ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — IndyCar opens its season with a roaring four races in March, a return to Phoenix Raceway, three new venues and the son of a motorsports icon making his debut in a North American-based series.
The season begins Sunday on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg with a field of 25 drivers led by defending race winner Palou. The Spaniard kicked off his title campaign on the street course a year ago with the win, the first of eight victories that included the Indianapolis 500 and a third consecutive IndyCar title.
He’s back with his Chip Ganassi Racing team intact, the breach of contract lawsuit with McLaren decided, and his eyes on another title. If he wins a fourth-straight, Palou would join Sebastien Bourdais as the only driver in series history to accomplish the feat.
“I think 2025 was so strange, so good, so magical … it’s very hard to get there. That doesn’t mean that nobody can or that I cannot do it again, but you need so many things to go right to get eight wins, to win the 500, to win the championship,” Palou said. “Although I would love to have another season like 2025, I am pretty certain that it’s probably not going to happen again for me. But I’ll try. I’ll try.”
His competition will come from within — teammate Scott Dixon, a six-time IndyCar champion, is looking to rebound from last year’s one-win season — as well as traditional heavyweight Team Penske. McLaren hopes to be a contender after Pato O’Ward finished second in the standings last year, and Andretti Global has been bolstered by the addition of former Penske stalwart Will Power and other key hires.
Many eyes will be on Power, who turns 45 on Sunday, same day as his first IndyCar race driving for someone other than Roger Penske since 2009. He was replaced in the Penske lineup by David Malukas, who at 24 has a longer runway than Power.
But Power was quickly snapped up by aggressive new Andretti owner Dan Towriss, who also hired Ron Ruzewski, one of three Team Penske executives fired after an Indianapolis 500 inspection infraction, as team principal of its IndyCar team. Ruzewski and Power know Team Penske inside and out and bring priceless knowledge to an Andretti organization that last won the IndyCar title in 2012.
“It’s really difficult to understand, like, are we missing anything? Are we good or bad? We won’t know that until we actually have our first race,” Power said. “But the end of the first race weekend you’ll start to see, as you always do, ‘OK, we need to work on this, this, this and this.’”
Power won Penske its last IndyCar championship in 2022 and the organization is trying to rebound from a rough season last year. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden didn’t win until the season finale and finished 12th in the standings, while teammate Scott McLaughlin went winless but was ninth in the standings.
“We’ve just got to focus on being more consistent. It’s kind of simple to say that, but that’s just what it will come down to,” Newgarden said. “If we don’t want to finish 12th in the standings, we’ve got to finish more races.”
IndyCar has a healthy 18-race schedule this year, the most events since the 2014 season, and for the first time in years the series won’t go weeks between the opener and the next race.
Penske, who owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was able to get a record four races in March by joining NASCAR next weekend for a return to Phoenix. IndyCar last raced at Phoenix in 2018, a race won by Newgarden.
Arlington is one of three new venues on the schedule as IndyCar will move away from downtown Toronto to race on the streets of Markham, Ontario, and a President Donald Trump-backed event in Washington, D.C., to mark the 250th birthday of the United States.
The season will end Sept. 6 with the finale back at Laguna Seca for the first time since 2023.
IndyCar typically features a few new faces every year but none come with the name recognition that Mick Schumacher brings.
Schumacher is the son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher and has made the move away from F1 after three seasons without a ride. He drove for Haas in F1 and became a Mercedes reserve driver after losing that seat at the end of 2022.
He hasn’t made an F1 start since and instead competed in the World Endurance Championship. Now the 26-year-old German will give North American open wheel racing a try with a seat at Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
He’ll need to quickly adapt to oval racing, which will be new to Schumacher, who said he’s leaning on teammate Graham Rahal for advice.
“I’m very curious and interested in learning about that,” Schumacher said. “The good thing is we have Graham on board, who has done a couple of these races in his lifetime, and therefore I can learn very much from him.”
Coincidentally, Schumacher will be on the grid this year with Romain Grosjean, the driver he replaced at Haas in 2021. Grosjean returns to IndyCar after a year away with Dale Coyne Racing, the team that first brought him to the series in 2021.
Coyne has an entirely new lineup this year as Grosjean will pair with rookie teammate Dennis Hauger, the reigning INDY NXT champion.
