Is Indy Lights Move Foreshadowing For Andretti Autosport?
Andretti Autosport announced a new Indy Lights driver on Tuesday but it’s what the move doesn’t say that should interest fans of the Verizon IndyCar Series.
As the driver free agency period continues, Andretti Autosport made an Indy Lights move on Tuesday, announcing that Nico Jamin will take over its No. 27 entry in IndyCar‘s development series. But more notable than what was announced is what wasn’t said.
What does it mean for Dean Stoneman? The 26-year-old Briton drove the No. 27 during the 2016 Indy Lights season, so Jamin’s hiring makes him currently unemployed. But Stoneman is one of the many Lights drivers who have been vocal about wanting an IndyCar ride; was Jamin hired because Stoneman was on his way up?
There are few IndyCar seats available but one of them that may or may not be on the market is an Andretti seat. The No. 26 car, previously the property of Carlos Munoz, has been up for grabs since Munoz had sponsorship issues and subsequently went on to Dale Coyne Racing. The expectation has been that Takuma Sato will get the seat, although as of Nov. 22 the team wasn’t prepared to make an announcement to confirm the identity of its fourth driver.
If Stoneman were to jump to IndyCar the obvious path would be promotion to Andretti’s major league roster. Could the team possibly change course and bring Stoneman up to join the likes of Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi?
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It’s possible but not incredibly likely. Stoneman only drove one season in Indy Lights and finished fifth in the championship standings. He did win two races this year – including the Freedom 100, which is Lights’ companion event to the Indianapolis 500 – and had seven podium finishes overall. But just one campaign is the smallest of sample sizes and fifth in the title fight leaves room for improvement.
He could go to another team, but there are only two seats (really one and a half) left for 2017 and both have plenty of other folks in line.
The only other conclusion to draw from Andretti’s reveal on Tuesday is that Stoneman is simply out of a job. If that’s the case, what could make the team want to switch the No. 27’s driver after just one season? Stoneman may not have set Indy Lights on fire, but those two wins and seven podiums aren’t anything to dismiss out of hand either. And just like one season isn’t a significant sample size for promotion, it’s also not really enough to declare him a flop.
Things aren’t looking great for Indy Lights overall – contenders Schmidt Peterson Motorsports walked away from the league recently – so one also has to ask what the exit of a multiple race winner like Stoneman will mean for competition next year. If Lights is going to raise its profile it needs quality drivers, so is swapping Stoneman for Jamin an improvement or not?
Fans won’t know what happens to Stoneman unless he makes his own announcement and lands with another team. But Andretti Autosport has now turned its attention to Nico Jamin and we’ll see next year whether that works out for either driver.
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