Experienced Hands Help Shift Chaves’ Aspirations for Month of May into Overdrive

Gabby Chaves and Harding Racing have grown up together in the Verizon IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500.

2014 Indy Lights champion Chaves drove for the Indianapolis-based team when it made its series debut in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil, finishing ninth, the best result of his three starts in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

That strong performance, plus a fifth-place finish at Texas, prompted the team to step up to a full-time Verizon IndyCar Series schedule in 2018, with Chaves behind the wheel. Chaves’ learning curve in his three starts last season for the team, all on ovals, was flattened by the help of his Harding driver coach, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr.

Unser remains with the team in the same driver coach/executive consultant role this year, and Month of May expectations for Chaves and Harding are even higher in 2018 with the addition of former Penske Racing mechanic and longtime INDYCAR executive Brian Barnhart as team president.

“Harding Racing, bringing on guys like Brian Barnhart and Al Jr., that really puts an emphasis on how serious they are,” Chaves said. “They mean business here. For me to work with those guys, guys like Al Unser Jr., who is part of our group and more specifically my driver coach, it gives me his experience that I don’t have. I’m able to pick his brain and learn a little bit quicker pace than without him.”

Pace never has been much of a problem for Chaves, 24, a native of Bogota, Colombia. He won multiple races in the mid-2000s in Skip Barber competition before claiming the Formula BMW Americas title in 2009 at age 15, with five wins and podium finishes at all 14 events.

Chaves finished second in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires in 2012, his first year in the Mazda Road to Indy ladder system. He jumped to Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires in 2013 and finished second in the championship for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The 2014 season firmly planted Chaves on IndyCar team owners’ radars as a star of the future. He won the Indy Lights title with four wins for Belardi Auto Racing, including capturing the prestigious Freedom 100 on Miller Lite Carb Day by .0050 of a second over Matthew Brabham in one of the most exciting finishes in IMS history.

Chaves graduated to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2014 with Bryan Herta Autosport, winning Sunoco Rookie of the Year titles for the series and the Indianapolis 500. He placed 16th in his first “500,” finishing on the lead lap.

In 2016, Chaves finished 20th in the Indianapolis 500, one of his seven starts for Dale Coyne Racing.

Then Harding came calling in 2017, and Chaves jumped at the chance to work with a new team and the legendary Unser, who helped Chaves learn important lessons about the longest and most prestigious race on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.

“Now, with a bit more experience, I wish I knew as a rookie that 500 miles is a long way, and it doesn’t just happen in the first sequence of pit stops,” Chaves said. “It’s a race that will take a lot of patience and a lot of strategy.”

The “500” also a race in which experience pays big dividends. Chaves is preparing to make his fourth start in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” and the introduction of sleek new aero kits to Verizon IndyCar Series cars this season could help Chaves and Harding gain even more ground on more veteran teams and drivers.

“I think for a new team, you have it both ways when you have a new car,” Chaves said. “Essentially (everyone) is starting from scratch, so you’re not at a disadvantage to the other teams that have collected years and years of information and data. But at the same time, you don’t have that workbook of information that they have collected to be able to get to your optimal setup at a faster rate.”

The continued presence of Unser and the arrival of Barnhart should help Harding build a thicker workbook more quickly. A strong result in the INDYCAR Grand Prix on Saturday, May 12 on the road course at IMS also will boost the team’s chances for the “500.”

Like every IndyCar driver, Chaves loves the look and feel of the new car and is confident it will continue to produce superb racing on the road course at oval this month at IMS.

“The new car is absolutely stunning to look at,” Chaves said. “It’s even better to drive. It puts it back into the driver’s hands to be able to go fast. You have to challenge yourself. You have to challenge the track, and you really have to put it all on the line.”

And that risk of riding the edge of the lightning bolt at IMS could produce the ultimate reward for Chaves and the young, but experienced, Harding team – a spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy as an Indianapolis 500 winner.

“For me to have my face on the Borg-Warner Trophy would be my lifelong dream and goal, and for me to able to achieve that would change everything,” Chaves said. “Indy is where legends live forever.”