Vision Racing, owned by Tony George, will now suspend operations for the No. 21 car immediately, which will save the team (and George family) money. Sponsorship for Hunter-Reay's car never developed, aside from Hunter-Reay's personal sponsorship from Izod. And after his podium performance at St. Petersberg, the team struggled, culminating in a lack of speed and crash at Indianapolis.
With Izod in tow, Hunter-Reay will join the iconic Foyt Racing Team and provide a permanent solution to the absence of Vitor Meira for the remainder of the season. Meira, for his part, hopes to be back for the season finale at Homestead.
Hunter-Reay pushes aside Paul Tracy, who drove at Milwaukee, and A.J. Foty IV, who drove at Texas. Born in Texas, Hunter-Reay will look to boost the performance of Foyt Racing, while leaving open the possibility of returning to Vision Racing in the future:
"We all have the big picture in mind for Vision's future, and that is not only to find our way to Victory Circle but for Vision to have a program that is capable of challenging for the championship. As competitive as the Indy Racing League is today, those goals require a strong commitment not only by the team but also by sponsors and partners.
"In the very short time I have been at Vision their efforts in developing sponsorship and B2B opportunities have yielded positive results which have laid a strong foundation we intend to build on. Knowing what I know today, I am optimistic of continuing with Vision in 2010 with a strong program."
Basically, two birds are killed with one stone here: first, Foyt gets a permanent solution for losing Meira. Second, Vision Racing saves money on a car that brought in no outside money and Tony George keeps the face of the IndyCar-Izod relationship in the IndyCar Series on a competitive team. The downside comes in the fact that the ICS loses one of its cars.
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