NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie Of The Year Conversations With Lundgaard, Malukas, & IndyLights Lunqvist In Tow

Linus Lundqvist, David Malukas, & Christian Lundgaard pictured here (L to R) as they were coming through the Eurpoean training ground series in Portugal (2016). Image Credit: NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Penske Entertainment via ZOOM Call (2022)

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie Of The Year Conversations With Lundgaard, Malukas, & IndyLights Lunqvist In Tow

With two races left to be run at Portland and Laguna Seca (both very different dedicated road courses), the NTT INDYCAR SERIES finds itself with the most competitive championship points race given the points system that has been at play for the last 20 years. This level of competitiveness has further trickled down to the entry level drivers who are also in a tight points gathering championship primarily waged between Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Christian Lundgaard and DALE COYNE RACING W/ HMD MOTORSPORTS' David Malukas.

As we look into the coming challenge at the short road course at Portland International Raceway, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES held an interactive digital press conference via ZOOM Call with these two contenders for Rookie Of The Year and a competitive friend of theirs who happens to be leading the IndyLights feeders racing series points championship where the spoils include a scholarship funding for a seat within the NTT INDYCAR SERIES for 2023 - HMD MOTORSPORTS W/ DALE COYNE's Linus Lundqvist.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Moderator David Furst commences ZOOM Call press conference between the gathered online motorsports press and Swedish born Christian Lundgaard, American David Malukas, and Linus Lundqvist who also ahils from Sweeden [click image to launch ZOOM Call video]. Image Credit: NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Penske Entertainment via ZOOM Call (2022)

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference - Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Christian Lundgaard | David Malukas | Linus Lundqvist

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everyone. This weekend the penultimate round of the 2022 INDYCAR SERIES championship. Both series head to Portland International Raceway for the Grand Prix of Portland. We have a group of INDYCAR's next generation today.

One leads the Rookie of the Year standings with six top 10s and a second on the IMS road course this summer, great to have Christian Lundgaard.

Meanwhile the other driver, just 11 points behind in the Rookie of the Year battle, third closest rookie battle in the last 10 years, coming off an incredibly impressive second-place finish, it's David Malukas.

Our third guest is competing in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES next season. Got a shot at clinching the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championship this Sunday. He's up by 108 points or more, we welcome in Linus Lundqvist.

To all three, thanks for doing this today. Should be a lot of fun.

Let's start with Christian. Two races remain, coming off the test at Laguna Seca Monday. How do you feel heading into the final two races?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, looking at the test at Laguna, I wasn't as comfortable as Graham. We never really seemed to have the pace that we wanted to have. Looking at the whole season, I think we've been more comfortable on street circuits and road courses that we have on ovals for different reasons. We didn't have a very good race in St. Louis. Again, Graham seemed to have the pace. The car seemed to be quite edgy there.

We need to make the most of it. David is on our tail. We got the last the last two races and have to score the maximum points we can. I'm sure we will have a good end to the season.

THE MODERATOR: David, pretty clear your genuine excitement about a podium at World Wide Technology Raceway afterwards. How much momentum has that given yourself and the team as you head to the final two?

DAVID MALUKAS: I feel like ever since the month of May came around, I feel like that's when we kind of flipped a switch, starting getting a lot better with the car, strategy, the racing, continued to go forward.

After getting podium, having a really good race there and at Gateway, I think it's only helped it that much more.

We also had a really good test at Laguna on Monday. I don't know. I feel like this West Coast swing might be good for us. It's been so tight. The field is just so strong. It's like we're going to still have to be at 110% if we want to get anything done.

THE MODERATOR: I have a picture I'm going to try to share.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I know what this is (smiling).

DAVID MALUKAS: I have a feeling.

THE MODERATOR: Does this look familiar?

DAVID MALUKAS: The guy in the middle is pretty good looking.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: It's Portugal.

THE MODERATOR: How did that weekend go? What's the story behind this? Obviously you have a friendship that has lasted. Tell me the year.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: 2016.

DAVID MALUKAS: 2016.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Actually, as you can see, me and Rasmus Lindh were in the same team. What was the team called?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, we kind of had like a BN Racing deal. We were stationed inside the Ricardo tent.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I can't remember how this weekend went.

DAVID MALUKAS: I can't really remember much. I just, yeah, remember we had a good time. That was it. We were good buds back in the day.

There's another picture somewhere of him throwing me in the air.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: That was the last race of the European championship. I remember that.

THE MODERATOR: Good you have these memories that go back many years. Would you call it a friendship?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I wouldn't say we've become enemies, for sure.

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah. Let's just say, like, when I heard that Christian Lundgaard was going into the INDYCAR SERIES, I was like god dammit, that's going to be really tough (laughter).

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I know your mom is a big fan. You said that to me earlier this season. I remember you told me your mom was a big fan of me, she was following all the European races.

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, she follows all the stuff. She's a big Newgarden fan. I don't know if you'll be able to beat that (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Linus, congratulations on a very dominant Indy Lights season. Five wins, eight podiums, six poles. You took over the points lead at Barber and never looked back. What will it take to wrap up the championship on Sunday?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: Yeah, we've had a great season. Obviously looking forward to the West Coast races now. Obviously we have a good margin. But we're still here to win a couple more races, what we enjoy doing. That's definitely the target. It seems to be the best way to try to win the championship as well, is to win races.

We'll see. Obviously you look a little bit at the points. Obviously you play it on the safe side. We'll see how it goes.

I think Portland was a strong track for us last year. David got double pole, because I got double seconds unfortunately. We'll see what we can do this year.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

<<< Questions Asked By Motorsports Journal's Edmund Jenks >>>

Q. We're going into the final two races of the season. As many as six or eight people going for a championship.

THE MODERATOR: Seven are mathematically alive.

Q. You have the season card and the rookie card. Given that, team dynamics, do you see the team helping your direct effort over the last two races given how they've treated you the whole beginning of the season?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I think the team has treated me well. I mean, we got a podium at the GP, so it can't be that bad, for sure.

I mean, we've had our ups and downs. I think as a team we struggled in the beginning of the season. We weren't as strong as we were hoping to be. We bounced back.

I think, like David said earlier, kind of as May came, the month of May, after the 500 I think we sort of took a step forward, improved the second half of the season.

Obviously Gateway wasn't our best of weekends. But I think up until then we had a really good sort of streak going. We were moving in the right direction. Road America, Mid-Ohio, we were moving forward. We came to the GP and we were there. Even Iowa we had a pretty good weekend. Didn't qualify as well. Had an issue on the car the Sunday race, which was a bit unfortunate, didn't score any points.

The team has treated me well. They've given me the opportunity, all the tools I need to sort myself out. As a team I think we'll all hope for the last two weekends to have as good a package as we've had at the later GPs.

Q. I guess what I'm asking, given the way they treat you on the track, do you expect to have softer elbows on the track being thrown at you in order to maybe aid you in the rookie championship?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I don't think they're going to make it any harder on me than necessary, for sure. Obviously the easy answer is qualify ahead of them and just stay ahead of them. That's the easy solution.

No, I think Graham was extremely strong at the Laguna test on Monday. I need to find some time there. But overall I think both drivers have been helpful to me on and off track. I don't think there's been any scramble there. I know that me and Graham had contact earlier in the season. But no hard feelings. It happens. Obviously it's not preferred from the team's perspective. We moved on, we learned from it.

Q. David, how do you feel with Taku, his ability to throw elbows?

DAVID MALUKAS: Taku has been so much help to me this entire season. Going into these last two, nothing is really going to change. I'm trying to get as much information from him as possible.

Setup-wise our cars are actually quite similar so we can share each other's data and work off of each other.

On track, any time I go around him, he knows what he's doing. He's tough to get around, especially on the ovals. I was struggling in that move on Gateway. He really forced me to go wide in three and four. I was holding onto my breath.

It's all still friendly play. The only time we had a bit of a mishap was Texas. I was still doing rookie mistakes. Came out of the pits and stalled. That was the time he came in. I completely ruined his race. He didn't really like that.

We moved on from that. I was like, Just take your pit box away from me, it's all going to be okay. We have a really good friendship with each other. For my rookie season, having him as a teammate has probably been the best decision.

Q. Linus, I know it's kind of hard to look forward, what do you see going forward as it relates to INDYCAR, the challenges you see going forward?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: I mean, the big challenge right now is just getting a seat in INDYCAR, to be honest. There's not a lot of 'em out there. We'll see what we can do.

