Keeping track of off-season driver movement and team changes has pointed to one of IndyCar’s two engine suppliers marshaling its resources to wage another all-out attack on its rival.

Chevrolet has dominated the Verizon-sponsored open-wheel series since its return in 2012, claiming three consecutive Manufacturers’ titles and the 2013 Indy 500, while its adversaries at Honda have had to console themselves with two Indy 500 wins and the 2013 Drivers championship during the same period.

Victories at the 2012 and 2014 Indy 500s are hardly second-tier achievements, but with the massive financial and engineering resources both firms invest in the series, the Manufacturers’ crown is the biggest prize both constructors are after.

When it comes to winning the Manufacturers’ championship, it’s in the hands of their respective teams, and with rules in place that prohibit Chevy and Honda from funding factory efforts, it leaves both auto giants somewhat prone to defections.

The biggest change heading into 2015 involves Honda poster boy Simon Pagenaud leaving Schmidt Peterson Motorsports for a fourth Chevy-powered entry at Team Penske, and with that simple move, the balance of power in the IndyCar paddock tilted massively in favor of the Bowtie. Chevy also added IndyCar’s brightest young talent in Josef Newgarden when his Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing team merged with Ed Carpenter Racing program and switched to Chevy’s Ilmor-built twin-turbo V6.

Honda has Andretti Autosport in its camp and 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay as its leading championship contender. Marco Andretti and Carlos Munoz could also help the brand to earn wins next year, and if Justin Wilson can find his way into an Andretti Autosport car, he and Hunter-Reay could form a scary tandem. New SPM driver James Hinchcliffe is also at the forefront of Honda’s competitive offerings.

Of the three drivers who won for Honda last year, only RHR is guaranteed to return with Pagenaud now a Chevy man and Dale Coyne Racing’s Carlos Huertas a question mark for 2015.

Those three accounted for Honda’s six wins in an 18-race season, and if you do the math on who’s confirmed in a prime seat, it’s hard to feel bullish for the good folks at Honda Performance Development. Two proven bullets in RHR and Hinchcliffe going up against Will Power, Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais, Juan Montoya, Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, Pagenaud, and Newgarden is a tall order to fill.

“It’s certainly going to be more challenging when you look at the lineup Chevy has for next year,” said HPD vice president Steve Eriksen. “Our best chance is going to be to work with the teams we have and raise their games as much as possible. We have to provide them the best product possible and the tools to get the most out of it. We can only hope to overcome the seemingly stacked deck through smart use of the resources we have.”

2014 marked the first serious engine re-homologation opportunity for engine manufacturers since 2012, and for HPD, it included a move from single to twin-turbo power. Chevy, which chose the twin-turbo layout from the outset, was expected to have an advantage to start the season as Honda came to grips with engine mapping and power delivery, but the opposite took place.

Honda’s success came during the first half of the season where its drivers won five of the first 10 races. Honda came out swinging in the see-saw development battle with Chevy, and had particular success on the road courses at Barber and IMS, and later at both rounds on the streets of Houston. But as the series streaked into the final eight races, only one more win would follow when RHR and Newgarden blitzed the Chevy-powered Tony Kanaan on new tires at Iowa.

Minus the brilliant strategy call, Chevy could have barred Honda from Victory Lane starting at Pocono through Fontana, and that uptick in performance, along with Honda’s ongoing reliability woes, made it easier for the likes of Pagenaud and Sarah Fisher’s team to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Using Pagenaud as an example, Honda’s strength at developing new talent has been a key advantage in IndyCar, and you can add Luca Filippi to the list of those who HPD helped to pair with teams in need of better options. Andretti’s Munoz, SPM’s Mikhail Aleshin and Foyt’s Jack Hawksworth represent the next generation of exciting talent, but with empty seats at Bryan Herta Autosport, one or two seats at DCR and possibly a second seat at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda will need its teams to groom new names if it has any chance of beating Chevy’s squadron on pure talent.

“That’s got to be part of the equation,” Eriksen said of repopulating Honda’s pool of potential winners. “There’s a layer of drivers that are on the outside edge of their driving career in IndyCar from an age standpoint and have to get replaced. We’ve tried to invest in the up-and-coming drivers to help them raise their game and that’s been very successful. Next year, those efforts will continue.”

2014 Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves and his title rival Zach Veach rank among the current crop eying IndyCar, and with Conor Daly, Alexander Rossi, Daniel Abt, and others from GP2 and Formula 1 on a list of potential candidates, Honda’s teams aren’t lacking in options.

Beyond developing fresh talent, Honda’s fortunes can certainly be improved with a more reliable engine next year, and if they can find an edge in the power and torque game, some Chevy teams could be interested in moving across the aisle. Honda’s partners at Wirth Research could also play a role in tipping the scale in HPD’s favor when aero kits arrive.

“The aero kits are going to be a new era for IndyCar, and frankly it’s a bit of an experiment whether that’s the right direction, but we are fully committed to them,” Eriksen noted. “I think that’s potentially one of our weapons to use; it’s going to be a destabilizing agent in the series that we can use to our advantage. It’s like when the Dallara DW12 was introduced in leveling the playing field, and I think it will give opportunities to the little guys to succeed. It’s a reset.

“We’ve put a lot of time and effort into this aero kit, we’re a chassis manufacturer so we know how to make good a chassis and that helped us to do our best with the aero kits, and if we do a better job than the Bowtie, it should offset some of the perceived benefits they have on their side with strong multi-car teams and a cadre of experienced IndyCar drivers. It’s going to be an interesting year. The aero kits are the big wild card. You can make an enormous impact with aero. It’s going to be a great chance for Honda to show what we can do.”

For now, Honda’s focus is on improving for 2015, and with rumors of the proud Japanese brand considering an exit from the IndyCar Series, a sense of urgency is definitely required. With more success at Indy and especially in the Manufacturers’ championship, securing a long-term future for Honda in open-wheel racing will hopefully become a formality.

“I believe Chevy’s contract is through 2016, ours is through 2015, and we’re both in talks with the series about multi-year extensions,” Eriksen confirmed. “That’s all I can say for now.”​