This is part six in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Harding Steinbrenner Racing

Pato O’Ward was released from his contract due to team budget issues on Feb. 13. As of March 7, O’Ward has signed on for 12 races in Carlin’s second car and in the team’s third car for the Indy 500. For more info on O’Ward’s new team, go to the Carlin season preview.

The legendary field at Yankee Stadium has been home to many great moments in sports, and Mike Harding and George Steinbrenner IV will see if their announcement to create a new team partnership last September can eventually be considered a special one.

Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta were introduced as the team’s two full-time drivers for the 2019 IndyCar season on September 19 in a press conference at Yankee Stadium. The team will continue to be powered by Honda and will receive technical partnership from Andretti Autosports. Steinbrenner IV will be the youngest owner in IndyCar history at only 22-years old, and the connection to his father Hank Steinbrenner of the Yankees led to a successful last two years of Steinbrenner Racing working with Herta in the Indy Lights series.

Both drivers battled against each other in Indy Lights all of last season, with the series commonly compared to AAA in baseball. This final step before reaching IndyCar is always a competitive affair, and the two finished at the top of the smaller-than-normal field of seven full-time entries. O’Ward won nine of the 17 races and Herta won four as the pair dominated the series. Usually Indy Lights winners are only guaranteed three or four races in the following season before needing to find long-term sponsorship deals to secure a ride, but O’Ward and Herta were fortunate to find a new team looking for top-end young talent to add to the series.

The Drivers

Pato O’Ward (#8): IndyCar Rookie

Colton Herta (#88): IndyCar Rookie

Both drivers raced for the team at Sonoma in the season finale of 2018. O’Ward had an electrifying effort, qualifying within the top-five of his first IndyCar start and finishing in ninth place. Herta had a more difficult time by qualifying 19th and finishing 20th in the #88 car that had been driven by Gabby Chaves and Conor Daly earlier in the season. Both of those drivers averaged finishing in about 17th place in their races, so it would be silly to read too much into Herta’s first race.

Harding competed in all 17 rounds of the 2018 season, with O’Ward’s finish being easily the best performance of the year. Chaves did extremely well in 2017 when Harding opened its IndyCar efforts by racing at three ovals. Chaves finished ninth at the Indy 500 and a career-best fifth at Texas, leading to optimism for their performance in 2018. However, the struggles a one-car team normally faces in their first full season set in right away. The team finished ahead of newcomers Carlin and Juncos in average qualifying position, but only ahead of Juncos in average race finish.

Outlook for 2019

The team should have a brighter season with two fresh drivers that have battled throughout the lower tiers to get to the final destination of the NTT IndyCar Series (new title sponsor this season). If the teammates can work well together and create more results like O’Ward’s debut at Sonoma, I would expect both drivers to be able to find themselves within the top-10 at a few tracks this season. They’ve also both driven on the majority of the tracks in Indy Lights, which will give them a head start on other rookies throughout the season.

The Verdict

O’Ward has shown pace in almost every series he has been in, and I expect him to adapt well this season and be able to battle with the veterans like he did in his series debut. I think Herta will finish a little farther down at 16th overall, which will still put him ahead of the A.J Foyt and Carlin teams. This first season of partnership will be a challenge at times, but hopefully Harding can use what he’s learned in his two years of experience to help Steinbrenner IV hit the ground running.

Next week- Preview #7: Chip Ganassi Racing

This is part five in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan

The father-son duo of IndyCar legend Bobby Rahal and 11-year veteran Graham Rahal are aiming to take a step forward in 2019. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing fielded two full-time entries in 2018 for the first time since 2013 and only the second time since 2006.

The team has been around since 1992 when Bobby won four races as part-owner/solo driver to take the drivers championship in the team’s first season, and Bobby continued racing with the team until 1998 with other drivers. Kenny Brack gave the team their next highest finish of second in the 2001 CART series, and Michael Jourdain, Jr. finished third in 2003 during the team’s final season in CART.