The final five laps in Indianapolis this year came down to the wire. Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward went back and forth down the stretch of the race, but Newgarden took a late lead to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year. Newgarden is the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Hélio Castroneves in 2001. Had O’Ward held on to his late lead, he would have become the first Mexican driver to win. Alexander Rossi from Auburn had pulled ahead with eight laps to go, before being passed by Newgarden and O’Ward. He finished fourth. Elk Grove native and Indy 500 rookie Kyle Larson was in the lead with as few as 17 laps to go, but a pit stop put him out of contention for first place. Larson made headlines prior to the race because of his plan to run “The Double” and race in both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the same day. A 4-hour rain delay pushed back the start time for the Indy 500 and put that plan in jeopardy.
INDIANAPOLIS —
The final five laps in Indianapolis this year came down to the wire.
Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward went back and forth down the stretch of the race, but Newgarden took a late lead to win the Indianapolis 500 for the second consecutive year.
Newgarden is the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Hélio Castroneves in 2001. Had O’Ward held on to his late lead, he would have become the first Mexican driver to win.
Alexander Rossi from Auburn had pulled ahead with eight laps to go, before being passed by Newgarden and O’Ward. He finished fourth.
Elk Grove native and Indy 500 rookie Kyle Larson was in the lead with as few as 17 laps to go, but a pit stop put him out of contention for first place.
Larson made headlines prior to the race because of his plan to run “The Double” and race in both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the same day.
A 4-hour rain delay pushed back the start time for the Indy 500 and put that plan in jeopardy.
INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark had yet to even be drafted by the Indiana Fever before fans openly called for her to be given an honorary role at the Indianapolis 500.
She’s been a resident of Indiana for just about a month and is already one of the biggest stars in the city.
Her WNBA home debut with the Fever comes Thursday night, deep into preparations for Indianapolis’ truly big event, the 108th running of the Indy 500. Anticipation to see the No. 1 overall draft was so high that drivers were checking their daily schedules to see if there was room to see Clark play the New York Liberty at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Of course I know who Caitlin Clark is — everybody does. She’s like the most marketed woman in the world right now,” said driver Colton Herta, who is sponsored by Gainbridge. Clark in March signed with the company as a brand ambassador, and Gainbridge is the presenting sponsor of the May 26 Indy 500.
Even though tickets still remained hours ahead of Thursday night’s game — secondary sales sites have seats that start around $5 but run over $1,000 — there were plenty of fans who wished they were going to see Clark.
Calvary Lutheran, an Indianapolis private school which brought 42 students to the speedway Thursday on a field trip, screamed their answer in unison when asked if they’d rather be at the track for an Indy 500 practice day or Clark’s debut.
“FEVER!” they shouted.
A few of the students then raced to the concession stand to retrieve 11-year-old classmate Blessing Li, an aspiring basketball player and, per her classmates, an “obsessed Clark fan.” A few even accused Li of crying as she spoke of Clark’s inspiration for young female athletes.
“Girl power!” Li exclaimed about Clark’s impact. “She’s just so great.”
One of her peers seemed disappointed that his chaperone grandfather had left the speedway after lunch to prepare to moonlight for his job as an usher at Fever games. The student said he wanted to go with his grandfather — not as a slight to the Indy 500, but because he’s been to the speedway before and yet to see Clark play in person.
Penske Entertainment, owner of the speedway, IndyCar and the Indy 500, has used Clark at series events before. She was a guest of Hy-Vee at the inaugural 2022 race at Iowa Speedway and returned last year as Grand Marshal.
But getting her involved in the Indy 500 has proved to be a more difficult task.
Series officials want nothing more than to include Indy’s newest star in the pageantry of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” but the Fever play in Los Angeles for next Friday’s “Carb Day” and then in Las Vegas the night before the race. The only gap in Clark’s WNBA schedule comes this Sunday, when the Indy 500 pole is decided.
Clark’s first home game is being marked by a souvenir ticket that has the technology to save a photo on a QR code for a forever keepsake. The Fever planned a pregame party at Bicentennial Unity Plaza for ticket holders that would include a DJ, face-painting, games and caricature and balloon artists.
Clark had 20 points while setting a record with 10 turnovers in a WNBA debut in the Fever’s season-opening loss to the Connecticut Sun. The game had record viewership with an average of 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+ to top ESPN’s previous mark of nearly 1.5 million viewers for a 2004 game between the Phoenix Mercury and Connecticut.
In Clark’s lone preseason game in Indianapolis, the Fever set a preseason attendance record at 13,028 spectators. The Fever averaged just over 4,000 fans per game last season.
Clark was excited to see the turnout against the Liberty.
“Any time you can have a real home opener and have the support that we’ve had, our preseason game was tremendous and now we get to play for real,” Clark said. “I think it’s just going to be loud. We’re going to need to use the environment to our advantage and I think just learn to move on and get ready to play. Embrace it and enjoy it because it is special, too.”
