History
The team was founded as Harding Racing in 2017 by Mike Harding, with Gabby Chaves as driver for the Indy 500, Texas and Pocono, moving to full-time in 2018. Indy Lights driver Santiago Urrutia was signed on a handshake deal to join Chaves at the team in 2018, but the team backflipped on the deal before the season started. [1] In 2019, he would partner with Steinbrenner Racing, led by George Michael Steinbrenner IV, the son of the late New York Yankees co-owner and co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner and a grandson of George Steinbrenner III. [2] Steinbrenner IV had previously run an Indy Lights program with childhood friend Colton Herta as driver, in a partnership with Andretti Autosport. With the addition of Steinbrenner IV came Herta [3] and a technical alliance with Andretti, that would see Andretti Technologies engineers be assigned to the No. 88. [4] A planned second entry was intended for Herta's Lights teammate and rival Pato O'Ward, however due to a lack of funding (despite O'Ward carrying a 3-race scholarship for winning the Lights championship), the No. 8 Honda that O'Ward was slated to drive was never entered, and O'Ward would be released from his contract before the first race of 2019. [5]
Herta would win the second race of 2019, at Circuit of the Americas, but that did little to solve the team's continued budget issues. Herta had a contract with Andretti which superseded his contract with Harding, but with the requirement that Herta have a IndyCar Series race ride. [6] Rather than lose the young driver to the newly formed Arrow McLaren SP, [7] Andretti agreed to a deal that would see the HSR No. 88 entry absorbed into Andretti's shop after the 2019 season, with team equipment and some personnel being moved under the Andretti banner, [7] but not before Herta would win again in the season finale at Laguna Seca. [8]
Larry Curry acted as the team manager and competition director. [9] [10] In November 2017 Brian Barnhart was named the team's president as the team prepared to join the series full time. [11] Barnhart would be credited with securing the partnership with Steinbrenner/Andretti and eventual merger with Andretti amidst the teams budget issues. [7]
At 22-years old, Steinbrenner became the youngest car owner in IndyCar history. [12]
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