Buddy Rice gave the team three wins in 2004, including the biggest of them all with a pole and win at the Indy 500. It would be four more years until the team delivered another win with a young Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2008. The team raced in a limited capacity in the following years, only returning full-time with Sato’s one-year run of two podium finishes in 2012 and Graham’s decision to join the team in 2013. Bobby Rahal’s team has 26 wins, 30 poles and 97 podium finishes in their 27-year history.

The Drivers

Graham Rahal (#15)

Career: 194 starts, 6 wins, 3 poles, 23 podiums, 95 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 13.2 (15th), Avg. Finish 11.1 (11th), 8th overall

Rahal won his first career IndyCar start at St. Petersburg in 2008 for Newman/Haas Racing, becoming the youngest IndyCar winner at 19-years old. It took him until 2015 to win another race when he came in first at the oval at Fontana, and he also won at Mid-Ohio a few weeks later. Rahal had seven runner-up finishes in the series before finally breaking his 125-race winless streak. He finished fourth in the championship that season, RLL’s highest finish since Rice’s third place in 2004.

Rahal scored four podiums in 2016, including a win at Texas for his second-consecutive season finishing in the top-five of the standings. He posted an impressive double win at Detroit on back-to-back days, becoming the first driver to do so since the race became a double header in 2013.

Last season proved to be more difficult, as Rahal only finished on the podium in the season opener at St. Petersburg. He only finished within the top-five three times in 2018, but he still managed to finish eighth in the standings due to consistent top-10 performances. Rahal also finished ahead of his teammate Sato at 12 of the 17 races.

Takuma Sato (#30)

Career: 152 starts, 3 wins, 7 poles, 8 podiums, 47 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 12.2 (11th), Avg. Finish 13.2 (13th), 12th overall

The 41-year-old Japanese driver returned to RLL in 2018 after racing for the team during the 2012 season. He secured his first IndyCar podium in 2012 at the Sao Paulo race in Brazil, but it wasn’t until the following year with AJ Foyt’s team that he won his first IndyCar race at the famous Long Beach street circuit. It would take him until 2017 to win another race, but the wait may have been worth it as he added his name to the highly-esteemed list of Indy 500 winners as he held off a late charge from three-time winner Helio Castroneves. The win at Indy propelled him to top-five in the standings for part of the season, and he ended up finishing a career-best eighth in the championship during his lone season at Andretti Autosport.

Sato had a strong drive at Iowa to finish on his first podium of 2018, but his greatest moment of the season came at the penultimate race of the year at Portland. It was the first time the series had returned to the city since 2007, and Sato drove all the way from 20th to take his third career victory. Sato also was thre series-leader in picking up positions in the final 10 percent of the race. This role of best “closer” was clear by picking up three positions at St. Pete’s and six at Barber in the closing laps, finishing with 13 positions gained in the final 10 percent on the season.

Outlook for 2019

RLL will be retaining two full-time drivers for the first time since the mid-2000’s, so the level of familiarity should be a welcome sign for the team in 2019. Graham Rahal needs to have a strong season to make sure he doesn’t fall out of the top-10 championship standings for the first time since 2014. A key will be improving qualifying position, which Rahal admitted on the Marshall Pruett Podcast was a major problem in being a championship contender.

Rahal won the “Don’t Crack Under Pressure Award” last season for gaining the most positions from start to finish at all events, and Sato and Rahal were also the top-two drivers for losing the fewest positions in 2018. However, this could be aided by starting further back than they expected. Both qualified within the top-10 eight times, but Sato won the head-to-head matchup 9-8 over his teammate. Neither driver qualified higher than fifth at any race last season.

The Verdict

Rahal will get back on track with at least one win in 2019 and will just manage to stay in the top-10 of the championship standings after stronger efforts from Arrow Schmidt Peterson and Chip Ganassi. Sato will probably have a tougher year, and I don’t expect him to be able to win a race for the third consecutive year. There were quite a few races where he seemed to disappear and have no pace last season, so he needs to have more consistent top-10 finishes in order to keep his seat beyond 2019.

