No #1 for champion Energy at IndyCar pre-season check

Will Energy driving Automobile #12 within the 2022 IndyCar Sequence

Will Energy seems unlikely to race with the #1 plate within the 2023 IndyCar Sequence primarily based on the entry listing for the official pre-season check.

The Group Penske driver is entitled to drive Automobile #1 this yr given he received the 2022 title however is proven as steering Automobile #12 on a Participation Checklist issued by IndyCar for subsequent month’s Open Check at The Thermal Membership.

It’s the solely shock throughout the 27-car discipline given AJ Foyt Racing had simply introduced that its rookie Benjamin Pedersen will line up in Automobile #88 this season, reasonably than assuming the #4 with which his predecessor Dalton Kellett had raced.

That Energy will drive Automobile #12 is a shock given he drove Automobile #1 in 2015, instantly after profitable his first IndyCar title, as did team-mate Josef Newgarden in 2018 and 2020, and then-team-mate Simon Pagenaud in 2017, following series-winning seasons.

If that continues to be the case for the 2023 season correct, it will be per what has turn into the norm in motorsport of those that are topped champion electing to stay with their typical quantity.

Lewis Hamilton has solely switched to #1 in 2009, when Method 1 numbers had been non-discretionary, and stored #44 for every of the six seasons straight after attaining his different world drivers’ championship triumphs.

MotoGP has not had a #1 on the grid since Casey Stoner rode with it in 2012, with Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Joan Mir, and Fabio Quartararo subsequently not exercising their proper to it, and Francesco Bagnaia nonetheless undecided forward of the 2023 marketing campaign.

In Supercars, neither Scott McLaughlin nor Shane van Gisbergen, collectively champions of six of the final seven seasons, have taken #1, besides when the latter did in order a tribute to Holden forward of its ultimate ever occasion.

IndyCar noticed Scott Dixon stay in Automobile #9 for the 2021 season and Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Alex Palou in 2022, though a Automobile #1 did seem in each of these years, as one-off entries for the Indianapolis 500 (for AJ Foyt Racing’s JR Hildebrand after which the additional Ganassi entry of Tony Kanaan).

Energy was to have been among the many IndyCar drivers contesting the 24 Hours of Daytona, for which the Roar Earlier than The 24 takes place this weekend, though the Queenslander has pulled out for household causes.

The pre-season IndyCar Open Check takes place at The Thermal Membership on February 2-3 (native time).

Each IndyCar race is stay and ad-free on Stan Sport.

Participation listing: The Thermal Membership Open Check