wilson89
Team Owner
Written by: Robin Miller
In his 25 years of competing in CART and IndyCar racing, Dale Coyne has been the consumate survivor -- doing whatever necessary to keep the doors of his Chicago shop open.
That's included taking money from unknown drivers and cutting corners to make ends meet.
Consequently, Coyne has never made it to victory lane despite some good drives through the years from Bruno Junqueira, Oriol Servia, Michel Jourdain and Alex Barron. But it appears he's getting real serious about changing that trend.
After signing veteran engineer Bill Pappas a few weeks ago, SPEEDtv.com has learned Coyne is close to closing a deal for the 2009 season with Justin Wilson. Wilson, a front-runner since leaving Formula One for CART in 2004, will be in Coyne's car Tuesday in Homestead, Fla. for the Indy Racing League's opening test.
Junqueira, who reportedly drove for no salary for Coyne the past two years, qualified three times in the Top 10 in 2008 and finished sixth at Watkins Glen and seventh at Detroit. He also scored seven wins in Champ Car for Ganassi and Newman/Haas.
"Is Bruno out of the picture for 2009?, no, we're working on several things," said Coyne. "He's been good for us and I think we were good for him and we want to run a second car if we can pull things together."
In his 25 years of competing in CART and IndyCar racing, Dale Coyne has been the consumate survivor -- doing whatever necessary to keep the doors of his Chicago shop open.
That's included taking money from unknown drivers and cutting corners to make ends meet.
Consequently, Coyne has never made it to victory lane despite some good drives through the years from Bruno Junqueira, Oriol Servia, Michel Jourdain and Alex Barron. But it appears he's getting real serious about changing that trend.
After signing veteran engineer Bill Pappas a few weeks ago, SPEEDtv.com has learned Coyne is close to closing a deal for the 2009 season with Justin Wilson. Wilson, a front-runner since leaving Formula One for CART in 2004, will be in Coyne's car Tuesday in Homestead, Fla. for the Indy Racing League's opening test.
Junqueira, who reportedly drove for no salary for Coyne the past two years, qualified three times in the Top 10 in 2008 and finished sixth at Watkins Glen and seventh at Detroit. He also scored seven wins in Champ Car for Ganassi and Newman/Haas.
"Is Bruno out of the picture for 2009?, no, we're working on several things," said Coyne. "He's been good for us and I think we were good for him and we want to run a second car if we can pull things together."