Mikhail Aleshin's rookie season in IndyCar may have been his last. The 27-year-old Russian has left Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and abandoned his open-wheel aspirations. Aleshin's next racing venture will not take him far away from Sergey Zlobin though.

Yes, we're referring to SMP Racing ... The newly crowned driver and team LMP2 champions in the World Endurance Championship. According to a Russian website known as Sports.box.ru and an interview with SMP Team Principal Sergey Zlobin, that is where the young racer is heading.

In his brief foray into American open-wheel racing, Aleshin finished as high as second and ended the year quite spectacularly, flying into the catch-fencing at Auto Club Speedway.

He has one previous start with SMP sports car team, finishing fourth in the GTD class with their Ferrari 458 in the 2014 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.