Later this week- Preview #6: Harding Steinbrenner Racing

This is part four in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Arrow Schmidt Peterson 

The 2018 season was full of highs and lows for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, who now will be known as Arrow Schmidt Peterson after the tech company Arrow Electronics became the title sponsor for the team last week.

James Hinchcliffe started the season solidly before the disaster at the Indy 500 where he failed to qualify on the first true bump day in years. Hinchcliffe and Pippa Mann were the only cars to not qualify for the 33-car field, creating a major setback for his season in the double-points race of the Indy 500.

Hinchcliffe had his fellow Canadian and close friend Robert Wickens along with him in 2018, and the 29-year-old former DTM driver impressed in his first season in IndyCar. The rookie of the year finished on four podiums in his first 13 races before suffering a massive crash at Pocono where he suffered spinal damage that left him paralyzed.

Wickens is currently working to regain full movement of his legs and wants to return to the series one day. The team confirmed that the #6 car will still be open for Wickens to race in once he is fully healthy. Team boss Sam Schmidt is a quadriplegic after a crashing during an IndyCar test 19 years ago, so he seems to have more sympathy and patience than most teams would be able to have in this difficult situation.

Schmidt had a team involved in the Indy Racing League as early as 2001 but had his first full-time entry with Alex Tagliani in 2011. Schmidt brought in rookie Simon Pagenaud in 2012 after a successful career of endurance racing, and the move instantly paid off as Pagenaud picked up four podiums and finished fifth in the series. The following season he gave Schmidt his first two wins as a team boss and a third place finish in the 2013 driver’s standings. Pagenaud picked up two more wins in 2014 before departing for Team Penske, who helped him win his first IndyCar title in 2016. The team also completed its first ever 1-2 finish that season in Houston with Pagenaud taking the win and Mikhail Aleshin finishing second.

The Drivers

James Hinchcliffe (#5)

Career: 122 starts, 6 wins, 1 pole, 15 podiums, 61 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 11.0 (9th), Avg. Finish 10.1 (8th), 10th overall

Hinchliffe recorded five top-10 finishes before the disaster at Indy created a major setback for his 2018 season. He responded by winning at Iowa before finishing outside the top-10 in his last five races to finish the season tied with Wickens for 10th place at 391 points, even though Wickens missed the final three races after his injury. Wickens qualified better than Hinchcliffe in 10 of the 14 races they both entered and had a better result in eight of the 13 events.

The “Mayor of Hinchtown” had his highest championship finish since his 2013 season with Andretti that saw him capture three victories. He joined Schmidt Peterson in 2015 and won in only his second start at New Orleans. His season was cut short when a crash in practice after Indy 500 qualifying nearly cost him his life and forced him to miss the rest of 2015. He responded the following year by claiming the first Indy 500 pole of his career.

Marcus Ericsson (#7): IndyCar Rookie

The Swede will be in a car that has a chance for race wins for the first time since his time with the DAMS team in the 2013 GP2 Series. Ericsson spent his last five seasons in Formula 1 with teams that usually viewed top-10 finishes as victories. He finished in the top-10 in 11 of his 97 races in F1, but the Alfa Romeo Sauber team came a long way in his four seasons. After serious budget problems in 2017, the team rebounded with a competitive car in 2018 and had Ericsson’s teammate Charles LeClerc make the jump to second place Ferrari in the offseason.

This gave Ericsson the chance for his first top-10 performances since 2015, ending his record of 49 consecutive races without finishing in the top-10. Ericsson finished in the points paying positions six times in 2018, more than the previous four years combined. This shows he might be hitting his stride at 28 years old, and the spec-series nature of IndyCar will give him a much better chance to compete.

