Jay Howard (born 16 February 1981) is a British professional race car driver who competes in the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

and

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

and resides in

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

. Howard was the 2005 US Formula Ford Zetec champion (now known as the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship) and moved up to the Indy Lights series, where he captured two wins on his way to the 2006 championship for

Sam Schmidt Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren (competing as Arrow McLaren due to sponsorship) is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports. After a series of partnerships and name ...

in his rookie season. He qualified for his first

in 2011.

Career

Howard was born in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

, England.

Indy Pro Series (2006–07)

In 2006, Howard competed in the Indy Pro Series for

, winning the series championship in his rookie season over Jonathan Klein and Wade Cunningham. Howard earned two victories (Nashville and Kentucky) and seven total podium finishes. He made three starts for SpeedWorks at the beginning of the 2007 season, but was inactive for the rest of the year.

IndyCar Series (2008)

Roth Racing Roth Racing was a race team owned by Canadian real estate magnate and racecar driver Marty Roth. It competed in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. 2004-2005 The team was founded in 2004 when Marty Roth purchased the Indy Pro Series equip ...

announced on 26 November 2007 that they had signed Howard to drive their second car for the

2008 IndyCar Series season The 2008 IndyCar Series was the 13th season of the IndyCar Series. It was the 97th recognized season of top-level American open wheel racing. On February 26, 2008, the managements of Indy Racing League and Champ Car came to an agreement to becom ...

. Howard was hired on merit/talent and did not bring sponsorship to the team. The team was presented with a sponsorship opportunity with another driver and Howard was replaced in the No. 24

entry by

John Andretti John Andrew Andretti (March 12, 1963January 30, 2020) was an American race car driver. He won individual races in CART, IMSA GTP, Rolex Sports Car Series, and NASCAR during his career. He was the son of Aldo Andretti, older brother of racer Ada ...

for the

2008 Indianapolis 500 The 92nd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 25, 2008. Scott Dixon of New Zealand won the race from the pole position. It was the thirteenth Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League ...

. This was originally announced as a one–race arrangement, meaning Howard would be back for the Milwaukee race. However, on 30 May, it was announced that Andretti would continue in the No. 24 car in the

Milwaukee Mile The Milwaukee Mile is a oval race track in the central United States, located on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee. Its grandstand and bleachers seats approximately 37,000 spectator ...

and

Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° ...

races. Andretti also drove in the next two races at the

Iowa Speedway Iowa Speedway is a 7/8-mile (1.4 km) paved oval motor racing track in Newton, Iowa, United States, approximately east of Des Moines. It has over 25,000 permanent seats as well as a unique multi-tiered RV viewing area along the backstretch ...

and

Richmond International Raceway Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Known as ...

, but Howard returned to the car for the

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the hom ...

road course race. It would be Howard's last race with the team, as it contracted to a single car driven by team owner

Marty Roth Marty Roth (born December 15, 1958) is a Canadian former race car driver who last competed in 2008 in the IndyCar Series where he owned his own team, Roth Racing. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Roth was a successful land developer in the Tor ...

for the rest of the season.

Firestone Indy Lights (2009)

Howard began the

2009 Indy Lights season 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

– the new name for the Indy Pro Series – for the rookie outfit Team PBIR. He competed in five races, before being replaced by paying drivers

Pablo Donoso Pablo Donoso Prado (born December 3, 1984) is a professional racing driver from Santiago de Chile. He began racing at 9 years of age. He is racing in the Firestone Indy Lights Series and passed the Rookie Test for the Indy Racing League IndyCar Ser ...

and

Richard Philippe Richard Philippe (January 10, 1990 in Valence, Drôme – 22 November 2018) was a French racecar driver who resided in Miami, Florida. He was the younger brother of Nelson Philippe. After moving up from the go-kart ranks in 2005, at fifteen years ...

for the remainder of the season.

Return to the IndyCar Series (2010–18)

2010 season

While Howard was announced in late 2009 with SFR for four events –

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...

Chicagoland Speedway Chicagoland Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Joliet, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. The speedway opened in 2001 and actively hosted NASCAR racing including the NASCAR Cup Series until 2019. Until 2010, the speedway has also hosted the IndyC ...

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. Mid-Ohio has also colloquially become a term for the entire north-central regio ...

