When testing of the universal aero kit begins on July 25-26 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the test drivers will be two “current but not active” Verizon IndyCar Series drivers, IndyCar president of competition Jay Frye told Autoweek Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway. That means the drivers are not currently full-time competitors for a Verizon IndyCar Series team.

“We will have one driver for Chevrolet and one for Honda, even though both cars will be equipped with the universal aero kit,” Frye told Autoweek. “By current but not active that means they could have competed in a race or two this season but not full time. We will have a list and see if they are available with their other racing commitments.”

Drivers such as Oriol Servia of Spain, who competed in the 101st Indianapolis 500 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who competed in both May races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, would meet that criteria. Others could be Sage Karam, who is competing in the Lexus RC F GT3 in the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

As for a complete car with all the universal aero-kit pieces, Frye doesn’t expect to have that until one week or so before the initial test.

“There is a schedule of parts and pieces that are coming in, and a good portion of them already have,” Frye said. “I think the whole car will be put together the week before. Dallara is doing a phenomenal job. Everything is on time, on schedule and working like we planned, so -- so far, so good.”

Frye said there has already been universal aero-kit testing even without the pieces in place.

“Last fall, we tested at Phoenix and everything we did that day was about the 2018 car,” Frye said. “We tested at Mid-Ohio last summer and everything we did there was about the 2018 car. So, this car has already had some on-track testing based on what we wanted to do. We took the rear wheel guards off; the underwing was different -- there were eight different things we did to those cars just to get a direction. The direction was good -- the drivers liked it and we liked it, so that was step one.

“Step two was aesthetically designing what we thought the car should look like. That was very well received.”

After that, IndyCar built scale model cars for wind tunnel testing. There have been six to eight wind tunnel tests and, according the Frye, the results have been very good.

“Now, all the parts and pieces are being built as a package,” Frye said. “The package will all be built and ready to go before the testing begins on July 25.

“All of the surprises we have had have been good. It’s been better than we anticipated.”

Graham Rahal is the hottest driver in the Verizon IndyCar Series after winning both races in last weekend’s Chevrolet Dual in Detroit at Belle Isle. He believes the universal aero kit will produce even better racing in 2018.

“Next year, the racing will be better,” Rahal said. “The other thing about next year is the racing like at Detroit will be better. Being in clean air, up front will still be an advantage. When you get rid of the hole in the underwing, it will allow everybody to follow closer. The biggest thing we fight is when you get close to a car from behind, the car gets ridiculously loose. You barely turn the wheel and you are hanging on. Then you wear the tires more.

“When they plug the holes on the underwing and put the strakes and sidewalls back on so the car is generating the downforce from below, you won’t be affected by following people because it is sucking to the ground.

“Yes, the car will have less wings and less downforce probably than the cars this year, but I genuinely believe the racing next year will be better, 100 percent.”

Frye believes the turbulence that comes off the current competitive aero kits will be eliminated by taking away the parts and pieces from the rear that create the issue.

“Not only will you be able to pull up better on another car, but by removing these parts and pieces, it has removed debris opportunities, as well,” Frye said. “Because of that there have been some safety enhancements to the car. Cautions shouldn’t last as long because there aren’t as many pieces to the car.

“We are very conscious that the racing is great and we don’t want to do something that takes the racing backwards. But until we get the cars on the track we won’t know although the two tests we’ve had so far it’s been much better.”

One of the big changes to the universal aero kit is the removal of the rear “bumper guards” that were designed to keep one car from running over another car’s wheels and launching it into the air. But those guards often broke off on impact.

“It’s debatable if they did what they were supposed to do or not,” Frye said. “The rear wheel guards were used for performance, the balance of the car. We tethered them in 2016 and they still came off even though they were tethered. It was debatable whether they worked or not.”

Holes in the floor of the car were designed to create drag and prevent lift. The holes will still be in the floor of the cars at Indianapolis, Texas and Pocono but filled in at the other tracks.

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