Jack Harvey (#60)

Career: Nine starts, Best Finish: 12th (Long Beach)

2018: Avg. Qualifying 19.3 (26th), Avg. Finish 17.3 (23rd), 24th overall

Harvey announced on Tuesday that he will return for his second season as an associated driver with Meyer Shank Racing. The British driver competed in five road courses and the Indy 500 last season in the first year of a partnership with Schmidt Peterson. This season he will compete in nine road courses and the Indy 500 as Meyer Shank works towards supporting a full-time entry. Harvey also stepped in for Schmidt Peterson for the final two races of 2017 and raced in the 2017 Indy 500 with Micheal Shank Racing in association with Andretti.

Outlook for 2019

Early reactions from the drivers after the new sponsorship from Arrow is that they want Schmidt Peterson to join the ranks as a big-three team. No driver from Schmidt has finished higher than Hinchliffe’s 10th last season since Pagenaud finished fifth in 2014. With two fully-supported cars by Arrow this season and two proven drivers, now is the time to make a run at the top teams in the series. The last time a driver from a team other than Penske, Ganassi or Andretti won the championship was in 2002.

The Verdict

Expect Hinchcliffe to secure his highest overall finish in the series at seventh overall and pick up a win or two along the way. Ericsson will be hungry to prove himself as a top rookie in a strong class of newcomers this season. Ovals are going to be tricky for him in his first season, but I could see him sneaking his way onto a podium at a track like Circuit of the Americas. He will have more experience than the rest of the field after racing at COTA the last four years in Formula 1. I think he will finish 11th in the driver’s standings with a decent gap between him and the top-10 drivers. Harvey should be able to secure his first top-10 race in IndyCar after more sponsorship support in 2019.

Next Week- Preview #5: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

This is part three in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Dale Coyne Racing

The plucky little team from Plainfield, Ill. will be hoping that 2019 can finally be the year they have found a talented driver to team with four-time CART series champ Sebastien Bourdais. With two wins at St. Petersburg for Bourdais the past two seasons, he will be a major name to watch in the early rounds of 2019.

The Honda-powered team is owned by former Champ Car driver Dale Coyne, who has led the team in 869 starts in IndyCar (formerly CART/Champ Car) since 1984. It took 25 years for the team to pick up their first victory when Justin Wilson won at Watkins Glen in 2009. They’ve taken six victories and two poles in their 35 seasons of running in open-wheel racing.

The Drivers

Sebastien Bourdais (#18)

Career: 188 starts, 37 wins, 34 poles, 56 podiums, 111 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 9.8 (8th), Avg. Finish 11.1 (10th), 7th overall

Bourdais was a legend in the CART/Champ Car series in the years prior to their re-merger with the Indy Racing League, winning four-straight titles from 2004-2007 before IndyCar as we know it returned in 2008. This skews his career stats greatly, since he has only had six wins, three poles and 12 podiums in the last seven seasons. Series leaders like Penske, Andretti and Ganassi all left the CART series between 2002-2003, making it a less-talented field for Bourdais to dominate from 2004-2007.

Bourdais came to IndyCar after a few years of racing in Formula 1, joining Dale Coyne Racing in 2011 for a part-time season. He raced five seasons total with Dragon Racing, KV Racing and KVSH Racing before returning to Dale Coyne in 2017. He started his return with Coyne by finishing top-2 in his first two appearances before getting involved in crashes at Phoenix and the Indy GP. His season almost came to an end during Indy 500 qualifying when his car lost control during his run for pole, suffering pelvis and hip fractures that were supposed to keep him out for the rest of the season. He managed to return for the final three races of 2017.

Prior to 2018, former KVSH Racing owners Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan partnered with Coyne to field the no. 18 car as a joint effort under the name Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan. Bourdais started his season off with another superb drive from the back half of the field to win at St. Petersburg, capitalizing on a collision between leaders Alexander Rossi and Robert Wickens in the final moments of the race.

