PRUETT: IndyCar silly season update, July 2022

We’re now into our fourth or fifth silly season update since March. In any other year, I’d be putting the finishing touches on the first. That’s it. I’m tapping out. This silly season has broken me.

So, not only did the silly season start way too soon, but thanks to Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, and McLaren Racing, it’s continuing to gain momentum. To start, the stampede to claim Palou’s No. 10 CGR Honda for 2023 is on and it’s causing unanticipated ripples in the paddock.

Before we circle back to the No. 10 car and run through all the known vacancies, let’s crack open the biggest theme that’s emerged in recent months. According to many of the team owners and team principals I’ve spoken with, the volume of calls and emails from Formula 2 drivers searching for opportunities in IndyCar is at an all-time high.

If there’s an F2 driver running in the top 10 this season who lacks an existing link to a Formula 1 team, they’ve likely been in touch with a few IndyCar teams and inquired about testing in the offseason or going straight to racing next season. And the outreaches have also gone the other way, with a number of IndyCar teams telling me that in their search for drivers, the front-running pool of talent in F2 is more intriguing than most of those who are contending for the Indy Lights title at the moment.

The top name I hear as being interested in IndyCar and is also drawing interest from IndyCar teams is Brazil’s Felipe Drugovich, who leads the F2 championship. Another is New Zealand’s Marcus Armstrong, who holds sixth in the F2 standings with two wins so far, including a victory at the last event in Austria. Beyond breakaway Indy Lights championship leader Linus Lundqvist, I don’t hear the rest of the current class mentioned with similar excitement by IndyCar teams, and that’s why F2 drivers are drawing extra attention in the U.S.

All right, before something else explodes in the paddock, let’s fire through the silly season as it stands going into this weekend’s doubleheader.

A.J. Foyt Racing’s No. 14 Chevy is in need of a driver with its current pilot, 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood, signed to drive for Andretti Autosport starting in 2023. The No. 4 Foyt Chevy driven by Dalton Kellett is up for a new contract to be executed between the team and driver, but that has yet to take place.

The hot rumor in early June was that Indy Lights sophomore Benjamin Pedersen was headed to the No. 14, and the mentions of the Danish-American driver graduating to IndyCar with Foyt on a multi-year deal continue to grow. There’s nothing official to offer on it being a done deal, but I’d place this in the "don’t be surprised if it’s announced soon" category.

On Kellett, he told me a few weeks ago that he wants to return to Foyt, and when asked if there were other teams he was speaking with -- in the event the No. 4 was taken by another driver -- he pointed to Foyt as his main focus as a team home. If it isn’t Foyt, I’m not sure the kind Canadian has an easy pathway to stay in IndyCar.

As for the third Foyt entry that ran through Mid-Ohio, I’ve heard nothing of late to suggest the No. 11 Chevy is coming back as a part- or full-time car. One item of interest, however, is the aforementioned F2 driver Marcus Armstrong, who the Foyt team tells me is meant to test for them once the IndyCar season concludes in September.

Andretti Autosport COO Rob Edwards reconfirmed what we’ve known: They’re staying at four cars.

A number of loose ends to tie up at AMSP. Jake Galstad / Lumen

Arrow McLaren SP has two of its three cars sorted with Pato O’Ward and newcomer Alexander Rossi. The situation with Felix Rosenqvist will be resolved at some undetermined point in the months ahead as McLaren -- according to the press release published by the team -- signed Rosenqvist to an extension that will have CEO Zak Brown decide whether to keep him in IndyCar or move him to Formula E in 2023.

Plenty has been written about all the possibilities of how the Palou/Ganassi/McLaren thing could work out, so there’s no need to rehash all of it here, other than noting that if McLaren does not get to run Palou, Rosenqvist would be primed to continue in the No. 7 Chevy and has lobbied for that to be formalized.

Chip Ganassi Racing was set to be status quo with its lineup of Palou, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson and Jimmie Johnson when I asked Ganassi about his roster a few weeks back. Things got outta hand pretty quickly there…

If a bet exists somewhere, I’ll put all my money on Palou finishing out the season in the No. 10 car and having his name peeled off the car right after the checkered flag waves in Monterey. We simply don’t know how the contractual situation will be resolved, and even if CGR does indeed hold the rights to his services as it said in a follow-up statement on the subject, a new driver will certainly be piloting the 10 car next year.

