Juncos Hollinger Racing confirms Agustin Canapino's return, more silly season news

Following a standout rookie season that marked the first open-wheel racing season of his career at 33 years old, Agustin Canapino will return to Juncos Hollinger Racing, the team announced Wednesday.

The move seemingly comes after an influx of funding in the five-plus weeks since the end of the 2023 season, where JHR co-owner Ricardo Juncos told IndyStar his drivers -- the other being Callum Ilott -- were at risk of being dropped ahead of the next season because of the team's need for funding. Neither driver provides any funding for their respective Nos. 77 and 78 Chevy full-time IndyCar rides.

"I think it's going to take another month," Juncos said Sept. 10, when asked for his timeline to finalize his 2024 driver plans. "I have time in my agreements (with Canapino and Ilott), so I don't want to rush, but we have options out there, and I want to make sure we make the best decisions for the team, first.

"Obviously, both of the drivers did a good job (in 2023), and the logical move would be to keep it the same, but I've got to make sure that I feel like we can work as a team and continue the same way."

Ilott told reporters matter-of-factly, "I'm coming back," when asked about his future at JHR at the end of the season. Ilott had been coy about his future throughout the year so there seemed to be a collection of clauses and/or options that made his future in his current ride questionable.

Juncos somewhat refuted his driver's certainty later that weekend in the aftermath of what was a messy on-track finish to the team's season; both drivers were fighting for a top-5 finish when they came together as Ilott attempted an outside pass on Canapino. In video replay, Ilott seemed to have given his teammate ample room to make the corner, but Canapino bobbled, darted a hair right, and made contact with Ilott's right front wing. Canapino would drop to 14th with the damage over the final 20 laps of the race, while Ilott managed to hold onto 5th.

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In the days after, Ilott's social media accounts were flooded with threatening and hate-filled messages from Canapino fans angry that his JHR teammate would risk what would've been the rookie's best IndyCar finish to date, and at a time Canapino was fighting for one of the last spots in IndyCar's Leaders Circle program, which pays out roughly $1 million per year to the top-22 eligible entries from the previous season. Despite his free-fall near the end of the race, Canapino's No. 78 entry still managed to finish 21st among eligible cars. He and Juncos gave several interviews in the hours and days after the race with Spanish-language outlets, doing little to call off Ilott's detractors and, at times, laying the blame on the 24-year-old who finished 16th in points in his second full-time IndyCar season.

"Callum doesn't bring money, so both drivers are in the same situation, so we, as a team, need to find the money to run the operation at the moment," Juncos told IndyStar, when told post-race that Ilott had referenced that his future with the team was secure for 2024. "Both (drivers) are in the same situation, and the options are 100% to the team, not the drivers, so it's up to be to continue with where we are or not."

Despite the noise his fans had created off the track -- another run-in with Ilott at Long Beach provoked a similar social media attack on the British driver -- Juncos credited Canapino in Wednesday's team release with an "energy, dedication and sportsmanship that have united us and created a sense of camaraderie that is truly exceptional."

Canapino shocked IndyCar fans, after coming from a championship-laden stock car background in Argentina, with top-12s in his first two races at St. Pete and Texas. He'd add a 14th-place finish at Detroit and 12th at Toronto, along with 14th in the season-finale, for five top-15s.

"I am filled with joy and motivation to have the opportunity to keep growing as a driver and contribute to the continuous and remarkable evolution of the team," Canapino said in the release. "For 2024, the mindset will be different. What was once filled with doubt and uncertainty will now be a relentless pursuit of improving day-by-day."

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Where IndyCar's free agent market sits now

Should Ilott be formally confirmed by the team in the coming weeks -- Juncos has said his option extends into mid-December -- there remain several seats to be sorted out with five months of the offseason remaining.

Graham Rahal's latest deal with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has expired and he told reporters in Laguna Seca that negotiations with team co-owner Mike Lanigan haven't been speedy.

"Everyone jokes, but the reality is, I'm still not signed. I'm going to be, but I'm not. Hopefully next week we figure it out. My goal had been July but here I am," the veteran driver told reporters Sept. 8. "It's not been easy. It's been a proper negotiation. (Lanigan and Rahal's father Bobby) are both businessmen, as am I, and you have to know your worth and try to make it work."

Rahal also told reporters that day that decisions regarding the team's No. 30 ride would likely take some time as funding was ironed out, despite ex-Red Bull Junior driver Juri Vips' strong showing in his two-race stint to end the year. Conor Daly ran for the team at World Wide Technology Raceway ahead of Vips' debut, but it's unclear if the Indiana native would have enough momentum to land that ride.

