Carlos Munoz will not be returning to AJ Foyt Enterprises in the 2018 IndyCar season. He spent just one season driving for the team.
Like his 2017 teammate Conor Daly, Carlos Munoz, 25, will not be returning to AJ Foyt Enterprises in the 2018 IndyCar season. He, like Daly, spent just one season driving for the team, meaning the team will be “cleaning house” for the second straight season after they got rid of Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth after the 2016 season before signing Daly and Munoz for the 2017 season.
The announcement that Munoz will not be returning to AJ Foyt Enterprises in 2018 is really just confirming what most of us pretty much already knew, as Tony Kanaan, who drove the #10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing from the 2014 season to the 2017 season, had already been confirmed as the driver of the #14 AJ Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet, the car Munoz drove in 2017, next season.
The only real hope that Munoz had to stay with AJ Foyt Enterprises next season stemmed from the fact that it was already announced yesterday that Conor Daly would not be returning to the team next season, while it was not yet officially announced that Munoz would not be coming back.
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Munoz has been a full-time IndyCar driver since the 2014 season when he signed with Andretti Autosport after an impressive 2nd place finish as a rookie in the 2013 Indianapolis 500 driving for the team. He drove for the team through the 2016 season, winning one race in 53 attempts. That lone win came at Belle Isle in the 2015 season. His best career finish in the drivers standings for the team was 8th place in his rookie season, earning him Rookie of the Year honors in 2014.
In the 2017 season driving for AJ Foyt Enterprises, Munoz just did not have the speed and finished in 16th place in the drivers standings, higher than only two other full-time drivers. His best finish in the 17-race season was 7th place, which was the lowest top finish among all full-time drivers.
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While we know that Tony Kanaan will replace Carlos Munoz in the #14 AJ Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet in the 2018 season, there is still one seat open with the team, and it remains to be seen as to who will land in it. Matheus Leist is the most likely option to land in the seat as of now. Where will Munoz end up, if anywhere, next season in IndyCar? That, too, remains to be seen.