With St Pete just—(checks notes) 106 LONG days away, it’s a good time to check in to see what next year’s grid is going to look like. This year saw the most active drivers per race with 27 active drivers (excluding the 500). Chip Ganassi has already added to his drivers but who else is gaining/losing drivers this year and who is moving. Let’s take a look at what we know and what we don’t know for the Indycar 2024 season that will see a return to Milwaukee, a WWT Raceway night race, and a (gulp) season conclusion at Nashville.
AJ Foyt Racing
AJ Foyt Racing, who raced Benjamin Pedersen and Santino Ferrucci last year, has been fairly quiet this offseason. It is strongly believed that Ferrucci will be back, but what about Pedersen? Pederson had a rough rookie year, racing all 17 races but struggled most of the year having his highest finish at Texas with a p15. Some names have been talked about such as newly displaced Callum Ilott, or Jack Harvey, but nothing has been set in stone as far as what they are doing for the 2024 season and there’s a good chance Pedersen will be back this year.
#14: TBD
#55: TBD
Andretti Motorsports
Andretti has had a very busy offseason. Romain Grosjean, one of the most popular drivers due to his time in F1, left the team after a tumultuous season and is heading for Juncos Hollinger. Andretti will downsize to just three teams. Colton Herta, newly acquired Marcus Ericsson, and Kyle Kirkwood. Herta will look to improve on a rough season. Ericsson left CGR due to his belief that he is better than a pay driver and Andretti is giving him a chance. The former Indianapolis 500 winner is looking to bounce back in 2024. Kyle Kirkwood had a remarkable season last year and signed an extension with Andretti in September. Kirkwood finished the 2023 season with two wins, seven top-10 finishes, led a total of 88 laps, and finished 11th in the Championship standings.
#26 Colton Herta
#27 Kyle Kirkwood
#28 Marcus Ericsson
Arrow McLaren
Well, well after dealing with all kinds of Alex Palou drama, when the dust settled, McLaren was relatively the same. Until it wasn’t. Yes, Alex Palou is still with CGR but Arrow-McLaren still has a fantastic team for the 2024 season not to mention, in this writer’s opinion, one of the best social media teams in the sport. Led by Pato O’Ward, Arrow Mclaren felt like they had a down year this last year. O’Ward finished in 4th overall in the standings, had nine top 5s, and ten top 10s, but didn’t win a race and had some disagreements on the track between Scott Dixon, had a mechanical issue in what was a sure win at St. Pete, and crashed out in the Indy 500. Alex Rossi would probably be the first to tell you he wasn’t happy with his first season with Arrow McLaren and is hoping for more success in 2024. The 9th place driver had six top fives and 11 top 10s but like Pato, a win alluded him. Felix Rosenqvist has left for Meyer Shank which opens the door for former Dale Coyne driver David Malukas to move into that seat. Malukas had some small success with DCR and had two top fives and six top tens and should do even better driving the #6.
#5 Pato O’Ward
#6 David Malukas
#7 Alex Rossi
Chip Ganassi Racing
Five wins, 13 top fives, 17 top tens. Straight domination. Alex Palou drove like a man on a mission, and if it weren’t for a minor collision at the Indy 500 in the pits, Palou would have probably won that too. Alex Palou won the championship, despite dealing with off-track issues and plenty of stiff competition, and is looking to duplicate that again this year. Scott Dixon finished the season stronger than anyone with 3 wins in four races. The Iceman was incredible staging a massive comeback in the second half of the season finishing with 11 top 5’s and 16 top tens. Newcomer Marcus Armstrong switches to a full-time ride and with mentors like Palou and Dixon, you gotta like Armstrong’s chances. The Kiwi finished better than some of the full-time rides picking up five top 10s in 12 races. Linus Lundqvist ran three races last year at the end of the season for Meyer Shank, filling in for the injured Simon Pagenaud. He signed a multiyear contract with CGR, finished 12th at IMS Roadcourse last season, and won the Indylights championship in 2022. The newcomer, and stunning news is also the signing of rookie Kyffin Simpson. The 19-year-old Barbados native will be the youngest driver in the series.
