INDYCAR: Aleshin leads race for SPM drive

Aleshin, who drove for SPM in 2014, spent 2015 in sports cars after U.S. sanctions prevented his banking industry sponsors from paying for the seat, yet made an end-of-season return with SPM at Sonoma after the financial transfer limitations were resolved.

Schmidt was unable to confirm Aleshin's place next to Hinchcliffe, but did spell out the known candidates.

"The options are quite obvious; we had Mikhail, Jakes, Conor, and Jack, and frankly, all have been in a race for the seat, but we weren't in a position to commercially support a second entry, and it was a situation where didn't get all the sponsorship we sought so we've needed some money," he told RACER. "I can tell you it's pretty much done with one of those four drivers, more on their side than our side; we're not allowed to announce it because they are still working on a few things."

Schmidt did confirm the Honda-powered team will stick with two full-time entries next season, and could run three on limited occasions.

"We definitely want to run a third car at Indy, and a few other events where Indy Lights is not running, but probably would not be interested in a third call all year because we don't have the bandwidth," he said. "I don't want to distract from the other two [Indy] cars, and we have four Indy Lights cars. If we didn't have Indy Lights, we'd have the personnel and engineering support to do it, but two IndyCars and four Indy Lights cars are about all I can handle logistically, mentally..."

On a personal note, Schmidt said his relationship with ARROW Electronics, which serves as the primary sponsor for Hinchcliffe's No. 5 Honda, continues to expand, and the company has ordered a new Corvette for the quadriplegic team owner to pilot next year through head and mouth controls. Schmidt drove a Corvette outfitted with ARROW's mobility equipment during a break in action during practice at Indianapolis in 2014.

And in another ARROW-related note, his head and mouth controls will be used as the former Indy Racing League driver participates in a sim race on December 16 that will be streamed live by CXC Simulators.

"I'll be heading out to El Segundo where CXC is located to do a sim race; it will be me and Townsend Bell, and Patrick Long, and a bunch of people racing Watkins Glen," he said. "I'll use my head controls to do it, and I'm sure I'll get my clock cleaned by everyone who does sim racing all the time, but it should be a complete blast."