Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced Tuesday that South Africa's Tomas Scheckter would replace the injured Justin Wilson for the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Scheckter, 30, has 116 IndyCar starts, with two wins. He has made 14 starts with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
"Even though we get that extra run time there Thursday (practice day), we have to cut to the chase fast," said D&R general manager Larry Curry. "We know him and he knows us, and it will take him only two or three laps to know what he needs out of the car and how we can adjust it.
"It was more of a choice based on who was available and who we had a relationship with. That was pretty simple actually."
Scheckter will take over the No. 22 for Wilson, who suffered a stable burst fracture of the fifth thoracic vertebra during practice on Saturday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. IndyCar medical director Dr. Michael Olinger says the British driver – who will be treated with a back brace and will not require surgery – will be out of the car for at least three months.
"Obviously, I have a little bit of a backache, but I'm just frustrated to not be at the racetrack," Wilson said after being released today from a hospital in Indianapolis. "I think that we just started to get our season turned around and the car was really good at Mid-Ohio and I'm disappointed about that. I know that I'm going to miss the ovals and I think we've found some good stuff that was going to help our oval performance.
"So I'm just disappointed to not be the car, but my back is the most important thing. I'm going to try and get that to heal and get back to 100 percent as soon as possible and get back in the car. Also, the response has been incredible and it's really nice to see that whether it's on Twitter from the fans, or drivers and ex-drivers. Everyone has been really supportive, so thank you to all of them."
Curry said team co-owners Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl have not selected a driver for the No. 22 car past New Hampshire. There are three road/street courses and two oval races following the event on the 1-mile speedway. Simon Pagenaud replaced Wilson for the race at Mid-Ohio, finishing 13th.
"We are talking about a lot of things on how we want to approach the rest of the year with the three road courses," Curry said.
The team has tests scheduled at Infineon Raceway Aug. 18 with Ana Beatriz and Scheckter (who was already scheduled to race at the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix in the Team Redline Xtreme entry) and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Aug. 22, with Davey Hamilton.