Meyer Shank Racing confirmed Jack Harvey will drive in 10 NTT Indycar series races in 2019 after a six race program in 2018. Harvey will continue to carry Sirius XM sponsorship. The eam hopes to expand to a full time program at some point.
Harvey will drive in the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, his only oval race, and nine street/road course events. The rest of his schedule begins at the opener in St. Pete, followed by COTA, Barber, Long Beach and the Indycar Grand Prix at IMS. Following the 500, The last four he wil run are Road America, Mid Ohio, and the two season ending races at Portland and Laguna Seca.
Shank has purchased a new chassis specifically for use in the 500. The team will once again partner with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
“We are extremely excited to be extending our program,” said Harvey “That has always been the goal for 2019 and it is amazing to achieve that and continue to grow what we are doing. I have to thank Michael [Shank], he has put in an immense amount of work and of course thanks to Jim Meyer for his continued support. Without either of those guys, in their own way, I wouldn’t have received the opportunity.”
Harvey’s best finishes last season were 16th at both Indianapolis and Portland.
Juncos Racing, which ran a partial schedule last year, is the only team that has not announced its 2019 Indycar plans. They are debuting their IMSA program this weekend at Daytona, so new on the Indycar front may not be for awhile.
Carlin Racing today confirmed Max Chilton will return as driver of the number 59 car for the 2019 NTT Indycar Series. The announcement had been expected for quite a while. This will be Chilton’s fourth year driving the Gallagher car. He raced out of the Chip Ganassi Racing team in 2016 and 2017 before moving with teammate Charlie Kimball to Carl;in’s new entry last year.
“I couldn’t be happier to formally announce that Gallagher will be back for the 2019 season partnering with myself and Carlin. Gallagher and Carlin are like family to me and I’m excited to see what we can do together building on both partnerships,” said Chilton. “Our first year together as an IndyCar team had its ups and downs, but the potential and growth that we showed as a team was obvious to everyone. I want to say a massive thank you to Gallagher for their continuing support of me. To have the opportunity to represent the nearly 30,000 employees of Gallagher, a brand that focuses so heavily on teamwork and innovation, is a true privilege.”
Kimball, meanwhile will be back with long time sponsor Novo Nordisk on a part time schedule. His races weren’t confirmed yet. My guess is his schedule will include the Indianapolis 500, Laguna Seca, Mid Ohio, and one of the March/ April races. I’m not sure how many Kimball will run. I had heard he had a 70% budget, which would mean he would run about 12 events.
Carlin will have another driver fill in for the remaining to complete the entire schedule. R. C Enerson has tested with the team.
I thought last year it was a bold move for Carlin to plunge into Indycar full time with two cars. They did manage a couple of top 10s. They should see improved resulkts this season.
Tomorrow morning Meyer Shank Racing will announce Jack Harvey’s 10 race schedule for the Indycar season. Watch this spot for news of that announcement tomorrow afternoon.
I’m kidding. It was one of the best weeks the series has had since 2008 reunification. The announcement of NTT as series sponsor was the week’s biggest news, but three announcements followed, strengthening two events and one team. Friday’s news about the new ASPM team, in my opinion, is just as big as the NTT announcement. It could very well change the dynamic in the paddock.
The Road to the Title Begins and Ends with Firestone
Firestone has sponsored the opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for the last few years. The tire supplier now will also sponsor the season finale at Weather Tech Raceway at Laguna Seca.
Firestone and Indycar have been together virtually since the beginning of racing in America. It is a relationship fans almost take for granted. It’s great to see that they continue to increase their support of the NTT Indycar Series.
REV Group Helps Road America Keep it Local
REV Group has replaced Kohler as title sponsor the race at Road America. REV is a Milwaukee based company that manufactures RVs and emergency vehicles. REV Group plans to have a hospitality area to salute first responders who attend the event.
The new race sponsor replaces Kohler, who held title rights for the first three years of the race. It is one of the most popular events on the schedule.
The REV Group Grand Prix is June 21-23, and is one the eight races televised on the NBC network.
Arrow Steps Up Commitment to Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
Schmidt Peterson is now Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. In a Friday announcement in Denver, Arrow became a team partner and primary sponsor of both Schmidt Peterson cars. James Hinchcliffe and Marcus Ericsson will drive in 2019. A third car will be ready for Robert Wickens when he is able to return.
The relationship between Schmidt and Arrow goes back to 2013 with the develoment of the SAM car, a semi- autonomous vehicle which has allowed Sam Schmidt to drive a street car again. That partnership led to Arrow sponsoring Hinchcliffe and ultimately to a stake in the team.
The new team structure brings a huge infusion of resources to Schmidt’s organization, which should see better results from the entire team. It might take a year for them to be really strong, so I’m looking at a great season in 202 for this outfit.
Arrow is one of the classiest sponsors in the paddock. They stood by the team when Hinchcliffe failed to qualify for the 500 this year, and they are supporting Wickens by holding a seat for him.
To me, this announcement is nearly as big as naming the series title sponsor. It is another large company investing heavily in Indycar.