The vibe around Indianapolis is electric as the NBA’s Pacers remain in the playoffs during Indianapolis 500 preparations for the first time in a decade. Many current IndyCar drivers are regulars at Pacers games and Clark attended one of the games against the New York Knicks in a suite with her Fever teammates.
The Pacers are down 3-2 headed into Friday night’s game in Indianapolis.
But even the Pacers have taken a backseat to Clark’s arrival in Naptown. Indy native Conor Daly, one of IndyCar’s biggest ambassadors, is wearing an Indy-themed helmet in the Indy 500 that includes the Fever logo for the first time.
When the Fever drafted Clark, Daly looked into becoming a season-ticket holder.
“The whole city feels very sporty, that’s the best way to put it. The electricity, every time I turn on ESPN, there’s something about the Pacers or Caitlin Clark,” Daly said. “I keep waiting for a third segment about the Indy 500, but it’s just awesome to be from here right now.
“I noticed that if you want season tickets for the Fever, they went up a lot,” he continued. “I did my research for about three weeks trying to get them. And every two days they’d message me and say ‘Now it’s this (higher) price.’ But we did do our research on becoming Fever season-ticket holders.”
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MONTEREY, Calif. — By the time Scott Dixon turned his season around, it was too late to beat teammate Alex Palou for the IndyCar championship.
But it was good enough to affirm Dixon’s legacy as the greatest driver of his generation.
The six-time IndyCar champion won the season finale Sunday at Laguna Seca — his first win at the permanent California road course, 56th of his career and third in the final four races of the season. His turnaround last month ensured that Dixon’s streak of 19 consecutive seasons with at least one win remaining intact.
“It’s always nice to finish the year like that,” said Dixon.
Palou became the first driver in nearly 20 years to clinch the IndyCar title before the season finale with his victory last weekend in Portland. Palou won his second title in three years with last week’s win, his fifth of the season. Palou’s title is the 15th in IndyCar for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dixon had been mathematically eligible to challenge Palou for the title until the Portland victory. He was still guaranteed to finish second in the standings no matter what happened in Sunday’s finale.
“It’s just a shame that Palou decided to lead the championship by too many points, and it became a bit boring on the championship side,” Dixon said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a situation where you come into the last race and you can’t fight really much for anything in the championship. We were locked into second. Alex was locked obviously for the championship, which was quite bizarre.
“Everybody’s stress level was a lot lower. You could all just kind of fight for the win. … Everybody was just going for a win because everybody was trying a bit of everything throughout the day.”
Dixon’s win moved him within 11 of AJ Foyt’s all-time record.
Scott McLaughlin, like Dixon from New Zealand, finished second for Team Penske and was followed by Palou, who scored 10 podiums in 17 races this season.
Will Power of Team Penske finished fourth and ended his run as IndyCar champion by snapping a 16-year streak of winning at least one race. Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing tied his career-best finish of fifth and was followed by Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
Alexander Rossi of Arrow McLaren was seventh and followed by Marcus Armstrong, who won rookie of the year honors for Ganassi. Pato O’Ward of McLaren was ninth and Ryan Hunter-Reay of Ed Carpenter Racing finished 10th.
The win for Dixon was the first of his career at Laguna Seca and he overcame an early-race penalty for avoidable contact to cycle into the win in a sloppy race slowed by eight cautions for 35 laps. The lengthy yellows took such a toll on the race that the pace car ran out of gas and needed to be refueled with more than 30 laps remaining.
“It’s a credit to the team, they’ve been executing like that all season,” Dixon said. “But we won. That’s all that matters. We won.”
Ganassi became the first team owner to win the championship and top rookie honors in the same season. Armstrong won the rookie title despite skipping the five oval races on the schedule. He signed an extension to return to the team next year and will run the full schedule, including ovals.
“To be first and second in the points, and then rookie of the year for Marcus Armstrong, I mean, Alex, Dixon, what a season for the whole team,” Ganassi said.
Colton Herta finished 23rd and was spun off course by Helio Castroneves in a car custom painted to resemble the one Herta’s father, Bryan, drove to the 1998 win at Laguna Seca. The spin cemented a winless season for the younger Herta, who started the year with a contract extension from Andretti Global that many believe made the 23-year-old the highest-paid driver in IndyCar.
Herta said he’d give himself a “D-minus” grade on his season and said even if he’d won Sunday’s finale it wouldn’t be enough to salvage a disastrous year.
