Barnhart Excited To Go Back to the Future with Harding Racing

Brian Barnhart glanced up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pagoda, specifically at the second floor, where the longtime race steward used to work at this historic venue.

He enjoyed that gig, but is even more excited about his new one.

After working for INDYCAR in some capacity for 23 years, Barnhart was wearing headphones on a timing stand along pit road as president of Harding Racing during the Verizon IndyCar Series oval test Monday, April 30 at IMS. This new job, accepted in November, takes him back to the old days, when he was a mechanic for Roger Penske and Rick Galles on Al Unser Jr.’s two Indianapolis 500 triumphs, albeit with a bit more responsibility now.

Last year at this time, Barnhart tried to have eyes in the back of his head during the Month of May as he stayed glued to video screens and concerned himself with every car from his Pagoda perch as INDYCAR president of race operations.

Now he’s just fixated on one car, the No. 88 Harding Racing Chevrolet driven by Gabby Chaves.

“It’s the excitement of being back on the team side, the competitive side,” Barnhart said after the morning session. “It was so cool to be back down in a team box, measuring your performance as a team against everybody else. Getting back on the team side is awesome.

“It’s kind of like riding a bike, getting back on the team side. It’s really cool. Hopefully the test will go smooth for us the next couple of days, and we’ll get ready for both races in May.”

Barnhart, who used to change tires on Unser’s cars, now benefits from having “Junior” as a team consultant.

While owner Mike Harding’s first-time venture into a full Verizon IndyCar Series season has encountered expected growing pains, Chaves turned some fast laps during Monday’s test. Chaves, a 24-year-old Colombian-American, was fourth on the speed chart at 222.838 mph in the morning session, then fourth again out of 21 cars at an impressive 225.630 mph in the afternoon session.

“We’ve got a lot of growth to do with the race team,” Barnhart said. “We’ve made some good progress, and we’re going to keep trying to move forward. We welcome Gerald Tyler on to add some depth to the engineering department. He’s fitting right in with Matt Curry, and the communication with him and Gabby was great. That’s what we need to keep going.”

Tyler, a longtime racing engineer, was recently named technical director. Former INDYCAR Vice President of Operations Vince Kremer was also hired to the same job title.

Four races into this season, Chaves is 17th in points. He’s finished 14th, 15th, 19th and 17th. But he’s also been quick before at IMS, where he’ll race on the road course in the INDYCAR Grand Prix on Saturday, May 12, then look for another solid result in the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on Sunday, May 27.

Chaves finished ninth in last year’s Indy 500 for Harding Racing. He was also a career-best fifth in the Rainguard Water Sealers 600 in June at Texas Motor Speedway.

Barnhart, 56, is just thrilled to be back at IMS.

“It is a good day,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s on the sanctioning body side or the team side, any time you come into what is the greatest race course in the world, the greatest athletic arena in the world, running race cars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is just the coolest thing to do. Being involved on either side of it, you’re lucky.”

Visit IMS.com to purchase tickets for the fifth annual INDYCAR Grand Prix on Saturday, May 12 and for more information on the complete Month or May schedule at IMS.