Photo Credit: Bret Kelley/IndyCar
Tristan Vautier made the move to full-time Verizon IndyCar Series competition in 2013 with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. The season didn’t go as hoped, with only one top-10 finish – 10th at Birmingham – throughout the whole season. As a result, he would be without a ride heading into 2014.
He has made his return to competition this season, running for Dale Coyne Racing. Indianapolis didn’t go as planned, with a crash taking him out of contention. But on Sunday at Detroit in his only second weekend back, his team played the right strategy on the wet-dry track, and he drove a smart race throughout. As a result, he posted his best career finish with a fourth.
“Hats off to the team for making the perfect calls today on strategy,” he commented. “It really paid off for us. The car was really good. You know, it was chaos out there, but you couldn’t be too conservative because if you were too conservative you would just get passed by everyone. It was a fine line between aggressive and keeping the car in one piece, but we found it today so it is amazing.”
The Corenc, France native doesn’t know whether he will be running more races for Dale Coyne Racing as the team is still working on finalizing the driver schedule for 2015. For now, though, he’s thankful for the opportunity.
“A big thanks to Dale Coyne for having me drive for his team this weekend and thanks to all the guys,” he commented. “It was an amazing experience and I hope we can do more together.”
