Lloyd happy to wait for Ganassi seat

The 24-year-old Briton joined Ganassi on a long-term deal after winning the 2007 Indy Lights title. But his only outings since have been in Grand-Am and at the Indianapolis 500 - last year in a partnership with Rahal Letterman Racing, and this year in a car run jointly by Ganassi and Lloyd's former Lights team Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Despite his lack of racing mileage, Lloyd said he felt his long-term career was best served by hanging on for a full-time Ganassi slot.

"I've spent enough of my career now in teams of various levels up and down the grid," he said. "2007 was the first time in my career that I had ever gone to what was known as the number one team, the drive that you want. We obviously were very successful with that.

"I really felt at that point, as a racing driver, the most important thing is to put yourself with the right people. It's really tough for a young driver with sponsorship so hard to come by. The economy is very bad. But I felt like the best thing for me was to get an opportunity to drive for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. And I felt like there's a future there long-term.

"Would I have loved to have jumped in the car full time? Everybody would. But in today's state that's not possible. So I'm just looking at it as be patient, do my job when the opportunity arises and we're all working very hard to try and make something happen. And I feel like I'm in the right environment, that when opportunity comes, I'll have the opportunity to shine."

Ganassi team manager Mike Hull said the squad had done its utmost to find funding to run a third car for Lloyd full-time.

"We feel Alex Lloyd represents the kind of race driver that should be driving an Indycar," said Hull. "We have tirelessly worked for three years to come up with a full-time budget for this guy to drive a car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

"We have a lot of confidence in Alex. He has driven our Indycars in testing situations. He's driven for our Rolex sportscar team in the 24-hour race (at Daytona), probably the biggest sportscar race in the world next to Le Mans.

"In a way, if I was Alex, I would probably use a tear-off and find somebody else to drive for because I'm not getting enough time in a race car. But he's been professionally correct in what he's done with us. He stands by the brand and works hard with us, and we hope that we can return that favour."