By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
As the NTT IndyCar Series heads into the Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, INDYCAR president Jay Frye spoke about the momentum of the series through its first four races prior to the INDYCAR Grand Prix.
In the first four races, there have been four different winners – Josef Newgarden, Colton Herta, Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi. As INDYCAR competition increases, one of Frye’s goals was to create a healthy car count.
“One of the things we’ve worked hard on is a car count,” Frye said Friday. “So, if you look at St. Pete two years ago, we had eight teams and 21 cars. This year we had 12 teams and 24 cars. So, a byproduct of that is here at the 500 we’ve got 36 cars this weekend.”
With NTT Data signing on as the entitlement sponsor of the series and the success of Sato within, Frye has seen the impact of the new sponsor.
“The impact that NTT has on the series has been immense already,” Frye said. “We went over there to meet with them in November. Their platform in that country is phenomenal.
“It was funny, we took Takuma with us to meet them that one time, and when he walked in their building, you could just see everybody knew who he was, they were very polite to him, but it was fun to watch. He’s definitely a rock star in Japan. I think between the two of them, it’s going to do good things for us in that country.”
One of the biggest questions Frye has faced is bringing in an additional engine supplier alongside Honda and Chevrolet. Despite not having anything to officially announce, Frye is encouraged by the conversations taking place.
“It’s an ongoing project,” he said. “We’ve probably had two or three things happen the last couple of years that we were really close, and those things are still ongoing. There’s nothing imminent to be announced, but we’re encouraged by the conversations we’re having. We’re encouraged by what they’re telling us.
“They like what we’re doing; they like where we’re going. A lot of it’s just timing. So, it’s a big commitment to do it, it’s infrastructure, it’s building engines. It’s complicated. We’re confident that something is going to happen sooner than later.”
As the spotlight shines on Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Series, Frye is confident that the five-year plan is working for all in INDYCAR.