The Blueprint For Funding the Juncos Hollinger Racing IndyCar Team: How to Find the Right Investor

Cost optimizationRevenue optimization
Written By David Vaucher

Juncos Hollinger Racing needs funding, here’s how to find it

When most people think of funding a race team, they think of sponsor logos on rear wings and energy drink decals on helmets.

But what Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) needs right now is different, and more complex.

According to Racer.com, team co-owner Brad Hollinger is looking for additional investment to secure the long-term future of a team he’s already stabilized once by stepping in with his own capital when others wouldn’t.

But this isn’t about landing a blockbuster sponsorship deal, in other words the traditional motorsport playbook.

Hollinger is pursuing something fewer teams attempt, but which carries far greater potential impact: bringing in an equity partner, someone to co-own, and therefore help chart JHR’s long-term competitive trajectory.

It’s a big opportunity to take an ownership stake in motorsport with the potential upside to match, but as these investments go it is also very high-risk, requiring very high involvement.

Correspondingly, the number of people and/or organizations who can (and should!) take it on is small.

That’s why sourcing the right investor is as much a match-making exercise as it is a sales proposition.

This is how we’d approach it (with the disclosure that we have in fact approached Juncos Hollinger Racing but have not heard back).

Summarizing Juncos Hollinger Racing’s situation

This is much more than finding a sponsor for the 2026 livery, or even finding a title sponsor as the Williams F1 team did when it recently brought on Atlassian to become Atlassian Williams Racing.

This is a strategic capital raise to:

  • Accelerate RD&E investment (simulation, testing, AI integration)

  • Build sustainable commercial infrastructure

  • Ultimately close the performance gap with top-tier teams like Ganassi and Penske

  • Reduce the team’s dependency on Brad Hollinger’s personal capital (which, until this year, apparently covered nearly the totality of JHR’s shortfall costs despite Ricardo Juncos also being a team co-owner)

What’s safer than investing in IndyCar? A lot…but that’s not the point.

There’s an old joke in the airline industry (one that racing has quietly borrowed) that goes like this:

“How do you make millions with airplanes?”

“Start with billions.”

The same math applies to motorsport.

As exciting as it sounds to own a piece of an IndyCar team, with the garages, the pit wall, the adrenaline of race day, all available to you as an owner, the financial reality is clear.

The capital involved carries real opportunity cost, especially when you compare it to the broad menu of investments available today that offer historically stronger return profiles, greater liquidity, and clearer exit pathways.

To name just a few:

  • Public markets: Equities, ETFs, diversified portfolios with decades of data behind them

  • Real estate: Income-producing or appreciating properties with tangible asset backing

  • Private equity & venture capital: Higher risk, but structured for growth with defined timelines

  • Alternative assets: Fine art, classic cars, or even exotic automobiles, where, frankly, parking a Ferrari F40 often outperforms racing a Ferrari, financially

  • Crypto & digital assets: Volatile, but with undeniable upside and growing mainstream exposure

The higher the available wealth, the more sophisticated these options become, and the more they compete for attention against something like an IndyCar equity stake.

So before contacting a single prospect, the process needs to be strategic, grounded, and self-aware.

Here’s the approach:

1. Define the ownership endgame

  • How much capital is required?

  • Over what time horizon?

  • Is this a minority investment or a path to majority control?

  • What happens at exit, if that is desired?

2. Build the investment case over and above other options

3. Close the rational gap with emotional ROI

Let’s be clear: on spreadsheets alone, few can make a “straight-faced” argument that buying into an IndyCar team will outperform a diversified portfolio or a blue-chip asset.

That’s not why the right investor says yes.

The gap gets closed through:

  • The visceral experience of owning part of the show

  • The legacy, brand equity, and personal credibility of being “in the paddock”

  • Access to networks, deal flow, and brand adjacency motorsport unlocks

The smartest investors in this space make peace with the math , and lean into the emotion, access, and asymmetric upside that comes with calculated risk.

If JHR can tell that story, honestly and strategically, the right investor will hear it.

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In less than 500 words.


The right investor isn’t “just” rich. They’re aligned.

Not all dollars are equal. And in a category like this (high burn, high complexity, high emotion) the right investor must fit more than a financial profile.

Here’s who you’re really looking for:

1. Capital profile

  • Individuals with $100M+ net worth

  • Family offices with $250M–$1B+ AUM

  • Willing to deploy a potentially 8-figure sum, possibly over years, with tolerance for long hold periods and illiquidity

2. Strategic leverage

They bring more than money. They bring force multipliers:

  • Motorsport roots

  • Technology angle

  • Content/media upside

3. Motivation archetypes

There are three investor personas that might say yes:

  • The Operator-Turned-Investor: They’ve exited a company and want to succeed in again in areas in which they are passionate. They want emotional ROI and intellectual engagement (Brad Hollinger falls in this category).

  • The Motorsport Strategist: They missed the chance to invest in another race team that is now doing well. This is their shot to apply Formula 1 rigor to an underleveraged IndyCar team, helping to bring them more success under the status quo.

  • The Contrarian Capitalist: They believe IndyCar as a whole is undervalued, a rising asset class hiding in plain sight. As the saying goes “a rising tide lifts all boats” and just as F1’s success has boosted the fortunes of even the most lackluster of the ten teams on the grid, growth of IndyCar will mean growth of JHR provided the investment in the team has a long-enough horizon.

