• Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi crashes during practice in Toronto, breaks a finger and is ruled out for the rest of the event. At home in France, the dropped Pourchaire is reached by the team and agrees to be temporarily un-dropped, races to the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, does a full “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” impression to reach the street circuit in time to qualify the car — having never seen the track — and finishes 14th in the race. Rossi reclaims his car for the following races.
• Forgetting Iowa, the remainder of the oval-heavy schedule in hybrid specification produces some unforgettable racing as drivers and fans rave about the quality of competition at Milwaukee, WWTR and Nashville.
• Even with the absence of new financial support from Penske Entertainment through the charters, some teams wielding memberships drew interest from new or potential investors. Among these are Ed Carpenter Racing, which welcomes the CEO of sugar substitute maker Splenda into its ownership group.
• If Detroit’s street race held the crown for hijinks and calamity, the next street race in Toronto delivers an almighty “Hold my beer” challenge with a close to the event that results in millions of dollars in damage and destroyed cars. A late-race restart sees Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward spin entering the funnel-like Turn 1, back into the wall and is hit by Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, who is unable to avoid the incident. Together, they’re blocking approximately half of the road, and next through is A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci who scales the front of O’Ward’s car, takes flight, turns sideways as he spears across the fencing and lands upside down at Turn 2. He’s uninjured. Then Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Pietro Fittipaldi hits the front of O’Ward’s car and goes for a short flight of his own.
O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren teammate Nolan Siegel comes upon the worsening scene and hammers the front of O’Ward’s car, but thankfully doesn’t fly as his car ricochets to the right side of the road. Dale Coyne Racing’s Toby Sowery, the last to make contact, lightly hits the back of Siegel’s car. Ericsson tries to drive back to the pits, but his front wings, tethered to the chassis, slip under his front tires and he can’t steer. Time for a red flag and a lot of questions about how swiftly race control did or didn’t react to the initial crashes and trigger a caution.
• Searching for a more competitive team, Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s lead driver Christian Lundgaard announces he’s leaving to replace Rossi at Arrow McLaren.
• Told to be on the lookout for a new contract extension to sign, young five-year Ed Carpenter Racing veteran Rinus VeeKay is stunned when his manager calls the team to ask when the contract will land in his inbox and is informed they’ve changed their minds — it isn’t going to be tendered and VeeKay is out. The news comes five days after the last race, which means few high-caliber opportunities are left for VeeKay to explore.
Alexander Rossi is confirmed as his replacement. VeeKay continues to wait for a new team to make an offer, but out of 27 cars, only two seats are left to fill.
• Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi tries to make it to the finish line on fumes at the second race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader, but his motor sputters and dies coming out of the corner on the last lap just as A.J. Foyt Racing’s Sting Ray Robb is charging hard behind him. Robb tries to avoid the slowing Rossi, but clips his left-rear tire with his right front and is launched skyward. The cars of Robb, Rossi, plus Ed Carpenter, and Kyle Kirkwood — innocent bystanders — are thoroughly trashed in the melee. How many times have cars gotten airborne this season?
• Cruising to his third championship, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou crawls to a stop with hybrid problems while coming to the green flag at the second Milwaukee round — the penultimate race of the year. Holding second in the championship, it’s the perfect gift for Penske’s Will Power to erase Palou’s advantage and head to the title decider in the lead.
• Down multiple laps before the problem is rectified, Palou’s cooked and helpless, unable to prevent Power from exploiting the season’s biggest dramatic turn. Until he isn’t. Coming back to green on a restart, Power hits the throttle too hard and spins, throwing away almost everything the racing gods gave him. He finishes a dispirited 10th while Palou fights back from last to 19th and, in another twist, departs for Nashville with a nearly insurmountable lead.
• Resigned to go on the attack from the outset at Nashville and hope for more adversity to strike Palou, it’s Power’s turn to encounter problems on the warm-up laps. Qualifying fourth, a mind-bending view of Power pulling onto pit lane as the field was readying to start the race all but guarantees the delivery of Palou’s third championship. And the reason for the visit is just cruel: Some form of malfunction with the central seatbelt locking mechanism has caused the lap belts to pop loose and leave Power untethered from his car. His Penske pit crew fights and struggles to reconnect the belts, losing multiple laps before the issue is rectified. The problem re-occurs later in the race — with Power’s fate already sealed — and he’s forced to pit for a second time, surrendering the championship through no fault of driver or crew.
• But there’s one more gut punch for Power, who loses eight laps in the race, drops to 24th at the checkered flag, and falls from second in the championship — Penske’s best for most of the season — to fourth in the standings, behind teammate Scott McLaughlin in third and Colton Herta, who surged to second.
• Under potential threat from Formula 1 and NASCAR, who want a marquee event in Southern California, Penske Entertainment steps in and buys the rights to the Long Beach Grand Prix, IndyCar’s second-biggest event after the Indy 500. It’s another bold move by IndyCar’s owner that meets with resounding approval.
• Arrow McLaren announces it’s parting ways with team principal Gavin Ward, who joined the team in 2022 in a technical role, was promoted to team leader a few months later after its president quit and went to Chip Ganassi Racing, and led Arrow McLaren in 2023 and ’24. He’s replaced by assistant team principal and 2014 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan, also a racing team management neophyte.
When it wasn’t Penske or one of his executives, three teams in A.J. Foyt Racing, Arrow McLaren, and Juncos Hollinger Racing were the most prolific contributors to IndyCar’s wildest and most turbulent year in memory. May that change for the better in 2025.