Ed Carpenter’s team has been spending too much time in IndyCar’s midfield, a place where no veteran team wants to call home.
Its last era of high competitiveness ended when Josef Newgarden left after the 2016 season, and since then, amid a sprinkling of pole positions and a solitary win, Ed Carpenter Racing has hovered in that anonymous midfield void, somewhere between 12th and 15th with its best drivers across the last eight championship runs.
Financial instability has been among the greatest conspirators against ECR’s ability to achieve greater success in recent years. The oft-rumored and alleged problems of overdue sponsorship payments haven’t helped the team to keep up with the bigger and wealthier teams, the ones who use their budgetary might to push the ECRs of IndyCar out of the spotlight.
In his final year for ECR, Newgarden was fourth — evidence of its true potential – which made the eight underwhelming years that followed an ongoing source of frustration, all signs of targets being consistently missed.
If it’s taken the right way, mediocrity can be a powerful motivator, and to break free of the midfield, a sizable investment would be required. There were a few interlopers along the way who promised big and delivered small, and nothing much changed to move the team forward. That’s where the announcement of Ted Gelov as ECR’s new co-owner is such an important happening for the team. And for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Among a range of motivations, Gelov, the owner of Heartland Food Products Group, is said to have been particularly interested in Penske Entertainment’s development of a charter program that would give IndyCar’s full-time entrants commodities of value to hold, seek investment in, or sell. The charters would also guarantee each member’s participation in IndyCar races, outside of the Indianapolis 500, which inspired confidence in where the series was headed.
ECR had some success during its years with Josef Newgarden, including victory at Iowa in 2016. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Gelov’s privately-owned, Indianapolis-based Heartland Food Products Group is said to generate more than a half-billion dollars in annual revenue, which will certainly benefit ECR through his investment into the team. Two of the company’s signature products in the Splenda sweetener and Java House coffee additive have already been announced as sponsors for the team’s Chevy-powered entries next season. And in Gelov, ECR welcomes a businessman with a passion for IndyCar who put in plenty of time and effort to find an ownership position in the series.
RACER understands he met with multiple teams last season and is said to have made one or more offers to either purchase or invest in teams. The fit or timing for the other IndyCar owners wasn’t right, but with ECR, everything fell into place. The rumored investment is said to be in the low eight-figure range and also comes with the funding for multiple seasons to cover the annual operating costs for both cars. A quality budget for a two-car team in 2025 would fall in the $20 million range; some spend slightly more or less in the paddock, but it’s a solid number to hit per season with the new hybrid-powered cars.
However the blend of financial outlays with buying into ECR to become co-owner and backing the cars with Heartland Food Products Group brands adds up, and it comes out to a sizable and team-changing decision.
Carpenter’s good friend Alexander Rossi, who’s been the top IndyCar free agent for months, has been mentioned as the first option for every remaining team with a solid budget and the need to hire a pro’s pro to lead a team. In light of its previous financial limitations, the Rossi-to-ECR angle has always had a monetary hurdle to clear, and as former lead driver Rinus VeeKay was informed on Friday, the decision to move on from him was for commercial reasons.
Whether that means the team has new commercial capabilities to hire a more expensive and experienced driver, or the brands represented on next year’s ECR cars would be better served with a higher-profile Indy 500-winning American driver, or it all has nothing whatsoever to do with Rossi, is unknown. The team will reveal its driver plans on Wednesday.
But with a buy-in price and sponsorship package from Gelov that would allow ECR to hire drivers without having to worry about their price tag and recruit more engineers and more talent to complement its existing staff, the efforts to get back to the team’s richest days are evident.
Carpenter believes that the new charter system was instrumental in attracting Gelov’s investment. Joe Skibinski/IMS Photo
It takes a long trip down memory lane to recall the heady times, but for those who were there, ECR was a problem for the Ganassis and Penskes and Andrettis to handle a decade ago, as Mike Conway had a penchant for taking the team to victory lane on street courses in 2013 and 2014. Separate from his trio of Indy 500 poles, Carpenter also won on the ovals for the team from 2012-2014, and with Newgarden’s arrival in 2015 in an ownership pact with Sarah Fisher and Wink Hartman, the team rocketed forward in the standings during its two most competitive seasons.
The post-Newgarden years have fallen short, as everyone from VeeKay to JR Hildebrand to Spencer Pigot to Jordan King to Ed Jones to Conor Daly to Ryan Hunter-Reay were unable to recapture ECR’s glory days. Those failures often said more about the team’s shortcomings than the drivers’, but that can change.
In Gelov, who joins Carpenter and Stuart Reed and Tony George within the team’s business foundation, ECR should have a newfound ability to vie for multiple wins each season and fight among the established title contenders — well clear of the midfield — once the investments in people and technology have time to soak and reach their full potential. It won’t be an overnight rise, but there’s a lot of optimism to be held for where ECR can go in the coming years.
The last point of interest related to Gelov’s search for an IndyCar team to join and enrich is the statement-making vote of confidence it gives to Penske’s new charter program.
As Carpenter hailed on Monday when the charters were formally introduced, and without tipping his hand to Tuesday’s announcement of ECR’s new co-owner, the transformational arrival of Gelov and Heartland Food Products Group is the first big win for the charter.
“This charter system will clearly strengthen our teams as we continue to grow the sport. I would like to thank Roger and his entire team at IndyCar,” Carpenter said.
“ECR will have announcements soon and I don’t know that they would be possible without the help of a program like this. With this groundbreaking development, IndyCar’s future is very bright.”
There was hope the charter would lead to new business opportunities and prosperity for the paddock, and with a rumored package in the $40 million range for ECR, Penske and all of those who brought the charter to life have a huge triumph to celebrate. Hopefully, thanks to charters, ECR is the first of many teams who’ll get to tell this tale.
