INDIANAPOLIS — “We’re continually working to strengthen all areas of our team”

A day after both Arrow McLaren Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing announced some structural operational changes, McLaren Racing announced on Tuesday its plans to enter a strategic alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing to benefit both teams moving forward.

“We’re continually working to strengthen all areas of our team, and a strategic alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing helps both of us in leveraging our commercial and marketing power and the McLaren Racing brand in a new way,” said Gavin Ward, Arrow McLaren Team Principal.

The alliance may evolve over time, beginning with a commercial and strategic focus, working together to grow their respective propositions.

The teams, both powered by Team Chevy, will also consider this alliance as a talent development opportunity, with the potential for engineers, mechanics and drivers to build their experience.

“Our two teams have a lot of similarities in how we’re attracting partners and building a fanbase. We’re starting out with a strategic alliance and we’ll see how that may evolve from here.”

Brad Hollinger, Co-Owner, Juncos Hollinger Racing said:

“We believe our alliance will enable us to accelerate our progress while also benefiting McLaren with commercial and talent development opportunities.”

The strategic relationship will be mutually beneficial to extract the strengths of both teams and will be in effect for the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

This is massive for both sides. For Juncos, the obvious in having a partner the size of McLaren. This team was constantly punching above their weight and now has taken the next step in being among the front runners in the most competitive series in the world.

For McLaren, it gives them resources and space that they definitely need. They can try out more setups on these two cars with Juncos as well as utilizing their shop for more room. Currently, they’re maxed out now where they’re housed. They’ll be able to grow more when they move into Andretti’s current building. But, they can’t change addressees until Andretti’s new building is complete.

Plus, it keeps them competitive with Penske who has an alliance now with AJ Foyt Racing which ironically enough is housed down the street from where JHR is housed.

Which wildly leaves Ed Carpenter Racing in an unfortunate spot of not having aligned with anyone while the other four teams have found bonds. How much of an impact will this now have moving forward?

Andretti and MSR have an alliance on the Honda side leaving just Ganassi, Coyne, RLL and ECR as teams without alliances.