Rodolfo Gonzalez, Dale Coyne Racing

The cast: Race engineer – Rob Ridgley. Race strategist – Darren Crouser. Chief mechanic – Greg Senerius.

Twitter: @RSpeedyGonzalez, @DaleCoyneRacing

The car: No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda

The driver: Turned 29 on May 14. … Native of and resides in Caracas, Venezuela. … Tested for Dale Coyne Racing and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the 2014-15 offseason.

Video: Gonzalez reviews his season

Season stats: Gonzalez made his Verizon IndyCar Series debut at Barber Motorsports Park in April, starting 21st and finishing 20th. He competed in six races overall. … Carlos Huertas (three starts on road/street courses), Conor Daly (one start on street course), Tristan Vautier (one start on oval) and Pippa Mann (five starts on ovals) also drove the No. 18 entry. … Gonzalez had a best finish of ninth in the season finale at Sonoma Raceway, advancing a field-high 15 positions relative to his starting spot. … Was running at the finish in four of the six races (contact early in both races at Belle Isle).

The gist: Gonzalez was a test driver for the Marussia Formula One team in 2013-14. Previously, he competed in three seasons in the GP2 Series.  … Driving in the Verizon IndyCar Series was his goal after going nowhere in Europe. “A special thanks goes out to Dale (Coyne) because he is a dream maker and he made my dream of being an IndyCar driver come true,” Gonzalez said after the Sonoma race.

The chart (below): Looking at how Gonzalez finished relative to his qualifying position in his six races:

2015 Tag Heuer Award - Rodolfo Gonzalez