Kyle Kaiser will make his IndyCar season debut for Juncos Racing this weekend at the IndyCar Classic at the Circuit of the Americas.
Kaiser will be carrying sponsorship from insurance broker and consultant firm NFP, whose 250 employee base of operations is located near the track, in the city of Austin, Texas.
Although he tested at the COTA circuit in February, Kaiser’s last IndyCar race was the Indianapolis 500 last year; indeed, the California native ran just four races in the series in 2018.
“I think it was great for the team, getting our footing last year, learning how to set up the car, what progress we could make,” Kaiser told IndyCar.com.
“By the end of the year last year in the last race we did, we made so much progress with the car.”
The 23 year old acknowledges that him and the Juncos team have plenty of room for improvement, with shock absorber and damper improvements and understanding car setup being highlighted as areas to improve.
“The top teams (do) a lot of R&D (research and development), and that's something we've found is difficult. We don't have all the resources to put into shock and damper development. I mean, there's a lot of time in that.
“It just takes time to really understand the way the car works and find those last two-tenths or three tenths (of a second). It just takes a lot of practice and I'm obviously still learning.”
Learning time is however limited for Kaiser, with his COTA outing his only confirmed appearance for this season. But although his opportunities may be limited, the 2017 Indy Lights champion is staying faithful to his team.
“The big reason I'm staying with them (Juncos) is because they just have so much passion and this is their livelihood,” Kaiser said.
“This is all that they want to do and they want to succeed. They've taken care of me. They've given me great opportunities throughout the Road to Indy to get to this level and I want to be successful with Juncos.”
