page_title: Dale Coyne Racing
section_title: CART / Champ Car World Series
hierarchical_section_title: Dale Coyne Racing / CART / Champ Car World Series
caption_attribution_description: IndyCar Series 2011 Rd.15 Indy Japan 300: James Jakes (Dale Coyne Racing)
context_page_description: Dale Coyne Racing is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known as Payton-Coyne Racing, reflecting a partnership with Chicago Bears great Walter Payton. After the 1988 season, Coyne stepped out of the cockpit and turned his talents to the tutelage of several up-and-coming drivers. Once known for competing on budgets far smaller than most of their competitors, the team earned its maiden victory after 25 years at Watkins Glen International in July 2009 with Justin Wilson.
  DCR's No. 18 Dallara-Honda is entered under a partnership with former standalone IndyCar team owners Jimmy Vasser and James "Sulli" Sullivan of KV Racing Technology, officially named Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan, driven by Santino Ferrucci, while DCR's No. 55 is entered under a partnership with former Super GT entrant Team Goh, officially named Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh and is driven by Alex Palou.
context_section_description: Dale Coyne raced smaller open-cockpit cars during the late-1970s and early-1980s before pursuing a career in the fledgling CART series. He attempted to qualify, with limited success, for each CART race in 1984, but his efforts earned him a CART franchise for the following season. In 1986, the team raced the Coyne DC-1, which was a 1984 Lola Indy car modified to fit a Chevrolet stock-block engine. The team reverted to a customer March chassis for the next season, with Coyne doing all of the driving. Due to budget constraints, the team utilized one of the only stock-block Chevrolet engines in the field. After utilizing the 1986 Rookie of the Year Dominic Dobson for one race in 1988 with little improvement in performance, Coyne realized that the team could not improve without better equipment. In 1989, the team upgraded to a pair of 1988 Lola-Cosworth cars for Italian pay drivers Guido Dacco and Fulvio Ballabio.
  The end of 1988 saw Coyne's retirement as a driver to concentrate on tutoring newer, younger drivers, although he contested several more races as a driver through 1991. In 1990, the team fielded a new Lola car for Dean Hall, thanks to full-time sponsorship from the Japanese [insight] group. The chief mechanic, Bernie Myers, ensured a well-prepared car that earned the team its first start at the Indy 500, and scored 4 points during the season. The team's mechanical expertise, in fact, was recognized as both Coyne and Myers would be awarded the Clint Brawner Mechanical Excellence Award at the 1990 and 1992 Indy 500 races, respectively.
  For much of the team's subsequent years, it has utilized pay drivers, who finance their racing with Coyne with either personal funds or self-obtained sponsorship. Often, the team ran one driver for a full-season, with a second car being prepared for a rotation of drivers with only a partial season of financing. However, Coyne earned a reputation for quickly developing the skills of these drivers to a point where they could advance their careers. Drivers of note who had their first CART ride with Coyne included eventual series champion Paul Tracy, the Indy Lights champion Éric Bachelart, and eventual Le Mans winner André Lotterer.
  Despite the lack of competitive results during its first two decades of operation, the team was nevertheless a consistent full-time entrant year after year. Ex-Formula 1 driver Roberto Moreno, starting his second stint in CART racing in 1996, broke through with the team's first podium finish at the 1996 U.S. 500.
  Michel Jourdain, Jr. took over driving duties for the team and earned STP Most Improved Driver honors from his peers, in 1997. Jourdain would continue with the team through the 1999 season. Meanwhile, the second car was provided to various different drivers with few competitive results.
  In 2000, Tarso Marques led the team with 17 starts following a deal with Swift Engineering for the team to field a factory-supported Swift chassis. He was joined by Takuya Kurosawa, who drove 8 starts, including an inspired drive at Long Beach which saw Kurosawa becoming the first Japanese driver to lead a CART race before an accident ended his hopes of a Top 10 finish. Alex Barron and Gualter Salles also shared the second car. Marques and Barron both recorded career-best finishes when the season closed. Barron, in particular, ran as high as second place in Australia before suffering an engine failure, and was in contention at Fontana, where he led the race for several laps and was in contention for victory before again retiring with an engine failure.
  The team struggled to stay afloat in 2001, following a short-lived partnership with the Project Racing Group that only enabled the team to contest two races. Coyne reemerged the following year to field the one-off Team St. George entry with driver Darren Manning, which resulted in a competitive run to 9th place at the 2002 Rockingham 500. Later in the season, Coyne provided Andre Lotterer his only Champ Car start in Mexico.
  The Coyne team returned to full-time competition in 2003, fielding six drivers with a top result of
caption: James Jakes at the 2011 Indy Japan: The Final.
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