Although IZOD Indycars 2011 season has already started and his partner Gil de Ferran announced the closure of De Ferran Dragon Racing Team, Jay Penske still struggles to keep his INDYCAR team alive. In fact, it is reported that he has already signed the popular veteran Paul Tracy to a five-race agreement, reuniting Penske and Tracy names 20 years after his father Roger launched Tracy's CART career that includes 10 race wins for Penske's Racing Team.
When sponsorship couldn’t be raised for Tony Kanaan, his partner Gil de Ferran announced that de Ferran/Luczo Dragon Racing doesn't have the necessary funds to compete full season in the IZOD Indycats championship and as an effect team is terminating its operations. But no doubt, Jay Penske's diligence and effort to keep doors open in his Indianapolis shop, resurrecting his team are heroic as he's running around the whole USA in search of sponsorship.
“You know we had a good platform going and we couldn’t come up with funding for a full season so Gil made a decision to shut things down but I wasn’t ready to quit. I want to be in this series for a long time and develop a championship team.”
Tracy, who only made five starts in 2010, will bring his personal sponsor Motegi Wheels on board along with a couple other associates in order to make his 2011 debut in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 3rd round of the season.
“Jay came to see me about four weeks ago and said he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. He said: How do we keep this thing together? So Jay, Brian Marks (of Top Speed Management) and I started beating on doors and managed to find the funding. We’re going to run at the big city markets and then try and build on this deal. We’ve got a solid team with John Cummiskey running things, my old engineer from Forsythe (Eric Zeto) who I had success with and some former Penske crew guys so I’m excited about the opportunity. It feels like a little bit of a homecoming because I’m back under the Penske umbrella and I’ve known Jay since he was a teenager and we both got into our fair share of trouble with his dad. I asked Jay what his dad said about us teaming up and he told me Roger said: ‘Oh great, the two guys who gave me the most problems in my life are getting together.’”
Dragon Racing is currently scheduled to run Long Beach, Texas, Toronto, Edmonton and Sonoma races with Tracy and Indy 500. Just because Tracy had already agreed to race with Dreyer & Reinbold for the Indy 500 with a sponsorship by WIX Filters, Dragon Racing might consider to sign another Roger Penske's organization ex-driver, former IRL champ Sam Hornish Jr. for the Indianapolis 500 race.
