Ed Jones and Spencer Pigot Return to Road Course Racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

(INDIANAPOLIS) July 23, 2019 – Preview Notes

– Up next for Ed Carpenter Racing is the drive over to Lexington, Ohio, home of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, for this weekend’s Honda Indy 200. The 90-lap race will be the 13th round of 17 on the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series calendar. ECR will field a pair of Autogeek Chevrolets for Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones, the black No. 21 for Pigot and the red No. 20 for Jones. Pigot will be looking to build off a stellar drive in last weekend’s race, while Jones will be back in the car after a strong qualifying effort in his most recent outing.

– The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will see NTT IndyCar Series competitors on their third different type of track in three weeks. Two weeks ago in the streets of Toronto, Pigot and Jones earned the best street course qualifying positions by two ECR cars in the team’s history. Last weekend at the short oval of Iowa Speedway, team owner and oval driver Ed Carpenter climbed back into the No. 20 and surged up through the field after a disappointing qualifying session. Pigot too carved his way forward, extending ECR’s streak of Top 5 finishes at Iowa to seven consecutive years. Jones will be back in the No. 20 to race alongside Pigot at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a natural terrain road course one hour north of Columbus, Ohio.

– For the second year in a row, Pigot raced to the front of the pack at Iowa and gained the most positions of all competitors. After qualifying 19th, the 25-year-old finished the 300-lap race in the 5th spot as the checkered flag flew in the early hours of Sunday morning. The result matched his best of the season as he also finished 5th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Two weeks later, he started a career-best 3rd in the Indianapolis 500. With his qualifying run 10 days ago in Toronto, Pigot has earned career-best starting positions this year at each type of track the series races on – ovals, road courses and street circuits.

– As road and street course driver of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet, Jones most recently competed in the Toronto street race on July 14. He qualified 6th, setting the fastest lap of all Round 1 qualifiers on his way to his second Firestone Fast 6 shootout of the year. The IMS road course is also home to Jones’s best finish of the year, where the 24-year-old followed up his first Fast 6 appearance with a 6th place finish. Following that race, he moved over to the No. 63 for the Indianapolis 500 and qualified a career-best fourth. With his qualifying effort, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolets would start second, third and fourth in the 500-mile race.

– ECR had the opportunity to test at Mid-Ohio in late June, making the venue only the second road course this year where the team has been able to test prior to the race weekend. The 2019 Honda Indy 200 will be Pigot’s fourth at the 2.258-mile course, while it will be the third for Jones. Last year’s race was caution-free, limiting Jones to a 15th place finish after an unscheduled pit stop for a punctured tire. Pigot would use a set of Firestone’s red compound Firehawk tires to his advantage, picking up seven positions in 20 laps to earn the 13th finishing position.

– Track activity for the NTT IndyCar Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will take place over three days. INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold will air Friday’s two practice sessions, Saturday’s third practice and Sunday’s warm-up. Qualifying will be shown live on NBC Sports Network and NBC Sports Gold on Saturday, July 27 at 2:30 p.m. The Honda Indy 200 will begin on NBC at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 28.

ED JONES, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet: “Mid-Ohio should be a very good track for us. We had a test day there which we have not had for the other races so hopefully that will give us a bit of an advantage! We didn’t have the end result we wanted in Toronto, but we still had a few high points to the weekend including making the Firestone Fast 6. Qualifying seems to be quite a strength of ours this year, so hopefully we can build on that speed to improve our race pace for Mid-Ohio!”

SPENCER PIGOT, No. 21 Autogeek Chevrolet: “Everyone at Ed Carpenter Racing is really looking forward to Mid-Ohio. It’s a very challenging track, but we had an encouraging test there a few weeks ago. We’ve been competitive at road courses so far this year so hopefully that is something we can continue this weekend. We are coming off a really strong race at Iowa Speedway, so it is nice to have a bit of momentum on our side going into this one!”