'I have a greater appreciation for what I'm doing.' Nolan Siegel energized for Toronto return

Indianapolis Star

19-07-2025

TORONTO — In the history books, it'll go down as an otherwise innocuous race missed for Nolan Siegel, but the Arrow McLaren driver said the lesson of the last six days will stay with him the rest of his IndyCar career.
'If anything, I have a greater appreciation for what I'm doing. It was hard to sit out on Sunday and watch. That was not a fun time for me, and I've just been itching to get back in the car the past few days,' said Siegel, who Friday returned to the cockpit less than a week after suffering a mild concussion in a single-car crash in Race 1 of IndyCar's Iowa Speedway doubleheader. After being reevaluated Sunday morning four hours ahead of Race 2, the IndyCar medical team opted not to clear the 20-year-old to return later that day.
As Siegel retold, his passion for the sport and the pursuit of growth in his young career that's seen more downs than ups had him wanting to engage in an argument to talk himself back into the car.
'Believe me. I wanted to be in the car on Sunday. It was difficult to sit out, for sure, but the reason we have the people we have in (IndyCar medical) … As much as I hated sitting out and wanted to get back in the car and argue with them, they know more about this than I do,' Siegel said Friday ahead of practice No. 1 for the weekend's Toronto street race. 'And when they said, 'You can't do it,' you can't do it.
'Once they said that, they put their plan together to help me get back in, and they did everything possible to help me get back this weekend, and I'm grateful for their help.'
Beyond Saturday evening in the immediate aftermath of his accident, one that required SAFER barrier repairs due to the severity of the hit, Siegel told reporters Friday that he experienced no lingering symptoms, despite not being cleared to immediately get back in the car. His week this past week consisted of workouts of varying degrees of intensity, as well as time on the simulator to best, well, simulate the rigors of racing a car well above 150 mph down the back straight on the streets of Toronto. After being cleared, he traveled on his own up to Toronto on Thursday midday and underwent an additional final workout with the IndyCar medical team just to be safe.
'Going through that whole process, it's nice for me to have had that process to go through, just because now I know I have nothing wrong having gone through all those steps, and that means there won't be anything wrong in the car,' he said. 'It's an unfortunate nature of this sport; they're all big hits, and if you hit at just the wrong angle, sometimes it's an issue.
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'So while it sucked to sit out on Sunday, everyone at medical thought that was the right decision and thought there was a big risk if I were to hit something again. I would definitely regret it a lot more if I had hit something else Sunday and was out for the rest of the season. It's not where I wanted to be, but I trust their opinions and trust that that was ultimately the best thing for me in the long run.'
Maybe the toughest part — tougher than the simple fact of being out of the car at all — was that the first-year full-time driver was slated for his second best IndyCar start, having qualified fifth for Race 2 the day before, Siegel's third consecutive top 10 qualifying performance. Paired with his second best career finish a couple weeks prior at Road America (eighth) and another reasonably solid one at Mid-Ohio (11th), Siegel was sitting well within the top 10 at the time of his crash with under 30 laps to go. There was momentum to be had in putting together perhaps a sixth-place finish and then stating fifth the next day.
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After finishing 22nd fastest in practice Friday afternoon, there's work to be done to rediscover that much-needed momentum as Siegel attempts to finish his 2025 campaign on a solid upward swing.
'Yes, we had a small setback, but at the same time, we've been competitive multiple weekends in a row. We've been fast, and there's no reason we can't continue to do that,' he said. 'As a group, I'm not letting us change our flow, and we're approaching this just like we finished fifth at Iowa (in Race 1) rather than having to sit out.'