Ed Carpenter at the preseason media event in Indianapolis. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
Ed Carpenter Racing has confirmed that team owner Ed Carpenter will race in all oval events of the 2022 IndyCar season.
Carpenter’s participation had been in limbo when Conor Daly’s deal came through for the season, resulting in a full time entry instead of sharing a part time seat in the #20 entry.
That meant that the owner himself was without a car to drive in, and he began looking for sponsorship deals himself that would allow the team to field a third car for the oval races.
It was always the plan to run three cars for the Indianapolis 500 as the team had done for recent seasons, but the other oval events were in doubt.
A deal appears to have been put together, as Carpenter has now been confirmed to run all five oval races on the calendar, including the race from Texas Motor Speedway that will be run in two weeks.
Carpenter will run under the #33 entry, but no additional details of the deal or the main sponsorship of the car have been announced.
The 40-year-old owner / driver has been racing in IndyCar since 2003, and transitioned to an ovals-only driving schedule in 2014.
Finding drivers to run the road courses for races at which he chose to sit in the pit box was difficult at times, but he came across a different problem when Daly landed sponsorship for a full season.
Expect to see three Ed Carpenter Racing cars on track for all of the oval races this season, and the duo of Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly for the road and street courses.
Keyword: Carpenter increases schedule, will race all oval events