Chevrolet, which won the Indianapolis 500 with Josef Newgarden, clinched the manufacturer championship. Honda won the driver championship with Palou and Ganassi.
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For some viewers, Jewel’s attempt to put a nontraditional spin on the national anthem this weekend ended on a sour note.
The four-time Grammy nominee appeared in an all-white outfit and cowboy hat as she sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at the kickoff for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 race.
True to form, she accompanied herself on an acoustic guitar.
But — as is often the case with musicians who make a concerted effort to add, um, creative flourishes to the national anthem — her rendition drew a mixed response on Twitter and other social media platforms.
“Jewel butchered the national anthem at the Indy 500,” one person wrote. “People were trying to sing along but couldn’t because of the way she sang it. What a shame.”
Added another: “I’m sorry, but the National Anthem should NEVER, be changed up like this. Good artist, bad choice!”
Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles stated that Jewel’s performance of the national anthem would be “a memorable and moving experience for fans.”
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Others, however, offered praise ― or at least defended Jewel’s choice to break away from a tried-and-true interpretation of the song.
“I thought it was a nice arrangement and fit her style,” one listener tweeted. “Personally, I’ve never really cared for her or her voice, but there has certainly been much worse renditions of our national anthem than this one.”
“Absolutely beautiful,” wrote another. “Had me in tears. Stellar performance!”
Earlier this month, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles stated that Jewel’s take on the national anthem would be “a memorable and moving experience for fans.” Whether all viewers would support his choice of words is questionable, though it’s safe to say it got many of them talking.
Interestingly, Jewel gave a similar performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the start of the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, held Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City. The social media response to that rendition, however, was slight by comparison.
INDIANAPOLIS — The favorites are well known after two weeks of qualifying and practice ahead of the Indy 500, which rolls off Sunday for its 107th running with one of the largest crowds in more than three decades expected to pack Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
IndyCar points leader Alex Palou, the series champion two years ago, sits on the pole to lead the powerful quartet from Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou is the betting favorite at 5-1 odds, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, ahead of Pato O’Ward, the Mexican star for the equally stout Arrow McLaren, and Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon, who is still searching for a second Indy 500 win.
Palou and Dixon have two more teammates capable of winning in defending champion Marcus Ericsson and two-time winner Takuma Sato, while O’Ward has McLaren teammates Felix Rosenqvist and former winners Alexander Rossi and Tony Kanaan.
Things rarely go according to script in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” though. The chaos of 33 cars flying down the front stretch and into that infamous first turn at more than 230 mph, and the ensuing 200 laps, often produces some unexpected results.
Asked for a surprise contender, Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport replied: “Canapino.”
That would be Agustín Canapino, one of the most popular athletes in Argentina, who is making his Indy 500 debut. He has been fast in practice and, despite qualifying in the ninth row, showed plenty of speed in Friday’s final shakedown.
“I think he’s still got a little bit to learn from following him and whatnot on his gaps and his timing,” Herta said, “but he seems like he has a fast car. I think if he can make some adjustments driving-wise, it could be really good for him.”
Josef Newgarden, the Team Penske driver still searching for his first Indy 500 win, also said Canapino stood out to him.
“You put Canapino in position at the end and, oh, he would go for it,” Newgarden said. “He’s very, very impressive this year, and people wrote him off before he even started. He’s done tremendously well for no experience. I can’t speak highly enough.”
Santino Ferrucci is another driver who has come out of nowhere in May. He joined A.J. Foyt Racing, which has struggled for years but underwent an operational overhaul in the offseason, and along with rookie Benjamin Pedersen has turned heads all month.
Ferrucci, who will start fourth, has never finished worse than 10th in four previous starts.
“Yeah, I think Santino can be fast if they all get it right in the pits and stuff,” Kanaan said. “He finished up front here in the past, he ran up front, and he has a really good car, so I think he’s going to be tough.”
Two of the more high-profile teams have had quiet Indianapolis 500 preps before making a statement in final practice.
Andretti Autosport has flown under the radar but sent a warning shot on Friday when Kyle Kirkwood was fifth-fastest on the speed chart, with Herta two spots behind him and Romain Grosjean giving the team a third car in the top eight.
Meanwhile, the Penske team seemed to find some speed — and confidence — during final practice after putting just one driver in the first four rows in qualifying. Will Power turned the third-fastest lap in practice while Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin also were in the top 10.
Practice is one thing, though. One of the most iconic races in motorsports is something else entirely.
