James Roe is at the stage of his junior open-wheel training where he’s spent enough time in Indy NXT to be ready for IndyCar. But the Irishman wants to impress when that step is taken and so he’s looking at doing one more year of preparation before taking the final step to the big leagues.
He’s also taking an uncommon approach to his IndyCar ambitions by working a group of investors who want to connect with a team to buy into Roe’s future entry — infusing capital into the team for a stake in that entry’s charter — and bringing traditional sponsorship to the team through other supporters.
The 25-year-old would need the backing of both the investors and his sponsors to complete the funding requirements to compete as a full-time IndyCar driver in 2026, and it’s the investment side that stands out as rather unique among other young drivers who tend to have nothing more than straight sponsorship to offer teams.
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“We want to do one more season in NXT,” Roe told RACER. “It’s been an upward trajectory every year and this year the pace is really there everywhere we went; street courses, road courses, ovals. I’ve had a much stronger season between the pole at Iowa, lap record there and the podium in Iowa, podium at Barber and all that good stuff. So we want to keep going on that avenue in NXT, but we also want to get a start on what we want to make happen as we go into 2026.
“Our group of partners, sponsors, and the investor group are working towards finding a team where we can do an IndyCar test earlier next year. We’d like to do the Indy 500 as a one-off, and the goal is to build a relationship and build a foundation in 2025 with a team, try to create an investment and sponsorship platform for me, that would make it part of a plan to do a lot more together when I’m done with NXT.”
Roe, who’s related to former IndyCar and sports car driver Michael Roe, says he’d likely come up short if he was left to chasing sponsorship alone to support a full-time IndyCar seat. But thanks to IndyCar’s upcoming charter program, the business-minded structure created by Penske Entertainment has unlocked new possibilities for himself at a pivotal time in his career.
“As a result of the charter system announcements, there’s been a mix of Irish and American investors reach out who are interest in supporting me through the charter system,” he said. “And I think that’s the beauty of where the sport’s going. It creates a lot of opportunity for those that can deliver a real business offer to teams. It’s a very different lens to look through.
“You have investor groups seeing what’s going on in Formula 1, and seeing what’s going on in NASCAR, and now they’re seeing the value that’s been delivered there and they’re hearing about IndyCar and saying, ‘Well, maybe we should be involved in that, too. Can we get in here?’ So that’s what we’re working on with investors and with sponsors who are ready to expand, bring that hybrid funding model to a team, and ultimately position myself to do something long-term in IndyCar.”