Obviously the target is to be with these guys next year full-time. Hopefully we can make that happen. We'll see. I know that the best thing I can do for myself is to continue to try to do well and wrap up a couple more wins at the end of the season and we'll see what happens.

Q. Have there been a couple of overtures coming your way?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: Yeah, I mean, I've had talks with literally every team on the grid since May I think. But obviously it's so competitive out there, just to get a seat opening. We're doing my best. We're doing our best to put myself in one of the big cars.

ENDS

<<< Additional Questions Asked By Motorsports Journal's Edmund Jenks >>>

Q. Christian, how was your impression of Laguna Seca?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think pretty much both drivers here can agree with me that the track itself is amazing. I think the elevation the track has is awesome. It's a tough track to master, I would say. I think even though every corner looks simple, it's tough. I think that's what kind of caught me off guard. Pretty much everyone at the test at least went off a couple times. I think I was one of the drivers that went off the most.

We were just trying to find the limits, all these kind of things that we want to do. I think the track itself is cool. I was a bit surprised how low grip the track actually is. I feel there is a very small margin for error in terms of I'd say grip. I'd say the car feels like it has a lot of lateral grip. When you go a half percent further, it just gives up. For me, that was tough to sort of master and understand earlier in the day.

I feel like that put me on sort of the back foot early in the day. I think all of us would have liked to have run earlier in the day. We were a little tire limited, all of us.

It was a good day. I think we learnt a lot. I learned a lot. Now I feel more comfortable coming into the race for sure. Full focus on Portland now.

Q. David, same question?

DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, I love Laguna. To me it reminds me a lot of go-karting, a slow and rhythmic track. If you make a small mistake in turn three, I feel like the rest of the lap you're going to try to be catch up for it, make more mistakes, all around lose that lap.

It's a very tough track. Like I said, it's all about rhythm, knowing where that limit is, trying so hard. The limit is such a fine line of going overboard or being under. You have to stay within that line.

It's a tough track, as Christian says. In qualifying it's going to be interesting because you're obviously going to try to find the most amount of time you can. One little mistake, that's it. Also the way with alternate timelines, people setting it up. You have less laps, because setting it up you gain that much more time. It's a tough track, but a lot of fun, one of my favorites on the schedule.

Q. Linus, you have two races there. How do you like closing out your season there twice?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: I say I'll enjoy closing out at Laguna more than last year as we did at Mid-Ohio. Nothing against Mid-Ohio, but I just think Laguna is a better venue.

Excited. Laguna was a little bit of a tricky one for us last year. We finished on the podium in both races, but we were playing catch-up to Andretti. We'll see if we can change that around. Hopefully we can have a good run at Portland and go to Laguna with a little bit less pressure, just enjoy it.

ENDS

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Q. Christian, Rookie of the Year is something that is maybe not so much a thing in Europe, outside of America. Was that something that was a surprise to you, how many questions you get about this?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, sort of internally there's always a rookie championship no matter what series you're racing in. But, like you said, I don't think it's a big topic in Europe. For sure the team has pushed me further and further to understand how much it actually means.

But yeah, again, obviously coming into INDYCAR, I hoped to be in a better position at this point in the season than we are. You can only hope for the best. I think we've had our ups and downs, we've had good weekends, some worse ones.

You only get one shot at the rookie championship. You have to make the best of it. I think that's what's important about it, at this point now I know I'll be here next year. I mean, I know anyway I'm not going to get another shot at it, but I also know I need to learn as much as possible this year going into next year, but at the same time I want to end it on a high.

I mean, unfortunately David is pushing me extremely hard with his pace. I think it's going to be a tight battle at the end.

Q. David, would you say it was always a focus of yours from the start of the season? Is it similar to Rahal that Dale Coyne have been pushing you on to achieve that?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, it's always been in the back of my head. It wasn't kind of my main goal. My main goal was to enjoy the INDYCAR experience and learn as much as possible. Dale was in my ear every day, We need this rookie, go and get it (smiling). He was pushing me and driving me forward.

Lundgaard definitely has been pushing us 100%, especially after the IMS performance. I was like, Man, how am I supposed to get a podium? That's going to be tough.

Part of the push in Gateway was having that in mind. Yeah, like I said, Dale is always in my ear that we really need it. A lot of pushing going on. In Gateway we succeeded under the pressure. Hopefully we can carry that into the last two rounds.

Q. David and Christian, let's say you're both challenging for the win at either Portland or Laguna, and you have one of the four or five guys going for the championship, they decide to mix it up with you, what do you do?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Keep fighting.

Q. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, yes, they've got a championship, but so do we. I mean, I wouldn't say I would unnecessarily help anyone if it doesn't help my own case. If it's going to help me...

We are racing drivers, we want to win. If they're racing for a championship, I mean, anyone in the race is there to take points away from each other.

I mean, I wouldn't say I'd try to help anyone.

Q. David?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I mean, even though I know people are in the championship run, once you go on track, you're focused on your own deal unless there's some teammate stuff maybe going on.

It's always in the back of your head that you know everybody is in a championship fight. At Gateway, being in the front running going against Power and Newgarden, McLaughlin, you know they all have a chance at the championship, you make sure you have very committed passes. You don't want to make things go south for you and them.

I mean, if anything, if that's situation happens in the last two races, we're going to make sure to be careful and make committed moves. It's in both drivers' heads we're fighting for our own championships and everybody is going to take it safe.

Q. I'm not going to mention names, but one of the contenders gives you a really hard time, maybe there's some contact, do you look to avenge that contact? I'm specifically speaking about the contenders left. What do you do if they are the aggressors to you?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I think personally, there are drivers on the grids that is harder than others to race against, for sure. But I think what I like about INDYCAR is that it's extremely tough and hard racing but very respectful.

I mean, me and Simon had a bit of wheel banging in Mid-Ohio, but there were no hard feelings. It's racing. It is what it is.

If someone punches me off the track, what better am I if I do the same to him? I want to race clean, help my own case, make sure I get the best result that we can. Obviously doesn't help if you're being pushed off the track.

I mean, I wouldn't say I'm looking for vengeance in any way. Yeah, I think that's it honestly.

Q. David?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, no, personally I get all the revenge, get like a TV series about it, dramatize it a bit (laughter).

No, I mean, you don't want to have bad blood. If something happens on track, you don't want to have that in the back of your mind going into your next race or next session.

Yeah, I don't know, it's a tough situation to try to let go of something that you know that truly wasn't your fault, they messed you up, your race.

I always talk to the person after the fact, make sure we're on good terms before we go back on track, hear their side of the story, kind of connect.

If INDYCAR starts doing, like, shows, I can dramatize some stuff. Maybe me and Lundgaard can put fists up, do some rolling around. When the camera cuts, we'll shake hands, go have coffee (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Linus, explain a little bit about the race team that you're with this year and how much they have done to put you in a great position to win a championship, what they brought to the table in the last couple years.

LINUS LUNDQVIST: Yeah, I mean, it goes for every driver. I mean, we get the luxury of being the front figure of everything. Obviously you have the whole team behind you. You wouldn't be able to even come to the race without them.

Obviously HMD the last two years I'd say have been one of the top teams together with Andretti. Obviously that was the goal from the end of last year to sort of come back and try to fight for the title. The target was to go with HMD because we thought that's where the potential was.

I think it's proven right so far at least. It's cool to see them expanding as well. It was a little bit of a question mark when David moved up to the INDYCAR, what's going to happen to the Lights car. They only expanded, added more engineers, put more effort in than last year.

It's cool to see them expanding both on the Lights side but also to INDYCAR with the partnership with Dale Coyne. It's a good energy with the team right now.

Q. David, you've been fighting against Linus in Indy Lights last year, also in the same team with him. Did this Indy Lights season work out with the way you expected it to be, with him completely dominating the competition?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, he's being intimidated (laughter).

Yeah, going into it, I'm a little bit biased, but I definitely saw that all of HMD Motorsports to dominate. I'm not surprised that Linus took it and ran with it, kept running with it. An impressive season for him.

When he said he was going to be racing for us next year, I knew that, Okay, yeah, he's got a really good opportunity at it. He's done an amazing job to make sure it's clear-cut and center. He deserves to be in the Indy Lights championship and be in INDYCAR.

Q. Linus, in 2018 you spent a whole year in British F3 driving against Jamie Chadwick. Earlier today we reported she's going to test an Indy Lights car with Andretti. Do you think she would be a good fit? Can you reflect on the differences between those cars?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: Yeah, I was happy to see that she's doing a test. Obviously we kept in touch a little bit. She's been doing very well in the W series.

