Carlin had been rumored to be looking at fielding a third full-time car for the 2019 IndyCar season after fielding two cars in 2018. Will this happen?
Carlin competed in IndyCar for the first time in the the 2018 season after spending several seasons in various other series, including Indy Lights, the series that is one step below IndyCar. They fielded two cars on a full-time basis in the 2018 season.
Charlie Kimball drove the #23 Carlin Chevrolet while Max Chilton drove the #59 Carlin Chevrolet in the 2018 season, but only Chilton has been confirmed as one of the team’s drivers in the 2019 season.
Kimball has been tipped to return to the team as the driver of the #23 Chevrolet in the 2019 season, but there has been no official word regarding whether or not he will end up doing so.
Earlier in the offseason and even before the 2018 season reached its conclusion, the Florida-based team had been rumored to be eyeing the possibility of fielding three cars on a full-time basis.
Here is what Carlin team owner Trevor Carlin had to say about the matter after the 2018 season came to an end, according to RACER.
"“I have a scenario where I’ve got a budget and a partial budget, and I want to run two full-time cars. Ideally, having two cars fully committed is what we’re after, and after that stage, adding a third car would be the goal.”"
Will this end up happening? The most likely answer to this question is no.
The only other teams with at least full-time cars are the powerhouse teams of Andretti Autosport and Team Penske, which field four full-time cars and three full-time cars, respectively. The drivers of these two teams combined to win 11 of the 2018 season’s 17 races, as Andretti Autosport’s drivers combined to earn five victories while Team Penske’s drivers combined to earn six.
More from IndyCar
- IndyCar: Two teams with no drivers confirmed for 2024
- IndyCar: Chip Ganassi Racing news hints Alex Palou announcement
- IndyCar: ‘Addition by subtraction’ could pay off in a big way
- Team Penske should make a bold driver signing for 2024
- IndyCar: 5 teams that still have open seats for 2024
Carlin’s drivers, meanwhile, combined to earn one top five finish and an additional five top 10 finishes in the 2018 season — and they really didn’t “combine” to do so, as all of these finishes were recorded by Kimball. None of them were recorded by the team’s lone confirmed driver for the 2019 season. Chilton’s best finish of the 2018 season was his 11th place finish in the second race on the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan.
As opposed to trying to expand to a three-car full-time team in just their second season in IndyCar, Carlin should focus on improving as a two-car full-time team, as there is a lot of room for the team to improve as they are right now.
Quite simply, this is the case as a result of the fact that they are nowhere near where they need to as far as running at the front of the field and consistently competing for solid results is concerned. They did make strides throughout the 2018 season, but they still regularly ran toward the back of the pack. They still have a lot of adapting to do in the sport before they try to expand and before have success in doing so.
Evidence of this is the fact that Kimball and Chilton ended up finishing the 2018 season in 17th and 19th place in the championship standings, respectively, which were two of the three lowest positions in the standings among the sport’s full-time drivers.
This is also the case considering the fact that Carlin have not yet even confirmed who their second full-time driver will be in the 2019 season despite the fact that the offseason between the 2018 and 2019 seasons is more than halfway over and the 2019 season is scheduled to get underway in less than two and a half months.
Fielding three full-time cars in the 2019 season means that they have to confirm not one more driver but two more drivers for the 2019 season, which will make things a lot more difficult as their second season in the sport gets underway and progresses.
Will Carlin field three full-time cars in the 2019 IndyCar season? Regardless, who will the team’s second full-time driver next year, and if so, who will their third full-time driver be?
With the 2019 season scheduled to get underway in under two and a half months with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, March 10, 2019, expect to know the answers to these questions in the very near future.