• Meyer Shank Racing gives its IMSA champion Tom Blomqvist a full-season go in IndyCar, but he struggles. Under pressure to finish races and deliver points, Blomqvist crashes seconds after the start of the Indy 500, wiping out 2022 Indy winner Marcus Ericsson and Pietro Fittipaldi in Turn 1 as well. He’s cut the next day, but all isn’t lost as Blomqvist is retained by the team for 2025 in IMSA.
• With Blomqvist as a prime example, instability among drivers and teams reaches a recent and unflattering high. Despite having 27 full-time cars in the field, only 21 drivers contest the entire season while 22 additional drivers drop in for either one or a handful of races, but less than the complete calendar of events.
• Weeks prior to the season opener, shockwaves move through IndyCar when the season finale, set to run on a revised street course layout in downtown Nashville, is cancelled, citing construction issues and other problems related to the Tennessee Titans building a new NFL stadium adjacent to the IndyCar venue.
• Arrow McLaren uses Theo Pourchaire for Rounds 2, 3, and 4 before recalling Callum Ilott, who has the oval experience Pourchaire lacks, to race at the Indy GP and the Indy 500.
• Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is raided by the FBI three days after the season finale. The source of the raid is alleged to be the rival Andretti Global team for alleged theft of Andretti’s intellectual property pertaining to its dampers by an employee who left for RLL. The matter is ongoing.
• Penske Entertainment signs a wildly positive TV deal with FOX where all of its races will be broadcast on a major network. Teams anticipate a rise in audience size that will significantly improve sponsorship values and make new fans. It’s the most significant new development since Penske bought the series in 2020.
• European powerhouse junior open-wheel outfit PREMA Racing announces a two-car entry for 2025, becoming IndyCar’s first new full-time team since 2018. The Italian squad hires Callum Ilott and 2022 Formula 2 front-runner Robert Shwartzman to lead the effort.
• Two weeks after the season finale, Michael Andretti steps down from his position atop Andretti Global and has no involvement in the team moving forward, be it IndyCar or the Formula 1 team he attempted to launch with Cadillac. Shortly after his exit, Andretti’s office is reportedly emptied and used as temporary storage space.
• Two months later, F1 announces the Cadillac F1 program, with no mention of Michael Andretti or Andretti Global, and is approved to join the grand prix grid in 2026. It’s a sad end for many IndyCar fans whose passion and loyalty for Andretti Global’s racing endeavors were tied directly to its now-former owner.
• Suitably impressed by his gritty performances, Arrow McLaren announces it’s keeping Theo Pourchaire for the rest of the season. He’ll replace Callum Ilott after Indy and conducts his first oval test with the team, receiving approval from IndyCar to race at every circuit left on the schedule when he returns.
• Bearing a strong likeness to the dark and murderous superhero “Homelander” on Amazon Prime’s gory-psycho TV series “The Boys,” fans further embrace using the nickname “Homelander” for Josef Newgarden, IndyCar’s defiant and occasionally dark championship contender. Never one to be defined by others, Newgarden posts a photo of himself wearing a Homelander costume on Halloween. Well played.
• Private country club-and-racing facility The Thermal Club holds its first professional event in a non-points appearance by IndyCar. Tickets originally listed at $2000 barely sell, leading to $1500 discounts and refunds. As an on-track product, the calendar filler is a dud, capped off with a comically cheap podium that earns derision and scorn.
• Mostly healed by June, David Malukas is hired by Meyer Shank to backfill Blomqvist’s car for the rest of the season. He’s a rocket from the outset, thanks the team for saving his career, and the team expresses its interest in keeping him on a multi-year deal.
• Amid those many thanks, Malukas adds another chapter to the season of never-ending volatility by announcing he’s leaving Meyer Shank to join A.J. Foyt Racing in 2025 and rumored to be in the pipeline to replace Penske’s 43-year-old Will Power whenever he retires.
• Years in the making, the long-awaited debut of NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson at the Indy 500 happens in a partnership between Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports. The oval racing prodigy is a spectacle of his own at the Speedway and runs towards the front until a penalty for speeding on pit lane scuttles his chance of victory.
• A.J. Foyt Racing technical director Michael Cannon, widely credited for helping the team to claw its way from the back of the grid into the top 10 with Santino Ferrucci, leaves over an alleged salary dispute and signs with newcomer PREMA Racing, giving the program a formidable head start on its new American adventure.
• Breaking the steadfast rule regarding teammates hitting each other, Penske’s Will Power knocks Scott McLaughlin into the Toronto barriers and out of the race. McLaughlin waits for Power to circulate and return to the scene of the crime and gives Power a mocking round of applause. Between Newgarden and McLaughlin being at odds over the P2P ordeal, and now Power entering the chat, intra-squad harmony has been fleeting.
• Considered an integral part of Arrow McLaren as its lone veteran, 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi and the team announce they will split at the end of the season, coming after being unable to find a mutually acceptable salary figure.
• Promoter Big Machine Music City Grand Prix salvages IndyCar’s season finale by moving it to the Nashville Speedway on the outskirts of Nashville. A former host of IndyCar races, the track was jettisoned from the calendar more than a decade ago due to poor attendance. With limited expectations for a significant change in local interest, the promoter attacks the market and pulls off a coup with solid crowds. IndyCar complements the promoter’s efforts by setting a technical specification for its cars that leads to exceptional racing. A grand failure turns into a grand victory.
• After multiple delays spanning multiple years, Penske Entertainment makes a successful move into using hybrid powertrains near the halfway point of the season. Panned after glitches sideline six-time series champion Scott Dixon on the parade laps at the energy recovery system’s debut and crucified by team owner/driver Ed Carpenter as being a heavy and unnecessary waste of money, the hybrid IndyCar formula puts on some good races, especially on the remaining ovals. By the last race of the year, blaming the hybrid units for IndyCar’s ills is a thing of the past. But a new season awaits with countless opportunities to revisit the topic.