15-07-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Ed Carpenter Racing building new race shop in Westfield's Grand Park as IndyCar trend continues
In what's become an ever-growing trend in the IndyCar world, Ed Carpenter Racing announced Tuesday its plans to build a larger headquarters, shifting its operations from the northwest side of Indianapolis to Grand Park in Westfield as part of the Grand Park District Master Plan that will situate the new ECR headquarters as part of the existing Grand Park Sports Campus.
ECR will become the only IndyCar team located in Hamilton County.
The new team shop will be located just south of the Grand Park Event Center on the west side of Grand Park Boulevard. The 76,000 square-foot facility will house ECR's racing operations and advanced engineering and technical development spaces and will also come with both a retail and fan engagement component, offering a public viewing space into the team's operations. The shop will also offer an on-site Java House cafe, incorporating the team's sister company even deeper into the ECR family, as well as the first city-funded parking garage in Grand Park.
Just last fall, ECR announced the addition of co-owner Ted Gelov to the team's ownership group that already included its namesake Ed Carpenter, Tony George and Stuart Reed. Gelov is the owner of Heartland Food Products Group, which is also based in Hamilton County and boasts both the Splenda and Java House Coffee brands, among others. Since coming on, the addition of Gelov has brought not only an influx of funding to aid in building a deeper team, tackle research and development projects and hire series veteran Alexander Rossi, but the team has undergone a rebrand, with its cars sporting some of the few consumer-facing sponsors on the grid each weekend.
'Establishing ECR's permanent home at Grand Park is a defining moment for our organization,' Gelov said. 'This new headquarters will not only serve as the foundation for our racing operations and technical development, but also as a place where fans can truly connect with our team, our partners and the sport of IndyCar. As a long-time Hamilton County resident and business owner, I'm proud to invest in this community and help bring a new level of energy, innovation and opportunity to Westfield.'
Added Carpenter: 'We are very excited about this project and how it will impact the growth of ECR into the future. The opportunity to build a world-class facility within Grand Park was something we could not pass up. The demographic of Grand Park and its annual visitors is not only a great opportunity for our team to reach new fans, but also a great opportunity for IndyCar itself as we continue to capitalize on the current momentum of our sport."
ECR expects to break ground on the new project in early 2026, with its completion pegged for early 2027.
The IndyCar paddock's "new shop rat race" kicked off in late 2020 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announcing its ambitions to shift from its longtime headquarters in Brownsburg into a new facility in Zionsville. The team broke ground in May 2021, and RLL moved in following the 2022 season. In the several years since, Andretti Global has three times shifted gears on plans for a new shop, first breaking ground on the corner of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport in Fishers before those build plans were entirely redone over the ensuing 15 months.
The team announced in March 2024 its refined vision on the space, but that new sprawling state-of-the-art headquarters will now be used by the Cadillac F1 team once its completed in early 2026. Within the last couple weeks, Andretti Global's IndyCar and Indy NXT teams have moved into the IndyStar's old Pulliam Production Center as it continues work on an extensive internal and external facelift of the shop space.
Just over two years ago, Arrow McLaren purchased Andretti Global's longtime old shop, which it will gut, re-do and move into in the offseason ahead of the 2026 IndyCar season now that its old owners have vacated the building.
In early 2022, Meyer Shank Racing shifted into a new race shop in its home of Pataskala, Ohio, just outside Columbus. And in this past offseason, IndyCar's newest team Prema Racing moved into a new shop in Fishers as it began racing in the U.S. full-time for the first time in the team's decades-long history. Also this past offseason, A.J. Foyt Racing merged its Texas-based and Speedway-based teams into one in the team's shop just a stone's throw away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
