Juncos Racing Moves to the Bigtime

Ricardo Juncos

There is a new team in the pits this weekend, although they are not running any cars in the Grand Prix. Juncos Racing has their pit equipment at the end of pit lane. We talked with a member of their team and he said the team is just practicing being in pit lane, in preparation for the big race.

Ricardo Juncos, team owner of Juncos Racing, announced his two drivers for the Indy 500 this past week. Spencer Pigot, who is currently driving the road courses for Ed Carpenter Racing this season, will attempt his second run at the 500 driving the number 11 sponsored by Oceanfront Recovery. Sebastian Saavedra will be driving their second car, the number 17 AFS entry, attempting to start his sixth 500.

AR1 spoke with Saavedra, who is working with his team getting his car ready for Monday's practice. "I am so happy to be driving for Ricardo Juncos. He treats all his employees like family. Ricardo let me hand pick who I wanted to be on my car from the old KV team members, whom I worked with when I raced for the team in 2014. Tom Brown is my head engineer and David Cripes is my crew chief."

"I am so glad to have Gary Peterson and AFS backing my career for the last nine years. It was hard to keep our partnership with Juncos Racing a secret until it was announced but I am so happy to get a chance to run the Indy 500 this year with this team."

I asked why he was not racing this weekend for the Grand Prix. "Ricardo wanted to dedicate all the time working towards the Indy 500. He set his mind to run the Indy 500 back in December when he purchased the cars and equipment from KV."

— Lucille Dust, reporting from IMS