Aero Tweaks Should Improve Racing at Indy, Pocono
In an effort to improve the superspeedway package the NTT Indycar Series is introducing aero options for both Indianapolis and Pocono. The new Universal Aero Kit introduced last year greatly improved the road and street course racing, but the speedway configuration didn’t produce the hoped for results.
Teams will have more aero tuning freedom on both the front and rear wing of the car.
The rear wing will have a 3/8 inch tall Gurney flap. One option is 13.2 inches wide and adds 50 pounds of downforce. The other choice measures 24.5 inches across and adds 100 pounds of downforce. there is a third flap which covers the entire length of the wing and adds 200 pounds. The full wing flap will only be allowed at Texas.
Extra downforce should allow cars to pass easier.
The top 2 wings will be available at Indianapolis.
The front wing has a 3/8 inch tall flap which is 5.5 inches wide. Teams may use this flap asymmetrically. One problem in the 500 last year was the front end washing out as cars attempted to pass.
Glen Wood
Sad news today about the death of Glen Wood, of the famous Wood Brothers racing team. Wood, 93, drove until 1964 and began his race team with is brother Leonard. His team also was Jim Clark’s pit crew in 1965 when he won the Indianapolis 500. Their pit stop routine became the norm for Indycar.
The Wood Brothers team is the oldest team in NASCAR. They have won 99 races including 5 Daytona 500s
We’ve come a long way from Northern Lights and Pep Boys. Izod got off to a decent start as a title sponsor, but slowed down quickly and left early. Verizon was a great partner although their track activation slowed after three years. Indycar’s new title sponsor, NTT, is a great match for the series. I’m sure there was some financial consideration, but the technological advances NTT can provide for the paddock, the series, and the fans will take all of Indycar to another level. NTT will continue the technological evolutionary path the series has chosen to take.
It was amazing how quickly this deal came together. This would not have happened in the old days of Indycar. Naming a sponsor before the season begins keeps Indycar’s credibility as a serious major racing series intact.
NTT spends $4 billion annually on research and development. I’m excited to see what the new mobile app will look like given that level of investment.
The new sponsor and the new television deal with NBC has Indycar set for an incredible 2019.
Felix Rosenqvist in the NTT Data car at Sebring Tuesday afternoon. NTT Data will continue to sponsor the Chip Ganassi Racing Team entry. Photo: Vincent Anderson
Logo Blues
Indycar fans can always find a cloud in every silver lining. I saw a lot of complaints about the logo on social media yesterday. I don’t have a problem with it. I think it is less clunky than the Verizon logo. It has a hint of the old USAC badge. The curves help as well.
Indycar just landed what looks to be a terrific sponsor that can help grow the series and some fans just want to bash the logo. No professional sports league has a logo that blows me away and I wasn’t expecting one here. Let’s enjoy this terrific get for the series.
Notes
Miles mentioned that this sponsorship continues pursuit of Indycar as a global brand. Is this a hint at more international races? Pretty sure Australia will happen in 2020. Is a race in Japan also in line for a return?
Robin Miller of Racer Magazine wrote an interesting piece on how the deal came together. Here is the link:
On Twitter yesterday, Gateway president Chris Blair is doing what Indycar isn’t. He has offered fans who have a Chili Bowl Nationals Monday-Friday ticket stub free general admission to Coors Light Pole Night the night before Indycar’s Bommarito 500k.
Indycar has long needed a presence at the Chili Bowl. This is a great move by the best promoter in the series.
Speculation is that this will be to announce the title sponsor for the series. The Pit Window will have coverage Tuesday afternoon and also look for a story on Wildfireradiosports.com
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag this morning, we now know which eight races will be on NBC network. I expected some of these and I am also disappointed by what is missing from the network lineup.
The network races- Indy GP, Indy 500, Detroit doubleheader, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Portland, and Laguna Seca.
Of course both races at IMS were expected, and I was pretty sure Road America and Laguna Seca would be on the network. I’m surprised the opener at St. Pete is not a network race. I’m also disappointed that one of the night ovals at Iowa or Gateway didn’t make the network. I never liked the idea of showing the Detroit doubleheader on NBC.
Showing the doubleheader the week after Indy means half the network schedule is taken in a three week stretch. With Road America following three weeks later, that leaves just three more spots for the rest of the season.
The biggest surprise to me is that Long Beach isn’t on the network. Having the crown Jewel of street races not on the network is a shock.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that nearly half the schedule is on the over the air network. Maybe next season some better choices can be made.
I’m very excited to see how NBC covers the 500. If it’s anything near their Kentucky Derby coverage, it will be fantastic.
So welcome NBC and NBC Sports. I wish we didn’t have to wait until May to get the first network race.
⚡@IndyCar has been in advanced talks with NTT Corp., the Japan-based parent company of @NTTDataServices, about taking over as title sponsor, per sources.
➖ It could not be confirmed whether deal was finalized or still being negotiated.
NTT fills most of the things I have heard about the potential sponsor:
Asian based company
Business to business company, not a consumer direct product.
NTT Data entry sponsorss Chip Ganassi Raving car 10, which will be driven by Felix Rosenqvist in 2019. Vetizon sponsored Penske cars before becoming the series sponsor. Is history repeating itself? Stay tuned.
If you haven’t seen the NBC promo for the Indianapolis 500, click the link below.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 