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Indy 500: Pippa Mann confirms ride for Dale Coyne Racing in 2018

By Asher Fair

FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 05: Pippa Mann of England, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, sits in his car during practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 5, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)
FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 05: Pippa Mann of England, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, sits in his car during practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 5, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway) /
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Pippa Mann has officially confirmed that she is set to drive for Dale Coyne Racing in the Indy 500 this year for the sixth consecutive year.

Pippa Mann is set to return to the Indianapolis 500 this year driving for Dale Coyne Racing, she confirmed on Tuesday. She has driven for the team in the race in each of the last five years and is set to do so again in May of this year.

Mann has made 16 career IndyCar starts since completing two full-time seasons in Indy Lights in 2009 and 2010 and making the switch to IndyCar in 2011. Of those 16 starts, six have been Indy 500 starts.

Mann’s six Indy 500 starts have come in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In her Indy 500 debut in 2011, which was also her IndyCar debut, she drove for Conquest Racing and finished in 20th place after starting all the way back in 32nd following a tense Bump Day qualifying session, which we may get to see this year for the first time since 2011.

In her five most recent Indy 500 starts, Mann has driven for Dale Coyne Racing and has improved upon her result each year. Last year, she finished the race in a career-high 17th place after starting back in 28th. She has finished five of her six Indy 500 starts.

Mann’s career-high IndyCar finishes are 13th place results at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Both of those 13th place finishes took place in the 2015 season when she drove in all of the oval track races for Dale Coyne Racing.  She has finished 11 of her 16 IndyCar starts.

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By joining Dale Coyne Racing for the 102nd running of the Indy 500 this May, Mann is joining three other drivers on the team who are set to be her teammates for the race. She is joining full-time driver Sebastien Bourdais, part-time driver Pietro Fittipaldi, and Indy 500-only driver Conor Daly, who is set to drive a car fielded by Dale Coyne Racing and Thom Burns Racing in the race.

Bourdais is the full-time driver of the team’s #18 Honda, while Fittipaldi is the part-time driver of the team’s #19 Honda and Daly is set to drive the #17 Honda. The team’s other part-time driver who shares time behind the wheel of the #19 Honda with Fittipaldi is Zachary Claman DeMelo. He does not yet have a ride for this year’s Indy 500, and it is unknown if he will end up getting one.

Mann is set to drive the #63 Honda in this year’s Indy 500, which is what she has done in each of her five starts in the race as a driver for Dale Coyne Racing.

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How will Pippa Mann perform in her seventh Indianapolis 500 start and her sixth consecutive Indianapolis 500 start as a driver for Dale Coyne Racing? The race is set to take place on Sunday, May 27th, so be sure not to miss it by tuning in to ABC on that date at 11:00 am ET.