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Carlos Munoz is due to make his first non-oval IndyCar start of 2018 at Portland this weekend in place of the injured Robert Wickens at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Autosport understands.
Munoz, who lost his full-time ride with AJ Foyt Racing at the end of last year, has not yet tried IndyCar’s 2018 aerokit in road/street course form.
But with IndyCar teams granted five hours of testing at Portland on Thursday (effectively turning the weekend into a four-day event) and most drivers set to sample the track for the first time, SPM decided it was the ideal opportunity to run Munoz.
The #6 SPM-Honda is available after Wickens’ huge shunt at Pocono earlier this month, which left the rookie in hospital with spinal injuries, broken legs and feet and a broken arm.
His car was not filled for last weekend’s race at Gateway.
Munoz’s last IndyCar race was this year’s Indianapolis 500, in which he competed for Andretti Autosport and finished seventh.
Indianapolis has traditionally been the 26-year-old Colombian’s strongest venue – having scored two runner-up finishes previously, including on his IndyCar debut in 2013 (pictured above).
His solitary win came on a wet track at Detroit in 2015, while he has also scored podium finishes in Long Beach and at Houston, Pocono and Mid-Ohio.
Neither Munoz nor Schmidt were available for comment, but it is believed that the deal is currently for Portland only.
That would keep the door open for SPM to run a different driver in the season finale at Sonoma in a fortnight’s time.