Mike Conway, Ed Carpenter Racing
The cast: Race engineer – Matt Barnes. Race strategist – Tim Broyles. Chief mechanic – Bret Schmitt.
Twitter: @Mikeconway26, @CFHRIndy
The car: No. 20 Chevrolet, Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka primary sponsor
The driver: Mike Conway turned 31 on Aug. 19. … From Bromley, England, he resides in Scottsdale, Ariz. … Conway has made 72 Verizon IndyCar Series starts since 2009 with six teams. He scored his first victory in the series in 2011 at Long Beach with Andretti Autosport. … Conway was nominated in the British Competition Driver category for the Autosport Awards, which will be presented Dec. 7 in London.
Season finish: Conway competed in the 12 road/street course races this season, while team owner Ed Carpenter drove the No. 20 car in the six oval events (one victory, three top-five finishes). The team, which has merged with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for the 2015 season, placed eighth in the entrant championship.
The gist: Conway removed himself from oval racetrack competition in 2012 while with A.J. Foyt Racing (he didn’t compete in the season finale at Auto Club Speedway) and has driven on street/road courses the past two seasons. … This year, he also has been a test/reserve driver for Toyota Racing in the World Endurance Championship. He will make his second start for the team in Bahrain over the weekend. His 2015 plans have not been announced.
Season stats: Conway won the second race of the season (Long Beach) after qualifying 17th. His next top-10 finish was a victory on the streets of Exhibition Place in Toronto three months and eight races later. … He ran as high as third at St. Petersburg opener (after qualifying 12th) before penalty for passing the safety car under caution dropped him to 16th. He led 21 laps at Sonoma (after qualifying 17th) but ran out of fuel on Lap 83 of 85 and finished 14th. … Fourth in both races at Houston were a season high in qualifying and the only top 10s. … He led five races for a total of 36 laps and was running at the finish in nine races.... Overall, he advanced 14 positions relative to his qualifying (see chart below).
Year over year: 2013 best qualifying of first at Belle Isle 2 (11.1 average) and best finish of first at Belle Isle 1 (9.7 average) in six races for Dale Coyne Racing and at Long Beach for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. 2014 best qualifying of fourth at Belle Isle 1 and Belle Isle 2 (14.1 average) and best finish of first at Long Beach and Toronto 2 (12.9 average).
The chart (below): Looking at how Conway finished relative to his qualifying position:
Click to download the hi-res infographic
