Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Dale Coyne Racing

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Owner(s)
  
Dale Coyne

Manufacturer
  
Honda

Series
  
IndyCar Series

Dale Coyne Racing

Base
  
Plainfield, Illinois, USA

Race drivers
  
18. Ed Jones 19. Sébastien Bourdais

Sponsors
  
Spring Step Boy Scouts of America Johnathan Byrd's Group

Dale Coyne Racing is a motorsports team in the IndyCar Series owned by former driver Dale Coyne. It was founded in 1986 with Chicago Bears great Walter Payton as Payton/Coyne Racing. In 1990, Coyne stepped out of the cockpit and turned his talents to the tutelage of several up-and-coming drivers. Dale Coyne is known in the open-wheel community for his ability to recruit and coach young drivers. Later renamed as Dale Coyne Racing, the team earned its maiden victory in 25 years of trying at Watkins Glen International in July 2009 with Justin Wilson.

Contents

CART / Champ Car World Series

With Coyne's technical expertise, the team built their own chassis in its debut year (1986), which was known as the Coyne DC-1. 1988 saw Coyne's retirement as a driver to concentrate on managing the team with co-owner Walter Payton as well as tutoring newer, younger drivers. For most of the team's existence, it has utilized pay drivers, who finance their racing with Coyne with either personal funds or self-obtained sponsorship. Coyne earned a reputation for quickly developing the skills of these drivers to a point where they could advance their careers.

The team, however, also had a reputation as a backmarker, and usually had older chassis and was forced to use under-powered engines compared to the top teams. In the 1980s and through most of the 1990s, top ten finishes were rare if not non-existent. Despite the lack of results, the team was nevertheless a consistent full-time entrant year after year.

Michel Jourdain, Jr. took over driving duties for the team and earned STP Most Improved Driver honors from his peers, in 1997.

Payton died in November 1999, and after that the team was known as Dale Coyne Racing. In 2000 they had four different drivers. Tarso Marques led with 17 starts, and was joined by Takuya Kurosawa (who had 8 starts). Alex Barron had 6 starts and Gualter Salles also had 6 starts. Marques and Barron both recorded career-best finishes when the season closed. Barron, had second place in Australia and Fontana, which highlighted his end to the season. He ran second, closing in on the leader, and eventually put in faster laps than the winners Adrián Fernández and Christian Fittipaldi.

The 2004 Champ Car season was an improved season with new sponsors American Medical Response and Yoke TV. The 19 & 11 entries were piloted by Oriol Servià and Gastón Mazzacane. Servià had Dale Coyne Racing's best season ever by placing third at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and finishing 10th in the final standings.

In 2007, driver Bruno Junqueira recorded back-to-back-to-back podium finishes – Zolder, Belgium, Assen, Netherlands and Surfers Paradise, Australia –en route to a seventh-place finish for the year.

IndyCar Series

In 2008, the team's first year in the IndyCar Series, drivers Bruno Junqueira and Mario Moraes recorded five combined top-10 finishes and both drivers led several laps during the famed Indianapolis 500.

In the first race of the 2009 season, the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, driver Justin Wilson finished third, which was the first IRL podium finish for Dale Coyne Racing. On July 5, 2009 Wilson earned Dale Coyne Racing their first win by winning the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen, at Watkins Glen International. The British driver dominated the race, leading 49 of the 60 laps. It was Coyne's 558th career start as an owner or as a driver.

On January 11 the team announced that Boy Scouts of America would be the primary sponsor of the number 19 car for 2010. He also stated that Z Line will likely return to sponsor the 18 car and that drivers would be announced at a later date. However, on February 4, it was announced that Z Line would follow Justin Wilson to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. On March 4, DCR announced Milka Duno would drive the number 18 Citgo car for the entire season. Duno's season brought her a best finish of 19th, though she failed to qualify for the Indy 500 and ended up 23rd in points while British driver Alex Lloyd in the #19 car won Rookie of the Year, finishing 16th in points with a best finish of fourth in the 2010 Indianapolis 500. Duno moved over to ARCA following the season. British rookie James Jakes stepped into the #18 car for 2011 and four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais was signed to drive the #19 respectively for road course races only due to conflicts with the Le Mans Series, where he also competes. Alex Lloyd was returned to the team to drive in the oval races. Lloyd qualified for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 and finished 19th but Jakes failed to make the field.

On January 25, 2012, Honda and its Honda Performance Development (HPD) announced it would power a two-car effort for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series with their all new 2.2-liter turbocharged V6 IndyCar engine. Justin Wilson also returned to the team for the 2012 season. In addition to the signing of both Honda and Wilson, the team has also re-signed renowned engineer Bill Pappas, "putting the band back together" of the team that combined to score Dale Coyne Racing's first win in IndyCar racing, at Watkins Glen in 2009.

The team scored its second win and first-ever oval win with Justin Wilson at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012 and captured another win in 2013 with Mike Conway in his first start for the team in Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix race 1. In that race Justin Wilson finished third, putting two Coyne cars on the podium for the first time. Ana Beatriz had driven Conway's car for the first five races of the season.

For 2014, Wilson would remain in the No. 19 while Formula Renault 3.5 driver Carlos Huertas would take over the No. 18 for the season. Huertas would score his first career win at the first round of the Grand Prix of Houston.

In 2015, Carlos Huertas made his return to the No. 18 car and rookie Francesco Dracone drove the No. 19 in the first few races of the season. In May 2015, it was announced that Huertas had an ear problem and could not continue racing for the season. It was also announced that Dracone was released from the team. Pippa Mann then drove the rest of the oval races for the season in the No. 18 car and Rodolfo González drove the rest of the road courses for the remainder of the season in that car. After Francesco Dracone's release from the No. 19, James Davison drove the car in the Indianapolis 500 and 2013 rookie Tristan Vautier drove the No. 19 for the remainder of the season.

In 2016, rookie Conor Daly drove the No. 18 car sponsored by Johnathon Byrd's Group for the entirety of the 2016 season. He finished the year 18th in the standings. The No. 19 entry had three drivers that shared seat time, which included Luca Filippi, RC Enerson, Pippa Mann, and Gabby Chaves. Gabby Chaves drove for the team in the 100th Indianapolis 500 while RC Enerson had two very impressive appearances at Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen.

After the 2016 season, it was announced that Sébastien Bourdais would drive the No. 19 car while former Indy Lights driver Ed Jones would drive the No. 18 car for the 2017 season.

Chicagoland Speedway

In 1998, Coyne designed and built Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. This state-of-the-art drag racing facility drew the attention of Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George. George and Coyne, along with International Speedway Corporation, would go on to expand the facility by forming a partnership and building Chicagoland Speedway. Coyne served as president of the facility through its construction and opening season and along with George, served on its management committee until its eventual buyout by ISC in 2007.

Complete CART / CCWS results

(key)

Complete IndyCar Series results

(key)

1 Used at 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. 2 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

References

Dale Coyne Racing Wikipedia