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Fresh off winning its third consecutive IndyCar Series Manufacturers Championship in a season that also featured another Indianapolis 500 victory courtesy of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden the bowtie brand is prepared to expand its presence, while keeping up that winning performance and support that is attracting all these teams to begin with.
Next year will see the Chevrolet continue to supply the usual suspects of AJ Foyt Racing, Arrow McLaren, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing and Team Penske, but — as it is already well known — will add European junior formula giant Prema to the family. And with that comes helping propel 14 full-time entries, with that number growing significantly for one-off teams or expanded efforts (such as Kyle Larson with a fourth entry collaboration with Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports) in the Indy 500 and other select rounds.
With all these additions to the Chevrolet field, how thin are GM’s resources being stretched? “I always say we’re over the limit,” Eric Warren, executive director of global motorsports competition for General Motors said. “Certainly I get told that by our finance people (smiling). But we keep pushing. We’re maxed out.
“Anytime we get an opportunity to add a quality team, we want to take a hard look at it,” Warren said. “With Prema, one of the things as we looked at them coming from Europe, the success they had in some of the lower series, their access to drivers, experience with drivers, is something that we felt like will add to the mix.
“It is difficult as we add teams because, again, as much as we as Chevrolet want the teams to work totally together for Chevrolet, they’re still racing each other and still competitive. It creates more mouths to feed, information. We see that as a positive. The more we can learn, more we can try different things.
“But there’s a limit of we don’t want to spread our resources out too thin and not be able to compete.”
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet at the yard of bricks after winning the 107th Indy 500
Photo by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images
While Chevrolet enjoyed its ninth Manufacturers Championship since returning to North America’s premier open-wheel championship in 2012, having someone claim the driver’s title has been far more tricky. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou established a run of consistency — namely at road and street circuits — that has aided him in capturing three of the last four titles, which stands as a significant bright spot for Honda.
All of that helps bring to focus the key area of development Chevrolet continues to strive to overcome.
“I still think we have to improve on some of the road courses,” Warren said. “When you look at the consistency of Palou, obviously he’s leading, we want to be leading. I think we understand that more. We still have work to do.”