Barnhart leaves Andretti for AMSP

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | September 23, 2022 4:27 PM ET

The exchange of employees from Andretti Autosport’s No. 27 Honda program continues as new Arrow McLaren SP driver Alexander Rossi has been joined by his race strategist Brian Barnhart in a role AMSP has yet to define.

Barnhart, the championship- and Indy 500-winning mechanic turned president of the Indy Racing League and its successor, the IndyCar Series, comes to AMSP after recently running the Harding Racing IndyCar team from 2017-18, and under its expanded ownership base as Harding Steinbrenner Racing in 2019 where the team won two races with Colton Herta.

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With Harding, Steinbrenner and Herta moving to Andretti Autosport in 2020, Barnhart followed and continued to serve as Herta’s race strategist through 2021 before moving to Rossi’s car last season. Barnhart’s arrival comes days after AMSP president Taylor Kiel left the team.

“He (Barnhart) was in the building on Thursday and has been hired, but at this point, his role is to be solidified,” an AMSP spokesperson told RACER. “I think he was going to be brought on for one role, but now because Taylor has created a vacancy by jumping ship like the rat that he is, we’re trying to make sure that the puzzle pieces all fit together before identifying what role Brian will be in. And we hope to have the announcements soon, as soon as we get our own stuff straight..”