Indy Lights driver Danial Frost made a strong impression on the Dale Coyne Racing team during his first NTT IndyCar Series test.

“Best performing rookie we’ve had on day one in an IndyCar,” DCR team manager Terry Brown told RACER.

The native of Singapore has been a steady presence on the American open-wheel ladder since 2018, earning a top result of third in the 2020 Indy Pro 2000 championship before moving to Indy Lights. Placing fifth on debut with Andretti Autosport, Frost switched to the HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing team last season, and while he slid to seventh in the standings, the 21-year-old broke into the win column with a pole and victory in May on the Indianapolis road course.

Running the day after five drivers tested on the Sebring short course, making the jump to a bigger, heavier, and faster car was anything but daunting for Frost who turned an unofficial best lap of 52.721s. It was nearly identical to the 52.708s lap produced by Tom Blomqvist for Meyer Shank Racing.

“It feels like it suits me very well,” Frost told RACER. “The team were super helpful and giving me a lot of advice on what I needed to do to get to get quicker. And throughout the entire day, we just seemed to be able to click and find out little things and details on how to make myself and the car a little bit better.”

Signed to return to HMD for a third season of Indy Lights, the prospect of moving to IndyCar in 2023 has become a topic of conversation after drawing the interest of the DCR team.

“Of course if the door comes in the right time, right place, I will I feel like I’m in a decent spot to actually be able to race the top level guys, but that’s only if the option comes,” Frost said. “But I don’t mind doing another season [of Indy Lights], even though I feel like I’ve already learned and know the basics of what I need to do to go fast.

“I’m always ready to take that next challenge. However, there’s always the part where we need to get an offer, so we’ll have to see how the future rolls. It’s a good sign that we’ve done well at the test, so we at least put our name out there and showed that we are able to keep up with some of the other guys and not show that we’re lacking speed or anything. So that’s good. I’m not sure what’s in the future, but time will tell.”