We have reached our always interesting IndyCar Team Preview, Dale Coyne Racing.
Last year, the team saw sophomore Santino Ferrucci paired with rookie Álex Palou, who was transitioning from Japan's Super Formula series. Both drivers showed flashes of speed, but neither stringed together a complete season and both drivers finished outside the top ten in the championship.
DCR will shuffle the deck and have a different set of drivers from its 2020 season, but one is a familiar face. After sitting out the 2020 season, Ed Jones is set to return to IndyCar competition. Jones' teammate is a familiar face on the international level, and that is Romain Grosjean, who will attempt all the road and street courses as of now. The door is open for a few other drivers to cycle through the team and Dale Coyne Racing has a new partner, as Rick Ware Racing will have a hand operating the second car in the organization.
2020 Dale Coyne Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 3rd (Road America II)
Poles: 0
Championship Finishes: 13th (Santino Ferrucci), 16th (Álex Palou)
2021 Drivers:
Ed Jones - #18 SealMasters Honda
Jones' 2020 season did not happen.
He planned to drive an Audi in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, but when the pandemic hit Jones was unable to travel from his native United Arab Emirates to Germany and the rest of Europe and he lost his ride.
After missing an entire year, Jones returned to competition in the Gulf 12 Hours in January, but his race lasted only 26 laps in the 2 Seas Motorsports McLaren. He made his debut in the 24 Hours of Daytona week later driving a Ferrari for Scuderia Corsa in the GT Daytona class with Ryan Briscoe, Marcos Gomes and Bret Curtis. That race lasted longer than 26 laps for Jones, but the team still retired after completing 676 laps, good enough for 14th in class.
Jones has 47 IndyCar starts having driven for Dale Coyne Racing as a rookie in 2017 and he won rookie of the year that season. He then moved to Chip Ganassi Racing in 2018 and Ed Carpenter Racing in 2019. The best finish of his IndyCar career was third on three occasions, the 2017 Indianapolis 500, Long Beach 2018 and the second Belle Isle race in 2018.
Numbers to Remember:
5: Top ten finishes in his first ten IndyCar starts, all with Dale Coyne Racing.
9: Top ten finishes in his last 37 IndyCar starts (seven with DCR, 17 with Chip Ganassi Racing and 13 with Ed Carpenter Racing)
1: Lap led in his career. It was during a pit cycle at Texas in 2018.
5: Consecutive seasons with at least one podium finish for Dale Coyne Racing.
9: Consecutive seasons with at least one top five finish for Dale Coyne Racing.
Predictions/Goals:
At least look as good as he did in his first two IndyCar season.
Jones was a hot prospect in 2017. Everyone was astonished what he did in his first ten races with Dale Coyne Racing. We all thought it was a matter of time before a larger team picked him up, and sure enough, Ganassi did. He wasn't Ganassi's first or second choice, so when Jones put up average results and the driver Ganassi wanted became available (Felix Rosenqvist), Ganassi took no time making the change.
There comes a point when a driver need consistency to achieve results and three teams in three years is not what is best for a driver's development. Dale Coyne Racing is not the same Dale Coyne Racing that Jones experienced in 2017, but this is a reset to his career.
In recent years, we are accustomed to drivers performing above average for Dale Coyne Racing. We are used to DCR picking up a victory or putting a driver on the podium. Jones has even been that driver. Even with all that success, DCR is still a small team. The team has not seen some great expansion over the last ten years. It continues to be the humble Illinois team punching above its weight.
A good year would be Jones keeping the team between 13th and 17th in the championship. That is nothing to brag about but a driver in that territory will have a few respectable days. He will get six to eight top ten finishes, but he could also pick up a top five finish or two.
What does Jones need to do in 2021?
Make it to the second round of qualifying in least half the races with at least one Fast Six appearance.
Finish on the lead lap in at least 13 races.
Be the top DCR finisher in at least seven road/street course races.
Romain Grosjean - #51 Dale Coyne Racing/Rick Ware Racing Honda
Grosjean wrapped up his tenth season in Formula One in 2020. It was his fifth with the Haas F1 Team and it proved to be one of the toughest of his career.
He started outside the top 15 in 12 of his 15 starts with nine finishes outside the top 15. Grosjean was running at the finish of 12 consecutive races from the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. Despite that run, Grosjean picked up only one points scoring finish, a ninth at the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
Grosjean's season ended in a harrowing accident in the Bahrain Grand Prix when his car split the Armco barrier and burst into flames. Grosjean spent 27 seconds in the fire before emerging without a racing boot and eyebrows scorched from his face. He had severe burns to his hands, but no other significant injuries. His burns would prevent him from taking part in the final two races of the season.
Two points were the fewest Grosjean had scored when he had contested majority of the races. He ended his career with 179 starts, ten podium finishes, 391 points and one fastest lap. His ten podium finishes are the fourth-most in Formula One history for a driver without a victory. Only Nick Heidfeld, Stefan Johansson and Chris Amon had more.
Numbers to Remember:
3,550: Days between Grosjean's last victory in an open-wheel car at the Hungaroring in the GP2 Series on July 30, 2011 and the Barber season opener. That is nine years, eight months and 19 days.
1: Victory in a Renault Clio in an Andros Trophy race, an ice racing series, in December 2016.
