Nolan Siegel Brings Winning Mindset to '500' from 2024 Lessons
INDYCAR
The way Nolan Siegel approached last year's Last Chance Qualifying session for the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge left a lasting impression on veteran driver Graham Rahal, even though Siegel crashed and failed to qualify.
Siegel's commitment to pushing the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda to its limits, even at the risk of failure, resonated with Rahal, who expressed admiration for Siegel's fearless attitude and bright future in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
In the final qualifying attempt, Siegel lost control in Turn 1, causing the car to spin and crash into the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier.
'Nolan (Siegel) is a young kid,' Rahal said last year. 'He has a bright future, and I expect to see him back here and doing great things. He may be a new name to a lot of people, but he's a name that you are going to become familiar with. He's won at every level. He's won at everything he's done. He'll be here.'
Siegel, 20, returned this year not just as a participant, but as a contender. Now driving the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, he comfortably made the field and will start 24th on the grid, sharing Row 8 with legend Helio Castroneves (No. 06 Cliffs Honda) and Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Siemens Honda), winner of the 2025 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Siegel credits last year's struggle with making him a better driver.
'That's helped me this year, for sure,' Siegel said. 'I'm a better driver now than I was then. That experience made a difference.'
Last year, Siegel and Dale Coyne Racing knew early that qualifying would be challenging. Despite their best efforts, the car lacked the raw speed needed to compete. The morale drop was steep, and each session was a grind.
'Every outing last year was so much more difficult,' Siegel said. 'It just kind of wears on you after a while.'
Siegel believes there's a stark contrast between the two teams, as Arrow McLaren is one of the series' power teams and DCR is one of its smallest. Winning is a focus and an expectation, which has given Siegel a mental boost.
'There's a lot more motivation when everyone around you is here to win,' he said. 'It's just a way different feeling.'
After last year's '500,' which Siegel said he watched from a suite at IMS, he returned to his INDY NXT by Firestone season with HMD Motorsports June 2 on the streets of Detroit. A week later, he was called into action to substitute for Agustin Canapino with Juncos Hollinger Racing at Road America.
The next week, he was part of the United Autosports entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and helped the team, along with drivers Oliver Jarvis and Bijoy Garg, win the LMP2 class.
Siegel then signed with Arrow McLaren in late June to drive the final 10 races of the 2024 season and full time in 2025.
He enters Sunday's '500' 18th in points but is ascending after a ninth-place finish May 4 at Barber Motorsports Park and finishing 13th in the Sonsio Grand Prix on May 10 that opened Month of May racing activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
'I'm hungry for it after last year,' Siegel said. 'I've been waiting to come back, and I've wanted to be here and not just be here to be in the show. I want to be here to compete and try to win the race. It's a different feeling now, and I want to show people that I can be competitive here.'
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Indianapolis Star
3 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
Will Fox, IndyCar find 'rapid growth' it sought after Indy 500? Detroit Grand Prix was a start
It's an age-old, annual trend a couple days after the race immediately following the Indianapolis 500: Why did IndyCar lose 80% of its audience from a week ago? And this year, for better or worse, was no different — although if you want to be specific, this year's post-500 audience drop-off was the worst the race has seen since at least 2016, if you're looking at Indy 500s with a race the next Sunday on the calendar that ran on network TV with no weather or scheduling alternations. Sunday's Detroit Grand Prix won by Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood averaged an audience of 1.061 million viewers, meaning the race was watched by 14.97% of the fans who tuned in for Alex Palou's Indy 500 victory the week prior. Those other figures dating back to 2016 look like this: 2023 Indy 500: 4.716 million (on NBC) Detroit Grand Prix: 1.047 million (on NBC) Percentage of audience retained: 22.2% 2019 Indy 500: 5.435 million (on NBC) Detroit Grand Prix Race 2: 1.091 million (on NBC) Percentage of audience retained: 20.07% 2018 Indy 500: 4.910 million (on ABC) Detroit Grand Prix Race 2: 951,000 (on ABC) Percentage of audience retained: 19.37% 2017 Indy 500: 5.457 million (on ABC) Detroit Grand Prix Race 2: 918,000 (on ABC) Percentage of audience retained: 16.82% 2016 Indy 500: 6.010 million (on ABC) Detroit Grand Prix Race 2: 1.397 million (on ABC) Percentage of audience retained: 23.24% In other words, as frustrating as it may be, a highly watched 500 like this year's (7.087 million) isn't going to guarantee an outlier of a next race audience. For millions upon millions of people, the Indy 500 will forever be on their radar the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, and the next time they'll think of IndyCar enough to channel surf for a race will be 365 days later. Now, does that mean Fox shouldn't have been hitting people over the head with reminders that the Detroit Grand Prix was the following Sunday, same channel and same time? No. In my opinion, that's a missed opportunity for sure, when you know you have the attention of so many casual race fans who at that moment either