"I think (Vips) would be a great fit, and Dad and I talked about it last night, but at the end of the day, the No. 30 car has a bit of a hill to climb before anything's settled there," Rahal said. "I just know it's been a challenging year. I would be shocked if (the entry) didn't exist, because we've built a foundation of three cars and worked really hard at it with hiring."

Elsewhere, Andretti Global continues to mull over the possibility of continuing with four full-time cars, after the exits of Devlin DeFrancesco and Romain Grosjean, the addition of Marcus Ericsson and loss of major sponsor DHL. The decision revolves around acquiring the funding necessary to back the entry, at a time the team also has to secure sponsorship to fund Ericsson's ride.

"I would've liked for (the decision to run three or four full-time cars in '24) to have been by now, but you can be sure that I'm pushing hard," Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards told IndyStar last week. "We actually had a conversation today about the fact that we need to reach an end point on that rather sooner than later."

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To close out Honda's full-time stable for 2024, Dale Coyne Racing has both of its seats open for next season, with David Malukas off to Arrow McLaren and 2023 rookie Sting Ray Robb equipped with a sizable budget for a sophomore campaign but an uncertainty as to what doors it may open. As is typical at DCR, free agent drivers have little feel for where Coyne might go, with rumors ranging from an already-signed Danial Frost (who tested for the team a year ago and finished 6th in Indy NXT in 2023) to the team being a possible landing spot for Devlin DeFrancesco's purported large budget or the return of Romain Grosjean (who also could be a viable candidate at JHR, should Juncos opt not to keep Ilott).

In the Chevy camp, AJ Foyt Racing president Larry Foyt told IndyStar at Laguna Seca that he "didn't think" there would be any changes to rookie Benjamin Pedersen's status with the team, after Pedersen signed a multi-year deal with Foyt last offseason. In recent weeks, multiple free agent drivers have told IndyStar of deliberations within the Foyt camp regarding assigning the team's incumbent in the No. 14 Chevy, Santino Ferrucci, to run an oval-only program in 2024, while hiring someone new to run the entry's road and street courses.

Last offseason, Ferrucci signed a one-year deal with the team and would need a new contract to maintain the type of stability he had with Dale Coyne Racing from 2019-20.

"We've been working really well together, so I think we're going to try and work that out," Foyt said in regards to pursuing an extension with his veteran driver.

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Ed Carpenter Racing is still yet to announce how it will fill out its two-car program that currently includes Rinus VeeKay. Two weeks after the end of the season, the team tested 2023 Indy NXT rookie Christian Rasmussen, who with five wins this past season was the only driver to log more than two, and 2019 Indy Lights champ Oliver Askew. Before settling on that pair for a test at Barber Motorsports Park, the team also discussed a run with ousted RLL driver Jack Harvey. Notably, Rasmussen comes with an $850,000 scholarship that can go towards an initial oval test at Texas, his Indy 500 ROP, the 500 open test and running the 500 and one additional IndyCar race.

At Laguna Seca, team owner Ed Carpenter told IndyStar he hoped to have his 2024 lineup settled by the end of the September, though nearly three weeks into October, no news has surfaced. In that interview, Carpenter said he wouldn't rule out taking back over ownership of running the oval races for the full-time No. 20 car, rather than running an oval-only program in the No. 33 separately, as he's done since the start of the 2022 season.

"For sure we'll be two full-time cars (in 2024), and then the rest will be somewhat dependent on how the rest comes together, who's in the No. 20 car and what all that looks like," he said. "I'll be running something, but I'm not going to confirm anything until we put the No. 20 car to bed and see how that all fits."

Outside of the eight full-time rides that are yet to be formally confirmed, and Helio Castroneves, Kyle Larson, Carpenter and (presumably) Marco Andretti lined up for Indy 500 one-offs, there remain at least two spots still available in the field for the 108th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Though he continues to hold onto hope to resurrect his full-time IndyCar career, Daly remains a popular option among teams looking to hire a 500-only driver, with former winners Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato also in the mix. Should he clear his own physical hurdles and work his way back from his lingering concussion symptoms stemming from his violent crash July 1 at Mid-Ohio, 2019 500 winner Simon Pagenaud would also seem to be a logical option for those in need of a May-only stand-in.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar's silly season landscape with Agustin Canapino's return to JHR