By alley - Jan 13, 2017, 8:00 AM ET

INDYCAR: Dallara deal helps price, parts regulation

IndyCar director of operations and competition Jay Frye says that the multi-year extension with chassis supplier Dallara represents important continuity for the teams as they plan for the next four seasons.

The series announced earlier today that it has extended its deal with Dallara through to 2020, along with a relaxation of the Italian company's previous monopoly on the supply of certain components.

"As a team, in 2017 you have the freeze, then you have a three-year program, so you're going to have continuity in the chassis from today going forward for 2020," said Frye.

"You can plan where you're going, and you know what you've got.

So it's a very efficient approach for the teams.

Now, part of this is knowing we can deregulate part of this. The new Dallara deal ... there were some price breaks, there were some parts that were completely deregulated that we took back. There was another group of parts that now the teams are able to buy direct from the manufacturers. So the product has become more efficient, but it's also become much better."

Most of the components that are opened up in 2017 will affect costs rather than performance, but Frye said that the list will continue to grow after this season.

"An example is the driver cockpit," said Frye. "Before, there wasn't a lot of flexibility in pedals and different things, so we've opened that up.

"There's probably 15 things that they'll be able to do in 2017. There's four or five that are performance related, and then the other 10 are where, if I'm a race team I think I can build stuff better than anybody else, and I think I can build it more efficiently and cost-effectively, so we've given them an opportunity to build some of their own stuff in 2017.

"In 2018 there will be more, and then it's part of the plan, how we go through that process.

Frye also hopes that allowing increased freedom of suppliers for some components will help to support the cottage industry of smaller, independent suppliers that worked with teams prior to the components freeze that accompanied the arrival of the DW12 in 2012.

"The other part is there's five manufacturers now that the teams will be able to buy direct [from]," he said. "We're trying to recreate some of the cottage industry. The stuff that they can build on their own and the stuff that they can buy direct now is going to create opportunities for others to build things and to create development.

"Every year we'll look at different opportunities of outside cottage industry people coming to us with things that we can approve or disapprove and get into the system again."