IndyCar veteran Ed Carpenter is hoping both he and Conor Daly can look to their up and coming team-mate Rinus VeeKay for additional enthusiasm heading into the 2020 season.
VeeKay advances up from Indy Lights where last year he scored six wins and finished second, just 21 points behind Oliver Askew who also graduated to IndyCar this season with Arrow McLaren SP.
Speaking about the young Dutch driver’s talent, the soon-to-be 39-year-old Carpenter said, “He’s a very excited young man.
“The biggest challenge is harnessing that excitement and speed and making him productive.
“Teaching him and helping him learn all the little details that it’s going to take for him to take that speed and compete with the savvy veterans.
“He’s definitely showed us on every occasion that he’s gotten in the car so far that he’s fast. He picks things up very quickly. He got comfortable very quickly.
“We’ll all be able to push each other in different ways, challenge each other in different ways, teach each other different things.
“If Conor and I can capture some of Rinus’ youthful enthusiasm, it’s going to make us better.”
Carpenter is one of the series’ veterans, racing in IndyCar since 2003, following a couple part-time drives for Panther Racing and Sarah Fisher Racing in 2010 and 2011.
He founded Ed Carpenter Racing in 2012 and has been competing as an owner and driver since.
For Carpenter, the thing that keeps him motivated to stay behind the wheel instead of focusing solely on running his race team is, “pretty simply, the Indy 500.
“It’s pretty easy to stay motivated when you have a great team behind you and great partners behind you that give you a chance to go be competitive there.
“I get asked every single offseason how much longer I’m going to race. I said, ‘I don’t have an expiration date stamped on my bottom.’
“I feel like I’m still competitive there. I still feel like I’m a factor and have the ability to go and win that race. As long as that’s the case, I’m going to be here.”
Carpenter’s best Indy 500 finish came in 2018 where, after starting on pole and leading 65 laps, he finished second to Will Power who scored his first Indy 500 win.
Carpenter will drive this season’s oval tracks as he has done for the past six years.
His first race of the year as a driver will be the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500, which takes place on May 24.
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