The fifth and final oval race of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season is upon us and for Juncos Hollinger Racing, they’ve been remarkably strong on these types of tracks thus far. Prior to coming to the United States to embark on the most competitive racing series in the world, neither of the two JHR drivers had ever driven on an oval before.

But, as we come to the conclusion of the season on them, they’ve been quite strong.

Callum Ilott has scored the 13th most points among all drivers in the previous four races this season with finishes of 9th (Texas), 12th (Indianapolis 500), 15th (Iowa 1) and 14th (Iowa 2). He heads to World Wide Technology for what will be his second start in the No. 77 Dallara-Chevrolet there.

“We had a lot of potential at Gateway last year,” Ilott boasted. Especially within the race, we had a good amount of speed.”

Now, he comes back with even more speed and the luxury of having some recent data from a positive test session too.

“At our recent test, there were lots of little things that we learned from. That resulted in a really positive experience,” he continued. “Going into this weekend’s race, I’m feeling positive. I think that we can make some good headway and get a strong result.”

His rookie teammate, Agustin Canapino finished an impressive 12th in his oval debut in Texas. While he was credited with a 26th place result for the Indy 500, that’s because he was collected in a late race crash not of his doing. He was around the top 20 prior.

For Iowa, he was 16th and 26th but again, he was in or around the top 10 before some late race troubles.

“I’m looking forward to competing this weekend,” he said. “It’s the last oval race of the season, and we have been fast on the ovals this year. Hopefully it will be a good opportunity for us to record a positive result.

“Even though the race will be another new experience for me, it will be good to arrive this weekend with some experience from last week’s test which went well.”

Despite a two-week break in competitive INDYCAR action since their last outing on the Indy road course, Callum and Agustín got in some good preparation for this weekend’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 by completing a successful test at the St. Louis oval.

Agustín also made an impressive return to Argentina’s Turismo Carretera racing series last weekend. The Argentine managed 35 overtakes as he drove to a solid P12 result in Buenos Aires.