It will be interesting to see how she does over here. Like you said, I raced against her in 2018. She raced for the same team as I did in 2017, when she did F3 and I was in F4. I've seen her a little bit. Obviously that's some years ago.

I'm not the same driver as I was in 2018. I'm sure she's not. Excited to see what she can do and what she thinks of the Lights car. It is a big difference from the regional car to the Lights car.

In 2020 when I did the Formula Regional Americas, it was probably the biggest step of my career going into the Lights car just how the car drives, how you have to drive it to extract lap time.

Multiple times in pre-season, a couple of tests, in theory in my head I did close to the perfect lap, and I was 5/10ths or 6/10ths off David. Look at his onboard, it's oversteer, understeer, he deals with it. Mine was calm, hitting the apex. That's not how you extract lap time out of a Lights car.

It took a little bit of time to get used to, but super rewarding when you do do it. It will be interesting to see how she can adapt to it.

Q. David, obviously you dominated in Portland last year. What do you think you can take from Indy Lights to the INDYCAR race in Portland?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, we had a lot of success last year in Indy Lights. Completely different car, different team. It's all going to be very different with the setup.

I know I have the ability to go around Portland and do some quick times. All I know is, yeah, just turn one, yeah, the fingers crossed. If we make turn one, it's always going to be swell from there.

Q. Lean on Taku for a bit of information for that as well?

DAVID MALUKAS: With Taku's help, it's been more on ovals. Also at the Laguna test we were talking. I'm always trying to get as much information from him as possible.

I have a really good veteran teammate, I think probably one of the best for me, for my rookie season. I'm trying to get the most out of it. He definitely keeps some things to himself. I have to look at videos and data to try to find it.

Yeah, I definitely will ask him a lot of questions.

Q. Christian, what are your expectations going into Portland?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Going into the last two races of the season, I don't think the sort of expectations have changed, I wouldn't say. We go into every event pretty much the same. We want to do the best we can and extract as much time as we can from the car.

We didn't test at Portland. I know (indiscernible) tested both tracks, which was actually pretty interesting to see. But I think our Sebring test earlier this season just before Toronto helped us more. We're on the right track. We just need to keep improving. I think we're in the right direction.

Having Graham and Jack here, I know Jack has been successful here, I know he's been extremely fast, hasn't quite got the result that he deserved. I think as a team we're looking quite strong.

Graham looked at a pretty comfortable podium last year until some strategy that didn't work out. He's been there. I don't think we're going to be struggling. I think we're going to be in the better end of the field.

Q. Christian, this is a relatively new circuit to you. How much extra preparation have you put in?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think it's pretty much the same preparation as every track you go to. I mean, looking at Indy GP last year, the one race I did, I basically showed up on Friday and drove practice. That's pretty much it.

You try to look at certain issues to see if you can find some onboards, videos, do as much preparation as you can do. Speak to engineers, see what they have of experience at the track. Speak to my teammates, Jack and Graham.

Like I said before, they've both been quite successful here in terms of sheer pace. They haven't got the result that I think they deserve.

As a package, I think we will be there. For me, I enjoy coming to new tracks. I enjoy the challenge of going out there pretty much blind. We saw Nashville, I'd never been at Nashville, and we were real quick straightaway. The most I can hope for is that the car is in a decent window and we can fine tune it from there, be at the better end of the field.

LINUS LUNDQVIST: As long as we're ahead of David, we're fine (smiling).

Q. Can you tell us how many years you are contracted for?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I can't tell you, but I'll be here for a bit (smiling).

Q. David, how much of a relief was it to get that first series podium?

DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, no, it felt really good. It's just because we knew it was possible at that point for a couple of races until then. We knew if we put everything together, we can finally get it. We got very close in a few different circuits, things didn't really go our way. With the amount of races counting down... I also knew Gateway was going to be our best chance to do it. The Dale Coyne car on ovals is an absolute beast, quick.

We were going around Penskes on the outside at the end. It proved we had a really good car. I knew that was our best chance to finally get it. I feel like that's one of my goals completed for the end of this season.

Now it's just going to be, yeah, making sure I finish in front of Christian (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Did you tape Bus Bros or is it going to happen?

DAVID MALUKAS: No, it's going to happen. They said it on Twitter. I was freaking out, accepted it. They haven't said anything since. I don't know if they're going to go into my motorhome and wake me up. I don't know how it works. We'll see.

THE MODERATOR: Be ready for anything is probably the best advice.

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THE MODERATOR: Linus, a strategy question for you. How much of the team, you, will be thinking about points, making sure you get what you need to clinch at Portland, or do you race your own race and whatever happens...

LINUS LUNDQVIST: This is usually the case where I go for a win and the team says, Don't worry, you're fine. Big picture, look at the points.

But, I mean, the best and the safest way is qualify up front and try to run away with it. That's going to be the plan. Score the most points, it's the safest way of doing it.

DAVID MALUKAS: I'd say take it easy this race, you're still in the points running, then you get it on the final race, you get everybody. It's much cooler. Not as cool if you already get it and go to the final race (smiling).

LINUS LUNDQVIST: So now you know, if Portland doesn't go well, race one at Laguna doesn't go well, now you know why (laughter).

Q. It's your first year for both in INDYCAR. You have some races to improve. In what aspects do you think you have improved more and in what aspects do you think you have to improve in the last two races?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I'd sort of say me and David are in this battle now. I'd say he has the advantage having been to most of the tracks, done ovals before in junior categories. For me to come out here and just drive around in the big car straightaway, for me, I wouldn't say I struggled mentally, but it's obviously a tough task to come in and be expected to perform.

I think there's been a few events this year where I've told my strategists to give me more information because we can be 6/10ths off the pace compared to my teammates. I don't know where the pace is.

These things we've kind of learned as a team, moved in that direction of helping me as much as possible early in the weekend. The pace has been there. Obviously we didn't need it in Nashville, which was nice. Seemed to be able to sort that out.

For the last two races of the season, now I have a test at Laguna under my belt, I've never been to Portland. Now sitting here hearing that David has had a successful couple of races around here, for me, I need to be on the top of my game going into this weekend, be sure that together with the team we have the best package.

I think for me the ovals are still where we need to improve. Personally I think I'm quite comfortable with street circuits and road courses. I've done that pretty much the whole of my car career. Ovals is still different.

I think this is what has been tough this season. You only got one shot at it, at the rookie championship. You need to perform at your best and limit retirements. I think we've got the most out of it, but I'm sure there's a lot to learn. I think the whole winter we'll look into things to improve.

Q. And David, in what aspects do you think you have to improve more during the season? In what aspects do you think you can improve during the last two races?

DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, the whole improvement has been with I'd say race strategy and pit stops. That's kind of been the whole season. I feel like that's the same goal going into these last two races.

All that stuff is new to me. Although I've come through the feeder series, you don't do pit stops, strategies, fuel saving, tire saving. You don't really do much of that. All of that was very new to me. At the beginning of the season I was definitely very lost with all of it.

I've managed to learn how to figure out how to do all these things, just following veterans like Power. He passed me on track. Man, I got passed again. Wait, this is actually really good. I can follow Power's line, where he does these fuel saving.

From these moments I've managed to learn, learn how I can use all the tools I have from me, the team, Honda, how I can use those to help me as a driver.

Q. Linus this is your second year in Indy Lights. In terms of your performances and your training style, what impact has this had?

LINUS LUNDQVIST: Yeah, a second year always helps because you kind of hit the ground running when the season starts again instead of starting from scratch.

But honestly, looking back at last year, I'm actually pretty proud of the season that we had. We were fast and good enough to challenge for the title, I don't know, with three races to go until we had the tire blowout at Gateway.

This year everything that we did last year we just did a little bit better. It was more natural to me, the driving style of the Lights car, how the team operates, the people within the team.

I'd just say that we turned everything up a notch. I'm working with the same people, engineers, mechanics. We knew each other very well. We knew our strengths and weaknesses. We kind of just worked on that, yeah, became a better package all the way around.

THE MODERATOR: The great story about these three is they're success stories up and down. Thank you.

[FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

POST PORTLAND:

In the contest for series Rookie of the Year honors, the coveted award will go to one of two Honda drivers.  Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Christian Lundgaard leads with 293 points heading to Laguna Seca.  But fellow Honda racer David Malukas is only five points back, driving for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD.

