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There’s less than a week to go until the IndyCar Series begins and one team still hasn’t announced its driver line-up.
Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) lost David Malukas to McLaren and Sting Ray Robb to AJ Foyt Racing in the off-season. That’s left DCR with two vacancies.
The IndyCar Series is set to start in Florida on the streets of St Petersburg on March 9-11.
Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2024 IndyCar Series. All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand
Exactly who will drive for the team isn’t abundantly clear.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing reject Jack Harvey and Indy NXT race winner Nolan Siegel both tested with the team at Homestead-Miami Speedway late last year.
Harvey tested with the team again at Sebring International Raceway in recent weeks. He’s been a regular on the IndyCar grid since 2017 and full-time since 2020.
The British driver was dropped before the end of the 2023 season and was replaced by Juri Vips and Conor Daly thereafter.
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Harvey, it would seem, is a safe bet to drive one of the team’s cars.
At that Sebring test, Harvey was joined by sports car racing veteran Colin Braun.
At 35 years old, he would be one of the oldest debutants in recent IndyCar history – assuming he’s picked.
Braun won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2023 with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, 2016 IndyCar Series winner Simon Pagenaud, and Tom Blowqvist.
Braun has starts in NASCAR’s second- and thrid-tier divisions and has multiple sports car titles to his name.
“I keep trying, trying, trying to find myself an opportunity to jump into an Indy car,” Braun said in February on the Trackside radio show.
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“There’s no secret I’m not getting any younger, but I feel like last year was so good for me to get to show what I could do up against current IndyCar stars, along with Tom getting to jump into MSR’s (Meyer Shank Racing’s) IndyCar program.
“I feel like it boosted my chances and reaffirmed the opportunity of a potential IndyCar program coming together.
“I feel like it would be a great mix of all my background put together — and while I might be a rookie to the IndyCar paddock, I feel like a lot of the skills and things I’ve done in the past would put me in a really good spot to hit the ground running in that series.”
One driver who was a front-runner for a seat at the team is Danial Frost.
The Singaporean driver raced for DCR in the second-tier Indy NXT series in 2022 and 2023.
However, military service has precluded him from taking an IndyCar opportunity at the team.
An outside chance could be Simon Pagenaud.
He suffered a scary crash at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course that has left him with a head injury (video above).
No timeline has been put on his return, but the champion is effectively a free agent with Felix Rosenqvist taking his place at Meyer Shank Racing full-time in 2024.
The IndyCar Series gets underway on March 9-11 with coverage live, ad-free, and exclusively on Stan Sport. Monday’s race starts at 3.30am AEDT.