Bourdais only found himself on one more podium in 2018 after a third-place finish at Portland. However, his results were good enough to place him seventh overall in the championship, the highest finisher outside of a driver for a big-3 team (Ganassi, Penske, Andretti). Bourdais had a 15-2 advantage in qualifying and a 13-4 advantage in race finishes over his teammate in the no. 19 car, whether it was Zachary Claman DeMelo, Pietro Fittipaldi or Santino Ferucci in the car.

Santino Ferrucci (#19)

Career: Four starts, Best Finish: 11th (Sonoma)

2018: Avg. Qualifying 17.3 (21st), Avg. Finish 18.3 (27th), 27th overall

Ferrucci will join Dale Coyne Racing as a full-time driver in 2019. He competed in a few races last season in the no. 19 entry after an injury to Pietro Fittapaldi, and as a third entry for the final two races at Portland and Sonoma. These two races seemed to serve as an audition for Ferrucci, who showed enough pace for Coyne to give him the seat for the full season.

Coyne’s second car has been up for grabs by tons of pay-drivers over the past few years who have been able to pay their way to drive in a car that lacks sponsorship money. There have been 11 drivers in the no. 19 entry over the last four seasons, with the only full-time entry being Ed Jones in 2017. Coyne’s second car has also only come up with nine top-10 finishes in the past four seasons.

Ferrucci comes with a bit of a checkered past, having received a ban from Formula 2 last season after intentionally crashing into his teammate after the Silverstone race in Great Britain. He has faced legal opposition from the Trident team after being fired for behavorial issues and lack of funds, but he will aim to put the episode behind him and focus on his career back in the United States. The 20-year-old has spent the past few seasons being a developmental driver for Haas F1 and racing in different Formula 1 feeder series. However, he had limited success and only found himself on one podium in 47 starts in GP3 and Formula 2.

Outlook for 2019

Coyne should feel pleased with Bourdais’ effort in 2018 to finish seventh in the championship, with a top-5 overall finish about as high as could be expected for a driver from a team with limited resources like Coyne. If Bourdais can avoid getting caught up in early-season wrecks after wins at street courses like in 2017, he could find himself in the championship hunt as they head to Indy.

Bourdais hasn’t had quite the same success on ovals since joining IndyCar in 2011, but he had his career-best qualifying at the Indy 500 last season of fifth. His best finish at Indy is only seventh place in 2015, so Bourdais’ focus should be adding his name to the historic list of Indy 500 winners in his ninth attempt at the race. While many discount his four CART/Champ Car titles, winning the biggest race of them all would give him more respect after winning at small teams the past few years.

Ferrucci needs to focus on staying out of the headlines for the wrong reasons in 2019 and learn from his teammate, who has shown the ability to pick up victories and get as much pace out of the car as possible. A few top-10 finishes and a good relationship with Bourdais could go a long way to change Ferrucci’s image and give the young American a fresh start.

The Verdict

I think Bourdais will finish ninth in the championship, just behind most drivers for the big-3 teams. Bourdais will probably pick up another win at a street course this season, so watch out for strong performances at St. Pete’s, Long Beach or Detroit. Ferrucci will most likely struggle in 2019 as a rookie, but he should have enough racing experience to put in a few top-10 performances at road courses. Expect a couple of crashes this season, with veterans describing him as a kid or hinting at his history of incidents.

Later this week- Preview #4: Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports

This is part two in a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: Ed Carpenter Racing

The kings of short ovals. The team of “oh so close.” There are plenty of ways to describe Ed Carpenter Racing, but the two words that haven’t been able to describe them the past two years: race winner.

ECR has been close though, securing four podium finishes in the past two seasons, including three runner-ups. Their last win was in 2016 when Josef Newgarden led 282 of 300 laps to win at Iowa in a season that produced six top-five finishes. However, Newgarden’s title the following year with series-leading Penske shows that he might have gotten more out of the car than should be expected from the small Indianapolis-based team.

