Agustin Canapino was a divisive figure in IndyCar, and social media drama off the circuit clouded his good results for Juncos Hollinger Racing.
The Argentinian left the series midway through this season, mutually parting ways with the team. His last race in the championship ended in the wall in Toronto.
Canapino is now racing in his native Argentina in Argentinian touring cars, but he could compete in IndyCar again as soon as next year.
Juncos Hollinger Racing could be running a third car at the 109th Running of the Indy 500 in a one-off entry with Canapino behind the wheel.
Ricardo Juncos was impressed with the 34-year-old at the Indy 500 but told Motorsport.com ‘it’s too early’ to say whether he would have Canapino back in his car.
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Juncos Hollinger Racing co-owner Ricardo Juncos replaced Canapino with Conor Daly in an attempt to move the No. 78 car into the $1 million Leaders Circle.
The American driver has now pushed the car into the Leaders Circle after some strong results, taking third place in the first race of the weekend at Milwaukee.
Canapino drove well on ovals during his IndyCar career, getting very close to the Firestone Fast 12 at the Indy 500 this season before a mechanical issue halted his progress.
Juncos isn’t sure he would entertain the idea of a third car at the Indy 500 with Canapino behind the wheel. He said: “It’s too early for that, but anything can happen.”
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The JHR driver didn’t break into the top 10 during his season and a half in IndyCar but finished in 12th place on four occasions.
Juncos added that he only made minor errors at the Indy 500: “Clearly, what Agustin did in the 500 miles, both years, he showed extreme speed running alone, he showed technical leadership which is very important to lead the engineer, which is what is needed in the car to be fast when it comes to qualifying as he did this year.
“And then in the race I think Agustin did everything right. He made the mistake of entering the pits like (Scott) Dixon has, that is, champion drivers have made the same mistake at some point in their sports careers. So we can’t blame him for anything either.”
Agustin Canapino was fast on ovals during his IndyCar career
Canapino finished in 12th place on his first oval race at Texas Motor Speedway, just his second race in IndyCar.
This performance gave him a good foundation to build from, particularly as ovals are a unique type of circuit that the JHR driver hadn’t raced on before.
He also finished in 16th place at the end of the first race of the weekend at Iowa Speedway last season on a short oval which requires a huge amount of consistency.
The 34-year-old would be capable of delivering a good result if he were to be given to chance of racing at next year’s Indy 500. A third car would help the JHR team develop more quickly over the month of May.