Carpenter rules out ECR affiliation with McLaren for Indianapolis 500

It looks like McLaren and Alonso won't get any team to help them this time around

In the latest edition of “Trackside" on ESPN 107.5 FM/1070 AM, IndyCar owner Ed Carpenter shed some light on his plans for Ed Carpenter Racing in the month of May and how those decisions will affect a partnership with McLaren’s entry.

In speaking with Kevin Lee, Carpenter was asked whether or not his team will support or be affiliated with the McLaren entry that Fernando Alonso is scheduled to pilot in 2019. Carpenter would effectively rule out a partnership with McLaren this May and basically said no.

“I don’t see anything happening other than what we have announced with our three cars – myself, Spencer (Pigot) and Ed (Jones)" said Carpenter on the February 6 show.

“We are in February now and our testing and development planning is well underway. Any time that we have done anything extra – whether it was fielding a car for J.R. (Hildebrand) or Danica (Patrick) last year, it has to make sense to us from a business standpoint. And more importantly, it has to make sense to us competitively.

“At this point, with where we are with our preparation for everything else," continues Carpenter, “we are in that window that even with a guy like Fernando and an organization like McLaren, we are in the thick of it now where we have our resources and we have our plan. Altering that would jeopardize our team goals, so I think what you see out of us now is what you will see in the month of May."