Why alignment between co-owners is critical

At first glance, securing the capital feels like the hard part but in reality, the most dangerous phase starts after the check clears.

That’s when two owners, often with very different backgrounds, motivations, and hard-earned egos, have to align under one vision.

Motorsport rarely pairs identical mindsets, and if they do match, it’s probably in competitiveness, not in management style.

The most stable teams don’t rely on carbon-copy partners. They succeed by blending complementary profiles: operators who drive performance, strategic investors who bring capital, governance, or technical expertise.

That balance isn’t optional, it’s the only way a co-ownership structure survives the realities of racing.

In this case:

  • Hollinger, as an Operator-Turned-Investor, brings founder-level intensity, operational know-how to the team.

  • That means the ideal partner may not be another pure operator, but someone from the other profiles to bring balance.

The Motorsport Strategist can fill gaps in competitive experience, technical governance, and performance benchmarking.

The Contrarian Capitalist brings patience, market perspective, and access to adjacent capital or growth opportunities.

But no matter who joins:

  • Roles must be crystal clear

  • Decision rights need structure

  • And all sides must align upfront on:

    • Performance expectations

    • Time horizons

    • Use-of-funds priorities

    • What success looks like (both on and off track)

In racing, where pressure runs high and egos often run higher, co-owner misalignment can derail even the best-funded program. The antidote is clarity, complementary strengths, and shared ambition from Day 1.

Finding the capital is step one.

Finding the right partner, with both capability and chemistry, is where this truly succeeds, and you won’t necessarily find them walking the paddock with VIP passes.

Rather, you find them in curated, private, referral-driven networks, with plenty of opportunities for meaningful interactions well before a contract is drafted.

Channel example targets for finding investors

Target Network
Ideal Prospect Profile
F1 & IndyCar alumni Former team executives, retired principals, senior engineers with capital, credibility, and competitive DNA
Sports-tech investors Founders or operators with successful exits in AI, simulation, data science, or high-performance technology
Private capital networks HNW individuals and family offices
M&A circles Founders or executives who’ve recently sold businesses and are looking to deploy capital into passion-driven opportunities
Content & IP buyers Media entrepreneurs or production groups seeking behind-the-scenes rights and sports-adjacent storytelling platforms

The work to be done

Once JHR has found potential partners, they’ll need to convert curiosity into capital.

That means doing more than pitching, it means packaging.

Upfront, Hollinger and the JHR leadership team should align on which investor personas they want to prioritize, whether that’s an Operator-Turned-Investor, a Motorsport Strategist, or a Contrarian Capitalist.

From there, every lead should be assessed and categorized against that framework (we recommend building a simple scorecard to categorize every potential lead).

This does two things:

  • It helps prioritize outreach toward the most strategically aligned prospects.

  • It ensures the team agrees on the type of story (financial, technical, or emotional) that will resonate with each persona.

The goal is to avoid a one-size-fits-all pitch and instead tailor the narrative based on who’s sitting across the table.

Here’s what JHR needs to win investor confidence:

1. Investor pitch deck

  • Clear narrative: “What we are,” “Where we’re going,” “Why now”

  • Use-of-funds tied to performance inflection points

  • Traction: racing, technical, operational, and commercial

2. 3-Year business plan

  • Capital deployment plan (e.g., sim/AI tech, personnel, testing)

  • Budget breakdown per car

  • Revenue build from sponsorship, licensing, content/IP, prize money

3. Governance & role clarity

  • What does the investor get? Board seat? Naming rights? Brand integration?

  • How do Hollinger and Juncos and the new investor(s) share decision-making?

  • What happens if the team doesn’t hit commercial milestones?

This is where most teams fall apart, not because the money isn’t out there, but because the story isn’t clear and the risk isn’t well framed.

A 90-day plan to find the right IndyCar investment partner

All of this needs to happen quickly, not only to provide funding, stability and (hopefully) better results for the next season, but also because the longer this project remains uncompleted, the less attractive the opportunity looks to potential investors.

If we were advising JHR today, we’d run a tight 90-day process like this:

Weeks 1–2: Strategic clarity

  • Determine the business case for investment in IndyCar/JHR

  • Define use-of-funds and 3-year vision

  • Match business case with investor profile(s)

  • Align on investor profile and governance expectations

  • Resolve any founder/partner ambiguity

Weeks 3–5: Material prep

  • Build investor deck, teaser, and pro forma model

  • Stand up data room with contracts, org chart, and budget history

  • Craft investor-facing messaging, with different approaches for different investor personas

Weeks 6–9: Outreach

  • Identify and engage 20–30 qualified targets

  • Use warm intros where possible (trusted advisors, wealth networks)

  • Hold initial discussions

Weeks 10–13: Deal structuring

  • Shortlist 2–3 serious prospects

  • Begin term sheet conversations

Final word: The biggest risk is mis-framing the opportunity

This isn’t about “supporting” a race team.

It’s about owning the transformation of one.

Juncos Hollinger Racing sits at a tipping point, a technically maturing, capital-backed platform that’s one strategic partner away from meaningful upside, or quiet decline.

The right investor can change that, but only if the story they hear is clear, credible, and grounded in both ambition and reality.

Are you ready to optimize your team’s potential?

At Vaucher Analytics, we help race teams and manufacturers turn racing ability into brand capital.

If you’re serious about making your motorsport team or series matter beyond the podium, let’s talk.

Book your 30-minute discovery call by contacting us today:

Photo credit: Colin Redwood via Unsplash

David Vaucher
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