– on 1 March 2010, SFR announced that they would add the

Kansas Speedway Kansas Speedway is a tri-oval race track in the Village West area near Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was built in 2001 and it currently hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The IndyCar Series also held races at the venue until 2011 ...

event to Howard's campaign. On 14 April, Howard joined team owner Fisher when he was the first entrant for the

2010 Indianapolis 500 The 94th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 30, 2010. It was the 15th Indy 500 sanctioned by the Indy Racing League, and was the premier event of the 2010 IndyCar Series season, 2010 IZ ...

, while celebrating the 100th anniversary of English drivers competing at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. On 21 April, Howard unveiled the 2010 paint scheme for his No. 66 Service Central entry at Kansas Speedway during a private test. On 23 May, Howard had qualified for the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500. With just minutes left before the gun would fire to signal the 33-car field, Howard's entry was withdrawn due to pressure from next in queue, veteran driver Paul Tracy. Howard failed to show sufficient speed to qualify and missed the race. On 28 August, Howard competed in his last race with SFR, fulfilling his contract with the team. On 10 October, Howard won the RoboPong 200 all-star kart race at the New Castle Motorsports Park along with teammate Bill McLaughlin Jr., beating such notable drivers as

Will Power William "Will" Steven Power (born 1 March 1981) is an Australian motorsports driver who currently competes in the IndyCar Series, driving for Team Penske. He is the 2014 and 2022 IndyCar Series champion and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion. ...

and

Graham Rahal Graham Robert Rahal (born January 4, 1989) is an American race car driver and small business owner. He currently participates in the IndyCar Series with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, a team partially owned by his father Bobby Rahal, the winner ...

, among others.

2011 season

Howard noted in an interview on 14 October 2010, on ''Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee'' on 1070 The Fan Indianapolis, that he would in no way return to SFR after the year they had. He also noted that he has his 2011 Indianapolis 500 program solidified and the team would be announced soon. Howard signed a deal with

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is an auto racing team that has participated in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IndyCar Series. Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana and Hilliard, Ohio, it is co-owned by 1986 Indianapolis 500 win ...

in association with

to race in the

2011 Indianapolis 500 The 95th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 29, 2011. The race was part of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The track opened for practice on May 14 and time trials were held from M ...

and the twin races at

. Howard successfully qualified for the Indy 500 on pole day in the 20th position. He crashed out of the race after completing 60 laps and was credited with 30th place. Two weeks later, he finished 15th and 20th in the twin races at Texas Motor Speedway.

2012 season

Howard was announced on 23 April 2012 as the driver of a

Mike Shank Michael Shank (born September 22, 1966) is an American race car team owner and former race car driver born in Columbus, Ohio. Before leaving driving to concentrate on car ownership, he ran one race in the 1996–97 Indy Racing League season, the ...

Racing entry, which was filed for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500. On 2 May 2012, MSR Indy announced they had relieved Howard of his duties to the team, after an engine deal had not materialised for the team, leaving the Brit open to pursue other options.

2017 season

After a four-year absence from the Verizon IndyCar Series, Howard made his return to the series during the 101st running of the Indy 500 in a car financed by

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed Smoke, is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, current NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and current co-owner of the Superstar Racing Experience. He is a ...

and

Sam Schmidt Samuel Schmidt (born August 15, 1964) is a former Indy Racing League driver and current NTT IndyCar Series and Indy Lights series team owner. Schmidt's brief IndyCar career included a win in 1999, but an accident before the 2000 season left him ...

2018 season

Jay returned to

and competed in the 2018 Indy 500 for the second consecutive time in the race and for the team.

Motorsports Driver Development (MDD)

In 2012, Howard founded Jay Howard's Motorsports Driver Development (MDD) in hopes of creating a unique program capable of taking drivers from karts to cars and then up the motorsports ladder.

Karts

In the karting field, Howard has used his experience from the British Karting Championship, Indy Lights, and IndyCar to coach drivers of all ages. Initially, Howard focused only on drivers that already competing at the national level of karting; more recently, however, he has begun working with drivers at a club level, primarily at

NOLA Motorsports Park NOLA Motorsports Park is a full service motorsports facility in Avondale, Louisiana approximately twenty minutes from downtown New Orleans. NOLA Motorsports Park includes an FIA, FIA Grade 2 road course, one of the largest (fully-lit) outdoor kart ...

