical feedback and vast experience in a leading team, Hunter-Reay’s role is focused on assisting ECR’s roster of engineering talent with identifying its weaknesses and building for the future, with less of an aim being placed on achieving specific on-track results over the remainder of the calendar.
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Hunter-Reay will partner with young Dutch star Rinus VeeKay and Carpenter, who will join them in a third entry on the ovals.
“I was surprised when I got the call from Ed. He described how frustrated he was that his team has not been able to realize its potential despite their efforts, investments, as well as technical and personnel changes over the past few years and asked for my help,” Hunter-Reay said. “Ed and I are very close friends and have been for a long time. I’ve worked with the team in the past and they are a very talented group with high expectations and a committed partner in BITNILE.com.
“This will certainly be a challenge for me as well. It’s a tough situation jumping in a car in the middle of the season without any testing in what I believe to be the most competitive series in the world. Certainly, part of my motivation in saying ‘yes’ to Ed is the great challenge ahead. The last time I turned right driving an Indy car was in October of 2021 with this team at Barber. However, I remain very confident in both my driving and technical abilities and believe by working with the talented people at ECR and Team Chevy, while representing BITNILE.COM, we will make progress. I am going to do everything I can do to help the team achieve its long-term objectives”
Hunter-Reay also tested Ed Carpenter’s ride at Sonoma back in 2013, as well as at Barber in 2021. Marshall Pruett photo
Although the conclusion of the relationship between ECR and Daly is understood to be one that has more to do with interpersonal relationships than the Hoosier’s on-track results, the reset by the team with the No. 20 Chevy also created an opportunity to draft in the longstanding Andretti Autosport driver to get a handle on what the program will need to vie for routine podiums and wins when the new season begins in 2024.
“We need to improve our competitiveness and I wanted to add a fresh perspective from a driver like Ryan who has a massive amount of experience and success as well as a reputation as a team leader,” said team owner Carpenter. “I am excited to welcome Ryan to the team. We have worked together in the past as teammates and he tested for ECR at Barber Motorsports Park in October 2021, where he made an immediate impact as we were able to qualify one of our cars on the pole following that test. I am confident that his experience and technical abilities will be an asset to ECR as we move forward toward our goals as a team.”
