Grosjean keeping an open mind about future Indy 500 run

Romain Grosjean is going through a career renaissance in the NTT IndyCar Series.

After claiming his first career pole in North America’s premier open wheel championship, the ex-Formula 1 driver turns his attention to leading the field to the green flag for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

More IndyCar

RLL welcomes Liquid Death to IndyCar with Schumacher

IndyCar to use current engine in first tests with new chassis

IndyCar adopts single-car Fast 6 for remaining street races

The result comes in just his third qualifying appearance in an IndyCar, with Grosjean calling the 2.349-mile, 14-turn road course “the most familiar” relative to tracks he’s competed on previously. In his debut last month at Barber Motorsports Park, he delivered a sensational seventh-place qualifying effort and 10th-place finish. The following week, he charged from 18th and into the top 10 briefly before ending with a hard-fought 13th on the streets of St. Petersburgh.

Although the 35-year-old is on a partial schedule consisting of road and street circuits, he is already feeling at home in IndyCar, and said he might make it just that for the long-term.

“I started looking at houses in the U.S.,” said the Swiss-born Frenchman.

Obviously, with that statement by the driver of the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda comes another question: Will he ever allow himself to make an attempt on the 2.5-mile superspeedway version of the Brickyard?

“Never say never,” said Grosjean, the 2011 GP2 (now F2) champion. “We take things step by step. I think for my whole family, they were super supportive, but obviously seeing me going back racing (after he sustained injuries in an enormous F1 crash in Bahrain) I guess was not that easy. They can see how happy I am. I'm sure my kids are asleep, but my wife has been watching quali [qualifying]. She's going to see my smile. They're going to come around. They're going to come this summer, then we can decide.

“Obviously, I'll be keeping an eye on the Indy 500. But right now, I can't say yes or no.”