4: Former Grosjean teammates have raced in IndyCar (Charlie Kimball, Luca Filippi, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutiérrez)
Predictions/Goals:
Formula One drivers do not walk into IndyCar and make it look easy. Rubens Barrichello was 11th in the championship in his lone IndyCar season in 2012, respectable, but with only two top five finishes and three laps led, it was far from Barrichello's Ferrari days. Max Chilton spent a year in Indy Lights before entering IndyCar and in 71 IndyCar starts he has only one top five finish. Takuma Sato has spent over a decade in IndyCar and has only three times finished in the top ten of the championship with his best result being seventh.
There is enough evidence that proves the back of the Formula One grid is not automatically superior to the entire IndyCar grid.
Grosjean will have a new car to learn on new tracks and while still recovering from burned hands. He will do it all with one of the smallest teams in IndyCar. Let's not write off Grosjean as some kind of bust if he is only picking up top ten finishes and not threatening for a race victory.
I do believe we will see Grosjean have some strong days where everything clicks. That doesn't mean he will qualify fourth and finish third after leading eight laps. That could mean qualifying ninth and finishing seventh. There will also be days where he is lost because the track is out of his element and he isn't getting a feel of the tires and the dampers are off.
As much as people will push back, Grosjean isn't some schlub. He will figure it out and I would expect his average finish in the second half of his season to be better than his first half, similar to what we saw from Barrichello in 2012. Could Grosjean be the next driver to pull out a victory in a Dale Coyne Racing entry? It will be a mighty task in his rookie season, but Carlos Huertas won for Coyne as a rookie. If that can happen Grosjean can definitely win a race as a rookie.
What does Grosjean need to do in 2021?
Pick up at least one top five finish.
Be the top DCR finisher in at least half his starts.
Be the top French finisher at least once.
Finish in the top twenty of the championship.
Cody Ware - #51 Dale Coyne Racing/Rick Ware Racing Honda
While not confirmed, Ware took a spin in this car during a test session at Sebring in February, and it is believed he will make a few starts in an IndyCar in 2021, whether that is in a third car for the team or in the oval races Grosjean does not run.
A second-generation driver and son of a car owner, Ware has sporadic experience in a race car, mostly in stock car competitions. He did race for his father's Rick Ware Racing in the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series and won the LMP2 Am championship with two victories and two runner-up finishes in four races. The class featured four cars in two races and two cars in the other two. He was fourth in the LMP2 class in this year's 24 Hours of Daytona, a more impressive result.
In NASCAR, Ware has not competed full-time in any series, though he does plan on running full-time in the Cup Series in 2021. He has two Daytona 500 starts with his best finish being 21st this year. Last year, he picked up his first top ten finish in one of NASCAR's three national touring series when he was seventh in the NASCAR Grand National Series race on the Charlotte roval.
Numbers to Remember:
3: Open-wheel races in his career, all in the now-defunct NASCAR Southern Modified Tour, the last one coming in the 2014 season opener.
53: Combined starts in NASCAR's three national touring series with his first start coming in 2014.
8: Lead lap finishes in those 53 NASCAR starts.
Predictions/Goals:
We don't know if Ware will be in this car. It is difficult to see how he will run a handful of IndyCar races along with a full NASCAR Cup season.
The Texas doubleheader conflicts with the Kansas Cup race. The Indianapolis 500 is possible, and he could do The Double or skip the Coca-Cola 600. Gateway is a Saturday night race, the night before the Cup race at Michigan. The Belle Isle doubleheader has also been mentioned as an opportunity for him because that is NASCAR All-Star weekend at Texas and a non-points race, meaning there are no consequences for missing that race. If he does run Belle Isle, he will likely be in a third DCR entry, as Jones and Grosjean would both be entered for that event.
I am setting the bar low for Ware should he run. His testing times at the Sebring were comparable to Jimmie Johnson's, but I am not sure what he would do on an oval. We're not sure he would qualify for the Indianapolis 500. He is too inexperienced as an open-wheel driver to gauge where he would rank. He could significantly struggle on the ovals and lead IndyCar to pulling him for his own good or he could have a car stop properly and end up 25th on the grid for the Indianapolis 500. We need more information.
It sounds like Ware will not be the oval driver for the #51 Honda, but it does sounds like he could run the Indianapolis 500. There is a chance Grosjean could run Gateway. There might even be a sliver of hope Grosjean will run all the ovals and the entire season. In all likelihood, we will see another driver in the #51 Honda for some races. It will be at most four races. Who does DCR take? Does a veteran like Oriol Servià get a shot? Does a young driver like Spencer Pigot, Oliver Askew or Gabby Chaves get a call? Do we see a Pietro Fittipaldi or RC Enerson fill in? Could Zach Veach or Tristan Vautier pair the oval races with his sports car program?
If Grosjean decides to sample Gateway, it is only three races, one of which is Indianapolis, but that is a tough sell, especially for someone like Pigot, Askew, Fittipaldi, Enerson and Chaves. All those drivers have full-time aspirations. I don't they want to get typecast as an IndyCar part-timer or substitute.
It has already been a fascinating offseason for Dale Coyne Racing and could prove to get more interesting over the two months between now and the Barber season opener.
What does Ware/whomever else drives for Dale Coyne Racing need to do in 2021?
Not wreck race cars.
For Ware, definitely not wreck race cars.
For anyone else, pick up at least one top ten finish.
The 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season will begin on April 18 at Barber Motorsports Park. NBC will have coverage of the season opener.