Do not miss the finale of both the NTT INDYCAR SERIES & IndyLights Championships as well as the unicorn title "Rookie Of The Year" held during the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca September 9-11, 2022.

Television coverage of Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey starts at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC.  Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160). 

... notes from The EDJE

FEATURED ARTICLE >>>

TAGS: Linus Lundqvist, David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, NTT INDYCAR SERIES, INDYLights, RLL, Rahal Leterman Lanigan Racing, Dale Coyne, HMD Motorsports, Rookie Of The Year, Championship, The EDJE

Less Is More For Romain Grosjean After First DCR Honda Drive At Barber Motorsports Park

At Barber Motorsports Park, Romain Grosjean prepares to get into a cockpit of a Dallara/Honda NTT INDYCAR for the very first time with the motor running in anger. Image Credit: Joe Skibinski via NICS 2021

Less Is More For Romain Grosjean After First DCR Honda Drive At Barber Motorsports Park

For Romain Grosjean's (#r8g) first test in an NTT INDYCAR at Barber Motorsports Park, he was beginning to discover that less is more as it relates to the driving excitement found in the technical specification platform built by Dallara, powered by Honda, and set up by a much smaller crew that what he was familiar with in Formula 1. 

For example, he was assigned "the" engineer that gave Sebastien Bourdais most of his awesome set-ups ... and it doesn't hurt that his native language is French (for those deeper, more exploratory discussions about platform handling away from pitlane).
 

A recent comment published from Romain expressed that he's excited to join a racing series with a field of more closely prepared machines - "Although I’m not ready yet to take on the ovals, IndyCar has a much more level playing field than what I have been used to in my career so far. It will be exciting to challenge for podiums and wins again." 

"Formula 1 lacks ‘excitement’ of IndyCar" said one Planet F1 headline.

Dale Coyne and Rick Ware are banking on it.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Romain Grosjean (@grosjeanromain)

 

NTT IndyCar Series News Conference - Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Romain Grosjean - Driver. Dale Coyne Racing with RWR

Press Conference - First Test - Barber Motorsports Park

THE MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. My name is Dave Furst from INDYCAR and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Glad you could join us after a busy day of testing at Barber Motorsports Park. We'll take a few questions here in just a bit.

If you've been following the day, Romain Grosjean had his first test in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES driving the No. 51 for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR, and Romain joins us from Birmingham, Alabama. A lot of questions but some general thoughts just to begin with on getting into the race car, your first time driving an INDYCAR. How was it?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It felt good. It really felt like home at the beginning. Obviously, it's a new car, so I just had to adjust a little bit to my new driving position and so on, but things very quickly felt quite smooth, which was good, and then I discovered the joy of not having a power steering wheel, and I don't regret all those hours in the gym, but maybe I'll do some more just in case.

THE MODERATOR: Of course there's the other storyline; this is the first time you'd been in a race car since the accident in Bahrain. How did the hand hold up today?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It went okay. I mean, it's not -- as I say, it's not perfect. There's a nice big blister on my left thumb which is not pretty, but driving-wise it was okay. It wasn't painful. I was being a bit careful on some of the curves, but generally, it hasn't been a limitation.

Q. When you told your children, hey, I'm going to go back, I'm going to get back in the car today, what was their reaction? Did you have to soothe any of their fears or anything like that?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: No, they were actually super excited, and I've been sharing and talking with them a lot, and we made some video calls over the last few days and I showed them the car, and they were happy. It was hard to know that I was going to go away for like 18 days, but they were happy, and yes, I sent them pictures so they could follow on social media a bit, and yeah, I think they know that their daddy is doing what he likes, so I think that's the most important for them.

Q. Adapting to a car without power steering, how heavy did the steering wheel feel? I know there are a couple of turns there at Barber that are pretty heavy turns working the wheel. How big of a transition was that for you?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It's definitely the hardest steering wheel I've had to cope with. The first few laps, the muscles weren't quite warmed up or ready for it. It got better at the end, which is always a good sign. I'll know where to exactly where to work in the gym and what to do. I also know that's the hardest track of the year, which is always good to start with so you have a baseline of what it's going to be like. But yeah, I think I can fine-tune my training. I didn't know really what to expect, and now it's pretty clear.

Q. What about the acceleration in an INDYCAR compared to Formula 1?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, I mean, there is less power. That is for sure. But I observed that the mechanical grip of the car is pretty outstanding and therefore you can try different lines in the corner and you can actually make it smooth in the way you want it.

I think I could go on for a long time comparing Formula 1 and INDYCAR, but I don't think it's doing any favor to anyone. I think really what I've found here is that there's a lot of mechanical grip and less aero than the Formula 1 car and obviously a little bit less power, but that the drivability of the engine, the modes of the engine, the different maps we tried worked really well.

Q. What about the difference in team? I know in a typical Formula 1 season -- Formula 1 team probably has more people in their catering and hospitality department than Dale Coyne has on his entire team. What's it been like adapting to -- Dale is a racer, he runs a lean machine, but everybody kind of pitches in and helps out. What's it like working for Dale Coyne now?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, yes, it's one of the smaller teams of the championship, but it doesn't mean that no one -- the guys here are very motivated. They do a great job. They've been turning the car quick. They've got some good experience. So really I don't think it's anything to be bad or to be ashamed of. I think, yes, we are a smaller team, but also if you think the car may be a little bit complex in terms of -- because they are spec parts, it doesn't mean they are easy to set up. But I think we can do a great job with what we have, and that's why I took the challenge.

Yes, there are less people, but I think generally I've been getting on very well with everyone, and I haven't really felt any limitation in terms of working on the car.

Q. Just wondered what your plan was for the day today, if you can kind of run through what you were hoping to achieve at the start of the day and whether you actually got through all of those things that you wanted to kind of do.

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, well, the first thing was to get adapted to the car, to understand the way it works and making sure that the seat position was good, which it was, so that was already the first good thing. We tried different setups on the car just for me to have a feel what does happen when we change this setup or this setup because obviously when you get to the racetrack you never really have so much time. We didn't look at finding the perfect balance, but we looked more at making sure that I had an idea of what was happening while we were changing big things on the car.

Q. You've spoken a lot about your accident last year and how that affected you sort of following that. How did it kind of feel just getting out of the car, coming out of the pits and getting those first few laps in, kind of refreshing your brain and bouncing back from what happened last year?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It felt like home, to be fair. It felt like home, and didn't have any apprehension whatever. Just going out there, learning the car. The real question is going to be at the race start April 18 here in Barber, but for now, driving the car is good.

Q. Kind of piggy-backing off the last question, I know you've been doing a lot of sim work leading up to today's test at Barber, but how much of today as you mentioned was trying to find the proper setup for you and how much of it was trying to test the limits of what this car could do and what you can do within this car?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Well, I think there were a little bit of both. Every time you come testing you have to try to find your limit, which I did this morning in Turn 1. I wasn't quite happy with it, but it happened, and I actually understood something you could do in Formula 1 you maybe cannot do in INDYCAR, so actually that was kind of a good learning experience.

And then it's really learning about when you change to dampers or the bars or something, what does it actually do on the car, how does it affect the car, which part of the corner. Also getting to learn my engineer and him to learn me and what I'm talking about entry, which phase of the corner am I talking about and so on. So that's been our day, and it's been pretty good.

Q. You mentioned the incident in Turn 1. It sounded like it was a fairly simple spin that didn't cause too much damage. Can you kind of take us through a little bit -- I know most of us weren't there to see exactly what happened. It didn't sound like anything too major, but can you take us through what happened there?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, basically I just went too fast in. When I was on the brake I also picked up the throttle which you do in high speed, but because it's a mechanical diff it does open the diff when you do that, and therefore it makes the car lose, whereas in Formula 1 it would actually stabilize the car, so I would say it was a learning experience and then I didn't do it anymore, and it was better.

Q. I know we don't have any official times from today, but how competitive do you feel you were amongst that field and how competitive do you feel like you can be this year from your first test and what you learned today?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: I don't know. It's definitely super tight. There were a couple of very quick times at the front. For us, the last set of tires I didn't get anything out of it. Just didn't feel great for some reason and the sun was quite low, so the visibility went down.

But I think the set before -- middle of the afternoon we had a decent lap time, especially looking at a track condition maybe a bit hotter. But yeah, generally I think -- I don't know, it's difficult to say, but it's definitely super tight, and we need to keep working and I need to keep adapting my driving style and understand how to go fast in an INDYCAR because it's a bit different than a Formula 1 car.

