Chevy may add more IndyCar teams
11/03/11 One source tells AR1.com, "I see Ed Carpenters team aligning with Chevy. The Hulman-George family has had a long relationship with Chevrolet since Gaston won the Indy 500. This year’s race was paced by Chevy when all of the competitors were powered by Honda and take a look at how many Chevys have paced the race over the past 50 years. I would be surprise if his team did not have Chevy power." We also switched Dragon Racing over to Chevy because Roger Penske would want his son's team to also run Chevy. That may leave Dale Coyne with Lotus engines.
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| Bobby Rahal has a Honda dealership, so it's assumed he will get Honda IndyCar engines |
11/03/11 Updated the table below based on this rumor. Some reports have the 2-car Rahal team running Honda power because Rahal has a Honda dealership and his son Graham will also have Honda engines with Ganassi.
We assume the Ed Carpenter team will get Lotus engines and we are dropping KV Racing down to two cars because we think Honda will put Takuma Sato with another team, perhaps Foyt or Schmidt. If Rahal does get Honda power than Coyne will get Chevy or Lotus engines, we are assuming Chevy, which puts them at 12 cars with Honda.
Who gets which IndyCar engine in 2012
|
Team |
No. Cars | Chevy | Honda | Lotus | Notes |
| AJ Foyt Racing | 1 or 2 Car team | – | 1 | – | Has ordered 2 cars |
| Andretti Green Racing | 3-Car Team | 3 | – | – | 2 or 3 cars, Chevy Confirmed |
| Bryan Herta Autosport | 1-car team | – | 1 | – | Assumed Honda |
| Conquest Racing | 1-car team | – | – | 1 | Lotus. Maybe a 2nd car |
| Dale Coyne Racing | 2-car team | – | – | 2 | Assumed Lotus |
| Dragon Racing | 1-car team | 1 | – | – | Assumed Chevy |
| Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 2-car team | – | – | 2 | Lotus fairly certain |
| Ed Carpenter Racing | 1-car team | 1 | – | – | Assumed Chevy |
| Sam Schmidt Motorsports | 2-car team | – | 2 | – | 100% Sure |
| HVM Racing | 1-car team | – | – | 1 | Lotus |
| KV Racing Technology | 2 car team | 2 | – | – | Chevy Confirmed |
| Michael Shank Racing | 1 car team | – | – | 1 | Have ordered new Dallara |
| Newman Haas Racing | 2-car team | – | 2 | – | Confirmed |
| Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing | 2-car team | – | 2 | – | Honda Confirmed |
| Panther Racing | 1 or 2-car team | 2 | – | – | Chevy Confirmed on 10/7/11 |
| Rahal Letterman Lanigan | 2-car team | – | 2 | – | Honda Assumed |
| Target Chip Ganassi Racing | 2-car team | – | 2 | – | Honda Confirmed |
| Team Penske | 3 car team | 3 | – | – | 3rd Car 90% Sure |
| – |
Totals |
12 | 12 | 7 | 31-Cars possible |
Honda: Single Turbo
Chevy and Lotus: Dual Turbos
11/02/11 Most of the top IndyCar teams have been signed to engine contracts for 2012, but as final car counts continue to fluctuate within some of those programs, a window of opportunity continues to exist for one or two teams to secure a prized engine deal from Honda or Chevrolet according to Marshall Pruett of Speedtv.com.
Honda Performance Development Technical Division Manager Roger Griffiths told SPEED.com in late September that they’d be open to slightly expanding their 2012 roster if a team presented a serious chance to win races, or if one of their contracted teams fielded fewer cars than was originally expected.
The same is true for Chevrolet, according to GM Racing Director Mark Kent, who told SPEED.com on Wednesday that the final car counts for its four 2012 teams—Andretti Autosport, KV Racing, Panther Racing and Team Penske—will dictate whether more of the General’s twin-turbo, 2.2-liter V6 engines will be made available to the paddock.
“I would say that the door is not closed," he said. “The door is still open. We’re basically in a holding pattern right now while we wait for two things to be finalized. The first one is how many cars each of our four current teams will field for 2012—how many engines they will need.
“In addition to that, we need to stand back and see what Honda and Lotus are going to do and how many teams they are going to sign up. The last thing we want to do is have quality teams out there without an engine option. Based on the results of those two items, we will finalize out car count and team count." More at Speedtv.com