CARMEL, Ind. – It was a hometown event for Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD) as a quintet of drivers battled all weekend long at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Despite showing speed and having a presence at the front of the field, results were hard to come by as the drivers will now shift their focus to the next event on the Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park oval for the Carb Night Classic.
Entering the weekend second in the USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire championship battle, Evagoras Papasavvas was running on a string of five straight podium results coming into Indy. Qualifying sixth for race one, Papasavvas finished just shy of the podium in fourth, gaining some valuable championship points for his efforts. Back to the track for race two, Evagoras had contact and was forced to retire early and classified in 19th, but left Indy still second in the points chase.
Behind him, Michael Costello qualified 12th for race one and finished 13th before moving forward in race two to finish seventh. Tanner DeFabis had a solid drive in race one, turning his P18 qualifying effort into a ninth-place result, but like Papasavaas, he fell victim to an incident on track and would be scored 21st for race two. G3 Argyros made his USF2000 Presented by Continental Tire debut. After a 21st qualifying effort and a 21st result in race one, G3 drove to 12th in race two, gathering some much-deserved confidence and experience.
Frankie Mossman and the USF Pro 2000 Presented by Continental Tire had a triple header event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as they battled on three different occasions on the world’s most iconic race track. Qualifying 10th but failing to finish race one, classified in 19th, Mossman returned for races two and three on the weekend finishing 11th and 10th.
“It was a jam-packed weekend with a lot of on-track sessions so a big thank you to all the JHDD crew for their hard work and efforts,” expressed Jay Howard. “For our drivers, it is not the weekend we wanted results-wise, but we will be back in less than two weeks on the oval for the Carb Night Classic and look forward to fighting at the front of the field.”
While the NTT INDYCAR SERIES shifts its focus to the Indianapolis 500, JHDD drivers will aim to win on the oval at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park May 22-24.