Yuhs know, when Dale Coyne starts ponderin’ His
next year driver selections…
In what’s become a reoccurring theme her upon
thoust mystical island of Nofendersville, once again it seems a very, very long
time ago when the annual IndyCar silly season erupted over Father’s Day weekend
at Road America! Yet as typical, I was late to thee party, having missed the
memo. And am still playing Ketsup!
Has
IndyCar silly Season finally Started?
As prior to the Road America race, the
scuttlebutt over driver movement seemed to center around Felix-the-Cat’, which
seemed a bit odd since Rosenqvist had just won the Indianapolis 500! With the
other Swedish Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson also potentially being on the
move.
Playing Ketsup’, I tuned into my first Marshall
Pruett the Week in IndyCar podcast in a very long time. Being Uber amused over
Pruett mentioning how His head was about to explode trying to wrap it around
the rumour of the Cat’ and Scotty thee Iceman 2.0’ Dixon’s impending movements.
Which I scribbled about sometime afterwards confirmation of Dixon leaving
Ganassi for another rival team. Uhm, where’d I put that No Fenders story, eh?
IndyCar,
World cup and lots of smoke
The Fourth ‘O July weekend at Mid-Ohio was
celebrated with the news that Rosenqvist and Dixon would both be joining Arrow
McLaren next year alongside McLaren’s Golden boy Pato O’Ward, all seemingly for
Pato’s sake…
With the next major domino falling; being Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing’s (RLLR) sale of its third IndyCar charter for $13m,
and the first in the league’s history – to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. With
DRR becoming a one car entity, albeit we’re just Ah-Waitin’ confirmation of its
technical alliance wit RLLR. Effectively becoming the satellite squad racing
with Conor Daly, and switching to Honda engines for 2027.
As RLLR’s third entry created in 2022 with Jack
Harvey, and then Pietro Fittipaldi and Sparky’, aka Devlin DeFrancesco, before
Mick Schumacher’s arrival this year has never blossomed into a certifiable
midfielder, and instead just a drain upon the organization’s resources…
As the entry looks set to miss out upon the
vaunted Leaders Circle prize fund of now $1.65m for a third time in five
seasons, with Pietro Fittipaldi’s finish of 19th being its best season finish.
As of the Nashville weekend, there were seven
drivers on the Hot-seat for next year. Both Foyt and Dale Coyne Racing drivers.
Along with at least one Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) driver, With the two
biggest names of drivers potentially looking for new seats being the sacked
Christian Lundgaard and JHR’s Rinus VeeKay.
Prior to the Portland weekend, the 2026 silly
season seemed to be in a virtual Holding pattern, with the biggest seat on the
grid being the second Meyer shank Racing (MSR( No. 66 entry. Although the No. 9
chip Ganassi Racing seat was still publicly open. It seemed to be a foregone
conclusion that the series lone Dane’ had landed the coveted drive.
Fast forwarding to the Freedom 250 Grand Prix
of Washington, D.C. weekend; Uhm, it Ain’t no Grand Prix Y’all! That was being
run in Zandvoort instead, ironically the very same day, but I digress…
A team-by-team analysis reveals that after
Marcus Ericsson rewarded Andretti Global for His one-year contract extension by
winning at Markham. Andretti, Arrow McLaren, ECR, (Ed Carpenter Racing) RLLR
and Team Penske’s lineups are set for next year.
AJ Foyt enterprises appears set to retain thee
Great Santini, aka Santino Ferrucci for a fifth season in the No. 14. While
Portland, Oregon’s Josh Pierson, rumoured to have a $25m budget to offer, Say
What! Will replace Caio Collet in the No. 4 for the next two years.
Won’t even bother on trying to predict what
Dale Coyne will do? With both drivers on the bubble…
Juncos Hollinger Racing’s protracted break-up
between Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger is slowly creeping forwards. As
Hollinger’s ready to find new investors and rekindle His alliance with Zak
Brown.
Pruett predicts the team will sign VeeKay to a
multi-year extension. While collet with a rumoured $6m budget will replace
Sting Ray Robb. Implying the team is more interested in quality drivers, since
reportedly, Robb has a $15m budget.
Yet Robb and Nolan Siegel, who also supposedly
has major funding to offer don’t appear to feature in any IndyCar teams
futures.
That just leave MSR to confirm its second
driver, albeit Pruett’s money is upon Mick Schumacher filling the seat. Even
with the recent kerfuffle made over Yuki Tsunoda’s name being mentioned as a
candidate for the #66 ride.
Thus, that just leaves us with the two Coyne
seats to be confirmed, which I can “See” a few scenarios including Nolan Siegel
taking one of the seats. And being joined by either Dennis Hauger or one of
this year’s top three Indy NXT title Contendahs’. With Enzo Fittipaldi’s names
coming to mind…
The only other major unknown is the whispered
possibility of Andretti Global dropping its Honda lumps’ in favour of switching
to the Bowtie’. Which make some sense since its parent company TWG Global owns
the Cadillac F1 Team. Even if Mark Walters Delaware Life and Guggenheim Partners
are under Federal investigation for potential fraud.
Questions mount for Andretti global Owner as Federal probe targets TWG Global