. In the short time of running MDD, Howard has already coached drivers to two national championships in 2016, when Braden Eves won the World Karting Championship in

Italian American Motor Engineering Italian American Motor Engineering (IAME) is an Italian company founded in 1968. It is the parent company of the "Parilla", "Komet" and "Sirio" brand names and is the largest kart engines manufacturer. Its factory is located in the province of Ber ...

X-30 Senior and

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

Senior. MDD also claims multiple wins in the SuperKarts! USA Pro Tour as well as several wins in the United States Pro Kart Series. In January 2017, Howard began running the "MDD Sprint Kart Championship" series at NOLA Motorsports park.

Formula 4 (U.S.)

In 2017, Howard entered 4 cars into the second year of the

FIA Formula 4 FIA Formula 4, also called FIA F4, is an open-wheel racing car category intended for junior drivers. There is no global championship, but rather individual nations or regions can host their own championships in compliance with a universal set of r ...

United States Championship under the umbrella of MDD. Since the start of the season, the rookie team has found tremendous success. MDD obtained their highest finish during the second round of the championship, when rookie driver Braden Eves was able to obtain second at

after only one day in the car. Eves is set to race again in the final round of the championship at

Circuit of the Americas Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas, in the United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand ...

in October. Since the first round of the F4 United States Championship, Howard has had a total of 8 drivers compete in the series. Currently, Howard is working on growing his F4 Program with the hopes of advancing some of his prominent kart racers to the F4 Championship in 2018.

Media work

In a national promotion with

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and

American Family Insurance American Family Insurance, also abbreviated as AmFam, is an American private mutual company that focuses on property, casualty, and auto insurance, and also offers commercial insurance, life, health, and homeowners coverage as well as investmen ...

, Howard served as a driver coach for music-obsessed teen Lauren Goodell during the fall of 2009. Commercials were filmed on 12 and 13 October in Nebraska at

Mid-America Motorplex Mid America Motorplex, now renamed Raceway Park of the Midlands (RPM), is an Alan Wilson (motorsport), Alan Wilson-designed road circuit in the Omaha – Council Bluffs metropolitan area, in Plattville Township, Mills County, Iowa, Mills County, jus ...

. The commercials were first aired during MTV's

Real World/Road Rules Challenge ''The Challenge'' (originally known as ''Road Rules: All Stars'', followed by ''Real World/Road Rules Challenge'') is a reality competition show on MTV that is spun off from two of the network's reality shows, '' The Real World'' and ''Road ...

on 28 October 2009, and ran for four weeks during MTV's flagship program. A fifth installment was scheduled for 4 December 2009 during the

mtvU MTVU (formerly stylized as MtvU and mtvU) is an American digital cable TV channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel was first known as VH1 Uno from 2000 to ...

Woodie Awards CheddarU is an American closed-circuit network available on 600 U.S. college campuses owned by Cheddar, as part of internally originated cable systems that are a part of on-campus housing or college closed-circuit television systems. In 201 ...

, which were filmed on 18 October in New York City. Howard is represented by BRANDed Management agency, founded by Klint Briney.

Personal life

Howard married his longtime girlfriend Courtney Nicoson on Saturday, 29 October 2011 in a private ceremony in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jay & Courtney live in Carmel, Ind., with their only child, a son, Hudson. Howard was the subject of the cover story for the Carmel Monthly magazazine's May 2021 issue.

Motorsports career results

American open-wheel racing results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Indy Lights

IndyCar Series

* Season still in progress. : ''¹ Run on same day.'' : ''² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.'' : ''³ Race cancelled due to death of

Dan Wheldon Daniel Clive Wheldon (22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011) was a British motor racing driver who won the 2005 IndyCar Series season, 2005 IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship for Andretti Autosport, Andretti Green Racing (AGR). He won the Indiana ...

.''

Indianapolis 500

References

External links

*
IndyCar Driver Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Jay 1981 births English racing drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Indy Lights champions Indy Lights drivers IndyCar Series drivers Living people Sportspeople from Basildon Toyota Racing Series drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Pro 2000 Championship drivers U.S. F2000 National Championship drivers Motorsport team owners Sarah Fisher Racing drivers Arrow McLaren SP drivers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers AFS Racing drivers