Juncos readies IndyCar program, aims for '17 500

The two things the Verizon IndyCar series desperately needs are new owners and Indy 500 entries. And they're getting both in one transaction.

RACER has learned that championship-winning Indy Lights team owner Ricardo Juncos is preparing to bring his program into the Verizon IndyCar Series after purchasing two cars from KV Racing.

Calls to Juncos and KV owner Kevin Kalkhoven were not immediately returned.

It's believed both cars will be entered in this year's 101st Indianapolis 500; Kyle Kaiser is among the rumored drivers, and a steady recruitment effort to hire crew members for the program has been in motion.

Hailing from Argentina, Juncos rose to prominence as a Mazda Road To Indy entrant after earning Pro Mazda titles with Conor Daly (2010) and Spencer Pigot (2014), who went on to score Juncos Racing's first Indy Lights championship in 2015. Twenty-year-old Californian Kaiser, who captured two Lights wins and three poles on the way to finishing third overall for Juncos last year, is back to lead the team alongside Pro Mazda graduate Nicolas Dapero.

"It’s a lot like last year," Kaiser told RACER. "We were trying to find sponsorship so we could do the Indy 500 to go with our Indy Lights program, and we’re looking again, but the Lights championship is our No. 1 focus."

Provided the funding for its Indy 500 program comes together, Juncos Racing is said to be planning on a part-time effort in 2018 before full-time participation follows later in the decade.

The recent move to a large new facility built in Speedway, Indiana, signaled bigger plans were in the works, and with the availability of KV Racing’s Indy cars, transporters and the rest of its IndyCar equipment in nearby Indianapolis, acquiring the necessary items to take the outgoing place of KV can only help the series as it looks to grow its ownership base.

The emergence of Juncos will also connect the series to a rich list of Latin American team owners that includes two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi, 2001 Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran, Adrian Fernandez and fellow Argentinian John Della Penna.