Ed Carpenter to run ovals this season; Conway to run road courses

In November, Ed Carpenter announced that he would only run the six ovals behind the wheel of the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car that he owns in the IndyCar Series while Mike Conway would run the 12 road/street circuit races.

Carpenter got to get a feeling of being out of the car and watching another driver in it after attending a two-day test last month where he watched team manager Tim Broyles, engineer Matt Barnes and crew chief Bret Schmitt work with Conway.

“It did feel different watching, but the team worked well with Mike on developing the car. It was a good start for us. Overall, I like the direction we are going,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said discussions began after his first season with Fuzzy’s as he wanted to make sure that they were happy. Though after this past season and with Conway available, it seemed to come together perfectly.

“It’s just a really good fit for what he wants to do, what his skill set is and his professional approach is really in line with how we operate,” Carpenter added. “It’s early, but we’ll all expecting to do great things.”

The goal is to try and win as many races as possible, while going after the entrant championship.

“I feel like we have all the tools and the combined talent of Mike and I and the team’s overall ability, the potential is there to make that goal a reality,” he said. “Like everything, it’s going to come down to execution and overachieving every weekend.”

Carpenter says the package will allow him to focus more on the business side of the team, but he will be there on weekends he is not driving to add input from a driver’s perspective to help the team.

“That’s the main objective is to making sure Ed Carpenter Racing is in a position to be sustainable and be a long-standing team in the series,” he said.