Race By Race - IRL Driver and Team Changes Expected for 2003

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2003 IndyCar Series Teams

Who will be driving where and with what equipment next season? Confirmed places are in bold, Indy 500 only are in italics and unknowns have question marks. Last updated Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

IndyCar

Team	*Driver #1*	*Driver #2*	*Driver #3*	*Chassis*	*Engine*	*Sponsor*	*Comments*
310 Motoring	—						Owner Marc Laidler ran the whole 2002 season for the IRL's first African-American team with a car prepared by Cunningham. Remnants of the team are working with Ted Bitting to set up Access (see below).
Access Motorsports	Greg Ray			G Force	Honda	TrimSpa	Greg Ray will be the driver and a co-owner of this new team formed from the ashes of Treadway and 310. They were not ready for the first two races of 2003, but did run at Motegi. At the Test In The West George Mack told us he was working on a seat with the team, but it looks like that never came together. The team will run a Panoz G Force chassis, not the Falcon Indy 01-A mentioned in early rumors.
Andretti Green Racing	Michael Andretti Dan Wheldon (Test)	Dario Franchitti Robby Gordon Bryan Herta	Tony Kanaan	Dallara	Honda	7-Eleven Alpine Jim Beam Motorola	Joining the IRL as Honda's flagship team. KOOL have quit auto racing sponsorship. Dario is rumored to have been lured to the IRL with a promise of a ride at Honda's BAR F1 team in 2004. Michael will retire after the Indy 500, handing the reins (well, steering wheel) to Wheldon, who also gets a run in the 500. Wheldon sat in for Franchitti at Motegi after he injured himself in a motorcycle accident. Franchitti will also miss his first Indy 500. Robby Gordon will take his place. Bryan Herta will take Dario's place in the 27 car for the next few races after Indy.
Beck Motorsports	Shinji Nakano			Dallara	Honda		Ran Robby McGehee for Parsons Motorsports for several races last year and were drafted in to crew for Tomas Scheckter at Michigan. They have bought at least one Dallara chassis and will run Shinji Nakano at Motegi, Japan and the Indy 500. Nakano carried Motegi logos for the duration of his 2002 CART season.
Blair Racing	—						Having settled into the IRL well in 2002, with a win at Nashville, and despite their Chevy engine deal being in place, the team could find no primary sponsor sufficient to fund the expanded 2003 budget. We hear they have sold up and closed their shop.
Bradley Motorsports	—						Started the 2002 season with Shigeaki Hattori until his Japanese sponsorship ran out. No sign of them so far this season, despite the Indianapolis Star saying they had signed Jeff Ward.
Brayton Racing	—						Ran John de Vries for a few races in 2002 and Scott Harrington at Michigan. Unlikely to be able to step up to the bigger budgets in 2003.
Cahill Racing	—			Dallara	Chevrolet		Ran Robby McGehee in 2002 until his crash during practice for the Indy 500. Failed to make the grid for the rest of the season. Unlikely to be back.
Cheever Indy Racing	Buddy Rice			Dallara	Chevrolet	Red Bull	After the one-two last year at Michigan, things seem to be coming together for this team. We were surprised when Cheever formed a joint venture with Menard to build Chevy engines, rather than continue working with TWR, but now the two have bought TWR and merged it into the operation. And a further surprise is that Eddie now says he won't be running the Indy 500 himself!
Conquest Racing	—						Gone to the more affordable Champ Car series.
Convergent Racing	—						Ran out of steam when Hideki Noda's Japanese sponsorship dried up.
Cunningham Racing	—						Prepared the car for 310 Motoring. Unlikely to run its own car.
CURB/ Agajanian/ Boat Indy Racing?	—						Solid team in 2002, especially after switching to Infiniti engines. Cannot afford IndyCars on their own in 2003. Tried to put together a partnership with Hemelgarn, but Billy Boat is now with Panther for a ride at Indy.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Robbie Buhl	Sarah Fisher		Dallara	Chevrolet	Purex Dial Aventis	IRL mainstay, part owned by Buhl. With Infiniti gone, they've chosen Chevy engines. The team has said it will switch from Panoz G Force to Dallara chasses. Sarah Fisher has struggled to find sponsorship, but has been making it to races.
Fernández Racing	Roger Yasukawa			Dallara	Honda	Panasonic ARTA	With Team Rahal announcing only Kenny Bräck to run in the IRL, Fernández Racing pops back into the picture to give Honda a Japanese driver, albeit one born in the USA. The team's full name is Super Aguri Fernández Racing, working jointly with former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki.
Foyt Racing	Anthony Foyt IV	Shigeaki Hattori	*Airton Daré*	G Force Dallara	Toyota	Conseco Epson	With Harrah's sponsorship gone, A. J. says "if I'm going to run out of my own pocket, I'm going to do it with my own family". Shigeaki Hattori helped to bring the Toyota engines and will drive up until the Indy 500, possibly handing over the reins to Daré afterwards. In any case, Daré gets to run a third car for the Indy 500. The team is switching to the Panoz G Force chassis and Toyota engines, but we now hear A. J. is stocking up with extra Dallarae for the short ovals. Perhaps he expects his grandson to work his way through them pretty quickly?