Q. You had mentioned that you didn't want to talk too much about the comparison between an F1 car and an INDYCAR, but some of that is actually quite fascinating. I know you can't really compare the braking but I know the steering is a little bit different, as well, so could you go into a little bit more detail with that?

Grosjean was able to remain within one second of the times posted by the fastest drivers of the day who had experience driving this platform and the track before. Image Credit: Romain Grosjean's FB Page (2021)

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Well, I think Formula 1, if I'm being simplistic, Formula 1 only works as aerodynamics and the rest is just here to support the car. An INDYCAR works really with the setup and the aerodynamic is much simpler and much less downforce. So high-speed corners is a bit more fruity on an INDYCAR but the low-speed corners actually feel maybe better.

Q. And the physical nature of it all, I know you were saying at the beginning your arms are actually quite tired. Going back and having to reassess the physical side of things, do you know which portions you're going to have to work on yourself to get ready for the race?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, I think so. I think I've got some clear idea. I'm going to go back in the gym and make sure that the muscles are good. Sometimes you can do as much as you want in the gym. The real race, the real training is in the car. That's good that we did 80 laps today. It gets the proper driving muscles active. Obviously I wanted to do some shifter kart back home because I think shifter kart could be good training, but with my hand and core temperature I wasn't able to, but I think no, things are getting better and I think I can get on it and I think it's going to be actually very helpful for INDYCAR.

Q. You had said to me that you spoke to Marcus Ericsson about what you expect from the series and Marcus told you it was a really nice environment, that you would get along with the guys well. It looks like you've had interaction on social media with some other drivers. I'm wondering how the welcoming has gone and what drivers you have found to be friendly.

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Well, it's been great. It's been great, and yes, I think Marcus wasn't wrong, and I've had already some good interaction with Sebastien Bourdais. He was next to me so that was easy. Takuma Sato came over. I saw some of the other guys. Simon Pagenaud in the pit lane, he was driving and I gave him a wave and he gave it back. So I think generally it's been a great day in that respect, with Edward, my teammate. We have a good relationship, as well.

I told him I used to be an asshole as a teammate back in the days, but now I'm 35 and I'd like us to be friendly. On track you want to beat them, there's no doubt, but outside of the track I think if we can be friends it's mega.

Q. Is it a surprise to you to be in this sort of atmosphere?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It's definitely very different from what I'm used to.

Q. And your engineer, how has that been going? I know that he worked with Bourdais a long time. I don't know if they put you guys together because you're both French, but how is that working?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: It's been good. We've been fairly busy and haven't really got much time to sit down and debrief, but on track and so on, it's been clear. We've done the testing. I guess now it's going to be a question of sitting down together, going through the data, working through it, what we're going to do.

It's always nice when your engineer speaks the same language as you. We do all the debriefs in English because we don't want to exclude anyone, but obviously when we are outside of the track and talking just the two of us, that's going to be French, and sometimes it's a bit easier to explain some of the feelings in your mother language.

Q. We talked about the extra physicality of the INDYCAR to drive without the power steering and we know your hands got quite badly burned in the accident at the time. Has there been any extra issues with that, with the extra physicality of driving the car on your hands as they continue to heat up?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Actually, no, it's been all right. I've got a big blister on the left hand, on one of the thumbs, but I didn't really feel it in the car. So I guess that was fine.

I think generally, no, that's been okay. Putting the gloves on and removing it is not always nice so I tend to keep my left glove on, protect it from the sun, as well, but generally it's been okay.

The aeroscreen removes some air that you get in the car so it gets quite warm, but the other tubes that you have with the helmet air system and also at the front of the cockpit works pretty well. So I think it's very physical. It is tough driving those cars, very much, in a different way than Formula 1 where the only thing you fight in Formula 1 is the G-forces where here you actually fight the heaviness of the car physically. But I don't mind it. It's quite cool.

Q. You mentioned the aeroscreen there. Obviously you were used to the halo in Formula 1. How did you find the aeroscreen on the INDYCAR?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Absolutely fine. If it wasn't for the air not coming through your helmet and your visor staying clean, you wouldn't notice. You wouldn't know it.

Q. As for the experience itself today, you were at Barber, which I always think is quite a European style track. Does that help you settle into the new car and the new environment compared to some of the tracks you're going to go to this season which are going to be very different?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, I think there's going to be some different tracks, but if you look at Mid-Ohio, Road America, Laguna, they're not dissimilar in a way to the tracks that I've known. The pavement may be a bit different with some patches on, but again, it gives character to the circuit. The street circuits, they're always different, and year to year they change. They're bumpy. I heard they're very bumpy. But well, let's see.

Q. And of course you're going to have the ovals to get used to, as well. What do you think when it comes to oval running?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: We'll see later. There could be a chance that I do get (indiscernible).

Q. In terms of the aeroscreen, how was the visibility for you today, and also how beneficial is it for you testing in Barber today and also Barber being the first race? Is that a beneficial kind of aspect for you to build on?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Well, the aeroscreen wasn't an issue at all and I completely forgot it was on, so that was good. Testing in Barber, obviously it's always good and we kind of come racing here. But I still feel like I've got some stuff to learn in the car to go faster, so that's what I'm going to be doing in the next few days before we go testing in Laguna Seca.

Q. How beneficial is it for you to have Ed with you?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Yeah, it's been good. I've been looking at data, and I'll keep doing that, keep understanding. I need to get used to also the PI system that we use to look at data, but I'm definitely going to work on that and make sure that I understand what it does different, where I'm faster and what I can do to improve myself.

Q. Going into the season you have a couple of drivers that are making the jump to INDYCAR. You have probably one of the top drivers from the Australian area and one of the top stock car drivers of all time with Jimmie Johnson. Has the mindset come across to you that this season could bring a lot more eyeballs, especially at a race with Barber being a complex road course?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: Well, you know, I think it's mega to have Jimmie and Scott on board as well as all the other drivers. I think we've got a very strong field with a lot of experience from some of the guys, and a huge fan base from Scott and Jimmie. For everyone that loves motorsport, it's super cool to have that and to be able to watch that.

Q. I know it's only your first day in the INDYCAR, but have you been able to get an impression of the kind of driving that the Firestones would require and promote? Do they have any kind of characteristics to any tires you have raced with previously throughout your racing career?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: If I'm being honest I've been very pleasantly surprised with the Firestone. They've been great. No tar blanket going out of the pit. It does feel -- okay, it's a bit more slippery but there is grip, and you can actually push for a few laps and they stay quite consistent. I was doing good laps after 25, 26 laps on the tires and that's something that I couldn't do in my previous experience.

Generally I think I've been happy with them. Obviously we haven't used the red stickers on ones, so they may degrade a bit more, but definitely the primary tires were pretty good.

Q. When you say slippery, would you put that down to maybe it's still February and the temperatures are maybe cooler than when you'll generally go racing or is that more a condition of the tire?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: No, I think it's more condition of the tires because we got to 95 track temp, something like that, close to 100, which isn't bad. It's been actually a very sunny and cool day. Generally I think Firestone is a good product.

THE MODERATOR: Romain, you'll be at Laguna and that's a place you grew up playing video games; is that right?

ROMAIN GROSJEAN: When I was young and beautiful.

THE MODERATOR: We want to thank you, Romain Grosjean, a full day of testing at Barber Motorsports Park in the book. A reminder the season opener for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES just 54 days away. They'll be back at beautiful Barber Motorsports Park April 18th for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Thank you all for joining us here tonight. Everyone have a great evening. Thank you.

[ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

RESULTS Of 12 Car Test Session Day At Barber Motorsports Park >>>

The question The EDJE/Motorsports Journal had, but time would not allow was this:

Question: You mentioned the issue you had in turn one (always good to push the limits with a No Harm/No Foul result), was there a section on the track, a track that was described as the toughest track on the annual schedule, that grabbed your attention more than any other section? Why?

This track was built for bikes - FYI.

Continuing with the less is more theme - less wide track because of its original intent - less downforce than F1 design nets more adjustment and set up possibilities to gain an advantage - less fussy tires from Firestone given lack of heating blankets gave less grip at first but more consistent grip throughout longer runs - less competitive egos off of the track allow for greater relationships in the series - but never let this lull one asleep when the wars begin with the helmet on the head sitting between four open wheels. Those other wheels around you wish you were not in their way.

