CFH Racing
The cast: Drivers – Josef Newgarden, Luca Filippi, Ed Carpenter. Chief engineers – Jeremy Milless (Newgarden), Matt Barnes (Filippi and Carpenter).
Twitter: @josefnewgarden, @LucaFilippiLF, @edcarpenter20, @CFHRIndy
The cars: Nos. 67 (Newgarden) and 20 (Filippi, Carpenter) Chevrolet
Snapshot: The two-car team enters its first Verizon IndyCar Series as CFH Racing, which is a merger of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. … Carpenter, former Indy car driver Sarah Fisher and businessman Wink Hartman are the co-owners. The race shop is on Main Street in Speedway, Ind., near Indianapolis Motor Speedway. … The team will use the Chevrolet aero kit/engine package (Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing had been aligned with Honda). … It was announced in late August at Sonoma Raceway, where Newgarden qualified second and finished sixth, that he had signed a new deal with the team. … Century 21 Real Estate will be the primary sponsor of the CFH Racing car driven by Newgarden in the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in May. The car’s number will change from 67 to 21, the real estate brand's signature number. Additionally, Century 21 will be an associate sponsor on the No. 67 Chevrolet for the season-closing GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma.
The stats: Carpenter won at Texas Motor Speedway and had two other top-five finishes in six races in 2014. … Filippi (photo right) has driven in four races each of the past two seasons with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (2014) and Barracuda Racing (2013) with best finish of 10th at Houston 1 in 2013. … Newgarden posted seven top-10 finishes last season, doubling his total, with a career-tying best of second at Iowa. He qualified in the top five in each of the final four races, including career-tying best of second at Mid-Ohio and Sonoma. He had an average starting position of 10.8.
The gist: Carpenter, who has earned the Verizon P1 Award for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race the past two years, will contest the six oval races on the schedule. It will be his second season in a part-time driving role. He turns 34 on March 3. … Filippi will drive the No. 20 Fuzzy’s entry in the road/street course events. … Mike Conway posted two victories in the No. 20 car last season. He has moved on to a full-time sports car ride in Europe with Toyota. … Newgarden, 24, the 2011 Indy Lights champion, enters his fourth season (51 starts) with the team. … Other key personnel following the merger remain the same, with Andy O’Gara (Newgarden) and Tim Broyles (Filippi/Carpenter) acting as race strategists and Anton Julian (Newgarden) and Bret Schmitt (Filippi/Carpenter) the chief mechanics.
They said it: “My first year as a two-car team, so that's the biggest thing for me,” Newgarden said. “(We’ve had a) couple days together now of testing, which has been awesome, fantastic getting to learn about (Filippi), to learn how a two-car team works. I can watch somebody else do it, feed off that, one corner here, one corner there. That helps you push forward as a driver.”
Added Filippi: “Josef will be a very strong teammate to work with on the road and street courses. I’m looking forward to learning from him and watching Ed on the ovals as well.”