“It’s really hard to single anyone out these days,” Newgarden said. “Anyone can win this race, genuinely. The strategy can flip on its head with 50 to go and all of a sudden the front-runners are in the back and vice versa. You just don’t know how it’s going to shape up. It could be a normal day; it could be a crazy day. It’s always a guess when you come into these things.”
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two-time Academy Award nominee Adam Driver, who will soon be starring as Enzo Ferrari in a biopic of the Italian automobile magnate, will serve as the honorary starter for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
Driver perhaps most famously played Kylo Ren in the three most recent “Star Wars” films, and he was nominated for Academy Awards for his work in “BlacKkKlansman” and “ Marriage Story.” Driver also has received four Primetime Emmy nominations for the comedy-drama “Girls” and his guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in 2020.
“Adam is going to experience one of the most exhilarating, powerful and exciting moments in all of sports as he stands atop the flag stand and waves the green flag to officially start the world’s greatest race,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles said in making the announcement Tuesday.
Driver grew up in Mishawaka in northern Indiana before serving in the armed forces with the Marines. He returned from duty and enrolled at the University of Indianapolis before auditioning for Julliard, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
His other film credits include “House of Gucci” by Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky” and “Silence” by Martin Scorsese. He also appeared on and off Broadway in “Look Back in Anger and the revival of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This.”
Given its traditional Memorial Day weekend placement, the Indy 500 is steeped in military pageantry. There are enlistment ceremonies, helicopters and other equipment on display, and the playing of “Taps” just before the call to start the engines.
Driver enlisted in the Marines shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and served in the 1st Marines as a mortarman for nearly three years. After an injury while mountain biking, he was medically discharged as a lance corporal and went on to co-found Arts in the Armed Forces, a nonprofit that stages theater and musical performance for members of the military.
“Race day is full of meaning for our drivers, our fans across the globe and most especially our active-duty military members and veterans,” Boles said. “Adam is not only a star recognized across the world but also a former U.S. Marine who will be a very fitting addition to ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.’”
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Michael Andretti had his head in his hands nearly every time the camera showed him during the IndyCar season-opening race.
He started with at least three true challengers to win Sunday on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, only to see two of his cars involved in airborne accidents and the other two crashed into tire barriers.
Colton Herta was furious with reigning IndyCar champion Will Power, who received an avoidable contact penalty for knocking Herta into the tires. Romain Grosjean was enraged with Scott McLaughlin when a game of chicken between the two for the race lead ended with both drivers in the tire barrier.
Pato O’Ward, meanwhile, could barely speak after a brief power failure while leading with four laps remaining cost him the win. Five drivers failed to complete even the first lap of the race, and a total of 10 didn’t finish. Of the 27 drivers in the field, only 12 finished on the lead lap.
It was a sloppy opener, to say the least.
But did it matter?
“It was a wild weekend I think for everybody, having leaders crash out, it was all over the shop,” six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon said. “Hopefully it played well on TV.”
Indeed, how the race was received by viewers is all that ultimately matters as IndyCar heads into its fourth season under Roger Penske’s ownership rather bullish about its future. IndyCar firmly believes its racing product is the most competitive in all of motorsports and has taken huge steps to showcase it this year.
The drivers at the end of last season collectively sent a formal request for an improved marketing effort that wasn’t received very well by series leadership, mostly because IndyCar already had plans in motion.
Penske Entertainment partnered with Vice Media Group as producers of a docudrama on the buildup to the Indianapolis 500 that debuts in late April. IndyCar also held its preseason testing at the Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California, to spotlight its series for the members of the private club. Membership to Thermal requires the purchase of property inside the club and a standard membership starts at $85,000.
It was at Thermal where IndyCar presented its plans and visions to drivers and team owners, and Mark Miles, CEO of Penske Entertainment, confirmed the financials of the endeavor this past weekend. IndyCar reduced the guaranteed payout it gives to 22 full-time entrants in its “Leaders Circle” program by $150,000 a car to add $3.3 million to its marketing budget.
Miles said he believes the paddock trusts the direction IndyCar is going.
“I understand that we went through the period of planning and could we get the unscripted series done so it was reliable, it was going to happen, and could we put the revenue, the money together really, to fund the investments to do all this?” Miles said. “So we were quiet. So people wondered what was going on.
“I have only seen support. I think the drivers are certainly aligned, and I think the team owners are, too.”
Although Miles said he had heard of some grumbling among team owners about the financial hit, Chip Ganassi swatted away the criticism.
“If that’s making or breaking a team, they’ve got bigger problems,” said Ganassi, the team owner who celebrated the win Sunday with driver Marcus Ericsson. “Granted, it helps, and it does hurt a little when they take it, but if that’s a death blow to your team, you shouldn’t be here anyways.”
