Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) was founded in 1984 when its founder was also the team’s driver, and has been a consistent full-time entrant in CART, Champ Car World Series and today’s IndyCar Series ever since. Always among the smaller outfits on the grid, it ran a hand-to-mouth operation in its infant years, as the only team using Chevrolet stock-block engines. Coyne hung up its helmet in 1989, right at the moment that he decided he would need to upgrade to more competitive machinery. In the next few seasons, Coyne would race one or two-year-old Lola chassis for drivers ranging from Dean Hall and Randy Lewis to Eric Bachelart, Robbie Buhl and Alessandro Zampedri, with usually a host of pay drivers in the second car.
With Roberto Moreno and current Lola chassis, the team scored its first podium in 1996 when the Brazilian took third in the US 500 at Michigan, but progress initially faltered in the seasons leading up to CART’s split between the IRL and the Champ Car World Series. In the latter, however, the team would occasionally be competitive with Oriol Servià claiming a podium in 2004 and Bruno Junqueira repeating the trick twice in 2007.
In the revived IndyCar Series from 2008, DCR teamed up with Justin Wilson to form a formidable pair that would go on to shock the establishment on a large number of occasions, the Briton bagging two wins and a handful of podiums between 2009 and 2013, as Wilson ended a strong sixth in the final standings of 2013. That same year, part-time driver Mike Conway would claim a shock victory and a third at Detroit in the team’s second car, while in 2014, Carlos Huertas took a fluke win at Houston in a season that garnered no other significant results.
Following two more tough seasons with a vast array of drivers, DCR returned to the top when four-time Champ Car champion Sébastian Bourdais won at St. Petersburg on his first time out with the team. A subsequent second place at Long Beach gave the Frenchman the 2017 series lead but his season turned sour with a big crash in Indianapolis 500 practice in which he broke his pelvis. Returning for 2018 and 2019, Bourdais repeated his St. Pete win to finish seventh in the 2018 standings while ending up 11th in 2019 after a strong run of points finishes.
Following a 2021 season with Romain Grosjean that netted the team two second places and a third, DCR’s last strong run came in 2022 and 2023 when rookie David Malukas took a second and a third across the two seasons. Coyne has always had a good eye for young and talented drivers, having given the likes of Paul Tracy, Alex Palou and Santino Ferrucci their Indycar debuts.