Herta gets it – team should find sponsor and hire best driver

Bryan Herta gets it

While many open wheel racing teams are infected with the ride-buyer cancer that is destroying the sport, Bryan Herta is one team owner who understands that the team needs to find the funding it needs and then go out and hire a driver based on talent, not on how large his checkbook is.

After he and partner Steve Newey went their separate ways a few weeks ago, the rumors started that Bryan Herta Autosport was going out of business. When RACER's Marshall Pruett reported Jack Hawksworth was headed to A.J. Foyt, people were convinced the little squad that stole the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with Dan Wheldon was history.

Not so says the former CART winner. If things go according to plan, Herta will have two cars in the Indianapolis 500, a full-time Global Rallycross operation and a son racing across The Pond.

"Our shop is full of guys, we're close to announcing our plans for the Rallycross Series and we're close to a second car deal for the Indy 500," said Herta on Monday afternoon. "And we're working hard to get our deal in place for the No. 98 car in IndyCar. It's not done yet but it's only October, so I'm confident we'll get there."

"I hated to lose Jack but I didn't have anything and I'd never keep him from a ride, so I released him," continued Herta.

As for a replacement?

"I'm not talking to any drivers yet because we don't have our deal done so it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense," he replied. "I've never had a deal done this early and we were still racing at this time last year so I'm not in any better or worse shape than I've ever been in.

"Like I said, I don't have a deal for next year done yet but I'm expecting to."

"We've always had very good drivers and there are a lot of them out there. We brought Luca over here in 2013 and he's got a lot of talent. The ideal situation for me is to find the funding so I can hire the best guy." In part from racer.com