One of the joys of the Verizon IndyCar Series season ending when it does is that it frees up some of its top drivers for action at the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season finale, Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda.
This year is no exception.
This is no surprise since he said it both after winning the title at Sonoma and again this week at Road America, but reigning champion Scott Dixon was formally, officially confirmed as third driver in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford alongside Joey Hand and Scott Pruett for next week.
Additionally, Sebastien Bourdais will be back with Action Express Racing in the No. 5 Corvette DP for the first time since joining Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi to win the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. That was also Dixon’s last race.
Jack Hawksworth is listed as a fourth driver in the No. 11 RSR Racing Prototype Challenge entry, Ryan Briscoe is back as the third driver in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R in GT Le Mans, and NBCSN IndyCar analyst Townsend Bell is set to conclude his season in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia in GT Daytona.
While not listed as yet, Conor Daly, who’s also driven a handful of IndyCar events in 2015, is expected to fill one of the TBA slots in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports in PC.
So that’ll make a group of six drivers who raced in IndyCar this year set for one final outing on U.S. soil before the end of the calendar year.