Having been forced out of the most recent IndyCar Series race at Nashville, Ernesto Viso will return to action this weekend in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

The Venezuelan racer was forced to miss last weekend's event after contracting mumps but will now return to action looked to match the top ten results he secured in the previous races at Richmond and Watkins Glen.

“You never want to miss a race, but we had to make the best, responsible decision for everyone,” team boss Keith Wiggins said. “The good news now is that EJ is ready to race and the team is fully energised. Mid-Ohio is a track that we are familiar with. We haven't been there in a few seasons, nor with this car, but it's a venue that we've raced before.

“The goal will be to get back on track after good runs at Richmond and Watkins Glen. It's good to have that momentum, but now it's time to move into the top-five. The goal of this race team, in time, is to compete weekly for wins. We've proven, so far, that we can be a consistent threat in the top-ten. Now is the time to prove that we can be a consistent team in the top-five.”

Missing the Nashville event saw the team drop to 17th in the entrant point standings, but HVM remains ahead of seven of the teams to have moved over from the Champ Car World Series following the open-wheel merger and its record of five top-ten finishes is the best of any of the teams to have made the switch.

After an unexpected week out of action, team manager Vince Kremer admitted that the team has work to do to make up the lost ground but said the team was fully motivated to get a strong result on its return to racing action.

“We took full advantage of the unexpected turns of last week,” he said. “It gave us an opportunity to recharge our batteries and the team was given an extended weekend. That was important, but last week gave us a great chance to get ahead too. We concentrated on two things. We did a lot of prep work for Mid-Ohio and worked on our second car. We feel good about the progress of both our cars. That extra time allowed us to take a step forward and will be a big advantage in the long run.

“Obviously everyone wanted to be in Nashville to race. The guys, morale wise, are a little disappointed. We dropped in the points, but we knew that was going to happen. We just have to work that much harder to get back up there. It's going to be a tough road, but we know we can do it.

“It starts this weekend at Mid-Ohio. The established IndyCar teams will have some data to go back on, but we've raced there before too. So we have a base to start from. The expectation is to go over there and run well. We want to continue the string of good finishes and continue to get better.”