IndyCar 2019: hope versus reality

As the IndyCar fraternity descends on Texas for its Spring Training, it is natural to feel a sense of excitement about the year to come. Already last week we were treated to the sight of 20+ IndyCars at Laguna Seca, a sign of a sport that is moving forward as well as going back to its roots. There is indeed a lot to celebrate: more cars than we have seen in recent years, a surplus of driving talent across the board, a new title sponsor, fresh and exciting TV deals both in the Americas and elsewhere that give the sport the attention it deserves. All is well then?

Well, not quite. Even several swallows do not a summer make, as one would put it in Ye Olde English. While the Andretti, Carpenter, Coyne, Foyt, Ganassi, Penske, Rahal Letterman and Schmidt Peterson organisations all seem to be in good health and form a core of around 20 full-time competitors, the continued growth of the sport largely depends on the new teams finding solid ground. And many of them find the going to be tough at the moment. If IndyCar wants to avoid the F1 trap and keep its competitiveness and recent growth curve intact, it is important to not be too starry-eyed about the state of IndyCar anno 2019.

Hope versus reality

Take Carlin Racing, a well-versed organisation that has known success everywhere it competed. It is committed to IndyCar, but struggling to field two cars. Last fall Trevor Carlin spoke hopefully about maybe adding a third full-time car to his roster, but the reality is that right now, Charlie Kimball can no longer cough up the funds to make even the second car a full-time entry. Whatever their considerations, Kimball’s long-time sponsor Novo Nordisk no longer sees value in funding a full season for the Californian, which is worrying. Naturally there will be plenty of part-time takers to fill the second Carlin car for the remaining twelve races, but a merry-go-round of drivers is not what builds consistency.

Just ask Harding Steinbrenner, where the same story applies. It sounded so good when Harding Racing started out in 2017: a local Indianapolis businessman, fielding a full-time entry draped in an awesome livery, with an Indy Lights champ behind the wheel. This is what IndyCar should be about. When Gabby Chaves grudgingly agreed to be replaced with Conor Daly last season, most observers didn’t mind much: we all love Conor, after all. The subsequent announcement of the partnership with Steinbrenner and plans for a full-time, two-car operation with young stars Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward added to the feel-good story. With this week’s departure of O’Ward and persistent rumours about funding difficulties in general, that story has come crashing down rather quickly.

Like the Robin Miller-Marshall Pruett tandem at Racer magazine, I really wanted Harding Racing to succeed. Miller and Pruett, who between them have almost a century of experience in covering motor racing, deliberately did not break the news of the pending Harding Steinbrenner partnership last fall, to ensure the team would get the time needed to sort out all the details. This week, Miller also admitted to initially not following up on rumours about the team’s financial difficulties in his reporting, hoping they would sort things out. In the context of the closely knit fraternity that is IndyCar, alien as it is to the knife-in-back mentality that rules F1, this is totally understandable.

But there seems to be a deeper story here. Again, everyone wants Harding to succeed. But one gets the impression that Harding Racing is playing it loose and fast with driver contracts, undermining its own feel-good story. What started with Chaves has now gotten a follow-up with the O’Ward saga, with signs emerging that the team did not communicate transparently to the young Mexican. And if Indy Lights star Santi Urrutia is to be believed, Harding made more promises it could not keep in late 2017. When three similar stories emerge, it becomes a pattern. It’s still unclear what the truth is and everyone deserves a hearing, but someone with more access than myself should really dig into this.

And then there is Juncos. Arguably the most sympathetic racing operation in America, everyone wants to see Juncos join the big league in earnest. The team is doing amazing things on the Road to Indy and in IMSA, so IndyCar is a logical next step. Like Carlin, Juncos seemed hopeful to be able to run two cars in 2019. At the moment, it seems to be difficult enough for the team to fill one entry. And even though his manager doesn’t like me saying it, the prospect of more red-lantern running for Austrian Rene Binder is not very enticing. Yes, he does have the funds that will allow Juncos to run races in 2019, but his career results strongly suggest that he is not IndyCar material. In an ideal world, Juncos teams up with O’Ward for some races and finds additional funding to run long-time protégé Kyle Kaiser in other races. Either way, prospects of a second Juncos car currently seem far off.

Loosening bolts

As for the other part-time entries, the travails of Harding Steinbrenner, Carlin and Juncos do not necessarily bode well for their attempts to go full-time anytime soon. Michael Shank Racing is steadily expanding its entry with Jack Harvey, and it is encouraging to see DragonSpeed and Scuderia Corsa commit to new entries. But if the aforementioned three are struggling to secure enough funds, that means there is simply not enough money to go around at the moment. What that means for McLaren’s plans to expand its IndyCar operations in coming years, is anyone’s guess.

So yes, in many ways IndyCar is doing great ahead of 2019. Competition is strong, the driver field is probably the most talented it has been in years and the series continues to add exciting venues new and old to its calendar. And yet. The wheels are not coming off, not by a long shot. But looking at the smaller operations and their funding problems, some bolts are starting to loosen a bit, and this requires everyone’s attention.

All text: © Jeroen Demmendaal