IndyCar: Jordan King won’t return to Ed Carpenter Racing in 2019

Jordan King, who drove part-time for Ed Carpenter Racing in the 2018 IndyCar season, will not return to the team in the 2019 season.

Jordan King, who spent the 2018 IndyCar season, his rookie season, as the driver of the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in the road and street course races, will not be returning to Ed Carpenter Racing in the 2019 season.

King competed in 11 of the 17 races on the 2018 schedule while Ed Carpenter Racing team owner Ed Carpenter competed in the six oval races behind the wheel of the #20 Chevrolet, as he has been the team’s oval specialist in each of the last five seasons. Spencer Pigot drove the #21 Chevrolet full-time.

Here is what the 24-year-old Briton had to say about the fact that he will not be returning to Ed Carpenter Racing in the 2019 season, according to RACER.

"“We are currently working on options for 2019 after Ed Carpenter provided an excellent learning curve for 2018. This year has been a great platform but 2019 is another chapter with some exciting plans ahead that, as a package, will give me the opportunity to show my potential even further.“I feel like I have proven a lot this year and my single-seater career to date only serves as further proof that I am a race winner — that is what I love doing and pride myself upon. I want to be given that opportunity again for 2019 in whatever form that takes. I relished the challenge of embracing a new team and culture this year and enter next year as a more complete driver and person because of it.”"

King’s IndyCar career began in the 2018 season opener, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. He set a new lap record of 60.0476 seconds around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.896-kilometer) temporary street circuit to advance to the Firestone Fast Six, where he qualified in a career-high fourth place. Mechanical issues in the race itself relegated him to a 21st place finish, three laps off the lead.

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The former European Formula 3 and Formula 2 driver made his second and final appearance in the Firestone Fast Six of the season in the season’s fourth road or street course race, the IndyCar Grand Prix, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He qualified in fifth place in that race, but he was unable to recover from a first-lap incident and ended up settling for 24th (last), two laps off the lead.

King recorded his best finish of the season in the Honda Indy Toronto around the streets of Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario. He finished that race in 11th place. He finished all 11 of the races he started and recorded an average starting position of 13.2 and an average finishing position of 15.8. Of the 922 laps in the 11 races that he contested, he completed 915 (99.2%).

Ed Jones, who is set to be replaced by Felix Rosenqvist at Chip Ganassi Racing behind the wheel of the #10 Honda for the 2019 season, has been rumored as a potential replacement candidate for King behind the wheel of the #20 Chevrolet for next year’s the road and street course races (12 of the 17 races on the 2019 schedule) via a partnership with Scuderia Corsa.

Scuderia Corsa are the IMSA SportsCar Championship team that are aiming to join IndyCar full-time after making their debut in this year’s Indianapolis 500 via a partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with veteran Oriol Servia behind the wheel of the #64 Honda. Jones would also likely compete in next year’s Indy 500 in a third Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

Will Jordan King return to IndyCar in the 2019 season? If so, for which team will he drive? Who will take his place behind the wheel of the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in next year’s road and street course races?