The Verizon IndyCar Series continues to meet with automobile manufacturers to discuss the possibility of joining Chevy and Honda as official engine suppliers.

IndyCar competition president Jay Frye has visited with a handful of brands since the season ended in September at Sonoma, and it’s believed a trip to meet with a few European manufacturers has also been part of the process.

“I think the topic of bringing in a third manufacturer does have some momentum behind it,” Frye told RACER. “Since the season ended, we’ve organized meetings with some prospects and had some follow-up meetings with manufacturers we’d met with before. The good news is they’re paying attention to what we’re doing and have a lot of curiosity in what we’re doing.”

Landing a third supplier would, in every scenario, provide significant relief to IndyCar’s existing engine manufacturers and for its teams, which face shortages due to the costs incurred by Chevy and Honda to outfit up to half the field. Removal of the prohibitively expensive custom aero kits as IndyCar enters the 2018 season has, according to Frye, brought more marques to the table.

“It’s great to see, and you can tell when we’re meeting with the groups that they’re following what we’re doing on the aero side with the universal kit, and that has stoked their interest in what they can do on the engine side,” he said.

“Does it mean they’re all going to sign up tomorrow? No. But it does mean we’re continuing to have great talks, and more are coming to us to learn about where we’re going so we can eventually get to having a third manufacturer in the series.”