The Drivers

Ed Carpenter (#20)

Career: 176 starts, 3 wins, 4 poles, 7 podiums, 48 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 11.3 (10th), Avg. Finish 10.2 (9th), six races, 20th overall

Ed is a veteran presence on the IndyCar grid and has particpated in eight partial seasons and eight full seasons as a driver since 2003. Carpenter was still a full-time driver in 2012 and 2013 when he started his own team and was a single-car entry. He put together four top-four finishes in those two seasons, including a win at Fontana in 2012. He switched to his current role of only racing on oval tracks in 2014, which seemed to be the right move when he took pole for the second-consecutive year at the Indy 500. He followed up that performance by winning in Texas, which was his last victory. The series also stopped going to Fontana after 2014, a track where he was on the podium three consecutive years.

His team merged with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing in 2015 to become CFH Racing, but he returned to the familiar Ed Carpenter Racing team name the following year. Carpenter struggled from 2015-17, only picking up two top-10 finishes in 17 appearances. Last season was much stronger for Carpenter as he finished in the top-10 in four of his six races. This included his third pole at the Indy 500 and a hard-fought runner-up finish, his best result to date at his hometown race.

Spencer Pigot (#21)

Career: 39 starts, 1 podium, 10 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 14.8 (17th), Avg. Finish 13.6 (15th), 14th overall

Pigot had a career year in 2018, putting in his best two performances to date with a runner-up finish in Iowa and a fourth place finish in Portland. It was his first year as a full-time driver after running the road courses in Carpenter’s car for 2016 and 2017. His four top-eight finishes in the final eight races of the season may give hope that 2019 can be a breakthrough year for Pigot.

He also qualified a career-best sixth at the Indy 500, a track where ECR seemed to have the perfect setup as all three of their cars qualified in the top-nine. Pigot has shown the ability to make up huge deficits during races, climbing 13 spots from his qualifying position in Portland and 16 positions in Iowa.

Pigot narrowly finished better than his teammate in nine of the 17 races, whether it was Ed Carpenter or road course specialist Jordan King. However, he only qualified better than his teammate in five of the 17 races.

Ed Jones (#20)

Career: 34 starts, 3 podiums, 13 top-10 finishes

2018: Avg. Qualifying 13.1 (13th), Avg. Finish 13.2 (14th), 13th overall

Jones will take over the role of driving the road courses for Carpenter’s no. 20 car from Jordan King last season. Jones has had two decent seasons in IndyCar so far, finishing third at the Indy 500 in 2017 with Dale Coyne Racing and finishing on two podiums at Long Beach and Detroit with the mighty Chip Ganassi team last season. Those two races were the only appearances where Jones finished ahead of his teammate and series champion Scott Dixon. Jones didn’t take full advantage of the strong car he was in last season and finished 13th in the championship standings, one spot ahead of Pigot. He has partnered with Scuderia Corsa to race with ECR this season.

Outlook for 2019

After knocking on the door for the last few seasons, it seems like it’s finally time for the Chevy-powered team to pick up a race victory. With Phoenix off of the IndyCar schedule this season, the only short ovals will be at Iowa on July 20 and Gateway on August 24. Phoenix could serve as a warm-up for drivers in past seasons for ovals, but the Indy 500 is the first oval on this year’s calendar. No Chevy-powered team besides Penske has picked up a race victory since Newgarden in 2016. The team also hasn’t seemed to improve much on road courses the past few years besides an occasional strong finish.

The Verdict

Carpenter will be focused on the Indy 500 like usual, and he needs to take some risks during the race to avoid a repeat of last season. I expect Pigot to take a step forward this year and appear on an extra podium or two, but he needs to improve his qualifying pace. He’s shown he can carve his way through the field the last few seasons, but starting closer to the top-10 would make consistent results more manageable. He only qualified within the top-10 twice last season. It’s been tough for drivers to thrive in the road course role Jones will occupy this season, but I think he will put in some nice performances to secure a full-time ride with a different team next season. Road courses will be a struggle at times for this small team, but I think I can see an end to their winless streak with a victory for Pigot in Iowa this season.

