Beck to field entry in IndyCar Series season opener
On March 14, Beck filed an entry for the No. 98 CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports Dallara/Honda/Firestone for the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 24.
"My heart's in Indy car racing," Beck said. "That's our heritage and what we want to be doing. We're excited to be back in the IndyCar Series. We're trying to build a program and run as many races this year. We have Homestead, Kansas and Indy nailed down. After Indy, we're working on things for the remainder of the year and trying to build into a bigger program for 2008.
"We're working harder than ever to make it happen."
A driver for the prime-time race on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval will be named shortly.
"I'm trying to make a decision on a driver for the first race that makes sense," said Beck, who noted this program is separate from the Team Leader Motorsports program that competed in the Indianapolis 500 with Stephan Gregoire and PJ Jones last May.
Beck said the stock car racing experience provided potential sponsor contacts that would allow at least a partial season of competition in the IndyCar Series.
"I've always been motivated to try to get back in the series full time," he said. "I saw how all that (Busch Series) works. It's something that if you're going to do it you have to have your heart in it, you have to get after it. Every time I turned around I was working on getting back to Indy car racing. I made a lot of contacts — potential sponsors and marketing people that have sponsors that are looking for avenues outside of NASCAR. All those things helped the motivation that I could put together at least enough sponsorship to run a partial season."
Beck Motorsports was formed in 1991 by the second-generation driver and fielded Indianapolis 500 efforts for drivers including Buddy Lazier and Hideshi Matsuda. With the formation of the Indy Racing League in 1996, the team appeared at the IndyCar Series' inaugural event, the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World, with Robbie Buhl as the driver.
Beck fielded Billy Boat in 2001, finishing fourth in the championship with four top-five finishes and eight top-10 results, including a second-place finish at Nashville and partnered with Boat for the 2002 season.
Jones competed for the team in the 500-Mile Race in 2006 and '04, and Shinji Nakano drove in the '500' in 2003. The team failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 with rookie driver Arie Luyendyk Jr. in 2005. IRL PR