Wednesday Wrap-Up: Dale Coyne Racing's 2014 Season

In the third of eleven 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series team reviews, we have come to the first of seven teams to get a victory in 2014.

Dale Coyne Racing won a race for their third consecutive season but this one was the most surprising of them all. Veteran Justin Wilson returned for his eleventh season coming off one of the best of his career in 2013, finishing sixth in the championship with four podiums, seven top fives and thirteen top tens but fell short on getting a victory. After the #18 was split by five drivers in 2013 with Mike Conway getting a victory in his first start in the car at Belle Isle, Dale Coyne (in typical Dale Coyne fashion) officially announced his second driver hours before the first practice at St. Petersburg. The lucky individual would be Colombian Carlos Huertas, who had previously competed in Formula Renault 3.5.

Justin Wilson
Wilson started this season in Justin Wilson-fashion. He started 16th at St. Petersburg but worked his way up to eighth. A promising run at Long Beach saw Wilson is contention for the victory after an accident took at leaders Josef Newgarden, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan. However, on the next restart, Wilson would get hip-checked into the turn eight wall by Scott Dixon, ending the his day. He would have another typical performance at Barber as he went from 16th to sixth in a wet race. Another poor starting position at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis put him behind the 8-ball but he made up seven positions before finishing 11th.

In the Indianapolis 500, Wilson was set on getting another top ten finish but contact with debris from Townsend Bell's accident caused front-wing damage, forcing him to pit and dropping him to 22nd. At Belle Isle, Wilson had another drive from the back to the front as he went from 19th to fourth. However, that was the closest Wilson got to victory all season. In Belle Isle 2, Wilson started 13th and finished 12th. An accident with Sébastien Bourdais at Texas led to a 21st place finish.

In Houston 1, Dale Coyne Racing played the fuel strategy game to a T and Wilson leading Huertas late but Wilson was seven laps short on fuel and had to trade a possible victory for a tenth place finish. In Houston 2, Wilson was in position for top tens in consecutive days but contact with Marco Andretti sent him to the tires and down to 12th in the final results, one lap down. Back-to-back uneventful races at Pocono and Iowa (finishes of 14th and 13th respectively) led him to Toronto were the condensed Sunday saw him finish tenth in race one and tenth in race two. The second race was more eventful for Wilson as he was leading late but as the track dried out and teams starting switching to slicks, Wilson was a sitting duck on wet weather tires and he held on for that second tenth place finish.

He went backward at Mid-Ohio, dropping seven positions from the grid to finish 15th. Milwaukee was another typical oval for Wilson in 2014 as he fell back to 17th from 12th and was never a factor. He finished ninth at Sonoma, his fifth top ten in six starts at the track and ended 2014 with another midpack finish on an oval with a 13th at Fontana.

Justin Wilson's 2014 Statistics
Championship Positions: 15th (395 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 7
Laps Led: 25
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 4
Average Start: 13 (16th in IndyCar)
Average Finish: 12.388 (12th)

Carlos Huertas
Huertas came out of nowhere. He tested for Panther Racing prior to the 2014 season before that team went under. He had one victory in Formula Renault 3.5 when heavy rains shortened a race at Aragón but other than that, Huertas languished at the back of fields at Europe.

While he didn't set the world on fire in IndyCar, he proved he wasn't another ride buyer. He wasn't Milka Duno or Marty Roth running multiple seconds off the leaders. He wasn't ever the quickest but he ran competitive times. Most of his races were uneventful as he stayed at the back but he was able to bring the car home in one piece and sometimes that played into his favor. At Long Beach, after many accidents, Huertas stole a tenth place finish in his second career IndyCar start. Amazingly, he completed every lap in his first Indianapolis 500 and finished seventeenth. And that was his first career oval race!

He had two 12th place starts at Belle Isle and finished eighth in Belle Isle 1. Through the first seven races, the Colombian had completed every lap of the season. He ran all but four laps at Texas as he managed a 16th place finish.

Then came the surprise of the season. Dale Coyne had Justin Wilson get 46 laps on a tank of fuel but fall seven laps short only to have Huertas right behind his teammate and the Colombian was able to go 39 laps on fuel to win from 19th on the grid in a time-limit race after heavy rain. Plenty of things played into Huertas' favor. First, his fuel cell was found to be larger than the regulations allowed. Had it been kosher, who knows if he wins. Then comes the botched final restart where Graham Rahal who was fourth, ran over Tony Kanaan before they were even close to taking the green, ending the race before Huertas was challenged but none of that matters. The history books will show Huertas as an IndyCar winner and the first IndyCar winner born in the 1990s.

His best finish in the remaining nine races was fourteenth. Mechanical issues would end his races at Houston 2, Pocono and Sonoma. Despite his strong oval runs at Indianapolis and Texas, the other high-speed ovals of Iowa and Fontana didn't suit Huertas as he choose to retire from both and saying after Fontana he retired due to dizziness. None of his retirements were due to accidents and to be honest, I can't recall one time all season, in a race or practice in which Huertas came close to a barrier.

Carlos Huertas' 2014 Statistics
Championship Positions: 20th (314 points)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 3
Laps Led: 7
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 18.058 (22nd)
Average Finish: 15.944 (22nd)

Head-to-Head
Better Finish: Justin Wilson def. Carlos Huertas 14-4.
Better Qualifying Position: Wilson def. Huertas 14-4.

We don't know if either driver will be back for Coyne in 2015. Wilson is on the back nine of his career and after a fantastic 2013 season, 2014 was average, thanks in part of the departures of Bill Pappas and John Dick. We saw what the team was capable of when Mike Conway stepped into the #18 in 2013. If Wilson had a young, talented teammate (Sam Bird, Daniel Abt, Conor Daly, J.R. Hildebrand, Martin Plowman) both he and Coyne would benefit greatly.

Huertas is replaceable. A second year in IndyCar might do him some good but don't hang your hat on him winning again in 2015. Houston 1 was a blind squirrel finding a nut. I can't see the Colombian being in high demand with other IndyCar teams and if he isn't with Coyne in 2015, he likely won't have a ride at all.

There is the possibility Wilson leaves, which would be a great disappointment for Dale Coyne Racing. All their success has come with Wilson on their payroll. Before Wilson, they were a meddling team, rotating ride buyers but being able to keep two cars on the grid each year while other teams struggled for survival. We have seen what the team is capable of doing when they have capable drivers. Losing Wilson could sent the team back to their old ways of the 1990s with European and South American drivers filtering through the team like a high school exchange program.

There is a reason Dale Coyne Racing is one of four teams to win a race in every season of the DW-12 era. Wilson may not have been directly responsible for the team's last two victories but losing him could spell a long drought for the team that has been around for nearly three decades.

One final tangent on Justin Wilson: Imagine if Roger Penske called him to fill in for Hélio Castroneves when the Brazilian had his tax evasion trail over Will Power. How much different would their two career be? For years we heard rumors of Wilson to Ganassi or him linked to big teams but he has never landed at one of those big teams and likely never will. If it were to occur now with let's say Andretti Autosport, it will feel about five years too late. Not that Wilson couldn't be successful with a bigger team if he got the call, rather a feeling that however long of an opportunity he would get, it would only provide a brief glimpse of what could have been.