Written by Archie O’Reilly
Toby Sowery will return to Dale Coyne Racing’s No.51 Honda for IndyCar’s visit to the streets of Toronto this weekend, making his second appearance for the team alongside debutant Hunter McElrea. He will also run the final road and street course event of the season at Portland International Raceway next month.
Sowery, who finished third in the 2019 Indy Lights standings, made his long-awaited IndyCar debut in the series’ recent trip to Mid-Ohio. And his performance, placing him within seconds of the likes of Will Power and David Malukas at the finish, earned him a lot of plaudits.
A 13th-place result for the Briton equalled the team’s best finish of the season to date, achieved by Jack Harvey in the No.18 entry. It was a result that elevated the No.51 car, which has had the instability six different drivers so far in 2024, above its No.18 stablemate in the Leaders’ Circle standings.
A lot was stacked against Sowery. He had only had one prior test outing with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, no experience of the hybrid system, weather-limited practice time and a qualifying car issue restricting him to a 25th-place start. But he made his way through the field and weathered one of the most physical races on record.
Sowery’s background was initially in his native United Kingdom and Europe. He ran a British F4 campaign in 2015 before two seasons in British F3, in which he finished third and fourth in the championship and took 21 podiums in 44 races, including seven victories.
He first ventured stateside in 2017, when he competed in two USF2000 races. After moving on from British F3, he ran in Italian F4 and two further races stateside in Indy Pro 2000. A pair of second-place finishes at Road America in this second dabble into the United States offered a platform for the Indy Lights campaign that was to come.
Sowery’s third-place finish in Indy NXT standings in 2019 came during his rookie season and only complete campaign. He went on to run a part-season in 2021 and three races, including a podium on his return at Barber, in 2023. But he essentially had to wait five years to obtain and impressively seize his first IndyCar opportunity.
In the meantime, Sowery has spent time in the sportscar realm, achieving successes such as a second-place finish in the LMP2 class with Crowdstrike by APR in the Daytona 24 Hours earlier this year. The weekend before Mid-Ohio saw him compete in the Spa 24 Hours and he is also a race winner in the Asian Le Mans Series.
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