Your first real test will come on a track designed for motorcycles yet oddly suited as the toughest NTT INDYCAR SERIES challenge that all of the driver's love. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener at Barber Motorsports Park is set for Sunday, April 18 - broadcast live on NBC Network.

... notes from The EDJE

TAGS: Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne, Rick Ware, Dallara, Firestone, Honda, Barber Motorsports Park, NTT INDYCAR SERIES, #r8g, The EDJE

Ed Jones Comes Back Home To Dale Coyne Racing With Vasser Sullivan & SealMaster

Ed Jones discusses the finer points of tackling the oval track at IMS during the INDY500 session activity in 2018. Ed qualified his Ganassi Racing No. 10 NTT Data Honda at P29 and ended his run on Lap 57 when he lost control in Turn 2 having him listed as finishing P30. Image Credit: EJR Facebook Page (2018)

Ed Jones Comes Back Home To Dale Coyne Racing With Vasser Sullivan & SealMaster

People love to speculate, "What would it have been like if ..." when looking over the arch of a driving career and the relationships garnered along the way.

Well, with British/UAE driver Ed Jones back on the Dale Coyne Racing paddock with Jimmy Vasser calling signals in the box, in 2021 fans may see the culmination of experiences in the side trips to Ganassi Racing with Dario Franchitti in the team coaching role, and Ed Carpenter and his long association with the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. One can not wait for what the second chapter in this Coyne/Jones union, sponsored through SealMaster, will garner to this 17 race season.

All on the team believe that Podiums are the intended goal and all believe they have the experience to deliver on this goal.

NTT IndyCar Series News Conference - Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Dale Coyne - Dale Coyne Racing

Jimmy Vasser - Vasser Sullivan Racing

Ed Jones - Driver, Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan, No. 18 SealMaster Honda

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning to everyone, first and foremost. Certainly glad you could join us for a huge announcement from Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan. We'll begin with some introductions.

Dale Coyne is set to begin, we did the math, his 38th year in INDYCAR competition. The former driver, now long time owner of Dale Coyne Racing. Jimmy Vasser is on the phone, former INDYCAR Series champ, turned team owner, winner of the 2013 Indianapolis with than Tony Kanaan as a driver. Fourth season in his partnership with Dale Coyne. Great to see Ed Jones returning to the NTT INDYCAR Series, announcing earlier this morning that Ed will be the driver of the No. 18 Team SealMaster Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan Honda during the 2021 season. Ed, of course, 2017 Rookie of the Year in the series, 2016 Indy Lights champion, a total of 47 starts in the NTT INDYCAR Series with 14 top-10 finishes.

We'll begin with Dale. Congratulations. A reunion of sorts. How good is it to have Ed back?

DALE COYNE: We're very happy to have Ed back. We were happy with him a couple years ago when he drove for us. He didn't put an asterisk by that third at Indy. He had a hole in the nose of his car. He touched somebody's gearbox, put a hole in the nose of his car. We couldn't figure out why he was so quick in the corners and slow in the straights. It turned out it was a drag penalty for that hole, otherwise he might have been two positions higher, which really would have been something.

But, no, Ed is a great friend of the team. My wife, myself, we all get along really well. So we're very happy to have him back. As I told Ed when we were talking about all this, we both have unfinished business. We're very much looking forward to a competitive year.

THE MODERATOR: That might be the theme for you in 2021 for sure.

We'll move to Ed right now. 2020, as you know, was different for all of us in so many ways. Different for you, too, without a ride. How did you pass the time last year and how excited are you to be back in the NTT INDYCAR Series?

ED JONES: First of all, it's great to be back. As you said, 2020 was different for everyone. Unfortunately the ride that I had fell through with COVID there. So it was a different year for me a year where I didn't do very much driving.

One side of that was a negative, on the other it was a good time to reflect on things, get recharged. I actually did a lot of sim racing.

I've been back not in the INDYCAR but in some other cars the last few weeks. Feel as good as ever. It's really been fantastic to join up with Dale again, with Vasser Sullivan this time. As Dale said, we have unfinished business. Had a really strong rookie year. Just really looking forward to hitting the floor running, getting back to the standard that we were at.

THE MODERATOR: Do you care to get into how all this came about?

ED JONES: I've always kept in contact with Dale. I've been fortunate where I have a good relationship with pretty much everyone in the paddock, and I'm able to talk to people quite often.

After the year out, I knew I really wanted to be back in INDYCAR. I was talking to Dale, seeing what we could figure out. Things took quite a bit of time. It all came through in the end. That's what's important.

As Dale said, we've had a great relationship. I know a lot of the guys at the team already. Having that extra partnership of Vasser Sullivan, continuing their success, is something I'm really excited to get going with.

THE MODERATOR: Jimmy, what could Ed do for your race team during 2021?

JIMMY VASSER: He's going to jump back where he left off with his consistency. You look at his numbers, 30% of his INDYCAR starts have been in the top 10. So he's a finisher, and he's consistent.

I think also he gives us a chance to fight for the Indy 500. Three starts, third and a sixth. In my opinion, should have been Rookie of the Year at the 500, but that's a whole 'nother story.

DALE COYNE: Co-rookie.

JIMMY VASSER: Right.

We're excited and energized for the 500, what he can bring. Again, just echo what I said about his consistency. I can tell you all our stakeholders and partners are really stoked to have Ed coming onboard. This is going to be good.

Dale, you might have mentioned there's some unfinished business there. The cars particularly on the ovals have proven to be very quick, so we're excited.

THE MODERATOR: Let's open it up for questions.

Q. Ed, they talked about your experience, your expertise, your engineering background. Also returning to this team there's got to be the comfort level. You've worked with these guys before. How important is that comfort level coming back to the team?

ED JONES: Yeah, for sure. Although I had two full seasons in INDYCAR, it was with different teams every year. It's always hard to keep some consistency there. So it's really nice to go back to Dale. As I said, I'm familiar with the team and all the guys there. It should help a lot getting back into things. I've already been in contact with everyone. I'm just really looking forward to that.

It's a different dynamic to what I've had in the past, as I said. Changing teams every year hasn't been ideal, something which I think should be positive going forward.

Q. According to the release today, it said that last year there were issues with traveling because of the COVID situation. Was that from the Dubai standpoint or in Europe?

ED JONES: Well, last year I was meant to race in DTM. Every series in the world, everything in the world, got delayed. The partners I had there weren't so keen after what was going on, so that was the reason why I didn't participate in that last year.

That was the time when I started thinking about INDYCAR, how we could get back into that. Yeah, it was frustrating. As I said, it was frustrating for everyone. You had to deal with it, work on yourself, see how you can make yourself better to be racing again in INDYCAR.

Q. Dale, I'll spin the comfort level question around from your end. How comforting is it to get a guy back like Ed that you've worked with before because you already have an idea what he can do, how he interacts with the team?

DALE COYNE: We're very happy about him. He has a new engineer this year, Ross Bunnell, who has been with us, worked with him before. They like each other, know each other from the past.

Ross was actually ready to move up as an engineer last year. We held him for one more year. He's really ready for the challenge. He is a diamond in the rough. He's going to be a great engineer.

What Ed is really going to enjoy is having Jimmy Vasser in his ear on the radio. Jimmy keeps you pretty pumped up there, so it will be good.

Q. What can you tell us about the status of the 19?

DALE COYNE: We hope to announce our other driver next week.

Q. Ed, after the DTM ride fell through, what did you do all year?

ED JONES: Yeah, I didn't race. I did a few different things. Actually went back to studying, did some MIT courses, which was a bit different for me (smiling).

Otherwise, the only racing I did last year was at Goodwood, racing in the Goodwood Revival, in an AC Cobra. Very different to an INDYCAR. What I also was doing was a lot of sim racing. Although it's not the same, a lot of the drivers are very competitive on there. It was good to keep sharp.

As I said, once I got back in the car finally, I felt like I was right back there. I didn't feel like I'd been away. Although it wasn't ideal, I did the most I could to keep ready and keep fit. I think it will put me in good stead for when I get back in the INDYCAR next month.

Q. Can you tell me more about the studying you did.

ED JONES: Yeah, so I did artificial intelligence, digital business management. It was different. I hadn't studied for 10 years, so it was just something I wanted to do to keep myself busy and learn something new. Probably not what other drivers did, but yeah.

Q. Did you say you did this through MIT?

ED JONES: Yeah, I did. It was online courses.

