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IndyCar: #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda will have at least two drivers in 2018

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 09: Ed Jones, driver of the #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda, and Tristan Vautier, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 9, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images)
FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 09: Ed Jones, driver of the #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda, and Tristan Vautier, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 9, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images) /
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Dale Coyne Racing team owner Dale Coyne confirmed that the team’s #19 Honda will be driven by at least two drivers in the 2018 IndyCar season.

Confirming previous speculating, Dale Coyne Racing team owner Dale Coyne announced that the team’s #19 Honda will, indeed, be driven by at least two drivers in the 2018 IndyCar season. Sebastien Bourdais, 38, the driver of the #18 Honda, will be the team’s lone full-time driver in 2018, and the IndyCar field will consist of 201 full-time drivers.

This news comes as no surprise given the fact that Ed Jones’ departure from Dale Coyne Racing in October shocked the team and no single driver has been able to come up with the budget to land a full-time ride.

Jones, 22, left for Chip Ganassi Racing to replace Tony Kanaan in the #10 Honda. Kanaan had signed with A.J. Foyt Enterprises to replace Carlos Munoz in the #14 Chevrolet. Brendon Hartley was slated to replaced Kanaan, but he landed a ride with Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One, thus leaving the seat of the #10 Honda for Jones to swipe.

There have been several candidates to potentially land a ride in the #19 Honda for the 2018 season, including Conor Daly, Zachary Claman DeMelo, Jack Hawksworth and now Pietro Fittipaldi. However, Daly’s sponsorship deal fell through, and Hawksworth seems to have fallen out of the mix.

Claman DeMelo and Fittipaldi both tested for the team this week at Sebring International Raceway. Neither driver has the funding for a full-time ride.

Here is what Dale Coyne had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.

"“I think we’ll have to run two – at least two – in that car. I don’t see anyone coming up with a full budget, and I need to have deals done by the end of next week, because then we test at Sonoma [on February 5]. I don’t know who’s testing there. It could be Zachary [Claman DeMelo], could be Pietro [Fittipaldi], could be a third guy. I don’t know yet."

You can read Coyne’s full statement here.

It is also not surprising to see Dale Coyne Racing go with multiple drivers in the #19 Honda, as they have done it before. In fact, the 2017 season was the first time since the 2014 season that they had two full-time drivers.

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In 2015, Carlos Huertas, Conor Daly, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Tristan Vautier and Pippa Mann all drove #18 Honda in various races throughout the season while Francesco Dracone, James Davison and Vautier drove the #19 Honda in various races throughout the year.

In 2016, Conor Daly was the full-time driver of the #18 Honda, thus giving the team a full-time driver for the first time since the 2014 season when they had two full-time drivers  with Huertas driving the #18 Honda and the late Justin Wilson driving the #19 Honda. However, Luca Filippi, Gabby Chaves, R.C. Enerson and Pippa Mann all drove the #19 Honda in various races throughout the season.

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Which drivers will end up sharing time behind the wheel of the #19 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2018 IndyCar season? Will Zachary Claman DeMelo and Pietro Fittipaldi be two of them? With the season set to begin in a month and a half, we should know for sure within the next few weeks.