Ed Carpenter enjoying success as driver-owner this year in IndyCar

As the Verizon IndyCar Series enters their final month of competition for 2014, reflection has begun to set in for many in what they have accomplished so far thus year. For Ed Carpenter, that reflection in the rear view brings positive thoughts.

“It’s been a good year,” he commented. “I think to have three wins on the year, it’s hard not to be happy with that.  I feel like as the year has gone on, we’re all getting used to this arrangement, getting to know Mike (Conway) more, just the whole thing gets better and better all the time.  As far as running this type of program where we’re splitting a car between Mike and me, it’s the best scenario.”

Carpenter caught everyone’s attention at the beginning of the season when he announced that he would run the ovals, while Mike Conway would run the road/street courses. The partnership has worked out as Conway won both Long Beach and Toronto Race 2, while Carpenter picked up the win at Texas. They also ran two cars in the Indianapolis 500 versus one, perhaps setting the tone for the future of Ed Carpenter Racing.

“We would like to expand,” Carpenter stated. “I think we’ve talked about that in 2012 when we started the team, that’s something we would like to do.  But there are always a lot of variables with that, getting to that point.  Hopefully we get there.  We’re working hard to be able to expand.  We’ll just have to wait and see what the future holds.”

Making it work, though, isn’t the easiest thing as there’s a lot of things on Carpenter’s plate at any given time. That’s why he says the key to success is time management.

“My weekends are very different if it’s a weekend I’m driving versus just being ownership. Managing my time depending on what my role is that given weekend,” Carpenter said. “But it really hasn’t been that bad as I’ve gotten used to it.  It’s just a time management thing, knowing what to focus on, especially when I’m out of the car and Mike is in the car, figuring out how I can be the most help to the team and to Mike and the engineers, when to speak up, when to sit back and be quiet, let everyone do their job.”  

Now heading into the final four races of the season – two for Conway, two for Carpenter – the goal is simple: finish the year off strong.

“At this point hopefully four top fives.  If we can do that, we’ll be in a good position to be in the top five in entrants, which I’ll be happy with,” Carpenter commented.