Vision to return with Carpenter at Indy

Tony George's Vision Racing team is to return to the IndyCar Series to run Ed Carpenter in the Indianapolis 500 in partnership with Panther Racing

George had focused on running Vision after his split with the Indianapolis board last year, but could not find sufficient funding to run long-time driver Carpenter in a full 2010 season. The new deal with Panther will allow Carpenter to line up alongside Dan Wheldon at Indy.

"This collaboration with Panther Racing will allow two teams that want nothing else but to compete and strive for success in the upcoming Indianapolis 500 the opportunity do so to the best of their abilities," George said.

"With this partnership between teams and drivers, we will also be able to maximise the potential of both parties and field what I am sure will be a very formidable two-car effort."

Panther boss John Barnes is similarly confident that his team will benefit from the arrival of Vision and Carpenter.

"We looked at a lot of opportunities for the month of May and, as strong as Vision Racing has run the last few years, we felt like partnering with them made a lot of sense for us," said Barnes. "I feel that Ed is a threat to win at any race he runs and he's proved that to this league in the last two or three years."

Barnes added that the Indianapolis arrangement could be the start of a longer-term relationship between Panther and Vision.

"I honestly hope this isn't a one-and-done deal. We very much look forward to the opportunity of expanding this and running more IZOD IndyCar Series races together this season," he said.

George also emphasised that he is keen to re-establish Vision as a full-time IndyCar presence.

"It has been an exceptionally long and extended off-season for Vision Racing that has recently had us turning our attention solely to the Indianapolis 500," he said.

"The challenge of putting together a sponsorship package to enable Vision Racing to run the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule proved to be much more difficult than anticipated but our intention is to be back competing full-time in the future."

Carpenter, who has driven for Vision since it was created in 2005, achieved a career best of 12th in the IndyCar standings last year and came within 0.0162 seconds of scoring his and the team's maiden win at Kentucky. His best Indianapolis 500 result so far in fifth in 2008, although he won the Indy Lights support race at the 2003 event.

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