Q. What did you learn?

ED JONES: Artificial intelligence, about how businesses and companies use it to take advantage of big data. Yeah, very different to what I need for racing, but something I was always interested in, how things are evolving.

On one thing with the data, it's something you can use into motorsport, maybe not from a driver perspective, but with data on handling how you use testing the car and things like that. Through simulation, as well.

It's something which can be beneficial in the future, and something which maybe isn't really important for me now, but something I could use in times to come.

Q. Ed, you mentioned from being almost out of the car entirely, in any car entirely in 2020, to going to kind of a leadership role or presumed leadership role with Dale Coyne Racing this year. Do you feel there are any adjustments or a learning curve you'll have to make specifically with a little bit new car with the Aeroscreen that we have, just a somewhat new role, similar to what you had been doing earlier in your career, hopping from team to team previously?

ED JONES: Yeah, it is different. But I'm fortunate that I have the team around me which is going to allow me to make everything work. I don't feel fazed at all by what is going to happen. I feel confident we're going to be strong from the get-go.

Although it's different circumstances in '17 when Seb had his injury, I had to kind of take lead of the team for a while then. Obviously it's different now, but not something which I haven't done in the past. Even in junior categories, I had to take the lead role quite often.

No, I'm looking forward to it. A new challenge. As I said, I'm happy that I have the Dale Coyne guys. Jimmy Vasser there will be a great addition. The experience from him will help me fast track everything I need to do. Yeah, hope that we can get it done.

Q. Beyond the familiarity you have with this team, with Dale specifically, what excites you the most or what helped push you toward saying yes to this? Obviously a racing driver wants to be in the car as much as possible, and this was an opportunity to do that. Beyond the ability to get back to the INDYCAR Series, the familiarity you already have, what is the biggest excitement for you?

ED JONES: Yeah, so for me there was many options in different categories to race in this year. The way 2019 went for me was really disappointing, my last year in INDYCAR at the moment. It bugged me. I knew it didn't reflect what level I could compete at. There's a lot of young guys in there doing well, and I beat most of them in junior categories, things like that. I know what level I'm at. I know it didn't reflect that. I knew I needed to get back to INDYCAR, prove what I can do.

That's exactly the reason why I pursued this so hard. In a way I was very frustrated about it. For that reason I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity to get back and really give it everything.

As you said in 2017 we had a good run going, but you can't just think of it like that, that it's going to be all great again. You've got to put in the work. I'm going to make sure I get the team around me and do everything we can to make that happen.

Q. Dale, after the 2017 season you left the season finale feeling like you were going to be returning and working with Ed for at least another year, had a handshake agreement that fell apart. You said you always stayed in touch. Doesn't sound like there was necessarily any bad blood or anything you had to work out in order to make this deal possible for this year.

DALE COYNE: No, I mean, we lost Ed to Ganassi. Last year we lost Alex to Ganassi. That's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. People come to our team and want to prove themselves. Obviously everybody wants to drive for Penske or Ganassi. If they can do a nice job with us and move up, that's good for us. That's not bad for us. That's good for us.

We understood what he did, why he did it. It's business. Like I say, we did remain friends through all that. Here we are back together again.

Q. Dale, obviously the guy who Ed is replacing, Santino, one of his strengths was ovals, probably his main strength. Ed has not raced ovals other than the 500 since 2018. Are you confident that you can get Ed performing as well as you did Santino?

DALE COYNE: Yes. I think Santino was a very good racer on the ovals, maybe not as good a qualifier. I think Ed is the same way. I think Ed is a very good racer on the ovals.

We have worked very hard on our 500 cars every year. We've arguably been the fastest Honda the last four years, given a couple situations here or there. I think we've got a good car for Indy. Ed showed he can qualify well with Carpenter there and race well. I think Indy, very much looking forward to Indianapolis.

Q. Ed, are you confident about getting back into the swing of it, especially now that this is your first time with the Aeroscreen on an oval?

ED JONES: Yeah. I feel like I've always been strong on ovals, short ovals especially. To be honest, if I could race INDYCAR ovals every weekend, that would be my dream thing (smiling). It's something which I love to do.

Although the windscreen is different, it's just one of the things you've got to get used to. I changed from old aero kits to the new aero kit. It's not a problem. Just something you have to adapt to and it won't be an issue.

Q. Lack of testing available isn't a worry for you?

ED JONES: Well, I'm pretty sure everyone else gets the same amount. I should be fine. Although I didn't drive last year, I still feel sharp. People came out from longer breaks in the past and get back on it. Yeah, I have no worries about that.

The most important thing is we work well together as a team. I'm confident we can do that. As long as we have that sorted, two days, three days, it will be enough.

DALE COYNE: The other teams went out to Barber for a day and Sebring for a day. I think we've got our three days. INDYCAR moved the window a little later so we're able to do those three days now with the drivers that drive for us. We'll get our second driver done, then we'll get out testing three days February and get our testing done in a hurry.

Wheels up across the rumble strips that define the inside of Turn 5 of the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach. Here in his first year in IndyCar, he is driving the Dale Coyne No. 19 Boy Scouts Of America sponsored Dallara Honda where he qualified 13th and finished the race at P6. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2017)

Q. Ed, you came in 2017 as a 20-year-old. How have you grown since that point and how do you think that will help you this year?

ED JONES: Yeah, I think, as you said, when I came in in 2017, I was still very new to everything in America. I had two years in Indy Lights which went well. But, yeah, you learn so much through the early years in INDYCAR.

As I was saying, yeah, as a rookie in the first two years you can always put in some very good results, but it's very hard to be consistently at the front. That comes with experience.

Yeah, I had seasons where maybe the success/reward didn't go so well and it didn't work out. Now I've learned from that. I feel like that although the year out isn't ideal, I feel I've also progressed in many ways. I think that I can come back stronger and have a better shot at racing.

Q. Jimmy, this is your third or fourth season now with Dale. What is it about partnering up with him that you guys enjoy?

JIMMY VASSER: We're like minded. This will be our fourth year, by the way. Dale has been in for 38 years I guess is the number, right? We like that Dale is always going to be here.

I think we really complement each other as two organizations. It takes a village. It's so difficult to try to fight the Penskes and Ganassis and Andrettis of the world, all the way down through the paddock these days, it's so hard. We're able to pool all of our resources and pull against the rope together.

I think we've shown going into our fourth season that it has given success.

British race team Carlin's United Arab Emirates driver Ed Jones negotiates Turn 4 at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Jones was currently sitting at P3 in the IndyLights season points championship where he ended the 2015 season - he did lead the most laps and won the 2015 TGPLB IndyLights race ahead of the Pole Award winner, Jack Harvey. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2015)

Q. Ed, obviously you know the team from the past. I guess you kind of know INDYCAR well enough now. What kind of expectations do you go in with this year specifically? Have you set specific goals for yourself in terms of wins, podiums, top 10s or anything like that? What would you be happy with at the end of 2021?

ED JONES: We haven't set targets exactly. But you always go out there because you want to win. The competition is very tough. I think the driver level is the toughest it's ever been. The level of the teams is extremely high. I'm really confident that we'll put things together, we can finish on the podium. Ultimately we want to win the Indy 500.

Again, INDYCAR is so tough now that to get a win, you've got to have everything right. It's all about pulling up all those different aspects. The team has had some great success in the SealMaster car.

I remember the first year they ran that livery in 2018, I had just left the team, Seb was running at St. Pete, they won the race. I thought that is the (indiscernible) car and something I want to drive in the future.

The addition of the guys with Jimmy there, the experience he brings, I really want to target to get back up to speed immediately. As I said, it's very tough. Top 10s from the beginning would be great, but then you want to progress up to the podium again, ultimately fight for wins.

I know it's a tough path, a tough ask, but I really believe that as a team, together we can challenge for that.

Q. Dale, I've got to be the unpopular guy and ask the difficult question. There's a lot of talk about Romain Grosjean being linked to your team for next season. You said you're hoping to announce your driver next week. Can you say if there's any mutual interest there or if you're speaking to Romain, if you're interested in him for this season?

DALE COYNE: You all could make a list of a hundred drivers, we've talked to probably every one of them this winter. Employed, unemployed, America, Europe, every country. It's been kind of amazing.

Obviously Romain is a good driver. We'd love to have him. We're working on a few other ones as well. Hopefully we get all that buttoned up and make an announcement next week and then get out to testing in February.

Q. Ed, it's been sort of talked about briefly within this chat, but your relationship with Jimmy Vasser, how far back does that go? How did it kind of come about? How do you two work together so well?

