The 2024 IndyCar grid is set as Dale Coyne Racing has finally revealed its line-up just days before the first race.
The team’s #18 car will be shared by Jack Harvey and Indy NXT rookie of the year Nolan Siegel, while its #51 Rick Ware Racing-supported car driven by Romain Grosjean in 2021 will be driven by sportscar ace Colin Braun for at least the first two races of the season.
Many fans will remember it was commonplace for Coyne to arrive at the opening race of the season with a surprise line-up or leave the confirmation of its line-up until the last minute, having competed in America's top-level single-seater series as far back as 1984.
The eponymous team owner blends funding the team himself with the option of having drivers pay for a seat, so he has often waited until the last possible moment to provide a St Pete line-up.
With Sting Ray Robb joining AJ Foyt Racing and David Malukas heading to Arrow McLaren, Coyne was always set for a new line-up in 2024 and has taken its time to reveal who would drive for it.
Braun gets his IndyCar debut at St Pete at the age of 35. He started in sportscars and was a race winner in the NASCAR Truck Series in the late 2000s as he looked to forge a stock-car career.
He’s been a regular sportscar campaigner throughout, but a breakthrough 2023 appears to have raised Braun’s stock significantly.
He partnered Tom Blomqvist to third in IMSA with three wins and two podiums last year, earning a test with Dale Coyne in early January in which he was only just over a tenth off Harvey at Sebring with the team.
Braun is noted as a quick learner and a driver with a lot of commitment, and he’ll need both of those skills for what will be a very tricky debut on the Streets of St Petersburg.
It’s not yet clear how many races Braun will be able to do for Coyne beyond St Pete and the non-championship Thermal Club event with a prize of $1 million. He is racing in the LMP2 category in IMSA after Meyer Shank pulled out of IMSA after last season.
One driver who is starting to gain a lot of momentum is Katherine Legge, who has been replaced at Rahal Letterman Lanigan by Takuma Sato for the Indy 500, but Legge is expected to take one of Coyne’s cars for the Brickyard classic.
The other car in that Indy 500 line-up will be Siegel, who raced for the previously Coyne-affiliated HMD team in Indy NXT last year.
He’s returning for a second year in Indy NXT but will also do the non-clashing IndyCar races, at Thermal, Long Beach in what will be his home event, Toronto and the Indy 500 in the #18 shared with Harvey doing the other 14 races.
That means Harvey is not in the car for the 500 - where he qualified miraculously last year knocking out team-mate Graham Rahal at the last second of bump day - or the Thermal race which has a $1 million prize pot.
Harvey established himself in IndyCar with an impressive spell for Meyer Shank Racing where he scored a podium and three front row starts as the team entered full-time in 2020.
At the end of 2021 Harvey elected to leave and join Rahal Letterman Lanigan, but scored only one top 10 in 30 starts with the team, and was dropped with three races to go in the 2023 season.
He’ll need to rekindle his form from Meyer Shank this year to cement a comeback.
The only other entry needing to be confirmed this week was the injured David Malukas’s replacement, which will be Callum Ilott as expected.
Full-time teams line-up for 2024
AJ Foyt Racing
Santino Ferrucci
Sting Ray Robb
Andretti Global
Marco Andretti (Indy 500 only)
Marcus Ericsson
Colton Herta
Kyle Kirkwood
Arrow McLaren
David Malukas (Callum Ilott for St Pete)
Kyle Larson (Indy 500 only)
Pato O’Ward
Alexander Rossi
Chip Ganassi
Marcus Armstrong
Scott Dixon
Alex Palou
Linus Lundqvist
Kyffin Simpson
Dale Coyne Racing
Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel
Colin Braun (two races confirmed)
Ed Carpenter Racing
Ed Carpenter (ovals), Christian Rasmussen (road and street)
Rinus VeeKay
Juncos Hollinger
Agustin Canapino
Romain Grosjean
Meyer Shank
Tom Blomqvist
Helio Castroneves (Indy 500 only)
Felix Rosenqvist
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Pietro Fittipaldi
Christian Lundgaard
Graham Rahal
Takuma Sato (Indy 500 only)
Team Penske
Scott McLaughlin
Josef Newgarden
Will Power
