IndyCar: Best season in Dale Coyne Racing history well within reach

By Asher Fair | Jun 19, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MAY 24: Sebastien Bourdais of France, driver of the #18 Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

The best season in Dale Coyne Racing’s long IndyCar history is well within their reach this year with drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Santino Ferrucci.

After Santino Ferrucci drove for Dale Coyne Racing in four races during the 2018 IndyCar season, including two after his controversy-filled stint in Formula 2 came to an abrupt end, the team did something that they have not done a whole lot since entering IndyCar back in 1984 — they signed him as their second full-time driver.

Sebastien Bourdais is the team’s other full-time driver, and Dale Coyne Racing field his #18 Honda through a partnership with Vasser-Sullivan that began ahead of last season.

Entering the 2019 season, only six times in the team’s 35-year IndyCar history had they fielded two cars for two full-time drivers, and two of these seasons resulted in one of their full-time drivers missing a race. Most recently, they did so in the 2014 season when the late Justin Wilson and Carlos Huertas drove for the team.

They had planned to do so in the 2017 season with Bourdais and Ed Jones, but Bourdais ended up missing eight races after suffering several injuries as a result of a crash during his qualifying attempt for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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As a result, the 21-year-old rookie Ferrucci and the 40-year-old veteran Bourdais entered the 2019 season with a chance to make the season just the fifth season in team history during which they have two drivers competing in each and every races.

Through the season’s first nine races, they have a chance to do a whole lot more than that.

Eight races remain on the 17-race 2019 schedule, and both Dale Coyne Racing drivers are in the top 10 in the championship standings. In previous seasons during which the team have had two full-time drivers, only one driver has finished in the top 14 in the standings. Bruno Junqueira pulled this off with a seventh place finish back in the 2007 season as the teammate to Katherine Legge, who finished in 15th.

The championship standings results of the drivers who drove for the team in their other five seasons fielding cars for two full-time drivers were disastrous. From best to worst, these results were 15th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 20th, 21st, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 28th place — an average of 20.1.

Bourdais is coming off his best career IndyCar season (not including Champ Car) last season, as he finished in seventh place in the championship standings, tying the second best finish for a Dale Coyne Racing driver in the standings in IndyCar history. Wilson finished in a team-best sixth back in the 2013 season.

Bourdais’s success so far this season, which includes one podium finish, two top five finishes and four top 10 finishes, has him in a 10th place tie in the championship standings and within striking distance of the top eight. The Frenchman has had a respectable season so far and has met expectations as a whole without overperforming or underperforming.

Ferrucci, meanwhile, has overachieved in every way possible. The rookie was overlooked as far as the deep class of talented rookies was concerned entering the season, yet he has had the biggest impact of all of these rookies in more ways than one.

He currently sits in a rookie-high ninth place in the championship standings with five top 10 finishes, including a career-high fourth place finish in the race at Texas Motor Speedway, and his success, which was rather unexpected to say the very least, has put Dale Coyne Racing in a position to make the 2019 season the best season in team history.

A victory is one thing that has eluded Dale Coyne Racing so far this this season, and it would certainly go a long way in making the 2019 season truly the best season in team history, especially after Bourdais earned the team their fifth and sixth victories in the 2017 and 2018 seasons and considering the fact that one victory in a season is their highest mark in team history.

Nevertheless, if their two drivers can close out the season like they’ve started it, this season will still be one to remember for one of the series’ smallest operations, even if they don’t find victory lane.

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Will both Dale Coyne Racing drivers finish the 2019 IndyCar season in the top 10 in the championship standings? If not, will they still do enough to make this season the best season in team history, perhaps by winning a race in the near future?