Ed Carpenter
Nationality	American
Date of birth	March 3, 1981 (1981-03-03) (age 28)
Place of birth	Indianapolis, Indiana
2009 IRL IndyCar Series
Debut season	2003
Current team	Vision Racing
Car no.	20
Former teams	PDM Racing Cheever Racing
Starts	85
Wins	0
Poles	0
Best finish	14th in 2006
Previous series
2002-2003	Indy Pro Series

Ed Carpenter (born March 3, 1981 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an IRL IndyCar Series driver. He is the stepson of Indy Racing League founder Tony George.

[edit] Career history

[edit] Early career

Following a successful career in midget racing that dated as far back as 1989, he moved up to single-seater formula cars in 2002 with the creation of the IRL Infiniti Pro Series. Driving for Sinden Racing Services, he finished third in points with a best finish of second. He drove for legendary owner A.J. Foyt the following season and won the Futaba Freedom 100, the series' most prestigious race, in his backyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He made his Indy Racing League debut later that season contesting a few races for PDM Racing and longtime owner Paul Diatlovich.

[edit] IndyCar Series

In 2004 he ran his first fulltime season for Red Bull Cheever Racing. He struggled to match the pace of experienced teammate Alex Barron and scored only a best result of eighth. Out of a ride for 2005, George started the new Vision Racing team and not surprisingly Carpenter was his driver. He failed to light up the scoreboard again with a solitary top ten finish from 17 starts.

On March 26th, 2006, during the warmup for the Toyota Indy 300 IndyCar Series opener, Carpenter was involved in a brutal crash with driver Paul Dana. Dana died soon after from his injuries; Carpenter was reported to be "awake and alert," and was released the next day suffering only bruised lungs. He returned to the series on April 22 at Twin Ring Motegi. In a rain-affected race in June at Watkins Glen International Carpenter switched to rain tires late in the race while most others stayed on slicks and captured his best IRL finish at the time, a sixth place.

2007 was much like 2006 despite the addition of a third car to the Vision stable. Carpenter crashed out of five of the seventeen races and finished 15th in points, last among the Vision teammates. In 2008 Ed had only one teammate (A.J. Foyt IV) as veteran Tomas Scheckter was not retained. Several times (mostly early in the year) Ed appeared poised to win his first race but could not seal the deal. His season ended with a firey crash at the Chicagoland Speedway from which he walked away.

Carpenter on pit road during the 2009 Toronto Indy weekend.

The 2009 season started slowly, mainly because the first two races (at St. Pete and Long Beach) were on street circuits, where Ed is still in the learning curve. He scored back-to-back top 10s on the ovals at Kansas and Indy, as he and wife Heather await the arrival of their second child. The day after the Milwaukee race, Heather gave birth to baby Ryder. Carpenter's season (and career) highlight came on August 1st in the Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway, leading the race 5 times for 34 laps before coming up just .0162 seconds short of Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe following a pitched side-by-side battle.

[edit] Motorsports Career Results

[edit] American Open-Wheel

(key)

[edit] IndyCar

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	PDM	HMS	PHX	MOT	INDY	TXS	PPIR	RIR	KAN	NSH	MIS	STL	KTY	NZR	CHI 13	FON 13	TX2 Ret				27th	43
2004	Cheever	HMS 12	PHX Ret	MOT Ret	INDY Ret	TXS Ret	RIR 16	KAN 14	NSH Ret	MIL 11	MIS 14	KTY 8	PPIR 11	NZR Ret	CHI 11	FON 12	TX2 Ret				16th	245
2005	Vision	HMS Ret	PHX 16	STP Ret	MOT Ret	INDY 11	TXS Ret	RIR 12	KAN 17	NSH 10	MIL 12	MIS Ret	KTY Ret	PPIR 19	SNM 15	CHI 17	WGL 14	FON Ret			18th	244
2006	Vision	HMS DNS	STP INJ	MOT Ret	INDY 11	WGL 6	TXS 9	RIR 8	KAN 16	NSH 10	MIL Ret	MIS 7	KTY 11	SNM 12	CHI 5						14th	252
2007	Vision	HMS 6	STP Ret	MOT 15	KAN Ret	INDY 17	MIL 7	TXS Ret	IOW 6	RIR 10	WGL 12	NSH 13	MDO 16	MIS Ret	KTY 7	SNM 13	DET 10	CHI 16			15th	309
2008	Vision	HMS 5	STP Ret	MOT1 6	LBH1 DNP	KAN 10	INDY 5	MIL Ret	TXS 9	IOW Ret	RIR 11	WGL 17	NSH 8	MDO 15	EDM 13	KTY 6	SNM 23	DET 14	CHI Ret	SRF2	15th	320
2009	Vision	STP Ret	LBH 18	KAN 9	INDY 8	MIL 16	TXS 9	IOW 10	RIR 13	WGL 16	TOR 15	EDM 16	KTY 2	MDO 17	SNM 11	CHI 6	MOT 13	HMS 12			12th	321

¹ Run on same day.

² Non-points-paying, exhibition race.

[edit] Indy 500 results

[edit] External links

• CBS Sports
• ESPN interview