UFD did come through on payments to Andretti Autosport

James Hinchcliffe in the #27 UFD Honda at Barber

It was suggested earlier this week in Robin Miller's Mailbag on Racer.com that United Fiber & Data had not come through on their payments to sponsor to Andretti Autosport.

The Pennsylvania-based fiber networking and broadband solutions company started by members of the band Live served as the primary sponsor of the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda piloted by James Hinchcliffe in the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series. Hinchcliffe, of course, announced last month, he was leaving Andretti for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports beginning in 2015, in part, because Andretti did not have a sponsor lined up for the Canadian.

Miller notes: "I was told that United Fiber & Data hadn’t paid anything since last April so I guess that classifies as the sponsor not jelling with the team. Hinch didn’t want to leave, he was told to go look for work because Andretti couldn’t promise him anything for 2015."

Now, we're not trying to get into a he said/she said, nor start some sort of we're right/they're right-type debate with our friends at Racer. We know these contracts can be quite complex, and we don't have intimate knowledge of how the deal was structured. Further, we can't confirm that payments were timely, all contractual obligations were fulfilled, or that all was copasetic between team and sponsor.

However, we have received information that conflicts with what Miller wrote above. A source we spoke to with knowledge of the situation said on no uncertain terms, "UFD did come through with its payments to Andretti Autosport."

We'll see what happens from here, and pass along any more information we receive. UFD has indicated that they plan to be in IndyCar for 2015 and possibly beyond.

AR1 Staff Report