Andretti Autosport took the wraps off its 2014 IndyCars on Monday at its Indianapolis shop. Three of the four entries have new liveries compared to 2013, and the fourth has a new (old) number.
The 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay retains the yellow, white and red DHL colors and returns to the number 28 after his title defense with No. 1 in 2013 featured myriad bad luck.
His teammates all have different colors. Marco Andretti, who retains sponsorship from the Dr Pepper Snapple group, shifts to a yellow-and-blue livery on his No. 25 Honda. The Snapple brand itself takes over from RC Cola, which it had been the last two seasons. This marks the group’s eighth season with the team; Andretti’s car had previously featured Venom Energy Drink, Dr Pepper, Dr Pepper TEN and RC Cola liveried cars.
James Hinchcliffe’s new United Fiber & Data entry, the No. 27, carries a blue-and-white livery that almost brings back memories of another Canadian era of motorsports: the Player’s/Forsythe liveries driven by Canadians Jacques Villeneuve, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani and the late Greg Moore. Villeneuve won the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and CART championship in the No. 27.
Meanwhile rookie Carlos Munoz rounds out the lineup with the No. 34, rather than the No. 26, with sponsorship from Cinsay, an Austin-based social/online video commerce company. Munoz steps up to a full season of IndyCar after racing two full years in Indy Lights, and also making three outstanding cameo appearances in IndyCar in 2013.
The reason for the No. 34, which had previously been run by the mid-pack Conquest and Coyne teams, is due to a partnership with the 34 Solutions group. Cinsay was named one of the Forbes Top 100 Most Promising Companies in 2012 and formed a relationship last March with 34 Solutions, a company co-chaired by All American football legend Herschel Walker. Under the 34 Commerce banner, the relationship names 34 Solutions as the licensed reseller of Cinsay’s Smart Store technology and provides payment gateway services to process the Smart Store platform transactions.
Munoz’s car is still run in partnership with HVM Racing, same as E.J. Viso’s car was in 2013.
There were two other announcements at the team launch. Andretti Autosport will expand into the Global Rallycross Championship as the factory team for VW; Andretti Sports Marketing is involved in some promotion with the series, so this was a natural progression.
The team also confirmed its Mazda Road to Indy lineup with the previously announced Matthew Brabham and Zach Veach in the team’s Indy Lights cars, with Garett Grist and Shelby Blackstock in the team’s Pro Mazda entries. The team will not field a USF2000 lineup as they have; Grist moves up for 2014 and Austin Cindric’s future is now to be determined as a result.