One of IndyCar’s biggest challenges is building momentum and, unlike NASCAR and its packed 38-race schedule that has only one off weekend all year, IndyCar races only 17 times. Its follow-up to Sunday’s opener isn’t for nearly a month, with its second race scheduled for April 2 at Texas Motor Speedway.
But IndyCar is off and running from there with an excitement level shared throughout the industry.
“I’m very bullish on the series,” Andretti said. “I’ve always said that I think we have the best racing in the world. I think people are starting to notice it more and follow it more. I feel really good about the future of IndyCar racing.”
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The tit-for-tat war between Zak Brown and Chip Ganassi took another turn Tuesday when Arrow McLaren SP announced it had signed both a Ganassi sponsor and Tony Kanaan to drive the Indianapolis 500.
Kanaan spent four seasons driving for Chip Ganassi Racing and the last two Indianapolis 500s. The 2003 winner finished third this past May at Indy.
Kanaan will be sponsored by NTT DATA for his 22nd Indy 500, and the technology and business solutions provider will also be the primary sponsor for Felix Rosenqvist for 10 races on the No. 6 Chevrolet.
NTT Data had been a Ganassi sponsor since 2013 and was the primary sponsor for 2020 champion Alex Palou, who spent most of the IndyCar season locked in a battle to move from Ganassi to McLaren in 2023.
Mediation led to a resolution in which Palou would finish the remaining year on his Ganassi contract and can test for McLaren’s Formula One team. But Palou’s sponsor is headed to McLaren early; Palou can’t drive an Indy car for McLaren before he makes his official move in 2024.
“We welcome the opportunity to partner with McLaren, a long-term and valued client, and to demonstrate how sponsorships simultaneously build awareness and enhance business-to-business relationships,” said Bob Pryor, CEO of NTT Data Services.
Brown and Ganassi have feuded for years but it reached a new height when Palou in July rebuked a Ganassi announcement that the option on his contract for 2023 had been picked up. He said he instead was moving to McLaren, which led to several civil court filings and the ultimate resolution for Palou to complete his Ganassi contract.
Also, McLaren team president Taylor Keil has left the organization and is expected to be announced as a Ganassi executive as soon as his non-compete clause expires. Keil is the stepson of longtime Ganassi managing director Mike Hull.
Kanaan, who spent four of the final six years of full-time IndyCar competition with Ganassi, is slowly moving toward retirement. His third-place finish at Indy in May made the Brazilian eager to return again in 2023 at age 48.
“I feel extremely lucky to get another shot racing in the Indy 500,” said Kanaan, who will be part of McLaren’s first four-car Indy 500 lineup alongside Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward and 2015 winner Alexander Rossi.
“I’m excited to work with Pato, Felix and Alexander and race with the Arrow McLaren SP team. My biggest battle in last year’s race was against these three drivers so working with them and driving with them will be exciting for all of us,” Kanaan said.
Rosenqvist started his IndyCar career with Ganassi and drove the No. 10 sponsored by NTT Data for two seasons. Rosenqvist moved to McLaren ahead of the 2021 season, the first year of NTT Data’s last Ganassi contact extension, and Palou replaced Rosenqvist as the driver in the No. 10.
“I look forward to representing NTT DATA once again,” Rosenqvist said. “They’re a great partner and are committed to the series.”
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AJ Foyt (center) flanked by son Larry Foyt (left) and grandson AJ Foyt IV with Foyt’s “Baby Borg” … [+] Trophy for winning four Indianapolis 500s.
IndyCar Photo
When Takuma Sato drove the famed No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing team Indy car to victory in the 2013 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, it was the last time the famed team won a race.
The team is owned by the legendary AJ Foyt, the first four-time winning driver of the Indianapolis 500 and the winningest driver in IndyCar history with 67 victories.
At 87, Foyt has long since turned the operation over to his son, Larry, who hopes to return the team to its past glory.
But that has been a struggle.
Before it can recapture glory, first it has to become competitive.
Since Sato’s last victory with the team nearly 10 years ago, the team has struggled to be escape backmarker status. Before it can contend for a victory, it has to become a consistent finisher in the top-10.
Drivers have been a revolving door, from famed veterans such as Tony Kanaan and Sebastian Bourdais, to rookies such as Kyle Kirkwood.
Thirteen different drivers have competed for Foyt’s IndyCar team since Sato drove to victory on the streets of Long Beach 10 seasons ago. Out of that group were some “Indy 500 only” drivers that did not compete for the full season.