Hemelgarn Racing	Buddy Lazier			Dallara	Chevrolet	Delta Faucet Life Fitness	With the departure of Coors as a sponsor, the team has had real difficulty putting their program together. An attempt at a deal with Curb Records that would have seen Billy Boat in the driver's seat appears to have fallen through and the team will start the season with long-term driver Buddy Lazier. Plans to test the Falcon chassis have evaporated.
Horizon Motorsports	—						The Indianapolis Star said Russ Cameron, an associate of Bruce McCaw had purchased the assets of the now defunct PacWest CART team. We now know CART's PK Racing has this.
Indy Regency Racing	—						Scraped together an effort late in 2002 for Hideki Noda. Finding sponsorship hard to come by - considered a switch to CART but no recent news.
Kelley Racing	Al Unser Jr.	Scott Sharp	*Tony Renna*	Dallara	Toyota	Delphi Futaba Bryant Corteco	Top rung team taking Toyota engines. Al Unser Jr. began testing with the team on January 8. They will run a third car for Tony Renna at the Indy 500.
Mo Nunn Racing	Felipe Giaffone	Tora Takagi	*Alex Barron*	G Force	Toyota	Hollywood Pioneer (Japan) Denso Meijer	Toyota snatched this team away from Honda. Their poster boy Tiger Takagi will fill the second seat. This brings Pioneer's Japanese parent with it too. Arie Luyendyk's plans to run the Indy 500 were thwarted by injuries during testing. His place in a third car for the team will be taken by Alex Barron.
Newman/Haas	—			Dallara	Toyota	Lilly	Rumors of an appearance at the Indy 500 never materialized, despite the Indy Star reporting Newman/Haas had ordered a couple of Dallarae.
Panther Racing	Sam Hornish Jr.	Billy Boat	Robby McGehee	Dallara	Chevrolet	Pennzoil Pedigo	Dan Wheldon has gone to replace Michael Andretti after he retires. Plans to run a second car for the whole season have been abandoned due to lack of funding, but the team will field additional cars for Billy Boat and Robby McGehee at the Indy 500.
Patrick Racing	—			Dallara			Rumors of an appearance at the Indy 500 never materialized.
PDM Racing	Scott Mayer Jimmy Kite			Dallara	Chevrolet		The team has purchased a single Dallara. The engine deal was not finalized in time to run Scott Mayer at the Test In The West, but everything came together for the first race. Scott Mayer failed the Rookie Orientation Program at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and is therefore ineligible to compete in the Indy 500. The team has been testing with Jimmy Kite, but he will lose his place if another driver steps forward with sponsorship.
Racing Professionals	—						Jon Herb's team disappeared in 2002.
Rocketsports	—						Paul Gentilozzi's Trans-Am team thought about running in the Indy 500, but plumped for CART instead.
*Sam Schmidt Motorsports*	*Richie Hearn*			*G Force*	*Toyota*		Lack of sponsorship viability for the team has already driven Luyendyk to Mo Nunn for the Indy 500. They will now concentrate on the Infiniti Pro Series. Through a deal with Team Penske, Sam will field a car for Richie Hearn in the Indy 500.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing	Scott Dixon	Tomas Scheckter		G Force	Toyota	Target	Target will switch its full attention to the IRL in 2003, to coincide with Toyota's assault on the Indy 500. One additional entry has been filed for the Indy 500, but no sign it will actually run.
Team Menard	Jaques Lazier	*Vitor Meira*		Dallara	Chevrolet	Menard Johns Manville	Back for another season, signed up for Chevy engines. With Lazier returning from injury, Vitor Meira becomes the team's test driver. Why does a one car IRL team need a test driver? Well, we now know he gets to be in a second car at Indy. Maybe Cheever will run a joint car at a few races later in the season, under the teams' new partnership?
Team Penske	Gil de Ferran Alex Barron (sub)	Helio Castroneves		Dallara G Force	Toyota	Marlboro	Same team as 2002, but with Toyota engines. They have bought some Panoz G Force chasses and will be evaluating them with substitute driver (after de Ferran's injury at Phoenix) Alex Barron at Motegi, Japan. Two additional entries were filed for the Indy 500. One of these has been lent to Sam Schmidt for Richie Hearn to drive.
Team Rahal	Kenny Bräck	*Jimmy Vasser*		Dallara	Honda	Miller Pioneer (USA)	Rahal has confirmed a seat for Bräck, with Honda power and engineered by Don Halliday who split from Team Fernandez to reunite with Bräck. We thought Shinji Nakano might get a ride here, but Honda has found him one with Beck. The team will field a second car for Jimmy Vasser in the Indy 500.
Treadway Racing	—						Last season's equipment is being sold and Fred Treadway has no plans to field a team in 2003, according to the Indianapolis Star.
Walker Racing	—						The shell of Derrick Walker's IRL team now supplies Reynard cars to CART teams. They won't be back in the IRL any time soon!
Zali Racing	—						We were surprised they managed to scrape up enough cash to run Billy Roe for a few races in 2002.