One of Indy car racing’s oldest teams has been busy working on a series of upgrades to its shop in Illinois, and improvement on the competitive side of its two-car Verizon IndyCar Series program.

“We’re doing a lot of stuff at the shop, a lot of things to improve organization, we’ve kept everybody on and actually have added some staff,” Dale Coyne told RACER. “It’s a busy, compact schedule we’re dealing with these days, so you have to get everything together on the team side when you have the time. The schedule is only six months long, so anything you can do now will help things run smoother and better when we go back to racing.”

Rather than take an extended break during IndyCar’s long off-season, Coyne says he’s kept his foot on the throttle and continues to make investments in DCR’s infrastructure.

“We’re doing some building inside the shop, we’re moving a lot of things around to really help focus on our DW12s. We’re putting together a dedicated car for pit stop practice and we’ll be using that a lot this off-season. We’ve also got an aggressive shock program we’re working on…” he added. “It’s all to make us stronger and better in the areas that are really important.”

DCR went testing shortly after the season ended on August 30, and Coyne says they’ll be even sharper when testing resumes.

“It’s a little different this year because the testing rules have changed and we won’t have the aero kits until the first race in America next year, so you don’t want to burn a lot of your test days with a lot of testing we’ll need to do early next year,” he noted. “We tested Rodolfo Gonzalez for a couple of days, and we’ll get out again before Christmas to do some evaluations on a couple of rookies, but yeah, it is odd to look at so little running right now compared to what teams are normally doing at this point of the year.”

Just as he’s done for decades, Coyne’s driving roster will likely include at least one fresh face behind the steering wheel.

“I’ve always enjoyed that part of it—the development of a driver, the psychology of a driver, and by the time they’ve reached IndyCar, they’ve probably won at every level, so as a former driver, I really enjoy giving young drivers a shot and helping them to make it in IndyCar,” Coyne explained.

“It’s three things, really, that they need help with: coaching, psychology, and engineering. I really enjoy those working with new drivers, and marrying the engineering side to the talents a driver has to bring. That’s the side of the puzzle I like to play with.”​