IndyCar: Carlin still mum on driver situation for second car in 2019
By Asher Fair
With the offseason winding down, Carlin have not yet confirmed who will drive the team’s second car as Max Chilton’s teammate in the 2019 IndyCar season.
Carlin entered IndyCar for the first time in the 2018 season, and they fielded two cars on a full-time basis. These two cars, the #23 Chevrolet and the #59 Chevrolet, were driven by Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton, respectively, after Kimball and Chilton left Chip Ganassi Racing following the conclusion of the 2017 season.
Chilton has been confirmed as the driver of the #59 Chevrolet for the 2019 season, but the driver of the #23 Chevrolet has not yet been confirmed despite the fact that the 2018 season ended more than four months ago and the 2019 season is scheduled to begin in less than two months.
In fact, Carlin’s second car is the only confirmed full-time car without a confirmed full-time driver for the 2019 season, and this has been the case ever since two days before Thanksgiving of 2018 when it was confirmed that rookie Santino Ferrucci is set to drive the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda on a full-time basis in the 2019 season.
While Kimball has been tipped to return to the Florida-based team as the driver of the #23 Chevrolet and as Chilton’s teammate in the 2019 season, there has still been nothing officially stated about the matter at this point.
Kimball did, however, hint on Twitter that he is slated be the driver of the #23 Chevrolet once again in the 2019 season, but Carlin have not confirmed this.
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The 2019 season is scheduled to get underway in just over seven weeks with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, March 10, so there is still plenty of time for Carlin to announce if Kimball will indeed be the driver of the #23 Chevrolet once again. If not, they still have time to announce who that driver will be.
There had also been rumors that Carlin could field three cars on a full-time basis in the 2019 season, but with the driver situation of the second car having not yet been confirmed, the odds of this do not look all that promising.
Who will end up driving the #23 Carlin Chevrolet in the 2019 IndyCar season? Will Charlie Kimball return to the team for the second season like most everyone expects him to, or will the team make a surprising announcement in the near future?