Jay Howard is focused on the road ahead as his driver development team prepares for expansion. Specifically, the Road to Indy.
The veteran of 14 Verizon IndyCar Series starts, including three Indianapolis 500s, has helped aspiring racers progress at Jay Howard Driver Development by fielding teams in karting and the F4 U.S. Championship. The 37-year-old Brit announced in July that he will have a team in the 2019 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship, the first of three rungs on the Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires development ladder.
Howard backed up that promise by entering two USF2000 cars in the recent Chris Griffis Memorial Open Test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
It might have been easy to become enamored by the possibility of jumping to a higher Road to Indy level, but Howard knows better from personal experience. He won the 2005 USF2000 championship (when the series was the U.S. Formula Ford Zetec Championship) and followed it the next year by capturing the Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires title.
As a team owner, Howard believes in a methodical approach in the quest to elevate his program into potentially one day reaching the Verizon IndyCar Series.
“There has been some talk of Pro Mazda stuff for next year, but to be honest, I’d like to walk before I run and I’d like to just do things right,” Howard said. “I don’t want to do anything half-assed. I just want to do things right, so we’ll do USF2000 and we’ll all get right into the swing of that, and we’ll try and do that as successfully as we can for next year.
“Then, the plan would be to move into Pro Mazda the year after and then we’ll see. My goal is to be able to take a kid in karting at the age of 4, 5, 6 years old or whatever and literally come to our program and stay there all the way through to (the Verizon IndyCar Series). I’d love to be an Indy car team owner. I think it would be a good fit, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”
For now, Howard is focused on building the right team. Louis D’Agostino, JHDD’s engineer in F4, will also oversee the USF2000 program. Howard said he’d like to run four USF2000 cars next season and already knows who he wants for some of the seats.
“I’ve got one (driver) signed already,” he said. “There’s another one, which I’m 100 percent sure we will end up doing USF2000 with. To be honest, I would really love to do something with maybe one of the (Road to Indy Scholarship) Shootout kids and that leaves one (seat) open.”
That last spot could come down to testing to see which drivers help the overall dynamic. At the Griffis test, Howard’s drivers were Zach Holden of Indianapolis, who drove in five USF2000 races this season for DEForce Racing, and Christian Bogle from Covington, Louisiana, who drove for JHDD in F4 competition.
“I’m really big on team chemistry,” Howard said. “That’s a really important part of our team. We work really, really hard, but we have fun doing it. You can have the best car in the world and the best driver, but if the atmosphere is not very good and everyone is not getting along, then it drags the whole program down. I’m just not OK with that.
“It’s really important for all the drivers to get along and be a true team effort. All the drivers help each other, an open book. We share all the information, no secrets. I want every one of my drivers to be (running) 1-2-3-4 and let those guys battle it out.”
While Howard isn’t ready to climb from the cockpit himself, he admitted there’s been remarkable satisfaction in helping grow the future talent of the sport.
“I enjoy racing. At the team owner level, I love it just as much. In some ways, love it more. It’s different. It’s really hard to explain. I’m certainly more nervous as a team owner than I am driving,” Howard said.
The long hours behind the scenes are one not many beyond his family see. Perhaps that’s why winning now means more than ever.
“I’m really excited and I think it would mean more to me to win USF, Pro Mazda, Indy Lights, INDYCAR -- win at those levels as a team owner more than a driver, maybe,” he said.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be with great teams and be able to have those titles and stuff to my name. I’m still trying to win the big one in INDYCAR and we’ll continue to try to do that, but super excited about climbing the ladder again.”