IndyCar: Dale Coyne Racing still without a second driver for 2018

Over halfway through the offseason between the 2017 and 2018 IndyCar seasons, Dale Coyne Racing is still without a confirmed second driver.

The 2017 IndyCar season began with Dale Coyne Racing emerging as “the little team that could”. Four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais, the driver of the #18 Honda, started in last place at the season opener, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and won the race, becoming the first driver to win a race after starting in last since Scott Dixon won at Mid-Ohio in 2014.

Rookie Ed Jones, the driver of the #19 Honda, also finished the race, his first career race, in the top 10. Both driver went on to finish in the top 6 in the Grand Prix of Long Beach, with Bourdais coming home in 2nd place to maintain his lead in the championship standings.

After that, however, the team’s season was atrocious. Bourdais fell out of the points lead with a first-lap wreck at Phoenix and an engine failure at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis before breaking his pelvis and right hip in a crash for Indianapolis 500. Jones and Tristan Vautier, one of Bourdais’ three replacements in the nine races he missed, both wrecked at Texas.

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The one positive to the rest of the team’s season was the fact that Bourdais returned for the final three races despite initially being ruled out for the year following his Indianapolis 500 qualifying crash.

At the start of the offseason, it was widely believed that the 2017 Rookie of the Year would be returning to the team along with Bourdais, who had already been confirmed for the 2018 season. However, when Brendon Hartley, who was tipped to replace Tony Kanaan at Chip Ganassi Racing in the #10 Honda, ended up being signed by Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One, this left Kanaan’s seat open, and Jones ended up being confirmed as the driver to replace the 42-year-old Brazilian in the 2018 season.

To this day nearly two months later, Dale Coyne Racing have not yet filled the seat of the #19 Honda. There are, however, plenty of possible candidates that they could pick to do so. Conor Daly is without a confirmed ride in the 2018 season, and he drove for the team full-time in the 2016 season. Zachary Claman DeMelo made his series debut for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the 2017 season finale at Sonoma, and he is also without a confirmed ride in 2018. The list of possible replacement candidates, which also includes Esteban Gutierrez and Tristan Vautier, could go on and on.

Or, the team could opt to go with multiple part-time drivers of the #19 Honda, something that they have done in the past, most recently in the 2016 season with Luca Filippi, Gabby Chaves, R.C. Enerson and Pippa Mann.

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Who will be Dale Coyne Racing’s second driver for the 2018 IndyCar season in the #19 Honda? Will one driver drive the car full-time, or will there be several drivers who split time in the car? Stay tuned to Beyond the Flag as this situation unfolds throughout the rest of the offseason.