Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar Correspondent
The Alpine junior and Formula 2 title contender showed at Barber Motorsports Park that he can get to grips with an IndyCar straight away.
Alex Dunne completed his first IndyCar evaluation test for Dale Coyne Racing on Monday, and the result was impressive: the 20-year-old Irishman, known so far from the Alpine Academy and as a title contender in Formula 2, went straight to the top in the morning session at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and ended the day second fastest of four drivers.
Strong first impressions behind the wheel of the No. 19
Dunne drove the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda in the morning and set the fastest time of the day's first session right away. Over his 55 laps in the morning he posted a best lap of 1:07.674. By the end of the day that meant second place, 0.117 seconds behind Ed Carpenter Racing's Hunter McElrea, who only set his 1:07.557 later in the day.
For a driver sitting in an IndyCar for the first time, that is quite a statement. Speaking to the media, Dunne described the car as clearly stronger in power and downforce than anything he was used to, and called the Barber circuit a real rollercoaster. His excitement was plain to see, and that is exactly the kind of feedback a team like Dale Coyne Racing likes to hear when it takes a close look at a young driver.
Shared cockpit, four drivers on track
In the afternoon Dunne shared the car with American Nikita Johnson, the reigning Indy NXT champion, which is common practice in evaluation tests like this, where teams want to watch several candidates in the same car under comparable conditions. Apart from the Coyne pair, only Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's Conor Daly and the aforementioned Hunter McElrea were out that day, four drivers in total. The field was small, but with IndyCar veteran Daly it still offered a useful benchmark.
The fact that Dunne immediately slotted in alongside experienced IndyCar drivers like Daly is likely to be an important signal for Dale Coyne Racing. Especially on a road course like Barber, which demands technical finesse and confidence in the car, the ability to adapt quickly counts for more than pure experience in the series.
Open seats at Dale Coyne and the US option for the Irishman
The test comes at a time when Dale Coyne Racing is actively evaluating driver candidates for its IndyCar future, not least after Dennis Hauger left the team for AJ Foyt Racing. Coyne had actually wanted to keep the Rookie of the Year and later blamed a breakdown in communication for his departure. So there is a real seat up for grabs, and tests like this are part of the decision-making process.
For Dunne himself, this is likely to be more than a mere formality. The road to Formula 1 is fiercely contested, and a switch to IndyCar is seen as a serious option for the Irishman should no seat open up there.
Second place, barely a tenth of a second behind McElrea, on his first outing in the car is likely to have made that option even more attractive, both for Dunne and for Dale Coyne Racing. Whether anything more comes of it will only become clear in further tests and talks, but the start could hardly have gone better.
