IndyCar Engine Shuffle

With the rumor that 2013 Indy Lights Champion Sage Karam is nearing a deal with Sam Schmidt's team for next year, as reported yesterday by AutoRacing1.com, we are beginning to wonder how the engine lease musical chairs will shake out in IndyCar. If Karam goes to Schmidt, that would mean 2 Schmidt cars, 4 Andretti cars (with a possible fifth) are already earmarked for Honda. Presuming Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Dale Coyne also have 2, in addition to one car each for Barracuda Racing and Aj Foyt enterprises that brings the number to 12.

And considering Honda has been very vocal about its unwillingness to go above 12 leases, you have to imagine that at least one other of 2013's Honda teams will join Chip Ganassi Racing in switching to Chevrolet. This number could be more if Andretti runs a fifth car.

Anyway, we expect that Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, which has run Josef Newgarden with Honda power the past two seasons, could be headed to the Bowtie Brigade in 2014. Remember, Fisher has talked openly about a potential technical alliance with another IndyCar team, something that no Honda teams currently seem to have much room for.

Fisher also implied she was less than thrilled with Honda in an interview with last month with Marshall Pruett of Racer, referring to Honda not by name, rather "the manufacturer we're currently with."

In short, Fisher's discontent with Honda, combined with the fact Honda is probably at capacity, lead us to believe SFHR may be joining the Bowtie Brigade in 2014.