Tony George is accustomed to residing on the pit stand during a Verizon IndyCar Series race, but for the second consecutive May he has a different role.
The former team owner is assisting JR Hildebrand, who is driving the No. 6 Preferred Freezer Services Chevrolet for CFH Racing -- the Verizon IndyCar Series team co-owned by George’s stepson Ed Carpenter -- in the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.
“Brent Harvey engineered the car and largely the engineers are quasi-race strategists. I was nothing more than the guy on the radio with JR,” George said of the 2014 Indianapolis 500 in which Hildebrand started ninth and finished 10th. “Everything went smoothly.
“It was fun and interesting to keep my focus on JR and not Ed. About the only time I even noticed Ed happened to be the moment his day ended. I saw him coming down for the restart; JR was a little bit further up the track. When Ed went by I saw that Townsend (Bell) had a run on him and I saw (James Hinchcliffe) sneaking up in there, and they just passed through the corner of my eye as I was keeping an eye on JR coming to the start. And it went yellow and I thought, ‘Well, that couldn’t have ended well.’ ’’
Hildebrand will seek to make his fifth consecutive start in the 500 Mile Race, which included a runner-up finish in his first start in 2011.
“Working with JR is a dream; he is a very professional race driver and he and ‘Woody’ (Harvey) make my responsibility easy,” George said.
George, whose family owns and operates Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was a principal of Vision Racing, which entered the Verizon IndyCar Series for the 2005 season. Carpenter made 80 of his 153 starts with the team from 2005-09, and he formed Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2012 season. Last August, a merger of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing co-owned by Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman was announced.
Under the CFH Racing banner, Josef Newgarden, who earned his first series victory April 26 at Barber Motorsports Park, has teamed with Luca Filippi in the five road/street course races this season. Carpenter will relieve Filippi on the ovals in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka CFH Racing Chevrolet, with Hildebrand brought on for both races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“The last six months have been challenging, but fortunately they had six months to put it together,” George said. “I think we’ve started the season off well and will only get stronger and coming into May carrying that momentum. Between Josef, Ed and JR we have three excellent shots at qualifying and in the (Indy 500). Knowing the people who have been brought on board, I don’t know why we should expect anything less.”
Hildebrand, who tested with the team last October at Barber Motorsports Park, will see his first action on the 2.5-mile oval May 11. Qualifications are May 16-17, and the race is May 24.
“I think it’s great for the team to bring in a third aspect,” Harvey said of Hildebrand. “He brings quite a bit of experience and I think it also gives the team a third option to do something different than the other two cars are not doing from that aspect.”