After driving for Harding Racing in this past weekend’s IndyCar race at Gateway Motorsports Park, Gabby Chaves is set to return to the team for this week’s race at Portland International Raceway.
Gabby Chaves was replaced by Conor Daly in three consecutive IndyCar races after driving for Harding Racing in the #88 Chevrolet in each of the first 11 races of the 17-race 2018 season.
However, the 25-year-old Colombian returned to the cockpit in this past Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park.
Chaves is set to drive the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet once again this Sunday afternoon’s Portland Grand Prix, which is the penultimate race of the season. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to RACER.
"“Portland’s a track that I’ve always really wanted to race on, so getting the opportunity to come here and continue driving after Gateway gives me some strong feelings about where the program is going.”"
Chaves has never competed in an IndyCar race at the 12-turn, 1.967-mile (3.166-kilometer) Portland International Raceway road course in Portland, Oregon, as the track has not hosted an IndyCar race since the 2007 Champ Car season.
After Harding Racing fielded the #88 Chevrolet for Chaves in the three superspeedway races last season, they become a full-time team for the 2018 season. While it was originally believed that they would field an entry for Chaves in each of the season’s 17 races, the fourth-year driver handled himself quite well when Daly replaced him for three races earlier this year.
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In 12 races so far this season, Chaves has an average finish of 17.17, which is a bit of a disappointment, especially after he recorded two top nine finishes, including a career-high fifth place finish at Texas Motor Speedway, and finished no lower than 15th in his three races driving for Harding Racing last season.
Last season, Chaves’s average finish was 9.67, and his only finish lower than ninth place was his 15th place finish in the race at Pocono Raceway.
Chaves has not yet finished a race in the top 10 this season. In fact, he has not yet finished a race in the top 13, and he is the only driver who has driven in at least 12 of the season’s first 15 races who can say that. His best finishes of the season are two 14th place finishes.
Chaves recorded those two 14th place finishes in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida and in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a race in which he finished ninth last year.
How will Gabby Chaves perform in this weekend’s Grand Prix of Portland? Will he record his highest finish of the 2018 IndyCar season? NBC Sports Network is set to broadcast the race live from Portland International Raceway this Sunday, September 2 beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET, so be sure to tune in.