Jay Howard

Jay Howard
Born	(1981-02-16) February 16, 1981 Basildon, England
Occupation	Professional racing driver
Years active	2006–2018 (racing career)
Known for	2006 Indy Lights champion, IndyCar Series competitor, Indianapolis 500 participant

Jay Howard (born 16 February 1981) is a professional British racing driver who has competed in the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500, currently based in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned the title of 2005 US Formula Ford Zetec champion before moving up to the Indy Lights series, where he secured two victories and captured the 2006 championship with Sam Schmidt Motorsports during his debut season. Howard made his first appearance in the Indianapolis 500 in 2011.

Career

Howard was born in Basildon, England.

Indy Pro Series (2006–07)

Competing in the Indy Pro Series in 2006 for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, Howard claimed the championship as a rookie, finishing ahead of Jonathan Klein and Wade Cunningham. His season included two wins at Nashville and Kentucky, along with seven podium finishes. In 2007, he participated in three races with SpeedWorks before stepping away from competition for the rest of the year.

IndyCar Series (2008)

For the 2008 IndyCar Series season, Roth Racing signed Howard to drive their second entry. Although recruited purely on merit without sponsorship backing, he was replaced by John Andretti for the 2008 Indianapolis 500 when the team chose a driver bringing sponsorship. Originally intended as a one-off arrangement, Andretti continued driving the No. 24 car at Milwaukee and Texas. He also raced at Iowa Speedway and Richmond International Raceway, while Howard returned to compete at the Watkins Glen International road course event. This marked Howard’s final race with Roth Racing, which subsequently reduced to a single-car operation driven by owner Marty Roth for the remainder of the season.

Firestone Indy Lights (2009)

Howard started the 2009 Indy Lights season with rookie squad Team PBIR, taking part in five events before being replaced by sponsored drivers Pablo Donoso and Richard Philippe.

2010 season

In late 2009, Howard secured a deal with SFR to compete in four races: at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. By March 2010, his schedule expanded to include Kansas Speedway. On 14 April, Howard became the first confirmed entry for the 2010 Indianapolis 500, commemorating a century of English participation at Indianapolis.

On 21 April, he unveiled his No. 66 Service Central livery during a private test session at Kansas Speedway. Although qualifying for the 94th Indianapolis 500, he was withdrawn just minutes prior to race start due to inadequate speed under pressure from veteran Paul Tracy. Howard fulfilled his contract with SFR by competing in his final race on 28 August.

On 10 October, Howard triumphed in the RoboPong 200 all-star karting event at New Castle Motorsports Park alongside teammate Bill McLaughlin Jr., outperforming prominent drivers such as Will Power and Graham Rahal.

2011 season

On 14 October 2010, Howard announced he would not continue with SFR following a challenging year. He then arranged a 2011 campaign with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in collaboration with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, targeting the 2011 Indianapolis 500 and doubleheader races at Texas Motor Speedway. At Indianapolis, he qualified 20th but crashed after completing 60 laps, finishing in 30th place. In Texas, he finished 15th and 20th in the two races respectively.

2012 season

On April 23, 2012, Howard was announced as the driver for a Mike Shank Racing entry in the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500. Nevertheless, on May 2, MSR released him due to complications with finalizing an engine agreement, allowing Howard to seek alternative racing opportunities.

2017 season

Following a four-year hiatus from the Verizon IndyCar Series, Howard made his comeback at the 101st Indianapolis 500, piloting a vehicle sponsored by Tony Stewart and Sam Schmidt.

2018 season

Howard returned to compete in the Indy 500 for a second straight year, once again driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.

Motorsports Driver Development (MDD)

In 2012, Howard established Jay Howard's Motorsports Driver Development (MDD) with the goal of mentoring drivers progressing from karting to advanced levels within motorsport.

Karts

Drawing on his background in British Karting, Indy Lights, and IndyCar, Howard provides coaching to drivers of various age groups. Initially concentrating on competitors at the national level, MDD has expanded its scope to include club-level racers at NOLA Motorsports Park. Under Howard’s direction, MDD drivers secured two national titles in 2016: Braden Eves earned the World Karting Championship in both Italian American Motor Engineering X-30 Senior and Yamaha Senior classes. Additionally, MDD boasts numerous wins in the SuperKarts! USA Pro Tour and United States Pro Kart Series.