ED JONES: Yeah, so I haven't worked with Jimmy in the past. Ever since my rookie year, Jimmy was always there. We would have a chat here and there.

It's great when you have a lot of respect for the past champions and guys that have done amazing in INDYCAR before. So I've always respected him, always tried to learn little things here and there, what I can.

I'm really excited to take it to the next level, really draw from that experience. He will be a great addition to have on the stand for me.

Q. Jimmy, Ed had kind of mentioned getting up to speed. What are you going to have to do to help Ed get back up to the speed, especially on ovals?

JIMMY VASSER: I don't expect any real delay. Watching Ed while we were around a bit in '17, then competing against him the following two years, just being a driver and knowing he hasn't been out of the car not that long for a young man like that. I fully expect him to jump in and find his pace pretty much immediately. There's no concerns on my end it's going to take him any time to get back up to speed.

As far as the ovals go, we're going to have a doubleheader at Texas. Some of these tracks, Indianapolis, we're going to be there for so long. Looking at St. Louis. It's really not an oval-centric series like it used to be.

I don't have any concerns either on the ovals or the road, street circuits, there's not going to be any more learning curves.

@29:11

Q. Ed, you're coming into a whole new series, new ownership, new ownership of the IMS track, new car. You've been through an interesting road. What do you think you've learned over the past couple years at INDYCAR, the types of people that you've met, that you can bring forward to 2021?

ED JONES: Yeah, as you said, it's been an interesting ride so far. Probably not the most ideal. Because of that I've learned a huge amount. I've had some great experiences with teams and some not-so-great.

What I learned the most is it's all about who you have around you in the team. That is the most critical part. The most important part I've learned so far is having people around you which you can really trust, people that are there trying to back you. If you don't have that in a team, it's going to be really hard for you to succeed.

Yeah, I feel really comfortable with the guys that we have on the 18 car, which gives you confidence. The experience I learned. Also it's key to find the right people. The engineers we have, Ross, a great addition to the team, somebody I'm really confident in. All those people around you, it's going to make this work. That's probably the biggest thing I've taken from the few years I've had.

Again, you learn so many things in the racing. Everyone keeps on bringing up the oval aspect, getting up to speed. For me, it's not about that this year. I'm not here to try and take time to get up to speed, I've not come back for that reason, or have any excuse like that. I want to be there and be straight on it from the get-go and back like I've never left. That's really important for me. That's my target. I'm looking forward to getting after it.

Q. Jimmy Vasser, he's good at ovals, so on. Is there anything specific you see in Ed that you can bring forward talking to him from the box?

JIMMY VASSER: We're going to find out, right? As I mentioned earlier, Ed has shown consistency. He's a finisher. That's the most important thing. From there, hopefully working with Ross and Michael Cox as a junior engineer that was on the team last year, who is a very bright kid, with Isaac Townsend being promoted in the team up to crew chief working real close with Todd, we got to put together a nice, tight little group, keep it in the box, give Ed a good car that he has shown what he can do good.

He's a pretty methodical driver. If we can be there and then put ourselves in a position to take opportunities, try to make the right calls strategically, then I think we can, like Ed said, just find ourself in the top 10, then let's kind of put ourselves to get in a position to get on the podium, then who knows. From there, things can happen and you can win a race.

So I hate to be cliché about it, but you got to take it one race at a time, one session at a time, really just hone in on keeping it as simple as you can really, not make mistakes.

I'm going to say it again, Ed said it, I don't anticipate any getting used to the new car, the Aeroscreen. We've seen with the other drivers just jumping in. Ed is going to be right on the pace, at least match the pace of the car, what it's capable of, in my mind the first days.

Q. Dale Coyne, it seems like you almost have a potential tiger by the tail with Jones and Vasser together. How do you see it? Where do you involve yourself?

DALE COYNE: Jimmy and Sulli, Sulli is in the air right now or he'd been on here, he's flying from Texas to Daytona. We talked about drivers. Santino has gone off in the NASCAR or Xfinity. Ed was a natural choice for both of us. We looked at who was out there, who was available. My relationship with Ed, we knew his background, what he could do.

I think Ed is going to have a really nice environment there, with the people around him, chief mechanic, Jimmy in his ear. I think it's all going to gel very nicely.

This is all about making that team work. It's not just the driver. The driver is the most important cog for sure. But giving him a good car, having a good team around him, trying to get podiums. Wins are hard to get, but we can get them. That's the goal.

Q. Jimmy, the Rolex is this weekend. How do you feel going into the Rolex? You and Sulli have sort of branched out, doing your own thing this year. What are Lexus' expectations for you? If you can talk about Zach Veach, the enjoyment he's had so far.

JIMMY VASSER: Expectations are we're here to win the 24. Sorry to say, that, Ed. We're competing against Ed in the GTD class. We're going to kick your butt, Ed.

We have branched out, but the team very much looks and feels the same as it had last year with our past partners. But we've stepped it up in our minds with some personnel, engineering, and the driver lineup.

Having said that, it leads me to Zach Veach. He's done three test days in the car. He's really embraced working on the simulator and kind of trying to adapt to the ABS system in the car. I haven't driven it, but it seems to be something that is tough to get used to for drivers.

On the radio, on the in-lap from the qualifier race, he came on the radio and said that was the most fun he's ever had. He's really looking forward to the series. He seems really enlightened and extremely happy. That kind of energy, you know, it trickles down through the whole team. It's infectious. Hopefully that will help keep things light around here and we can deliver not only for the team but Lexus and all the stakeholders in the team.

Q. Jimmy, do you think both your entries are championship contenders?

JIMMY VASSER: Yeah, I do. I do. Although the 14 is very, very strong. We're going to see how Zach, leading the full season as the professional in the 12 car. With Frankie I think he's shown that he's able to win races and get podiums.

We expect between the two cars they should vie for the championship and more importantly we're well positioned with the two cars to get the manufacturers championship for Lexus.

Q. Just wanted to ask about SealMaster. Everyone who watches the races on TV appreciate having such an eye-catching design amongst all the red, whites and blues out there. How do you feel they have kept faith in terms of what they get out of it? You started a relationship with a huge bang with the win at St. Pete. What have they seen has been the value for INDYCAR racing over subsequent seasons?

JIMMY VASSER: First of all, they're a great partner, a very successful program for them. It's based around the franchisees. They get a tremendous amount of value from our media partners in Spectrum. They also activate, although they couldn't, they a few of the franchisees were able to come at Road America.

They understood while last year was the pandemic and they weren't able to do as much, but they're looking forward to things lightening up a bit this year and resuming what they did in prior years.

I think Dale will remember and a lot of people would, there were 110 franchisees that came to St. Pete when we won that first race. When you can give that kind of an experience for them, it's in their blood, you could probably ask anyone, when you bring somebody to an INDYCAR race, you can smell it and feel it and hear it, you get hooked.

They are a great partner, but they're very, very happy with how things are going. Their leadership ironically, too, a bit of an Ed Jones fan. We were really happy about that. Double thumbs up when we let them know who our new driver was going to be. We're really, really looking forward to getting this thing rolling and getting back to business, as usual.

DALE COYNE: There's a lot of nice parking lots and Sonny's Barbecue in Florida (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: Our buddy Asher has chimed in. He has one question for Ed. Go ahead, Asher.

Q. Ed, you were champion in the SealMaster car after some great drivers including Sebastien Bourdais and Santino Ferrucci. How excited are you to be driving that car after all those good drivers?

ED JONES: Yeah, well. First of all, thanks for the question.

It's fantastic to be driving that car. As I said, the first time I saw it was the year after I left Dale the first time. Sebastien had won that race at St. Petersburg. The car looked awesome then. It's looked amazing ever since.

It's always one of the cars when you're on track, you see it. You're like, That looks good. I'm really excited to be there. They've had some great success over four years. Really hoping I can add to that.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to everyone. Good to see good people return to the NTT INDYCAR Series. Dale, Jimmy, Ed. Our congratulations to Sulli, as well. Looking forward to seeing the No. 18 team's SealMaster Honda at the opener April 18th, Barber Motorsports Park.

Thanks to everyone. Have a great day.

[ht - FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

... notes from The EDJE

TAGS: SealMaster, No.18 SealMaster Honda, Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing, Vasser Sullivan Racing, 2021, NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Dale Coyne, Jimmy Vasser, Ed Jones, The EDJE