We are nearing the end of these 2022 IndyCar Team Previews and preview #8 will look at Dale Coyne Racing. The 2021 season was another shakeup for Coyne. Two different drivers than the year before as its regulars, but one it had history with, and the other was a Formula One veteran. Ed Jones returned to the team, but Romain Grosjean was the big story. Grosjean was only going to run the road and street courses with Pietro Fittipaldi driving on the ovals in the #51 Honda, run in partnership with Dale Coyne Racing.
With confidence from great road course results, Grosjean attempted an oval and Gateway, and was thrilling, though his oval inexperienced showed on cold tires. He was the best Coyne driver of the season and nearly won rookie of the year despite missing three races, including the Indianapolis 500.
Grosjean is gone, and the sequel wasn't better for Jones. Two more new drivers will join the team. One is a rookie, and the other is a Formula One veteran. Only this time the rookie is a race winner from Indy Lights, and that Formula One veteran is also an IndyCar veteran with two Indianapolis 500 victories.
2021 Dale Coyne Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 2nd (Grand Prix of Indianapolis, August IMS road course race)
Poles: 1 (Grand Prix of Indianapolis)
Championship Finishes: 14th (Romain Grosjean), 19th (Ed Jones), 32nd (Pietro Fittipaldi), 34th (Cody Ware), 39th (Ryan Norman)
David Malukas - #18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda
Competing in his fourth Road to Indy season, Malukas returned to Indy Lights with his family's team. Contact in the season opener set him behind, but he won the second race of the Barber Motorsports Park weekend and would go on to have four more podium finishes in the next four races with a victory at each round in St. Petersburg and on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
He had a slight dip over the next three races with finishes of fifth and third at Belle Isle and seventh in the first Road America race. These results caused him to lose ground to Kyle Kirkwood, but Malukas won the second Road America race while Kirkwood hit trouble, and the championship gap closed. Malukas would be third in both Mid-Ohio races, but Kirkwood swept the races.
Malukas swept the Gateway races and then won the first Portland race, but Kirkwood responded with four consecutive victories, while Malukas was second in three of the four and fourth in the other. Kirkwood locked up the title with a race to go. Malukas closed the season with a runner-up result in the final Mid-Ohio race.
Numbers to Remember:
83.78: Podium finish percentage between Formula Regional Americas and Indy Lights in 2020 and 2021.
2.9: Average finish in Indy Lights last year, tied with Kyle Kirkwood for best in the series.
2: Malukas could become the second Illinois-born driver to start an IndyCar race for Dale Coyne Racing. The other is Dale Coyne.
What does a championship season look like for him?
It begins with a top five on debut at St. Petersburg before a top ten result in his first large oval race at Texas. In Long Beach, Malukas picks up another top ten result before finishing in the top five at Barber Motorsports Park.
The pattern continues at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, a top ten finishes, and in Indianapolis 500, he makes the Fast Nine on his way to a top five finish. The pattern is broken at Belle Isle, but in the form of a race victory and then he wins again at Road America, his de facto home race. A third-place finish at Mid-Ohio makes it three consecutive podium results.
Results dip in the form of three consecutive top ten finishes between Toronto and the Iowa doubleheader. On his first visit to Nashville, he finishes outside the top ten and it looks like the championship is slipping from his hands. But then he wins at Gateway, he is on the podium at Portland and another podium finish at Laguna Seca clinches the championship.
What does a realistic season look like for him?
History points to Coyne rookies running respectable, and Malukas has that ability. He didn't make a lot of mistakes in junior series, and he was quick almost immediately when he first got into U.S. F2000 as a part-time driver.
However, Malukas is a rookie, and this is a big leap into IndyCar. He was one of two great drivers in Indy Lights last year, but it wasn't the best class of Indy Lights drivers. This is stiff competition, and he will have difficulty keeping up at some races. Street courses are where we expect young drivers to struggle the most. His oval experience is limited. He will be most comfortable at the natural-terrain road courses, and that is where his best finishes should come.
Among the rookies, Malukas is probably in the second-best scenario. It will be difficult to top Christian Lundgaard and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The Road to Indy system has developed many quality drivers, but Lundgaard came in from Formula Two and adapted very well in his one start last year. The Dane is ready for IndyCar and RLLR has more resources than DCR.
