Two-Time Indy 500 Winner Takuma Sato Will Run All IndyCar Oval Races

Chip Ganassi Racing ended the uncertainty involving two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato Tuesday as a team spokesman said the driver from Tokyo will compete in the final three oval races of the 2023 season.

Sato will be behind the wheel of the No. 11 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing at Iowa Speedway on Wednesday – site of a 20-car test for next month’s Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway. He is also confirmed for the remainder of the oval season in 2023, which according to the CGR spokesman had been the plan all along.

But Sato had floated the idea at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May that the 107^th Indianapolis 500 on May 28 may have been his last oval race of the season for CGR.

Earlier this year at the season opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Peterburg, team owner Chip Ganassi had indicated that Sato was confirmed through the Indianapolis 500, which would have been a two-race oval season for the 2017 and 2020 Indy 500 winner.

Sato splits the No. 11 Honda with Marcus Armstrong of New Zealand driving the car on the street and road courses and Sato on the ovals.

Sato started sixth and finished 28^th in the April 2 PPG 375 at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. He started eighth and finished seventh in the May 28 Indianapolis 500, leading two laps, and completing all 200 laps in the race won by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden.

It was after this year’s Indianapolis 500 that Sato told me he hoped to finish out the remaining oval races on the schedule with Chip Ganassi Racing but had not been given any assurances that would happen.

“Chip Ganassi Racing, all four cars finished in the top seven, and we had a chance to contend for the victory,” Sato told me. “In the end, we came back really strong finishing just behind my teammate, Scott Dixon, sixth and seventh. We wish we could have finished higher than that.

“We will see. It was promising in 2023 and hopefully we can come back in 2024.”

The remainder of Sato’s 2023 NTT IndyCar Series schedule includes the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart on July 22, the Hy-Vee One Step 250 Presented by Gatorade on July 23, and the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway on August 27.

Armstrong will not compete in any oval races this year in the No. 11 but could get a test on an oval during the offseason.

So far this season, Armstrong’s best start is eighth last weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and his best finish is a pair of eighths at Long Beach in April and Detroit in June.

Sato will be part of an impressive list of NTT IndyCar Series drivers that will be on track at the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway for Wednesday’s test.

Those drivers include Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Romain Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport; Augustin Canapino of Juncos Hollinger Racing; Jack Harvey, Christion Lundgaard and Graham Rahal from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing; Santino Ferrucci and Benjamin Pedersen of AJ Foyt Racing; Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou and Sato at Chip Ganassi Racing; Ed Carpenter, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rinus VeeKay from Ed Carpenter Racing; Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud from Meyer Shank Racing and rookie Sting Ray Robb from Dale Coyne Racing.