have no idea when you race next or don't care enough to look into it, but that's a conversation for another column entirely. What's clear is that the seven-day audience falloff is nothing new, and unless there's a notable move in future years to push tune-in to the next race (I watched this year's 500 back and do not remember a single mention of Detroit), then there's no reason to think it will change. It doesn't mean that topping the 7 million mark for this year's 500 for the first time since 2008 isn't a major accomplishment, because it is — an achievement borne out of more than six months of intentional, varied promotion from Fox and a product of the network pulling out all the stops. But at the moment, IndyCar's in need of a meaningful uptick in fans who care about it more than one day a year. That 500 audience bump will no doubt help teams ask for more sponsorship dollars for Indy 500-only deals moving forward, but it's not a data figure that should be seen as an indication of where the size of the sport's active fan base is the other 364 days. And that's a number that will ultimately shape the sport's future. The Detroit Grand Prix TV audience shouldn't be overlooked, because it's the type of figure (i.e. seven figures) IndyCar and Fox need to see a lot more of over the next three months to make Year 1 of this deal a true success. PR reps and executives from both sides will tout the year-over-year audience boost from 2024 as proof of a monumental win already. Seven races in, the average audience size for IndyCar races this year (2.173 million) is up 31% on last year's mark with NBC (1.662 million) — a percentage boost that's only going to continue to rise. At this point a year ago, two of the seven races had aired on cable. In total, seven of the 17 races on the 2024 calendar were scheduled for streaming-only or cable, versus zero this year with Fox. An overall average audience boost was already baked into IndyCar's deal with its newest broadcast partner. Ultimately, that means this year will be a win achieved at the negotiating table and one stemming from the sport's pure increased exposure. That simple fact, along with all practice and qualifying sessions airing on cable instead of streaming-only means that without a doubt, this sport will be seen by more eyeballs than any season in recent memory. That means more value for teams to sell, and ultimately more revenue coming in the door, but it's not a fact indicative of a sport whose discernable fanbase has grown according to the TV numbers (more on that in a minute). Sunday's audience size (again, 1.061 million) would fall into the middle or the upper half of recent IndyCar seasons on NBC, in terms of those years' network race metrics. Through six non-Indy 500s, it ranks second best, and notably best since the season opener on March 2 averaged 1.42 million. Since then, only one race had even topped 715,000, and none had hit 920,000. So in that sense, eclipsing that seven-figure glass ceiling for a race that didn't have close to the buzz or intrigue of a season opener on a new network (even though it immediately followed the 500) was a win coming out of this weekend. And if IndyCar can see more of those audience sizes that start with a 1 and hit seven figures, as the season cranks into high gear with 10 races over the next 13 weekends, this could appear in hindsight a bit of an inflection point — one that would show just how important it is to race with high frequency and avoid multiple consecutive weekends off. Still, as we stand six non-Indy 500s into the year, Fox's all-network, non-Indy 500 audience size for the year sits at 893,500. Is it higher than NBC's last year (which included seven races)? Yes (868,571). But it lags behind the four previous seasons of NBC's non-COVID-19 year IndyCar coverage. Those seasons sat pretty level throughout the entirety of the deal, ranging from 948,429 (2021) to 967,250 (2023). It's a figure I've chosen to track for years for a couple important reasons: In essence, I feel this number most accurately tells the story of how many people are tuning into IndyCar races in recent years when the series is available to the largest audience possible, and in that, I think you can best track your race watching (i.e. passionate dedicated fans not attending the actual race) fan base and see how it ebbs and flows. As illustrated above, that figure stayed relatively flat during IndyCar's tenure with NBC through 2023, before falling off significantly in the sides' final year together. What Fox has done so far is already gain back a not insignificant chunk of those who for whatever reason fell off from 2023 to 2024, but it's not yet at 2019 and 2021-23 standards. To get back to that level, the final 10 IndyCar races on Fox will need to average just over 1 million viewers — 1,011,500 to be exact — for this year's non-500 network average to match that of 2023. Think the series should aspire to more? For that figure to hit 1 million for 2025, the final 10 races would need to deliver average audience sizes of 1,063,900 — almost identical to Sunday's Detroit Grand Prix. In short: Sunday's race audience was a step in the right direction, but it can't be IndyCar's ceiling the rest of this year, if we're expected to be able to look back at Year 1 of IndyCar with Fox and see it as anything more than a win achieved in a boardroom back in June 2024. A win here means notable evidence that Fox has, by its weekly tune-in campaigns, its placement of IndyCar drivers on its various sports and news properties and its production of entertaining race broadcasts, created new TV-watching IndyCar fans. Fox and IndyCar executives talked of 'rapid growth' and a series set 'on another trajectory' heading in this year. In a couple months, that non-Indy 500 network audience average will tell us whether or not that goal was achieved in Year 1.
