Thanks to his father-in-law, Scott Sharp may have an extra advantage for the Aug. 27 Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway.

Sharp, who will drive the No. 8 Delphi Panoz/Honda/Firestone for Fernandez Racing, will share a Daytona Prototype with his father-in-law, veteran sports car racer Greg Pickett in the Grand American Road Racing Series event on Aug. 26.

“My father-in-law decided a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to run that race,” said Sharp, who also drove with his father-in-law at Laguna Seca earlier this year. “It’s his home track, and he’s done a lot of testing up there, so I think he’s got a pretty good setup on the car.”

Sharp, a former SCAA Trans Am champion, has a best finish of ninth in the five previous IndyCar Series road races. Still he relishes the opportunity to get some extra seat time in a car during the race weekend.

“After not racing road courses for 10 years, I’m still looking to get as much road-course time as I can get,” he said. “Even though I think driving a Daytona Prototype doesn’t really transfer a lot of information for what you’re going to do in an IndyCar, even at the same track, it’s always good to run more laps.”

Though how many laps may be in question.

“Thursday afternoon there’s a pretty good chunk of time, and my father-in-law certainly has tested enough up there that he’s not going to need it,” Sharp said. “I’m hopeful that I can spend a lot of that time in the session getting accustomed to the car and comfortable with the car and then really not run it a whole lot more that weekend.

“I’ll let him practice it and qualify it. I’m sure he’ll start the car, and if it’s anything like Laguna, I couldn’t even get him out of the car. I got in with about 20 minutes to go. He only does a couple races a year, so it’s good for him to do most of the race. If I can help him out a little, that will be great. That way it should also keep me fresh for Sunday’s race.”

[IRL]

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