Gabby Chaves replaces Luca Filippi in Dale Coyne IndyCar team
Gabby Chaves will replace Luca Filippi in the Dale Coyne Racing IndyCar line-up for the Indianapolis road course race and the Indy 500
Chaves won the rookie of the year title in his maiden IndyCar season with Bryan Herta Autosport last year, and also earned that accolade in the Indy 500 after finishing 16th.
The Colombian, who won the 2014 Indy Lights title before graduating to IndyCar, started the '16 season on the sidelines.
"It's been the longest off-season of my life," said Chaves.
"Throughout my whole career I've always been on the grid in the first race of the season and this has been the first time that I haven't.
"I thought I had many deals in place before and for some reason or another it never came through.
"I've been speaking with Dale for years now and I'm excited to get something going with him and the team.
"With my time out of the car, I've really been able to value what it means to me to be in a racecar. I can now get back on track and enjoy it even more."
Chaves led his first IndyCar lap in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the track's road course last year.
His best finish of 2015 was a ninth place in the second Detroit race and he was 15th in the championship.
"We're very excited to have Gabby join us for the next two races, we've been in communication for a long time and it's all finally come together," team owner Dale Coyne said.
"He showed a lot of maturity last season, he was quick, mistake-free and made great decisions behind the wheel that you don't normally see coming from a rookie."
Chaves will make his first appearance for Coyne in Thursday's first practice session on the Indianapolis road couse.
He joins Conor Daly in the team's line-up this weekend, with the squad then expanding to four cars for the Indy 500 and adding Pippa Mann and Bryan Clauson.
Though Chaves missed the opening races, he did participate in the pre-season Phoenix test with Schmidt Peterson Motorsport as Mikhail Aleshin was unavailable.
Sometime Honda Formula 1 test driver Filippi had secured the second Coyne seat on a race-by-race basis on the eve of the season.
A 17th place in Long Beach had been his best result of the opening rounds.
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