Rahal Letterman Lanigan signs James Jakes for second IndyCar seat

The addition of a second RLL car follows a similar expansion at Schmidt Peterson Motorsport, which announced last week that it will run rookie Tristan Vautier alongside Simon Pagenaud.

"I wanted to put myself in a position where I could get results that I believe I am capable of, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is a good fit for me," said Jakes, whose career-best finish was eighth on the streets of Toronto last year with Dale Coyne Racing.

"If you look back at the results and the product that [team co-owner] Bobby [Rahal] and the team have put on the track, he's always got a car that is running up front, and the team does things first class.

"It will be great for the team to have two full-season cars to move ourselves forward and push us to where Bobby and the team want us to be - at the top of the grid."

Rahal believes that the addition of a second full-time entry represents the culmination of a project that began with the resurrection of the team at the start of last year.

"For us to be a two-car team is a natural progression," he said.

"A year ago we restarted the team to really build toward this time. We positioned ourselves in Indianapolis to take advantage of everything the open wheel industry can provide us with and obviously, as was proven last year, a one car team can be competitive.

"But there is no doubt in my mind that a two-car team is a much more efficient and productive way to go racing. There is twice as much information, twice as much everything, and that helps you progress that much quicker.

"James is obviously an aggressive, competitive driver and I think that having both he and Graham on board raises the performance of the team as a whole."

Jakes's arrival also means that Rahal Letterman will field three cars for the Long Beach round, with the team having already confirmed that Mike Conway will make a one-off appearance at the circuit where he won in 2011.

It will be the first time that Rahal Letterman has run three cars in one race since Chicago in 2006, when it fielded Buddy Rice, Danica Patrick and Jeff Simmons.

2013 IndyCar Series line-up so far:

Team                       Engine Drivers
AJ Foyt Racing             Honda  Takuma Sato
Andretti Autosport         Chevy  Ryan Hunter-Reay/James Hinchcliffe/Marco Andretti/tba
Bryan Herta Autosport      Honda  Alex Tagliani
Chip Ganassi Racing        Honda  Dario Franchitti/Scott Dixon/Charlie Kimball
Dale Coyne Racing          Honda  tba/tba
Dragon Racing              Chevy  Sebastien Bourdais/tba
Ed Carpenter Racing        Chevy  Ed Carpenter
KV Racing Technology       Chevy  Tony Kanaan/Simona de Silvestro
Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold  Chevy  JR Hildebrand/Oriol Servia
Rahal Letterman Lanigan    Honda  Graham Rahal/James Jakes
Sarah Fisher Hartman       Honda  Josef Newgarden
Schmidt Peterson           Honda  Simon Pagenaud/Tristan Vautier
Team Penske                Chevy  Will Power/Helio Castroneves

One-off entries:

Carlos Munoz - Andretti Autosport - Indianapolis
Mike Conway - Rahal Letterman Lanigan - Long Beach