#8 Linus Lundqvist
#9 Scott Dixon
#10 Alex Palou
#11 Marcus Armstrong
Kyffin Simpson
Dale Coyne Racing
???? No, I’m kidding, but that’s absolutely what’s going on over at DCR. With the departure of David Malukas and no official word on Sting Ray Robb, these two seats are very puzzling and could be filled by any number of people. A lot of people need rides for very few seats including Callum Ilott, Devlin DeFrancesco, Connor Daly, and of course Sting Ray Robb.
#18 TBD
#51 TBD
Ed Carpenter Racing
Ed Carpenter will be back in his familiar spot of racing ovals while splitting time with Christian Rasmussen who will be doing the road and street courses. Rasmussen won the Indy NXT Championship last season and will look to make a name in the Indycar Series as a rookie. Rasmussen will also look to race the Indy 500 this year. Rinus Veekay will also be back with ECR. Veekay had two top tens in 2023 including the Indy 500 where he started second.
#20 Ed Carpenter/Christian Rasmussen
#21 Rinus Veekay
Juncos Hollinger Racing
Juncos Hollinger has had a mixed bag offseason. First the good: the team announced a partnership with Arrow McLaren which is set to help both teams moving forward. The bad: after having some issues at Laguna Seca between Agustin Canapino and Callum Ilott, led to Ilott’s departure from the team. Agustin Canapino has his ride secured for 2024 and the team is bringing in Romain Grosjean. Grosjean brings a massive audience behind him and the hope is that the new partnership with Arrow Mclaren will help this team out. What could go wrong? Stay tuned.
Meyer Shank Racing
It’s easy to wax nostalgic about Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud but at the end of the day, racing is about a business, and the results just didn’t come as the two wanted. Castroneves has moved into an ownership role and will still race the Indy 500 but will take a step back from a full racing schedule. The 48 year old is looking for his fifth Indy 500 victory. Simon Pagenaud suffered a horrific crash after brake failure at Mid Ohio. Ushering in a new era of Meyer Shank Racing will be former Arrow McLaren driver Felix Rosenqvist and Tom Blomqvist. After shutting down IMSA for the year, Blomqvist will look to win in Indy. The former IMSA champion finished third this last year and will look to get MSR back in the win column in 2024. Felix Rosenqvist. The other “-qvist” got all he wanted to and more from Arrow Mclaren. He had two poles, four top 5’s, eight top 10’s, and is relishing a “leadership role” at Meyer Shank.
#06 Tom Blomqvist
#60 Felix Rosenqvist
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
What a topsy-turvy season for Graham Rahal. The veteran driver failed to qualify for the Indy 500, got in anyway, won pole twice this season, and had one top 5, and five top tens. Rahal probably should have won the second Indy GP had it not been for Scott Dixon who used great strategy to pick up a victory. Rahal just signed a contract extension with RLL and the team is looking to bounce back after Rahal finished 15th in points and Christian Lundgaard finished #8th. Newcomer Pietro Fittipaldi will take over the #30 for Jack Harvey and Lundgaard will return in the #45. Lundgaard is hoping to build on a rather successful season that saw the young Dane’s first victory (Toronto), two poles, four top 5s, and nine top 10s. There is a strong rumor that the team will also field a part-time ride for Juri Vips, but that is unconfirmed.
#15 Graham Rahal
#30 Jack Harvey
#45 Christian Lundgaard
Penske Racing
Will Power struggled in the 2023 season after winning the championship in 2022, going winless for the first time since 2006, and even considered hanging it up to help his wife, who was fighting cancer. He will look to bounce back in 2024 to chase his third championship. Josef Newgarden comes off a season filled with highs and lows. The Nashville, Tennessee resident won his first Indy 500 and dominated on ovals, except for WWT Raceway. He struggled through heavily on road/street courses and, despite winning the Indy 500 fell all the way back to 5th in the standings. Scott McLaughlin finished third in the standings after picking up a win at Barber. The Kiwi had two poles, seven top 5s and 14 top 10s, but was hungry for more.
#2 Josef Newgarden
#3 Scott McLaughlin
#12 Will Power
What’s next?
It seems there are still a few puzzles left to this offseason, especially on Dale Coyne and AJ Foyt Racing, but St. Pete is right around the corner, and there are many drivers who feel that they have a lot to prove in the 2024 season. Is it March yet?
