IndyCar: Marco Andretti won’t drive #27 Andretti Autosport Honda in 2018

By Asher Fair | Oct 18, 2017

SONOMA, CA - SEPTEMBER 17: Marco Andretti, driver of the #27 United Fiber &; Data Honda, lead Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the #28 DHL Honda, during the Verizon IndyCar Series GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway on September 17, 2017 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images) /

A relatively insignificant IndyCar silly season change sees Marco Andretti no longer driving the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda in 2018. What will his car be numbered?

There have been plenty of significant moves among IndyCar drivers and teams this offseason. While this particular move is not as significant as most–in fact, it may be the most insignificant development thus far–it is still important to make note of.

For the first time since the 2014 season, Marco Andretti will not be behind the wheel of the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda. No, he won’t be without a ride altogether; he will simply be driving a car with a different number after three years of driving the #27 car.

While it may seem irrelevant from a driving standpoint, it’s hard to fault Marco Andretti and the Andretti Autosport team for this change from a superstitious standpoint. Since he began driving the #27 Honda in the 2015 season, Andretti has had just two podium finishes and has only finished in the top 11 in the championship standings once despite doing so in eight of his previous nine seasons. He is also currently on a 109-race win drought dating back to June of 2011, which is by far the longest win drought among active full-time drivers.

In the NASCAR Cup Series, Paul Menard currently drives the #27 Richard Childress Motorsports Chevrolet. Among drivers with at least one career win, he is on the longest win drought. He hasn’t won any of the last 227 Cup Series dating back to the Brickyard 400 in July of 2011.

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In Formula One, Nico Hulkenberg currently drives the #27 car and he has done so far the past four years. This year, he is doing so for Renault Sport. He has no career podium finishes in Formula One and leads all active full-time drivers with 131 career races without a victory.

Andretti previously drove the #26 and #25 cars for Andretti Autosport, which was formerly known as Andretti Green Racing. He drove the #26 car from the 2006 season to the 2012 season before driving the #25 car in the 2013 and 2014 seasons leading up to his switch to the #27 car in the 2015 season.

Both of Andretti’s career wins at Sonoma in 2006 and at Iowa in 2011 came when he was behind the wheel of the #26 car, and his career-best finish in the championship standings of 5th place came in the 2013 season when he was behind the wheel of the #25 car.

All five of Andretti’s top 4 Indianapolis 500 finishes and all four of his Indianapolis 500 podium finishes came in his days behind the wheel of either the #26 car or the #25 car. His top finish in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” behind the wheel of the #27 car was 6th place back in 2015. His worst career actual finish of the race came in 2016 behind the wheel of the #27 car when he finished in 13th.

So what number will be associated with Andretti’s Andretti Autosport Honda in the 2018 IndyCar season? There’s a chance that he could move back to #26 for the first time since the 2012 season, which would then shift rookie Zach Veach to #27 or perhaps another number mentioned below.

Andretti could also move back to #25, but that number will be used by Stefan Wilson in his Indianapolis 500 start as a tribute to his late brother Justin, who drove the #25 Andretti Autosport Honda in the season during which he was killed as a result of a freak accident at Pocono Raceway. So Andretti would have to switch to a different number for the Indianapolis 500, which would make no sense.

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Other possible numbers that Marco Andretti could use in the 2018 IndyCar season include #29, which has been used by the team in the Indianapolis 500 a couple of times in recent years, including this past year when two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso drove the #29 Andretti Autosport Honda, and #50, which the team used this past year when Jack Harvey drove the #50 Honda in an Indianapolis 500 entry by Michael Shank Racing and Andretti Autosport.