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Friday, February 21, 2014

INDYCAR Announces Leader Circle Entires & Payouts

The IndyCar Series announced today the 2014 Leader Circle entrants and a new structure. The Leader Circle program was introduced in 2002 as a payout structure rewarding full-time entries with a guaranteed payout.

The 2012 program consisted of 20 entries, 22 last season and 21 car/driver combinations were announced today for the 2014 season. Those entries, who will be guaranteed a 1 million dollar payout at the conclusion of a full-season effort, include:

#2 - Verizon Team Penske - Juan Pablo Montoya
#3 - Verizon Penske - Helio Castroneves
#7 - SMP Racing - Mikail Aleshin
#9 - Target Chip Ganassi Racing - Scott Dixon
#10 - Target Chip Ganassi Racing - Tony Kanaan
#11 - Mistic KVSH Racing - Sebastien Bourdais
#12 - Verizon Team Penske - Will Power
#14 - ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing - Takuma Sato
#15 - National Guard - Graham Rahal
#17 - AFS KVAFS Racing - Sebastian Saavedra
#18 - Dale Coyne Racing - TBA
#19 - Dale Coyne Racing - Justin Wilson
#20 - Fuzzy's Vodka/ECR - Ed Carpenter/Mike Conway
#25 - Snapple - Marco Andretti
#27 - United Fiber & Data - James Hinchcliffe
#28 - DHL - Ryan Hunter-Reay
#34 - Cinsay AndrettiTV.com/HVM - Carlos Munoz
#67 - Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing - Josef Newgarden
#77 - Schmidt Peterson Motorsports - Simon Pagenaud
#83 - Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing - Charlie Kimball
#TBA - Bryan Herta Autosport - TBA

Noticeable changes to the program from 2013 include the dropping of Panther and Panther DRR.

Ryan Briscoe's #8 NTT Data entry is not included due to Ganassi running just three cars last season. Ganassi's Brownsburg based team ran two entries in 2011 and 2012, but lost a LC entry when they downgraded to a single-car Charlie Kimball effort last season when Graham Rahal left for RLLR.

Juan Pablo Montoya's Team Penske #2 is a new entry from last season, but is included in the Leader Circle program through a deal with Dragon Racing who had an entry last season but will not compete full-time in 2014. Dragon Racing is owned by Jay Penske, son of Team Penske owner Roger Penske.

Sam Schmidt's second IndyCar entry last season of Tristan Vautier was not included in the program but the team's rookie Russian pilot Mikail Aleshin is included this season.

Carlos Munoz's Leader Circle entry comes from a partnership with HVM Racing prior to last season. With Andretti Autosport running just three cars in 2012, they lost Danica Patrick's 2011 LC position. With the expansion back to four cars last year with EJ Viso, the team partnered with HVM Racing who would not be returning to a full-time effort to use the position earned by Simona De Silvestro's 2012 effort. The partnership will continue this season with Munoz.

NON LEADER CLUB ENTRIES (Not including Indy 500)
2013 non LC entry top 3 finishers:
1st - 40k
2nd - 35k
3rd - 30k
(TOTAL - 105k)

2014 non LC entry top 5 finishers:
1st - 20k (30k at Pocono & Fontana)
2nd - 15k
3rd - 10k
4th - 5k
5th - 5k
(TOTAL - 55k & 65k)

RACE BONUS
2013 race bonus payout for either LC or non-LC team:
1st - 35k
2nd - 25k
3rd - 20k
4th - 15k
5th - 10k
(TOTAL - 105k)

2014 race bonus payout for either LC or non-LC team:
1st - 30k (40k @Pocono & Fontana)
2nd - 20k
3rd - 15k
4th - 10k
5th - 9k
6th - 8k
7th - 7k
8th - 5k
9th - 4k
10th - 2k
(TOTAL - 110k & 120k)

SEASON BONUS (Any Team)
2013 season ending standings:
1st - 1 million
2nd - 250k
3rd - 175k
4th - 125k
5th - 75k 
(TOTAL - 1.625mil)

2014 season ending standings:
1st - 1 million
2nd - 250k
3rd - 90k
4th - 75k
5th - 60k
6th - 50k
7th - 40k
8th - 35k
9th - 25k
10th - 15k
(TOTAL - 1.64mil)

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