Last year, Ed Carpenter and his organization Ed Carpenter Racing came close to winning – but yet failed to reach victory lane. However, a change was made in the off-season for Carpenter to focus on the ovals and ownership side, while hiring Mike Conway to run the road course events.
So far, the decision has paid off for all parties as Conway picked up a win earlier this year, while Carpenter won the race at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend.
“We’ve got a good group of people, and I think we’re able to show that on track right now,” Carpenter said. “Like I keep saying, I’m really proud of the whole team, the whole effort, the whole group. We have a lot of fun, and it’s even more fun when you’re winning.
“They’ve been giving us great cars all year for myself and Mike, so it’s nice to be able to deliver.”
While some people may not give the smaller single-car organization credit against the three to four-car teams in the series like Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport, Carpenter is keeping his goals right up there at hte same level as the others.
“I want to try to win every session, every race that we go to, whether I’m driving or Mike is driving,” Carpenter said. “We’re just going to try to keep the intensity up and try to keep fighting for wins. The team is certainly capable and they give us cars. We just got to put it all together week in and week out.”
Even when given a couple weeks to breath and relax, the action didn’t stop as Carpenter was testing at Iowa Speedway and Milwaukee this past week in anticipation for the future oval events this year.
“We need to use this break to get ready for the next oval races,” he commented. “It’s tough on the whole team after more than a month of work. But that is why we love to go racing,”
If Carpenter found anything in addition to help make his team stronger at either test, he’ll definitely be one to watch as he has been strong at both oval races so far this year. While he won Texas, Carpenter looked like he had one of the quickest car at Indianapolis last month and could’ve contended for the win till he was involved in an wreck with James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell.