Malukas' main rival will be his rival from last year, Kyle Kirkwood. Kirkwood is at Foyt and we know that program has been at the bottom for quite some time. Finishing ahead of Kirkwood wouldn't necessarily mean it was a great season for Malukas, but it would at least earn him bragging rights in that battle. A top fifteen championship would be a good year for Malukas with at least six to eight top ten finishes. Any race finishes in the top five or on the podium would be spectacular.
Takuma Sato - #51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda
Fresh off his second Indianapolis 500 victory, and his best IndyCar championship finish, Sato had a fair start to the 2021 season: 13th at Barber, sixth at St. Petersburg and then ninth and 14th at Texas.
His month of May was rather tame, 16th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and he followed up his 2020 Indianapolis 500 victory with a 14th, 18 positions better than when he followed his 2017 victory with a 32nd-place finish in 2018.
He jumped to fourth in the discombobulated first Belle Isle race but was 12th the next day. Good results would follow with an eighth at Road America and tenth at Mid-Ohio. A retirement at Nashville was a blemish between his top ten summer with a tenth in the August IMS road course race and a sixth at Gateway following the street race result.
The great day never really came for Sato. He ended the season with a 12th at Portland, but a spin in the corkscrew cost him a possible top ten result at Laguna Seca. He completed his season and his second stint with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in ninth at Long Beach.
Numbers to Remember:
0: Top ten starts in 2021.
17.7: Average starting position in 2021, Sato's worst in his IndyCar career by 3.6 positions.
13.1875: Average starting position for Dale Coyne Racing drivers in 2021.
13: Lead lap finishes in 2021, Sato's most in a season.
What does a championship season look like for him?
It starts with Sato getting down to business, pole position and victory at St. Petersburg. He follows it with a top five at Texas, and then another victory at Long Beach. He finishes in the top ten at Barber, but Sato is outside the top ten in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He doesn't do well on that track.
However, in the Indianapolis 500, he is at it again, running in the top five, being a nuisance late, but he finishes second. The third Indianapolis 500 victory is just out of his grasp, but he gets over 80 points and extends his championship lead.
At Belle Isle, Sato makes it three victories in three street course events. He is in the top ten at Road America but finishes outside the top ten at Mid-Ohio. Again, he doesn't do well there either. His perfect street streak does not continue at Toronto, but he finishes in the top five before getting a pair of top ten finishes at Iowa.
He misses out on the top ten again on the IMS road course but gets a top ten in Nashville. In Gateway, he is in the top five and picks up another top five at Portland. Laguna Seca is a nervy day, and Sato gets the championship with a ninth-place finish, but he wins the title by only a few points, three or fewer.
What does a realistic season look like for him?
Sato is Sato. Quick, breathtaking, not as reckless as he once was, occasionally lost and average, but he has some standout days where he shows he still has it. If he maximizes his best days, he can be in the top ten of the championship and have a victory or two. If he cannot get to that highest level, he will still be somewhere in the top fifteen of the championship.
For being the smallest team on the grid, Dale Coyne Racing regularly punches above its weight, and this car was fantastic last year with Romain Grosjean. It was competing for race victories and was a regular top ten finisher. Based on points per start, Grosjean's average would have put him tenth in the championship. That wasn't all the driver. The car contributed as well.
Coyne does see a big shakeup in this crew. Not only is Grosjean, but engineer Olivier Boisson moved to Andretti Autosport as well. However, this team kept up its good form after Craig Hampson left for Arrow McLaren SP and Michael Cannon leaving for Chip Ganassi Racing a few years ago. Eventually, a shakeup will set the team back, but Coyne has a track record suggesting the team will not fall off much.
Sato can improve his qualifying form. Prior to last year, qualifying was one thing we could count on for him. If he gets better starting positions, he will get better results. He just missed out on the top ten in the championship last year. IndyCar has about 18 drivers that could finish in the top ten of the championship. Sato is in that group that if he finishes outside the top ten, we are wondering how he didn't make it, but we will also be struggling to figure out who shouldn't have made it.
The 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday February 27 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. NBC's coverage will begin at noon ET.
