Leandro Juncos, the 18-year-old son of NTT INDYCAR SERIES team owner Ricardo Juncos, shoulders a unique responsibility for such a young age. Leandro holds two jobs for two different race teams, and both compete this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
He races the full season in USF Juniors in the No. 17 DEForce Racing entry. Leandro also holds an important engineering and strategy role on his dad’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Juncos Hollinger Racing team.
Leandro has ascended to both positions rapidly.
The initial plan saw Leandro training with the soccer team of his father’s native Argentina. He always had an affection for both motorsports and soccer, beginning playing soccer at 3 and karting at 5.
As his soccer skills progressed, the American-born Leandro eventually moved to Argentina, the country where his father was born and raised, to fulfil a soccer dream. But while there, Leandro realized he never shed the feeling that racing gave him. Motorsports was an obsession he couldn’t shake.
“I liked racing more than soccer, but racing was seen as economically very expensive,” he said. “I was always aware of that. So, I pursued soccer, and racing was more like a hobby when I was older.”
Living and training in Argentina, Leandro wasn’t able to attend the Indianapolis 500 by Gainbridge. Watching from afar was one of the determining factors sparking an interest to return to home in America.
“I always came to the Indy 500 every year,” said Juncos. “Missing it was huge. It was a really big blow. That's one of the main reasons to come home.”
With the decision made for Leandro to return home and his interest in joining the family racing business, Ricardo said it was a no-brainer to give his son a shot. He said Leandro faced a steep learning curve going through the elite Argentinian soccer program, which helped Leandro learn and grow up quickly. That maturity paved a path for the perfect job for Leandro on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES team.
Ricardo wanted Leandro to be an assistant engineer on rookie Agustin Canapino’s No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet for the 2023 INDYCAR SERIES season.
“We came from a one car team to two cars,” Ricardo Juncos said. “We have a lot of deficits on the way the information was from the server to the drivers, and it was missing some of those people.”
Even though he is young, Leandro excels with data. He’s a true student of the game, admitting he has watched almost every single INDYCAR SERIES race for the last decade. Between that and his sim racing hobby where in his simulator, he’s on his own with setups, strategy and driving, serving as an assistant engineer was a perfect introductory role.
With Canapino hailing from Argentina, he was receptive to having a then-17-year-old on his pit box to help with the transition. The two had early success. With help from Leandro, Canapino finished 12th in the first two races of his INDYCAR SERIES career, at St. Petersburg and Texas. Remember, too, Canapino never had raced on any of the series tracks before last season.
“He was doing a good job,” Ricardo said of his son.
Ricardo proposed that Leandro take on more responsibilities as the season went along. That role evolved to Leandro giving data and reports to both teams within the organization, which Ricardo Juncos said improved the entire organization.
Ricardo said before one race weekend last season, Leandro gave a report on what would be the best strategy for that particular race. Scott Dixon won on that same strategy.
“So, then we say, ‘OK, wow,’ so, for the last three or four races of 2023, he was actually controlling the strategy,” Ricardo said.
Being immersed in day-to-day operations for a racing team sparked Leandro’s desire to drive again. By the end of 2023, DEForce Racing had a testing opportunity in a USF Juniors car at Barber Motorsports Park. Being his first professional opportunity to drive, Leandro showed strong pace, which led to a full-time ride with DEForce Racing this season.
Leandro didn’t turn his back on Juncos Hollinger Racing despite his new drive in USF Juniors. The 2023 success led to an even bigger role within the team for the 2024 INDYCAR SERIES season. Leandro, still on the pit box for Canapino, is also controlling the software that the team uses to predict tire wear and more of the technical data the team comprises behind the scenes.
Leandro said experience of holding two jobs in motorsports is beneficial to each profession.
“I think when I speak to the team at JHR it's easier to discuss things because I know from a driver’s point of view now how it is,” he said. “Different lines, different sectors I can know where we might be struggling, and I can understand more like if it's him (Canapino) or if it's the car so we can make the whole process easier and more understandable with him. And I could apply his feedback to what direction to go with the car, and it's very similar to my team.”
Ricardo embraces Leandro as a secret weapon. And he also relishes working with his son, whom he calls his best friend. The feeling is mutual for Leandro.
“I think he's one of the best examples of coming from so little and getting so far,” Leandro said about his father. “Such a big stage. His approach to life in his philosophies I've always heard about them, but I think going to Argentina living there, actually experiencing to a little percentage of what he experienced as a kid that really opens your mind to that and you understand more.
“I think I can apply much more of that knowledge and that way of living and working now that I lived to experience them. I understand them more in a way as a professional. I think it's very similar, so I tried to emulate the best I can.”