IndyCar: Ed Carpenter Racing is a possible Indianapolis 500 option for Danica Patrick

By Asher Fair | Jan 20, 2018

FORT WORTH, TX - AUGUST 27: Ed Carpenter driver of the #20 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet drives during the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on August 27, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Mike Stone/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway) /

Danica Patrick still has quite a few options as far as teams go to make her IndyCar return in the Indianapolis 500. Ed Carpenter Racing is one of them.

When Chip Ganassi Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ruled out fielding an entry for Danica Patrick in the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 this year, her odds of landing a ride in the race became very slim.

However, GoDaddy proceeded to join her for the first time since 2015 as her sponsor for both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500, giving her odds at landing a ride in those races a huge boost. With the focus of this article being on the latter, let’s discuss a possible IndyCar team for her.

While Chip Ganassi Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports among others have already ruled out fielding an entry for Patrick in the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” this year, there are still plenty of teams for which she could driver and be competitive. One of those teams is Ed Carpenter Racing.

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Ed Carpenter Racing are a two-car full-time team in IndyCar. They have one full-time driver, and their other car is shared by team owner Ed Carpenter on the oval tracks and another driver on the road and street courses. This year, that other driver is slated to be Jordan King. They have had great success in the Indianapolis 500 in recent years with several top 10 results and two poles in 2013 and 2014, so Patrick could definitely be competitive driving for them.

In three of the last four years, they have fielded an Indianapolis 500-only entry in addition to their two regular entries for the Indianapolis 500. (including in 2015 when they were CFH Racing).

In all three of those years, which were 2014, 2015 and 2016, that ride was for 30-year-old J.R. Hildebrand when he did not have a full-time ride in the series. In 2017, he had a full-time ride in the series and the team did not field a third Indianapolis 500-only entry.

With Hildebrand not having a full-time IndyCar ride lined up for the 2018 season, it is possible that Ed Carpenter Racing could look his way in terms of fielding a third Indianapolis 500 entry. In fact, that may even be likely — extremely likely. After all, he nearly won the race in his rookie season in 2011 driving for Panther Racing and has delivered several solid results in his other six attempts in the race, which have all come since then.

However, the team have been in talks with Danica Patrick, who is a viable candidate to land the ride, even possibly instead of Hildebrand, so Ed Carpenter Racing is definitely a possible option for her.

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Will Danica Patrick have a ride for the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in May? If so, will she be driving in the race for Ed Carpenter Racing? Expect to know for sure in the very near future with how things are going right now.