INDYCAR Midseason Report: The Good, Bad & Ugly For Teams, Drivers

Fox News

10 hours ago

With nine races down and eight races remaining this INDYCAR season, it's time to take a look at how teams have fared so far.
It is just past the midway point of the campaign, but the season started nearly four months ago and the final eight races will run over a span of nine weeks — including a doubleheader weekend at Iowa.
So what has each team done, and what do they need to do over the last couple of months?
Let's take a look as the series heads to Mid-Ohio on Sunday (1 p.m. ET on FOX). The teams are in order of their top driver in the standings:
First in the standings: Alex Palou Fifth: Scott Dixon 16th: Kyffin Simpson
Midseason Report: Obviously there's no arguing Palou's success and domination. Even after winning back-to-back titles, this was hard to predict. The Indianapolis 500 victory certainly would rank as the highlight for an organization that had won that race only once in the last 12 years. Both Dixon and Simpson are higher in points than they were at the end of 2024, but both certainly wish they had better results. Ganassi scaled from five cars to three with the 2025 season and the new charter system, but that focus on three cars has seemed to only really help one.
Looking Ahead: Dixon needs a win, and that could be harder to come by as the hybrid has neutralized some of the advantage he had in managing fuel mileage. Simpson needs to continue improving. Palou just needs to keep the points lead, and unless another driver goes on a mega run, he should be able to do just that.
Second: Kyle Kirkwood10th: Colton Herta 21st: Marcus Ericsson
Midseason Report: Kirkwood (three victories) is having a breakout season. Some people saw this coming, as he continued to gain experience in INDYCAR after a successful career racing up the open-wheel ladder. Herta has shown glimpses of greatness but not enough. Ericsson's results don't necessarily tell his story but obviously he hasn't had the season he would have wanted. The penalties from Indy to Kirkwood and Ericsson certainly didn't help.
Looking Ahead: Kirkwood needs to continue to carry his momentum and hopefully bring Herta and Ericsson along with him. Too many things go wrong for this organization and so as they look ahead, they can't look too far that they keep tripping over themselves.
Third: Pato O'WardSixth: Christian Lundgaard 20th: Nolan Siegel
Midseason Report: O'Ward is sitting third in the standings, two spots higher than where he finished last year. Lundgaard is sixth, four spots ahead of the driver he replaced (Alexander Rossi) last year. And Siegel is 20th in a car that finished 18th in the entrant standings. So this team has shown improvement. O'Ward and Lundgaard have combined for seven podiums. Ganassi has a total of eight this year, followed by McLaren (seven) and Andretti (four). That's a more-than-respectable number but one that needs to continue if they want to consistently challenge for wins.
Looking Ahead: Lundgaard is certainly making a push to be the top driver, showing more speed at times, while O'Ward has been more consistent. If Lundgaard can be more consistent (i.e., no spinouts as he had at Road America) and if they can match strategy with a tick more speed, this team would be more of a threat each week. Adding former Penske executive Kyle Moyer as the competition director and Siegel strategist will be a plus, but whether he can have an impact in 2025 remains to be seen.
Fourth: Felix Rosenqvist 11th: Marcus Armstrong
Midseason Report: Both of these drivers are higher in points now than where they finished in 2024. Last year, Rosenqvist was 12th and Armstrong was 14th, driving for Ganassi. Armstrong is still under contract with Ganassi, and the Ganassi alliance seems to be producing results for this organization. If either of these drivers does win, it wouldn't be much of a surprise.
Looking Ahead: There are some weeks when this organization appears to be among the circuit's elite and there are some weeks when it is middle of the pack. Continuing to use the Ganassi relationship and then fitting that info to its drivers' wheelhouses will continue to be key.
Seventh: Will Power Eighth: Scott McLaughlin 17th: Josef Newgarden
Midseason Report: You don't need to be a racing expert to know how this one looks. Penske drivers are expected to fight for wins, not to be top 10 in points. They have had their share of bad luck. Some have been self-induced and some have been no fault of their own. Power remains the key to the INDYCAR silly season, and he still seeks a deal for 2026.
Looking Ahead: There's nowhere to go but up for these drivers when considering the overall speed that they have had this year. Qualifying needs to improve. Quality control needs to improve. And the drivers need to improve. Look, mistakes happen. But so do days with few or non-debilitating mistakes. Penske could use more of those.
Ninth: Santino Ferrucci 12th: David Malukas
Midseason Report: Ferrucci has rattled off four consecutive top-five finishes, and after a slow start, it appears that he has found his form from a year ago. Malukas, at 12th in the standings, is eight spots better than where Sting Ray Robb finished last year.
Looking Ahead: If these drivers slump, they will be looked at as more pretenders, taking advantage of mistakes and bad luck of other drivers. But why should that be the case? Ferrucci lost his strategist to Malukas prior to the season and now seems back in sync when it comes to race flow. Malukas can't let the rumors of him potentially replacing Will Power at Penske get to him.
13th: Alexander Rossi 15th: Christian Rasmussen
Midseason Report: This organization is about where you'd think it would be. Alexander Rossi is 13th in the standings, the same spot where the driver he replaced (Rinus VeeKay) finished in the standings last year. Christian Rasmussen is 15th in the standings (he was 22nd last year, despite not running three races as he primarily did the road and street courses). Rasmussen's third-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) was a boost.
Looking Ahead: For this organization to keep its pace while it seems the entire strength of the garage is improved does say something for this organization. They need to look for the baby steps that will provide incremental improvement. They can't have weekends where they rolled off the truck and were totally off, as Alexander Rossi seemed to be at Road America. But when they do have those weekends, they need to be able to find what they're lacking, as Rossi's team seemed to do as well at Road America.
14th: Rinus VeeKay 27th: Jacob Abel
Midseason Report: VeeKay has given this organization a boost with some solid finishes and solid speed. Abel, who failed to qualify for the Indy 500, is certainly having some rookie blues.
Looking Ahead: The key to this organization's success will be the continued development of Abel. To make progress, they need two drivers with the confidence to give the team more direction.
18th: Graham Rahal 23rd: Louis Foster25th: Devlin DeFrancesco
Midseason Report: This team has had moments of greatness when looking at qualifying at the Indianapolis Grand Prix (all in the top five) and Foster winning the pole at Road America. While the results haven't been there as much as they would like, it does seem that the team has a little bit more speed this year.
Looking Ahead: With two new drivers (Foster and DeFrancesco), it would be expected to have some growing pains. And with Rahal about where he was last year in the standings, this team needs to just worry about getting better every week.
19th: Conor Daly24th: Sting Ray Robb
Midseason Report: Daly, at 18th in the standings, is about where Romain Grosjean (17th) was at the end of last year. Robb, who was 20th at A.J. Foyt Racing last year, has shown promise at times but also not enough times.
Looking Ahead: This organization is expected to have some good weeks and bad weeks. The key is capitalizing on the days when they are solid. Daly appeared to have a potential race-winning car on some of the ovals.
22nd: Robert Shwartzman26th: Callum Ilott
Midseason Report: Despite success at various racing levels in Europe, this wasn't expected to be an organization that would come out and challenge to win races right away. Shwartzman winning the Indy 500 pole was huge.
Looking Ahead: Both these drivers would love better results. But as a new organization, finding the right pieces to the puzzle and finishing the year with driver and team engineers in sync — and fewer instances of missing practice time for mechanical issues — should be the biggest goal.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.