Indianapolis Star
3 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
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Fox Sports
4 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Power Rankings: Detroit Victory Helps Kirkwood Climb
INDYCAR Kyle Kirkwood climbed in Power Rankings following his second victory of the season at the Sunday's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. The win, coupled with his earlier triumph at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, underscores Kirkwood's rising prominence in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Kirkwood is the only driver besides points leader Alex Palou to win a race this season. Palou – who won five of the first six races of the season – finally fell to Earth in Detroit by placing 25th after an accident. But one crash doesn't drop the driver with six top-two finishes in seven races. Here are the rest of Power Rankings entering the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Sunday evening, June 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway (8 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). ↓10. Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda; Last Rank: 8) Dixon remains a fixture in the Power Rankings, holding steady at 10th. Despite a challenging stretch with three finishes of 11th or worse in the last four races, Dixon's presence in the top 10 of the standings – he's seventh – has kept him in the rankings. He kicked off the season with a strong runner-up finish in St. Petersburg and finished fifth in the Sonsio Grand Prix on May 10. ↓9. Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Chevrolet; Last Rank: 7) McLaughlin spun Nolan Siegel early in Detroit, sparking an avoidable contact penalty that dropped him from the lead on the primary strategy to outside the top 10. Despite the setback, he recovered to finish 12th. This is two straight finishes outside the top 10, following a 30th-place finish in the '500' on May 25. Before the downturn, McLaughlin was on a strong run, finishing sixth or better in four of the first five races. ↑8. David Malukas (No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet; Last Rank: 10) Malukas finished 14th in Detroit, but that result doesn't reflect the full story. He was in the mix for a second consecutive top-five finish before a Lap 73 incident with Alex Palou, which led to an avoidable contact penalty that derailed his race. Malukas qualified second in Detroit, building off an impressive second-place finish in the Indy 500 just a week earlier. ↑7. Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing; Last Rank: NR) Ferrucci earned his best-career finish by crossing the finish line second in Detroit. That comes a week after finishing fifth in the '500.' ↑6. Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda; Last Rank: 9) Herta earned his first NTT P1 Award of the season in Detroit and third front-row start this season. Unfortunately, he didn't convert the pole to a win, but he still finished third. That's enough to boost him up the Power Rankings, earning his fourth top-seven finish in the last six races. The outliers are an underwhelming Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the Sonsio Grand Prix, Herta qualified 13th but finished 25th after a challenging race. In the '500,' he started 27th and managed to finish 14th. ↓5. Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet; Last Rank: 3) Lundgaard earned his best-career '500' finish with a seventh-place last Sunday and crossed the finish line eighth in Detroit. He has six top-10 finishes in seven races this season. ↔4. Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet; Last Rank: 4) Power rebounded in Detroit to finish fourth, scoring his fifth top-six finish in the last six races. The outlier was the Indianapolis 500, where he started 33rd and finished 16th. Power has crossed the finish line ahead of his Team Penske teammates in five of the last six races, too. ↓3. Pato O'Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet; Last Rank: 2) O'Ward drops to third but limited the damage at Detroit by climbing from 18th to finish seventh. That's his best street course result this season after finishing 11th in St. Petersburg and 13th at Long Beach. Up next is an oval at World Wide Technology Raceway. O'Ward has three runner-up finishes there and five top-seven finishes in seven starts this season. ↑2. Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Siemens AWS Honda; Last Rank: 5) Kirkwood won from the third starting spot in Detroit after leading 48 of 100 laps. He has three top-five finishes this season, including two victories. He is third in points with five top-10 results, too. ↔1. Alex Palou (No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda; Last Rank: 1) Palou finished 25th in Detroit, but five wins in seven races leave him on top under further notice. He still leads the standings by 90 points over O'Ward, a gap of nearly two races. recommended