In January 2017, Howard inaugurated the "MDD Sprint Kart Championship" hosted at NOLA Motorsports Park.

Formula 4 (U.S.)

In 2017, MDD entered four cars into the second season of the 2017 Formula 4 United States Championship. The rookie outfit quickly demonstrated competitive performance, with driver Braden Eves securing a runner-up finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the second round after only one day behind the wheel. Eves was slated to participate again in the concluding round at Circuit of the Americas in October.

Since the commencement of the season, Howard has managed eight drivers within this series and is actively developing his F4 program to advance leading karting talents into the Formula 4 Championship for 2018.

Media work

In fall 2009, Howard collaborated with MTV and American Family Insurance as a driving coach for teenager Lauren Goodell in a nationwide advertising campaign. Filmed at Mid-America Motorplex, these commercials were broadcast on MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge and mtvU's Woodie Awards.

Howard’s professional representation is handled by BRANDed Management, a company founded by Klint Briney.

Personal life

Howard wed Courtney Nicoson on October 29, 2011, in Indianapolis. The couple lives in Carmel, Indiana, alongside their son Hudson. In May 2021, Howard was featured on the cover of Carmel Monthly magazine.

American open-wheel racing results

(key) (Races highlighted in bold denote pole position)

Indy Lights

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Rank	Points
2006	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	HMS 3	STP 3	STP 2	INDY 2	WGL 6	IMS 18	NSH 1	MIL 7	KTY 1	SNM 10	SNM 5	CHI 3					1st	390
2007	SpeedWorks	HMS 10	STP 5	STP 24	INDY	MIL	IMS	IMS	IOW	WGL	WGL	NSH	MOH	KTY	SNM	SNM	CHI	28th	56
2009	Team PBIR	STP 5	STP 8	LBH 13	KAN 10	INDY 4	MIL	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	KTY	MOH	SNM	CHI	HMS		21st	123

IndyCar Series

Year	Team	Chassis	No.	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Position	Points
2008	Roth Racing	Dallara IR-05	24	Honda	HMS 22	STP 14	MOT1 13	LBH1	KAN 13	INDY	MIL	TXS	IOW	RIR	WGL 26	NSH	MOH	EDM	KTY	SNM	DET	CHI	SRF2	28th	72
2010	Sarah Fisher Racing		66		SAO	STP	ALA	LBH	KAN 25	INDY DNQ	TXS 26	IOW	WGL	TOR	EDM	MOH 24	SNM	CHI 22	KTY	MOT	HMS		31st	44

Year	Team	Chassis	No.	Engine	1 !!2 !!3 !!4 !!5 !!6 !!7 !!8 !!9 !!10 !!11 !!12 !!13 !!14 !!15 !!16 !!17	! Position	Points

2011	Sam Schmidt Motorsports	88	STP	ALA	LBH	SAO	INDY 30	TXS 15	TXS 20	MIL	IOW	TOR	EDM	MOH	NHA	SNM	BAL	MOT	40th	27
	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15																			LVS C3

				style="background:#EFCFFF;" |2017 Indianapolis 500 33											style = "background:#CFCFFF;" | 32nd	style = "background:#CFCFFF;" | 24
				style="background:#CFCFFF;" | 39th	style = "background:#CFCFFF;" | 12

• ¹ Contested on the same day.
• ² Exhibition event without points awarded.
• ³ Event cancelled following Dan Wheldon's fatal accident.

Years	Teams	Races	Poles	Victories	Podium Finishes (excluding wins)	Top Ten Finishes (excluding podiums)	Indianapolis 500 Victories	Championships Won
4	3	13	0	0	0	0	0	0

Indianapolis 500

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team	Note
2008	Dallara	Honda	Rpl		Roth Racing	After completing the rookie test, replaced by John Andretti.
2010	Dallara	Honda	DNQ		Sarah Fisher Racing	Qualifying time was withdrawn, resulting in failure to re-qualify.
2011	Dallara	Honda	20	30	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Positioned seventh during the race but finished 30th due to a right-rear tire failure.
2012	Dallara	N/A	DNA		Mike Shank	Despite full sponsorship, the team could not obtain an engine lease.
2017	Dallara	Honda	20	33	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Suffered a crash in Turn 1 while running in 33rd place, seven laps behind.
2018	Dallara	Honda	28	24	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports / AFS Racing