The last note to offer is with CGR development driver Kyffin Simpson. At 17, he’s got a lot of learning to do before he’s ready for IndyCar, but if his new move to HMD Motorsports coincides with a jump to Indy Lights podiums and wins in the next year or two, keep your eyes peeled for a Simpson-to-IndyCar-with-Ganassi story in 2024 or so.

Dale Coyne Racing has a multi-year contract with HMD Motorsports to field David Malukas and holds an option to keep Takuma Sato for a second season, according to DCR’s team owner. Expanding with HMD to add a second car alongside Malukas would take DCR to three entries if it happens, which looks likely. Linus Lundqvist is said to be the top choice -- he leads Indy Lights in a HMD car -- to drive. If it doesn’t happen with Lundqvist, Coyne always has a half-dozen drivers on the line, and Lundqvist wouldn’t struggle to sign elsewhere if things fail to materialize with the DCR/HMD camp.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Conor Daly is on a multi-year contract and will be back with the team. That leaves the decision of his free agent teammate Rinus VeeKay on whether he’ll stay or go as the main question mark in the field. Prior to all the Palou-related noise, the last significant silly season item to be resolved was whether VeeKay would stay with ECR for one more year and take another run at some of the bigger openings on the horizon for 2024.

He said his window to negotiate with other teams starts on August 1, so there might be some contractual action on the way in the next week or so. If his manager hasn’t been on the phone to Chip Ganassi Racing a few times per days since the Palou thing happened, I’d be shocked. What I don’t have a feeling for is if VeeKay is someone CGR would place first on its short list of drivers to pursue.

On the Carpenter team side, I’ve heard a few Indy Lights drivers and a few F2 drivers mentioned as candidates for the No. 21 Chevy if VeeKay departs the ride. I’ve even heard of a somewhat recent ECR driver looking to make an IndyCar comeback next season who could bring plenty of cash to the team.

Prior to the No. 10 car landing in the silly season, the one remaining seat of intrigue was the No. 21. We’ll know before too long if VeeKay holds onto the ECR car, steps across to the No. 10, or maybe dives into the No. 7. Wherever it is, it’s a good time to be Rinus VeeKay.

Whether he stays or goes, it's a good time to be Rinus VeeKay. Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images

Juncos Hollinger Racing has designs on becoming a two-car team next year, but the expansion to a second car comes with the need for sponsorship to be found or brought by a driver that has exceptional skill. I’ve heard Marcus Armstrong’s name mentioned as a possibility for the second car, among others.

JHR’s rise in the paddock with the combo of rookie Callum Ilott and technical director/race engineer Yves Touron has been among the greatest revelations of the season. And while the team doesn’t want to comment, seemingly everybody in the paddock has told me Ilott’s option for 2023 has been taken up by the team. Like Pedersen at Foyt, go ahead and move Ilott to the "don’t be surprised if it’s announced soon" category.

The only wrinkle here is Ilott has the look of a driver who would be of considerable interest to CGR for the No. 10 car. If CGR asked, would JHR consider a buyout of Ilott’s contract? If CGR had Palou’s contract to trade, would it propose a straight driver swap? A swap plus cash? These are the rabbit holes my broken mind has been wandering down this week…

Meyer Shank Racing heads into 2023 with Simon Pagenaud under contract, a strong desire to continue with Helio Castroneves, who is a free agent -- for now -- as he and the team work on a contract extension that would keep him in the No. 06 Honda for another full season of IndyCar racing. MSR sports car ace Tom Blomqvist will test for the team at some point during the offseason and if, by chance, Castroneves and MSR do not come to terms on a new deal, Blomqvist could be called upon to step forward.

MSR is also known to be a destination where a number of current or upcoming IndyCar free agents have expressed interest for a move in 2023 and 2024, so that No. 06 seat could be a hot one to fill if it were to open up. Nyck de Vries, the 2019 F2 champion and 2021 Formula E title winner who tested for MSR in December, remains on the team’s radar as well.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey on the books for 2023, so other than the anticipated engineering hiring spree, year-to-year driver stability is the plan for RLL. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention I’ve heard a few teams covet Lundgaard and would like to get him into one of their cars ASAP.

Team Penske is the easiest outfit in the paddock when it comes to the silly season. Zero changes, per Roger Penske, with Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin returning next year.

To close, we’re also on the cusp of seeing four or five Indy Lights drivers try to land something in IndyCar next year -- part-time or whatever slim pickings they can grab. We have the talented Santino Ferrucci trying to find a seat and plenty of others walking the same path. We’ll delve more into those developments in our next update.