Team Moore Racing announced today that Jimmy Simpson will drive the No. 22 TMR/ReedSmith/XtremeDrilling&Coil car in the Freedom 100 on May 24th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 20-year-old Simpson is a veteran of USAC national midgets, sprint cars, karts, and Formula Atlantic cars, and will be making his race debut in Firestone Indy Lights.
Simpson is also a full-time student at Purdue University, where he recently became the first driver ever to win the Purdue Grand Prix, Purdue Electric Vehicle Grand Prix and the Intercollegiate EV Grand Prix, which was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is such an awesome opportunity, and I can’t thank Mark Moore and Tom Wood and their great team of guys enough for providing it," Simpson said. "I am extremely excited to drive in the Firestone Freedom 100 with Team Moore. I dreamed of racing at Indy my entire life. It’s the coolest track in the world, and the only thing that could top this is to drive in the Indianapolis 500, which I hope to do some day."
Simpson’s sponsors include Reed Smith, Follicles Hair Clinic, HMR Indy, Polen Designs, the Ned and Andy Clark family, and The Joseph Maley Foundation. The Joseph Maley Foundation is a charity for disabled children which provides support to children through various events and programs it sponsors annually (josephmaley.org).
"Everyone here at Team Moore Racing is excited to have Jimmy compete for us at the Freedom 100," Moore said. "Jimmy is rather unique among most 20-year-old drivers in my opinion. He grew up road racing go karts with many of today's top talents, Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden just to name a couple. Then Jimmy went Midget and Sprint Car racing the last five years, as well. Somewhere in his busy schedule he has also been running a Formula Atlantic car.
"I can't think of another young driver who is able to compete in such a diverse category of cars and racing, it makes me think of the Foyts and Tony Stewarts of the world. We were all very impressed with him at the recent Open Test at Indy. Jimmy did an excellent job for us and as his race engineer Don Bricker said he asks all the right questions! There is a lot to look forward to and hopefully the Freedom 100 is just the beginning of what we can do together."
The Firestone Freedom 100 will be aired live as part of NBC Sports Network's 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. (ET) coverage of Coors Lite Carb Day on May 24. The green flag drops at 12:30 p.m.