Jones ready to lead Coyne while Bourdais is injured

Sunday’s Indy 500 will be only the sixth IndyCar start for the 22-year-old, but the reigning Indy Lights champion is confident he’s ready to step up after learning from Bourdais early in the season.

Coyne said on Monday that Bourdais, who has been replaced for the Indy 500 by Australian James Davison, will be out for the rest of the season, although Bourdais is still targeting a return this year.

“I feel prepared for it now,” Jones told Motorsport.com when asked if he is feeling the extra pressure of being Coyne’s lead driver. “I’ve learned a lot already, feel I have a good idea of what to do. I needed the help more earlier on in the season when I was still learning a lot more, whereas now I feel a lot more settled and we kind of know what to do.”

Jones, who is the Verizon IndyCar Series’ only fulltime rookie in 2017, will start his first Indy 500 from 11th having just missed out on making the Fast Nine Shootout for pole, and has performed strongly throughout May.

Despite his qualifying speed, Jones believes his #19 DCR-Honda will be even stronger in race conditions having run well during practice.

“We had a great qualifying, which was the best for the team in the Indy 500 since they started but, if anything, I feel we have a stronger racecar than we do qualifying car.

“So I’m really confident looking ahead to the race. We felt solid in all the race trim practices so it should be good.”

lies 12^th in the points currently, despite misfortune at both Barber Motorsports Park and the IndyCar GP on the IMS road course. His best result has been a sixth place at Long Beach.

“I’m really pleased with how it’s gone,” said Jones, “just taking it step by step. Seb has been a massive help for me throughout every race this season and especially here, so we are going to miss him in the future races. 

“But I just want to prove that I belong in this series and can do a good job. As long as I can be solid and have a few really top results then I can hopefully have a future here.”