Dale Coyne Racing signs Pappas to its engineering team

Dale Coyne Racing has hired Bill Pappas to serve as one of its race engineers.

Pappas, who worked for the IndyCar Series for many years as its VP of competition and engineering, departed the company in September and returns to the paddock where he started working in a range of engineering roles since the 1980s.

After getting his start in IMSA and moving on to Jack Roush’s IMSA GTO and Trans Am empire, Pappas found his long-term home in IndyCar and considerable success along the way. Highlights include time with Patrick Racing where he was part of the winning Indianapolis 500 team in 1989 with Emerson Fittipaldi, and Chip Ganassi Racing where he won the 2000 Indy 500 as Juan Montoya’s race engineer, and Coyne’s team, where Pappas and the late Justin Wilson produced the Briton’s final victory at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012.

In his position with IndyCar, Pappas was responsible for many of the performance- or safety-related upgrades that have been made to the spec Dallara DW12 chassis where he worked with fellow race engineer Tino Belli whose aerodynamic and chassis design experience complemented the skills and insights brought by Pappas.

With the return to Coyne, Pappas also reunites with team principal Mitch Davis, a colleague from their days spent working for Roush in the mid-80s. The specific car assignment for Pappas – as the team looks to solidify its final driver to place alongside Indy NXT champion Dennis Hauger – is unknown.