We are down to the Final Four Team-By-Team Previews! Today's team featured will be Dale Coyne Racing as they enter their thirtieth season in IndyCar with a returning veteran behind the wheel but the team lost two key engineers during the offseason.
2013 Dale Coyne Racing Review:
Wins: 1 (Belle Isle 1).
Poles: 1 (Belle Isle 2).
Final Championship Position: 6th (Justin Wilson), 23rd (Mike Conway), 29th (Ana Beatriz), 31st (Pippa Mann), 32nd (James Davison), 33rd (Stefan Wilson).
2014 Drivers
Justin Wilson
Wilson had a career year after finishing sixth in the championship but fell short on getting his eighth career victory. Wilson had four podiums, seven top fives and thirteen top tens but along with coming up winless, his season ended with a pelvic fracture after being caught up in a six car accident in the season finale at Fontana. Wilson has recovered and is ready to go but will be without engineers Bill Pappas and John Dick as both left Dale Coyne in the offseason to go to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Number to Remember: 3. Appearances in the Fast Six qualifying out of 19 possibilities over last two seasons.
Prediction/Goals: With the loss of Pappas and Dick, Wilson and Coyne Racing goal should be stay in the top ten of the championship. From the statistic above, Wilson and Coyne have to work on getting further in qualifying. Of Wilson's four podiums in 2013, three of them came with Wilson starting outside the top ten. Wilson and Coyne will break through and get a win in 2014 and it will be on a road or street course. Wilson will be a contender for the top ten in the championship.
TBA
Ok, I waited until the Monday before St. Petersburg to do the Dale Coyne Racing's preview thinking, "oh that should be enough time for them to have their second driver announced." Guess what? In true, blue Dale Coyne fashion we are less than a week from the season opener and we don't have a damn clue who will be in that car but we do know it has a leader circle position and will be a full-time entry unless Coyne wants to pay a penalty for violating the leader circle rules. My guess is that Coyne isn't bringing in a driver from Europe for the opening round, otherwise he would have made sure that driver would have gotten experience at the Barber test last week, although rumors emerged today that Colombian Carlos Huertas has agreed to a deal with Coyne. If you remember, Huertas raced in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013 where he won one race in the rain at Aragón and tested for Panther Racing earlier this offseason.
Number to Remember: 5. Amount of different drivers that drove the #18 car in 2013 (Ana Beatriz, Mike Conway, Pippa Mann, James Davison and Stefan Wilson).
Prediction/Goals: Multiple drivers will cycle through the #18 again in 2014. Sam Bird, Luca Filippi, Pippa Mann and Peter Dempsey will all get a race with the team. I tweeted last week that if I won the $400 million Mega Millions draw I would fund JR Hildebrand in that car full-time. That's still a goal for 2014 if Hildebrand doesn't turn an Indianapolis one-off at Ed Carpenter Racing into more. The goal for the #18 is to be as competitive as it was in 2013 and complement Justin Wilson in his championship efforts.
(Update: 5:20 p.m. ET March 27, 2014)
Carlos Huertas
Dale Coyne waited until the day before the first practice to announce the driver of the #18 Sonny's BBQ Honda but they finally announced one. Carlos Huertas will make his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg. Huertas won one race driving in Formula Renault 3.5 last year, a very wet race from Aragón. The Colombian would only have two other points paying finishes, totaling for five points in the remaining thirteen races. The year prior in FR3.5, Huertas had five points paying finishes in seventeen races for a total of thirty-five points with his best finish being fourth. In 2011, Huertas was teamed with current McLaren F1 driver Kevin Magnussen in British Formula Three. Huertas won one race that season compared to Magnussen's seven and Magnussen finished second in the final championship standings, fifteen points ahead of Huertas in third.
Number to Remember: 0. Amount of miles Huertas drove in testing for Dale Coyne Racing. He did test a few times with Panther Racing.
Prediction/Goals: It was interesting to see Dale Coyne Racing not announce Huertas as their full-time driver or Huertas was going to be making a run for rookie of the year. Huertas will run until the checking account runs out and someone else will get behind the wheel on ovals.
Others Notes: Coyne fielded a third car in the Indianapolis 500 last year. Keep an eye on them possibly doing it again this year.
The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series season opens this Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on ABC with green flag at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
