News
It’s been quite the season for announcements, and we’ve not even hit two-months since the season ended! Some news we’d been hoping for finally has came through – Meyer Shank Racing will be entering the 2020 INDYCAR season as a full-time team. They committed to 2020 and 2021 for the full season. Jack Harvey will be driving, with the sponsors from last year (mainly AutoNation and Sirius XM) coming on as main sponsors. Given Arrow’s switch to Chevrolet, MSR has formed a technical partnership Andretti Technology (the advanced tech arm of Andretti Autosport). This is also the group that is the tech partner with Harding Steinbrenner.
Speaking of Andretti Autosport – rumors are that in 2020 they have a spot open for Fernando Alonso. Or he can have the third car option at AMSP (you know the one they also promised Hinch).
Silly Season Update
Since we last discussed the Silly Season, there’s been the huge Arrow McLaren SP Racing announcement, which gave seats to Oliver Askew and Patricio O’Ward while removing Hinch’s seat, and the Meyer Shank Racing Announcement.
Quite a few things we’re still waiting on: AJ Foyt Racing to lock everything down; Ed Carpenter Racing to lock everything down, what is Carlin Racing doing; Juncos Racing (though at the recent Don K. show Ricardo indicated he’s working towards a full season); and what is DragonSpeed Racing’s commitment for 2020. Taking the Dale Coyne drivers off (since they just need to sign everything) the following drivers still are rideless:
- Hinch
- Matteus Leist
- Spencer Pigot (potentially)
- Charlie Kimball
- Max Chilton
- Ed Jones
- Conor Daly
- Sage Karem
- Kyle Kaiser
SWDMU – Owners of the IMS
Following last week’s announcement, we thought it’d be nice to just run through the owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Upon Roger Penske’s deal being formally accepted he’ll only be the fourth owner of the track since 1909. Just a bit of a big deal.
As we’ve covered many times, the IMS was first owned by Carl G. Fisher with his associates James Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank Wheeler. These were the gentlemen who in December of 1908 purchased the land upon which the IMS would be built. They officially formed the Indianapolis Speedway Corporation in March of 1909.
In 1927, the IMS changed hands to Eddie Rickenbacker, CPT, who purchased the IMS for $750,000. Rickenbacker, a flying hero from WWI, held the IMS through 1945. It was the years of WWII that, being unused, the track fell into dissaray.
On November 14, 1945, the Hulman family (through patriarch Tony Hulman) purchased the IMS for the amount of $750,000. The Hulman family have been the longest owners of the track, seeing it through the addition of NASCAR, motorcycles, Red Bull Air Race, Formula 1, and of course the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
Now, Roger Penske will become the fourth owner of the track. As we mentioned last week – it’s pretty exciting.
(information gathered from: https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/history/people-of-ims/owners)
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