Engineers have come and gone. The team has split its race shop into two – one in Waller, Texas near Foyt’s home and another in Speedway, Indiana – within the shadows of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It seems that every year, Larry Foyt is trying to reinvent the team.
He may have found the right formula for 2023 with the hiring of 24-year-old Santino Ferrucci of Connecticut and 22-year-old Benjamin Pedersen of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Santino Ferrucci
IndyCar Photo
Ferrucci has 43 career starts in the NTT IndyCar Series with 18 top 10s and was the 2019 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
Last year, Ferrucci became IndyCar’s “Super Sub.” When Jack Harvey crashed at Texas Motor Speedway and was not cleared to drive, Ferrucci jumped in the No. 45 Honda, started last in the 27-car field and finished ninth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He drove a second car for Dryer & Reinbold in the 106th Indianapolis 500 and finished 10th out of 33 cars.
He filled in the following week at Juncos Hollinger Racing and finished 21st.
Ferrucci was on standby status for Team Penske after Josef Newgarden had a crash at Iowa Speedway, but Newgarden was later cleared to drive by the IndyCar Medical Staff the following week.
Pedersen is from Denmark and grew up in Seattle. After an Indy Lights season, Pedersen spent last season as part of AJ Foyt Racing. He shadowed the team, got to know the mechanics and engineers, and listened in with the drivers debriefs.
It’s the latest remake of AJ Foyt Racing, so I asked Larry Foyt why he thinks this one will be different than any of the other attempts at returning to glory?
“I think it’s just been too many changes year to year,” Foyt told me. “Being able to announce this multiyear deal with Benjamin is very important for our company, IndyCar is so tight, everything is so close, that if you can get the right driver and engineer working together, get them to really know each other, and we just haven’t been able to put together that consistency. We’ve had different sponsorships, different engineers, and different things over the past couple years.
“That’s the biggest thing I’m excited about is getting to work with a driver knowing we’re going into a multiyear program, building the program around him, something that suits him. I think that’s going to take us a big step forward with the team.”
The biggest piece to the puzzle, however, was signing Ferrucci. He has proven to be fast on every team he has been a part of, and most of those teams are in the back half of the field.
“In any kind of racing, the driver is a huge piece,” Foyt said. “It’s a huge piece, but then also with that is how the driver works with the engineers and things like that. Obviously, that’s something we’re working hard on.
“It’s not like everything’s a total reset. I guess it is because you got two new drivers coming in. We have a lot of core pieces staying in place. We’re just building on that.
I think last year there were tracks we had speed on and there were tracks we struggled on. We’re trying to work on those tracks that we struggled.
“The good thing is Santino is going to get everything out of the car and get us some good finishes, get things rolling back the right direction. I really believe that.
“It’s not that we think consistently we’re going to be surprising people, but there’s no reason that we can’t have some really decent top 10s and even a little better.”
Ferrucci drove four races in IndyCar in 2018 after a controversial incident in an FIA Formula 2 race in Europe.
Team owner Dale Coyne liked what he saw in Ferrucci and brought him back full-time in 2019. His first race of that season, he finished ninth at St. Petersburg. He was seventh in the Indianapolis 500 and had a trio of fourth-place finishes at Texas Motor Speedway, Pocono, and Gateway – all ovals.
He was back with Coyne during the COVID season in 2020 with two sixth-place finishes in back-to-back races at Road American. He was fourth in the Indianapolis 500.
The driver from Connecticut split his time between NASCAR Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series action in 2021. He drove five race sin the No. 45 Hy-Vee car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, shining once again in the Indy 500 with a sixth-place finish. He was also sixth at Belle Isle the week after the 500.
Santino Ferrucci in the 106th Indianapolis 500
IndyCar Photo
He drove in just three races in 2022, but with another stellar run in the Indy 500, where he had never finished out of the top 10, Foyt’s team believed he had the speed and fearlessness to help take that car to the front.
“Everybody has watched Santino and we know what he can do on the track,” Foyt said. “We got to know him a little bit before he jumped in at Texas to fill in, did an awesome job. He was there catching up with A.J., and him and I got to meet a little bit. We’ve been staying in touch.
“We both feel like we’ve got something to prove. We were really aligned on what we want to do, work together, and get out there. It really just all came together.
“We’re really excited to have him onboard. I think he’s going to bring a nice veteran presence with his rookie teammate. Just good to have everything settled this early, know where we’re headed. I’m really looking forward to it.”
At 24, Ferrucci already has some impressive experience to build on and has plenty of time to further develop.
