Vision Racing was a racing team in the

Indy Racing League 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 o ...

founded in 2005 when

Tony George Anton Hulman "Tony" George (born December 30, 1959) is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hulman & Company, serving from 1989 to 2009. He was also formerly on the Board of Directors of both entities ...

purchased the assets of the defunct Kelley Racing and hired his stepson Ed Carpenter to be the driver. The team has previously raced in the Izod

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 o ...

Firestone Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a progra ...

and the

Grand-Am Grand-Am Road Racing or Grand-Am was an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America. Its primary focus was the Rolex Sports Car Series, an endurance racing championship series. ...

Sports Car Series. The team suspended operations in January 2010. George and Carpenter formed a new race team in 2012,

Ed Carpenter Racing Ed Carpenter Racing is an American racing team based in Speedway, Indiana that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team is owned by driver Ed Carpenter. The team is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and currently fields the No. 20 Da ...

Season history

2005

In its first season in the IRL the team was consistently one of the slowest on the track. Although, Carpenter finished 11th in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and added the team's first top-10 finish at Nashville Superspeedway. Carpenter ended the season eighteenth in driver points and the team finished a disappointing twentieth in entrant points. The team also fielded Nick Bussell and Jay Drake in the Indy Pro Series. Drake picked up five top five finishes and ended up ninth in points while Bussell had eleven top five finishes and finished an impressive fourth in points. Though both drivers did very well the team did not return to the Pro Series the following year.

2006

The team returned in 2006 hiring of a new team engineer and expansion to two cars with veteran race winner

Tomas Scheckter Tomas Scheckter (born 21 September 1980) is a South African former racing driver best known for his time in the IndyCar Series. Early years Scheckter was born in Monte Carlo to 1979 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter and his first wif ...

. The team fared much better with Scheckter capturing a 3rd-place finish at 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 specta ...

and finishing 10th in points while Carpenter improved from 18th to 14th in points and captured his first top-five. The team also fielded the number 90 Rock & Republic car driven by Townsend Bell for the Indy 500. Bell retired early from the race as did Scheckter, but Carpenter finished in eleventh. Actor Patrick Dempsey also joined the team in 2006 as co-owner.

2007

In 2007 the team expanded to three cars with the addition of

A. J. Foyt IV Anthony Joseph Foyt IV (born May 25, 1984) is an American football Scout (sport), scout and former racing driver. He is a scouting assistant for the Indianapolis Colts, and drove in the IndyCar Series and briefly the NASCAR Busch Series. He is t ...

and picked up

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

and

Joost Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV ( P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; i ...

as sponsors. Foyt matched Scheckter's team-best 3rd-place finish with a race-leading run at

Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 ...

. Vision fielded a fourth car driven by veteran Davey Hamilton and sponsored by HP for the Indy 500. Hamilton finished an impressive ninth just two spots behind teammate Thomas Scheckter in seventh. Scheckter finished tenth in points with Foyt finishing fourteenth and Carpenter finishing in fifteenth.

2008

The team returned to 2 cars in 2008 with Carpenter and Foyt IV sponsored by Menards, DirecTV, and CardioCheck. Vision looked strong at Homestead Miami Speedway posting impressive speeds during practice. Carpenter qualified second and Foyt qualified third. However, the team was penalized and had to start in the last two positions after failing technical inspection. The IRL confiscated all the team's rear wings but did not specify on the problem. The team later fired team manager Larry Curry because of the incident. Carpenter finished the season fifteenth in points and his teammate Foyt finished nineteenth. Vision Racing entered a third car for the Indy 500 and ran Davey Hamilton as the driver and HP as a sponsor. They ran a third car for

Paul Tracy Paul Anthony Tracy (born December 17, 1968) is a Canadian-American former professional auto racing driver who competed in CART, the Champ Car World Series and the IndyCar Series. He is known by the nicknames "PT" and "the Thrill from West Hill". ...

at the Rexall Edmonton Indy in conjunction with

Walker Racing Walker Racing was a racing team founded by Derrick Walker in 1991 racing originally in the CART Championship Car series. It last competed in the United SportsCar Championship under the name of Team Falken Tire until Falken Tire pulled out of no ...

with Subway Restaurants as the sponsor.

2009

In 2009

Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Christopher Hunter-Reay (born December 17, 1980) is a professional American racing driver best known as a winner of both the Indianapolis 500 (2014) and the IndyCar Series championship in 2012. In each accomplishment, Hunter-Reay became th ...

joined the team alongside the returning Carpenter, and immediately posted the team's best ever finish with a 2nd place at the opening St. Petersburg race. Carpenter matched the result by taking his best career finish of 2nd at

in an exciting duel with

Ryan Briscoe Ryan Briscoe (born 24 September 1981) is an Australian-American professional racing driver from Sydney who has predominantly raced open-wheel and sports cars in Europe and America. In IndyCar he collected 8 wins and 28 podiums, finishing third ...

, with Briscoe edging him at the line.

2010

On January 28, George was forced to suspend operations due to lack of sponsorship. George later paired up with

Panther Racing Panther Racing was an American open wheel auto racing team. It was one of the oldest continually operating teams in the IndyCar Series. Four years in a row (2008–2011), the team finished second at the Indianapolis 500. Formation The team was ...

for a part-time program for his stepson, Ed Carpenter.

Drivers who have driven for Vision Racing

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 Adam ...

(2008) (Grand-Am Sports Car Series) *

Townsend Bell Townsend Bell (born April 19, 1975) is an American professional motor racing driver competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and also as a motorsports commentator for NBC Sports’ IndyCar Series coverage. Early career He spent ...

(2006) (IndyCar Series) * Nick Bussell (2005) (

Indy Lights Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a progra ...

) * Ed Carpenter (2005–2009) (IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, and Grand-Am Sports Car Series) * James Davison (2009) (Indy Lights) *

Jay Drake Jay Scott Drake (born July 5, 1969 in Santa Maria, California) is an American auto racing driver. Racing career Drake won the 1998 Turkey Night Grand Prix midget car racing, midget car race. Drake was the United States Automobile Club, USAC Nation ...

(2005) (Indy Lights) *

(2007–2008) (IndyCar Series and Grand-Am Sports Car Series) *

(2007–2008) (Grand-Am Sports Car Series) * Phil Giebler (2005) (Indy Lights) *

Stephan Gregoire Stephan may refer to: * Stephan, South Dakota, United States * Stephan (given name), a masculine given name * Stephan (surname), a Breton-language surname See also * Sankt-Stephan * Stefan (disambiguation) * Stephan-Oterma * Stephani * Stephe ...

(2007) (Grand-Am Sports Car Series) * Davey Hamilton (2007, 2008) (IndyCar Series; Indy 500 only) *

(2009) (IndyCar Series) *

Vítor Meira Vítor Meira (born March 27, 1977) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. He formerly competed in the IndyCar Series and has twice finished second in the Indianapolis 500. IndyCar Series 2002 After participating in an open test for Panther Racing ...

(2008) (Grand-Am Sports Car Series) *

(2006–2007) (IndyCar Series and Grand-Am Sports Car Series) *

(2008) (IndyCar Series; Rexall Edmonton Indy only)

Racing results

Complete IRL IndyCar Series results

( key) # Non-points-paying, exhibition race.'' # Run in conjunction with

.''

References

External links

Vision Racing official website
{{IndyCar Series teams IndyCar Series teams American auto racing teams Indy Lights teams