Siegel seeking to stay in IndyCar

Nolan Siegel is searching for a new team to continue his development as an IndyCar Series driver.

The young Californian has settled into a groove since his home race at Long Beach in April where the No. 6 Chevy is commonly found finishing inside the top half of the field, which speaks to the 21-year-old’s growth at Arrow McLaren.

From Long Beach through last weekend at Mid-Ohio, Siegel’s been reaching a higher level than was previously seen ith runs to 12th at Long Beach, 10th at the Indy GP, and 11th at the Indy 500. He had a few hiccups from Detroit through Road America, but produced another 10th-place finish on Sunday as teammates Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard earned the team’s first 1-2 result.

For a kid with effectively two full seasons in IndyCar who arrived as a definite third-car project, Siegel’s showing he’s worthy of consideration for other seats when his tenure in the No. 6 reaches its end in September, and that’s where he’s placing his focus.

“I'd obviously love to stay in IndyCar, and I think there are options for that,” Siegel told RACER. “We’re exploring those options right now. The goal is to stay in IndyCar, and hopefully do more sports car racing as well, but I certainly want to want to stay in IndyCar if I can.”

Siegel’s fortunes have improved with the recent addition of veteran race engineer Eric Cowdin to his timing stand. Having worked with some of the best IndyCar drivers over the last four decades and won the biggest races with those drivers, Cowdin’s influence on Siegel’s growth has been evident.

“I think for any young driver, there's still a confidence aspect to this,” Cowdin said. “So, starting in Long Beach, he felt like the cartoon anvil wasn't dropping on his head every weekend like maybe it had been, and he's more focused on driving now and less focused on waiting for the other shoe to drop and some random stuff to happen that affects your race.

“Which that happens as racing, but when it happens race in and race out, that affects everybody's confidence. So I think what you're seeing now is just progression from settling down and focusing on driving and turning everything up. Things are starting to progress in that direction.”

Despite Arrow McLaren’s decision to replace Siegel with a veteran driver in Felix Rosenqvist, Cowdin sees a lot of potential for him in the future.

“He's still learning, and with rookies, everything they do, they do for the first time, every racetrack they go to, even if they’ve been there before, it takes time to get everything there is to get,” he added. “After the race, I always point that out to him, ‘Imagine if you knew now at the beginning of this race what you know after you just got out of the car.’ He’s a good kid. At the core of it, he's a talented young driver.”