Santino Ferrucci as the “Screaming Sicilian” — the pizza company that sponsored him in the Indy 500 … [+] — during driver introductions.
IndyCar Photo
As the latest driver in the No. 14, he also realizes he has a lot live up to.
“It’s an honor to be back,” Ferrucci said. “Like Larry said before, I really started to get to spend some time with him at Texas Motor Speedway, with A.J. I think we both feel very strongly about what we can achieve together as a team, building the program.
“It’s just a new chapter for me. It’s nice to not have a last-minute call finally to get in with no practices, go run a race car. It will be nice to build through the winter, see what we can do with this team.
“I have a lot of high hopes. Everybody seems to want to work incredibly hard, including myself. The 14 car, I have to laugh, because it’s one of my lucky numbers, too. As most of you know, absolutely fascinated with 14. I can’t wait to get back after it.”
At 87, AJ Foyt is more than a legend, he’s a national monument of motorsports. Ferrucci looks forward to getting to know more from Foyt because he feels as if he is learning the Old Testament from Moses.
“Honestly the coolest thing, I think Larry also appreciates this, we all have backgrounds in everything,” Ferrucci said. “All of us have driven multiple different cars throughout our years. We have all been at the top, we know how to build a team from nothing.
“I think the coolest thing, when I listen to A.J., the appreciation is there. I like to work on my own stuff as well. I definitely turn wrenches. In the garage, when I was growing up karting, I’d show up at the racetrack in the back of a pickup truck and do my own setups.
“Having the fundamentals, I’m not the typical driver that doesn’t get his hands dirty. There’s a lot of those today that don’t even know how to drive a stick, which is mind-blowing to me.
“I am a very old school mentality. I want to be in the weeds like everybody else, working on things, making sure everybody is doing it together.
“It’s a team, man, at the end of the day. I’m one part of many. We need to function like a team.”
According to Larry Foyt, his legendary father was “all in” on the decision to put Ferrucci in the No. 14.
“A.J. is a huge fan,” Larry Foyt said. “Obviously when you run good at Indianapolis, A.J. takes notice (smiling). Especially on the ovals, A.J. is at pretty much all the oval races for sure.
“I was super impressed with what Santino did at Texas. He’s watched him race at Indy, Gateway. Just Santino will jump in and race anything. He’s just a racer. That certainly catches A.J.’s attention.
“A.J. just really wanted somebody that really wanted to race. I’m really glad we were able to get him.”
Benjamin Pedersen
IndyCar Photo
Ferrucci will team up with Pedersen, who finished fourth in his only full-time Indy Lights season in 2021. He scored six races out of the 20 on the schedule.
When he decided to learn Foyt’s team from the inside in 2022, it paid off big with a fulltime ride for 2023.
“It kind just happened organically,” Larry Foyt said. “It was one of those things where we met each other, and I think there was a mutual interest in working together, and it was like, ‘Hey, look, why don’t you come feel the team out and kind of see the way an IndyCar weekend works?’
“As the year progressed and we got to know each other, I think just the desire to work together became more and more, and it was like, yeah, this could be a really good fit.
“That’s just where it kind of happened.
“To me it was kind of organically it just kind of grew together like this is a good fit for both of us, and let’s make this happen.”
Pedersen looks at his time with Foyt’s team as an internship.
“I was really eager to do it because I knew IndyCar was going to be the next step,” Pedersen recalled. “I was definitely pushing Larry a little bit, like let me be a part of it; I really want to learn. I think that eagerness went a long way, and obviously Larry let me stay for the whole year, and I learned a lot, especially through Kyle Kirkwood, going through his rookie year.
“Honestly, I know everyone on the team personally pretty well now, and it’s pretty surreal being the fact that at the time I wasn’t even a full driver for AJ Foyt Racing yet.
Just the whole team, super, super welcoming, and what a big help it has been even from my rookie IndyCar test I had earlier in the year with that transition, but more so into this coming year.”
Foyt’s team is also taking a different direction by announcing it won’t run an extra car in the Indianapolis 500, as it has done in the past. Also, for the past three seasons, Dalton Kellett has been part of the program but for now, there is no agreement between the driver from Canada and the team.
Foyt said if the team was going to be increased to three cars, Kellett would be the driver. Otherwise, it’s a two-car operation heading into 2023.
With two young, hungry drivers who want to win, and one of them already proving his capability in the series since 2019, Foyt’s makeover may finally pay off in 2022, which would end a 10-year victory drought.
Foyt’s last victory was Takuma Sato on April 21, 2013 on the streets of Long Beach, California. … [+] (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