Next week- Preview #3: Dale Coyne Racing

This begins a 12-part series previewing every team set to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season. I will be previewing two teams per week on Push2Pass leading up to the season opener in St. Petersburg on March 10. Today’s team: DragonSpeed

The team with one of the coolest names in racing will enter their first year in IndyCar with plans to compete in five races during the 2019 season. DragonSpeed will have 33-year-old Ben Hanley of England behind the wheel of their Chevy-powered Dallara DW12 chassis this season.

The team plans to run a one-car effort at St. Petersburg, Barber, Indy 500, Road America and Mid-Ohio. This small group of races will allow the team to dip their toes in the IndyCar pool and see if the series is right for them. The racing will vary significantly from their current prototype racing in endurance categories in the U.S. and in Europe.

The field at the season opener in St. Petersburg could have as many 27 cars in the field after the December news from Racer that DragonSpeed would be making their debut. There are still some driver confirmations that need to take place at smaller teams like Juncos, Carlin and Meyer Shank Racing, but their will undoubtedly be more than the 24 cars that lined up for the season opener in 2018.

Other teams have taken part-time efforts and turned them into full-time rides in the past few seasons. Harding had success in 2017 by only racing in three ovals with former IndyCar driver Gabby Chaves. They secured two-top 10 finishes that season before going to a full-time one-car effort in 2018. They split time between Chaves and Conor Daly before running two cars in the season finale in Sonoma with Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta, both in their first career IndyCar race. O’Ward finished in ninth for the team’s only top-10 finish of the season, and both drivers were retained for full-time rides this season with Harding Steinbrenner.

Juncos Racing is another team that has made big strides to move up to IndyCar, competing in the lower levels of the Road to Indy series system since 2009. They ran two cars in the 2017 Indy 500 before racing in 12 of 17 races last season, but they have yet to place higher than 15th in any race they’ve competed in. The team had a rotating cast of drivers in 2018, which could be the case this season as their two-car effort hasn’t had any drivers confirmed for 2019. However, Rene Binder and Kyle Kaiser have a good chance of gaining seats after news of them racing with Juncos in their new prototype car in the IMSA (American Endurance Racing) 24 hours of Daytona in January.

The Driver

Ben Hanley (#81): IndyCar Rookie

Hanley has had an interesting career path before coming to DragonSpeed for endurance racing. He competed in Formula 3.5 Renault and GP2 in the late 2000’s, but spent most of the following years in karting and testing open-wheeled cars. It wasn’t until team owner Elton Julian brought him on in 2016 to race in European endurance racing that Hanley was back to a full-time ride at a team. He’s raced in multiple series for the team over the past few seasons.

The races at Barber, Road America and Mid-Ohio seem to be good choices in picking free-flowing road courses that would better resemble what Hanley has more commonly driven in Europe. There are always multiple teams that put together a one-car effort for only the Indy 500, but committing to these other races shows that DragonSpeed is more serious about expanding their racing efforts.

Outlook for 2019

DragonSpeed seems to have the luxury of not needing to rotate drivers who can pay for their seat, but the odds are they will face some of the same struggles Juncos and Harding faced in 2018. Being a one-car team in IndyCar is a massive disadvantage, and every team other than DragonSpeed will be running two cars this season. One car means less data, less track time and fewer replacement cars and funds for when serious crashes occur.

The Verdict

A top-10 finish at one of the road courses would be the ideal result for the team. With higher car counts and the growing talent in the series, Hanley is going to have his hands full in his first IndyCar effort. Avoiding any serious damage to the car will be the most important, especially in the run up to the most publicized event of the year at the Indy 500. Last year brought about the re-introduction of bump day at the Indy 500, which meant only 33 of the 35 cars qualified for a spot in the race. This differs from past years when every car that entered would qualify. Qualifying for the 500 should be DragonSpeed’s biggest goal in 2019, especially since it will be Hanley’s first time on an oval.

Later this week- Preview #2: Ed Carpenter Racing