IndyCar's Nolan Siegel Returns To Action For Toronto After Iowa Crash
Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet prior to the NTT INDYCAR Series Ontario Honda Dealers Indy ... More Toronto on July 18, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)
Siegel was not cleared to compete in that race after he had a hard crash in the previous day's Synk 275. IndyCar Medical wanted to monitor Siegel in case he had a concussion. Siegel was evaluated and cleared to return to action by IndyCar's Medical team on Thursday.
'I'm good,' Siegel told a small group of reporters on Friday morning at Toronto. 'I'm good. Yeah, I feel good.
'It was nice working with IndyCar Medical. They put a whole program together. We followed their program, checked in along the way. So, I'm feeling good and ready to go.
'I'm just coming here with a greater appreciation for what I'm doing. It was it was hard to sit out on Sunday and watch. That was not a fun time for me and I've been itching to get back in the car these past few days.
'I will never take that for granted again and I'm really excited to get back in.'
Siegel's Disappointment From Missing A Race
The young driver from Palo Alto, California explained the disappointment he felt when he was forced out of the car and not allowed to compete in last Sunday's race.
'Believe me, I wanted to be in the car on Sunday,' Siegel said. 'It was it was difficult to sit out for sure but the reason we have the people we have in medical and Dr. Julia Vaizer, as much as I hated sitting out and wanted to get back in the car and wanted to argue with them, they know more about this than I do, like that's the end of it.
'They know more about this than all of us do, and when they say you can't do it, you can't do it.
'Once they said that, they put their plan together, they helped me get back in, they did everything they possibly could to help me get back this weekend, and grateful for their help.'
Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet prior to the NTT INDYCAR Series Ontario Honda Dealers Indy ... More Toronto on July 18, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Gavin Baker/Lumen via Getty Images)
Siegel struggled in Friday's practice session. He ended the day 22nd out of 27 drivers on the streets of Toronto.
'It was a difficult first practice session,' Siegel said. 'It's not a track that we've historically been great at, so we're going to try to maximize the weekend and our package to get what we can out of it.
'I think we got better through that session, which is promising. We'll continue to get better, and hopefully we can make our way forward through the rest of the weekend.'
On Saturday, however, Siegel started to find speed in his No. 6 Chevrolet and was high as third in the morning practice session.
'We were behind him all the way,' Arrow McLaren Sporting Director Tony Kanaan said. 'My heart is a little more at peace because I remember last year trying to get Theo Pourchaire here. Nolan is young and I told him he has no concern, he is our driver for now, through the end of next year and even beyond.'
When Siegel breezed through the final neurological test on Thursday and cleared to compete, he appreciated the care and thoroughness of the testing from IndyCar Medical.
'I think It's great from a safety standpoint to have so much more information,' Siegel said. 'And I think we're progressing really fast, like the whole sport in that department. And I think we know a lot more about this type of injury than we did before.
'At the same time, I'm fine. I'm ready to go. I've been checked out. I'm fully confident that I'm 100 percent ready to go this weekend. So, no concerns from my end.
'Immediately starting Monday, we had a program put together that was getting back into harder workouts, like starting at 25 percent, seeing if there were any symptoms, 50 percent, 75 percent, 100 percent.
'And then Thursday was the final one. So, I got here a little late yesterday after getting checked out. And then they wanted me to do one more kind of like flat out full push workout to see if there were any symptoms and had no issues through the whole thing.
'I got on the sim to see if that would trigger anything. It didn't. So, we went through the process and it's nice for me actually having had that process to go through because now I know I had nothing wrong during all of those steps and that means that there won't be anything wrong in the car.'
Now that he is back in the cockpit, Siegel's plan is to go full speed ahead for the rest of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Linus Lundqvist on August 16, 2024, at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, ... More Illinois. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
On Monday, Arrow McLaren named Linus Lundqvist as Siegel's possible replacement for Toronto if he was not cleared by IndyCar Medical. Once Siegel was cleared, Lundqvist won't be in a race car this weekend, but will remain with the team throughout the weekend as he tries to find a way back into IndyCar.
'I'm very happy to be here with Arrow McLaren as a reserve driver and staying ready in case something were to happen,' Lundqvist said. 'I got the call after Nolan had his crash in Iowa, and they weren't sure that he was going to get clear for Toronto. That sparked a lot of craziness over the past couple of days because they tried to prepare me as well as they could you know getting seated in the car.
'I'm glad to see the Nolan is good and that's never how you want to be on the grid, but I would be ready if that were the case.
'I'm at every other race basically just in civilian clothing so to do it now with a team feels good um I didn't really realize how much I miss being with a team until this weekend. It's been a minute, and I want to drive but just being with them listening in on the engineering meetings and hearing what people say it felt good to be back and obviously, a team like Arrow McLaren I feel like I can learn quite a bit.'
Once Lundqvist got the call from Arrow McLaren, he was at the team's shop in Indianapolis on Monday to get fitted for a seat and uniform.
In some ways, Lundqvist has been an overlooked driver in IndyCar despite showing flashes of promise in the few races he has competed in.
Lundqvist competed in three IndyCar Series races in 2023 including two for Meyer Shank Racing and one for Andretti Global. His best finish that year was 12th on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
He was hired by Chip Ganassi Racing for 2024, won the pole at Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and finished third at Barber Motorsports Park road course and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway oval.
He finished 16th in the standings, but when with IndyCar's new Charter System, team owner Chip Ganassi reduced his fleet of race cars from five to three and Lundqvist has been looking for a ride ever since.
'I've learned a very long time ago that life is not fair and if you expect it to be fair, you're going to be disappointed,' Lundqvist said. 'I have a saying that as long as I can go to bed saying I did everything I could then win lose or draw I'll be happy because that's what I'm doing right now.
'I've been in this position before where in 2023 we were out of ride, but you know I was at every single track, staying ready, staying sharp.
'We went through my playbook of 2023 and trying to do a repeat of that.'
So, what has Lundquist been doing while he tries to find a full-time job?
'I've been training neck and trying to stay ready,' he explained. 'Like I said, I'm just trying to stay in shape and be ready and stay sharp for as much as I can.
'And like I said, showing up at the races, calling bosses, harassing them like I once did, I'm back on that train.
'I did a little bit of coaching some back and forth in some of the other junior series. But apart from that, I'm living on some of my savings, getting to and from races.
'That's the way that I've choose to go about this.'
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