2017 IndyCar drivers and teams
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Moves are afoot in the IndyCar driver market for 2017 as Ed Carpenter has confirmed Josef Newgarden will not race for them next year:
A stand-out season for Newgarden has made him a target for the top teams, but even so it’s surprising to see his departure being announced before his destination is revealed.
Penske seems an obvious place for him to go, perhaps in place of Montoya who had a pretty horrible season, though apparently he is keen to continue in IndyCar. A return to Ganassi for him might seem an obvious tip but having just lost big sponsor Target they may not be in a position to hire him.
Penske has confirmed Newgarden will join them and take over the number two car which Montoya drove last season:
Team Penske announced today that American open-wheel driver Josef Newgarden will join the organization in 2017 to pilot the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet in the Verizon IndyCar Series.
The signing of Newgarden comes on the heels of a successful 2016 season for Team Penske, which included a series championship with driver Simon Pagenaud – the team’s 14th IndyCar Series title – and a 1-2-3 finish in the point standings.“When you look at the top talent in the series, both from a driving and commercial perspective, Josef is near the top of the list,” said team owner Roger Penske. “We are always looking to build toward the future and when we had the opportunity to talk with Josef, we knew that he would be a great fit with our program. He’s a fantastic driver on the track and will be great with our partners off the track. He’s hungry to win more races and win championships and we hope to give him that opportunity as part of our team.”
Newgarden, who was born in Tennessee, finished the 2016 season with one win, four podiums and 11 top-10 finishes driving for Ed Carpenter Racing. He placed fourth in the championship point standings after finishing sixth in the season-finale at Sonoma Raceway last month. His lone win in 2016 came at Iowa Speedway, where he dominated the field, leading 282 of 300 laps. Over the course of his IndyCar Series career – which began in 2012 – the 25-year-old Newgarden has earned three wins (Iowa, Barber and Toronto) and 10 podium finishes. He’s led a total of 679 laps in his career.
He began his career in karting, eventually moving to Skip Barber and various other road racing series in Europe before returning to North America to compete in the Indy Lights division in 2011, where he won in his series debut. He earned five wins en route to winning the Indy Lights title that season before moving to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2012 with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.
“For any open-wheel racer – or any racecar driver in general – Team Penske is a dream job,” said Newgarden. “Roger Penske is a legend in the motorsports community and his team has done just about everything they’ve ever set out to do. I look forward to working with all of Team Penske’s great partners. To get an opportunity to work with Simon (Pagenaud), Will (Power) and Helio (Castroneves), along with the rest of the team, will just help make me a better driver.”
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016, Team Penske earned their 14th IndyCar Series title with Pagenaud last month at Sonoma Raceway. Along with Will Power and Helio Castroneves, the team finished 1-2-3 in the point standings for the first time since they accomplished the same feat in 1994 with Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy. During the course of the 2016 season, Team Penske earned 10 wins – five for Pagenaud, four for Power and one for Juan Pablo Montoya – 11 poles and 22 podium finishes. The team led an astonishing 811 laps over the course of the season.
The 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season kicks off March 12 on the Streets of St. Petersburg.
Also a couple of days ago Andretti confirmed Alexander Rossi will remain with them next year:
https://www.andrettiautosport.com/news/alexander-rossi-returns-to-andretti-autosport
Here’s an interesting change for next year: Ganassi will reunite with Honda, whose engines they last used in 2013:
Of course this also means they’ll use the frozen-spec Honda aero kit, so expect them to be strong at Indianapolis and the other super-speedways and pretty much nowhere else…
Kanaan’s not going anywhere, that’s no great surprise:
🇺🇸 I’m happy to announce that I’ll be back with NTT DATA for my fourth season with @CGRTeams in 2017! #IndyCar #NTTDATARacing pic.twitter.com/guWbrcTsGl
— Tony Kanaan (@TonyKanaan) October 11, 2016
Robin Miller reckons Montoya is in the hunt for the fourth Ganassi seat but even he’ll need to bring backing and Chilton is still in contention. Have to wonder who’ll step in as sponsor in place of Target on Dixon’s car too.
As has been rumoured since Watkins Glen, Sebastien Bourdais will rejoin Dale Coyne’s team for 2017. He will take race engineer Olivier Boisson with him.
http://us12.campaign-archive2.com/?u=42a9b709fda676ab5df4c37b8&id=49335eeb9f
Familiar faces in unfamiliar places at the Gateway test today, plus the Honda logos back on the Ganassi (and the engine in the back, of course):
Josef Newgarden, Penske, Gateway, 2016
Josef Newgarden, Penske, Gateway, 2016
Sebastien Bourdais, Coyne, Gateway, 2016
Sebastien Bourdais, Coyne, Gateway, 2016
Tony Kanaan, Ganassi, Gateway, 2016Lots more pictures here:
Indy 500-only deal for Montoya at Penske next year:
http://www.indycar.com/News/2016/11/11-01-Montoya-Penske-2017-Indy-500
I’m disappointed that Montoya won’t have a full time ride in Indycar next year. My understanding is he doesn’t want to retire yet, though he wasn’t keen on dropping to a lower class team just to keep a full time ride. He’s still a very talented driver – yes he didn’t have a great season this year, but every driver has bad seasons and in 2015 he was well in the hunt for the championship – tied on points and finished second only due to a count-back. If it hadn’t been for the double points at Sonoma or his tangle with power, he would have been champion.
Hopefully his talents get put to use elsewhere throughout next year (it would be cool to see him come and run the enduro races for DJR-Penske in Supercars, for example) and maybe he’ll return full time in 2018 – perhaps he and Penske are thinking that by keeping him with the team, then they’ve got him ready to go if one of their other drivers departs (although I think that’s unlikely).
Indy Lights champion Ed Jones steps up with a full-time seat at Coyne alongside Bourdais:
http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=42a9b709fda676ab5df4c37b8&id=6c6a8e04e2
It’s all change at Coyne who ran five different drivers in the course of last season including full-timer Conor Daly.
Another two changes confirmed for next year: Foyt take Daly from Coyne and Munoz from Andretti:
http://www.indycar.com/News/2016/11/11-15-Foyt-drivers-announced
A few more pictures from testing today:
Graham Rahal, RLL, Sebring, 2017 
Sebastien Bourdais, Coyne, Sebring, 2017 
Conor Daly, Foyt, Sebring, 2017 
Ed Jones, Foyt, Sebring, 2017 
Carlos Munoz, Foyt, Sebring, 2017 Sage Karam gets an Indy 500-only deal again which is better than nothing but like a lot of people I think he deserves a full-time ride:
http://www.indycar.com/News/2017/02/02-02-Karam-Dreyer-Indy-500
Incidentally that press release credits him with “a 32nd-place finish in that year’s Indy 500”, which is a very polite way of saying he crashed out on the first lap:
But like I say, I think he’s better than that…
No more Target Ganassi – here’s Scott Dixon’s blank car during testing in Phoenix today:
Scott Dixon., Ganassi, Phoenix, 2017 
Mikhail Aleshin, Schmnidt, Phoenix, 2017 
JR Hildebrand, Carpenter, Phoenix, 2017 
Simon Pagenaud, Penske, Phoenix, 2017 
Josef Newgarden, Penske, Phoenix, 2017 Sage Karam has the potential to be one of the best in IndyCar. It’s a shame that incident with Justin Wilson happened cause it killed Sage’s confidence something chronic and of course we lost a Motorsport icon in Justin as well. With the right amount of backing and support and if he regains the confidence he had pre IndyCar, he can do remarkable things in that car
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