Dale Coyne to run one car
UPDATE #2 What is known is that if Servia doesn't stick with Newman/Haas, he isn't likely to be welcomed back by Coyne, who ran just one car in Saturday's race. "I want a driver who is going to be loyal to the team now and in the future," said Coyne, who had a handshake agreement but no contract with Servia since they hooked up last year. "If it had been for the rest of the season, that's one thing, but to do it for one race doesn't make a lot of sense to me." 06/02/05 Dale Coyne will run just one car in Milwaukee this weekend. Although he talked to Michael Valiante about driving for Servia, Valiante had other commitments so Dale decided to go with just one car (Sperafico). "We will be back up to two cars in Portland," said Coyne. The grid in Milwaukee will be down to 17, one more than the minimum in the Milwaukee contract. Mark C. 06/01/05 If anyone got a raw deal out of this entire Bruno Junqueira replacement story it's Dale Coyne. He lost his #1 driver, Oriol Servia, to Newman/Haas and in 36 hours has to have two cars with drivers ready to go for practice on Friday morning at Milwaukee. When we spoke to him he wasn't a happy camper.
"I don't know what I'm going to do right now," said Coyne. "This all happened all of a sudden and now it's hard to get a driver with oval experience who can step in and do the job at Milwaukee on such short notice with no testing."
We asked him about Mario Haberfeld, who was standing by to replace Timo Glock in Monterrey. "I have not spoken to Mario," said Coyne.
Coyne's choices are somewhat limited. Perhaps Memo Gidley could step in and get the job done, and there are a whole host of other young hotshoes out there, but finding one who has Champ Car experience on an oval is not going to be easy. Mark C.