After Juncos Hollinger Racing solidified their driver lineup for the 2025 IndyCar season by adding Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb, Dale Coyne Racing found themselves as the only team with any remaining open seats. And they still had two of them.
The team later confirmed that 2024 Indy NXT runner-up Jacob Abel would be joining the team full-time as the driver of the No. 51 Honda in 2025.
For the first time since 2015, Dale Coyne's team did not have a full-time driver in 2024, and for the first time since 2015, they did not score a single podium finish. In fact, the 2024 season was their first season since 1987 without a single top 12 finish.
So the signing of Abel for the full 17-race season marked a step in the right direction for the small underdog team known for surprising everybody and mixing it up at the front of the field a couple of times per year.
But there are now just two and a half weeks to go until the start of the 2025 season, and the No. 18 Honda is still without a driver.
The team would ideally like to add another full-time driver after running a total of nine drivers in two cars last year, and they would like to add a major partner or investor to avoid having to rely on funding from individual drivers from race to race.
There are still plenty of solid free agents available, and not just including drivers from other racing series seeking entry into the NTT IndyCar Series. Rinus VeeKay and Linus Lundqvist, two of the top free agents who lost their rides with their former teams after the 2024 season, are still aiming to be on the grid in 2025.
VeeKay is Ed Carpenter Racing's most recent winner and spent five years with the team before being replaced by 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, while Lundqvist secured two podium finishes as a rookie with Chip Ganassi Racing last year. He was simply a victim of the new charter agreement, as Chip Ganassi's team downsized from five cars to three.
Will VeeKay or Lundqvist land the seat? Will somebody else secure it? Will a combination of drivers occupy the car throughout the year?
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