But how many will land Full season IndyCar rides?
By now, if you’re a Hard Core IndyCar
Afficionado, then you know that Denmark’s Christian Rasmussen driving for the
HMD Motorsports Armada won the 2023 Indy NXT Championship. With the Dane’
claiming five wins, eight podiums and five Pole positions enroute to this year’s
title aboard the No. 6 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry.
Rasmussen’s closest competitor ultimately was
Andretti Autosport’s Kiwi’ Hunter McElrea who finished runner-up with two wins,
six podiums and two Pole positions this season.
As both drivers were contesting their sophomore
Indy NXT season’s, and entering the Laguna Seca season finale doubleheader
weekend, Rasmussen held a comfortable 65-point lead over Mcelrea.
In qualifying, McElrea clamed Pole position for
Race-1, with Rasmussen claiming Pole for Sunday’s Race-2; hence each driver
claimed one point apiece for Pole
position.
McElrea led Flag-to-flag in Saturday’s Race-1
with Rasmussen effectively “cruising” Home second. Thus with McElrea claiming the
maximum 54-points available vs. Rasmussen’s 40-points; McElrea trimmed the
points deficit to 51-points. Seeing Rasmussen three shy of clinching the title
Saturday.
Sunday’s second race saw the same outcome,
albeit with Rasmussen leading wire-to-wire and McElrea finishing runner-up.
Thus seeing Rasmussen return His final points advantage back to the 65 points
He’d begun the weekend with, finally being crowned the 2023 Indy NXT Champion.
Penske Entertainment, owners of Indy NXT’s Championship,
sees the revised, previously neutered prize fund now awarding the series
Champion $850,000 to be used for testing an IndyCar at Texas and Mother
Speedway, ergo Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Plus running the Indianapolis 500
and one further IndyCar race. While second place pays a paltry $125,000 and
third place a meager $65,000.
And I say paltry since I’m 99% certain I’ve
read that Anderson Promotions who run the lower Junior Formula’s, just wrote a
cheque for $654,000 for 2023 USF Pro 2000 championship winner Myles Rowe to
advance to Indy NXT. Where He’ll replace Ernie Francis Jr. in the No. 99 HMD
Motorsports with Force Indy entry next year.
What I found interesting over the Laguna Seca
weekend was how Hunter McElrea was garnering All of the Headlines for wanting
to move up to IndyCar next year, although He doesn’t come from a wealthy family
or have a considerable budget to bring with Him.
While where will title winner Rasmussen land?
And can He manage to find the necessary budget for a full season Big boyz’
(IndyCar) ride?
As I know I shouldn’t type this but, is Ed
Carpenter Racing a viable option right now? As ECR has had a fairly miserable
season this year, along with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Although RLLR
seems to have righted it’s floundering “ship” at season’s end.
While I believe that Racer’s Marshall Pruett
has previously speculated that current Indy NXT driver Danial Frost might
possibly have a contract to drive one of the empty Dale Coyne racing seats next
year?
And if Andretti Autosport, Err Global decides
to drop it’s fourth IndyCar entry? Which would be the ideal landing spot for
Rasmussen, then does the Honda engine lease become available for another IndyCar
team
As ‘Ol Derek Daly would say; Hang onto your HollyHocks Folks! As Thars miles to go towards sorting out the 2024 Indy NXT and IndyCar season line-ups…
