IndyCar 2023 season review: Major events, storylines and more

The latest IndyCar season was unlike anything I’ve witnessed. To start, a ridiculous number of passes, 7,753 in total, was recorded across 17 races. The front row for the Indianapolis 500 produced the fastest trio in the sport’s history, with an average speed of 234.180 mph; and the top two qualifiers were the closest in 107 editions of the race, with just 0.0040 seconds separating the 10-mile run between the pole winner and second place.

Television ratings and attendance figures were up, and the series had more full-season cars on the grid — at least 27 — than at any other point in its history, which spoke to IndyCar’s growth. And in between the positives, wild things, ranging from troubling to hilarious, kept the series and its fans alight with interesting developments to follow.

In most years, the on-track months are busy with all the expected actions and storylines, but once the final lap is turned, a period of relative calm washes over the paddock as mental and physical batteries are recharged during the October-February offseason. In 2023, that notion of having an offseason was shattered. Here’s a look back at all the major events this past season, month by month.

---

December 2022

• A pair of critical decisions would influence the entirety of the 2023 season and give the series a proper “Groundhog Day” moment 12 months later. The first was IndyCar’s cancelling of the new 2.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine formula it unveiled in 2018 that was meant to go live in 2023.

• The new formula was intended to replace the aged 2.2-liter twin-turbo V-6 engines that barked to life in 2012. Chevrolet and Honda, the series’ two engine suppliers, invested large sums into designing, building and testing the new 2.4-liter motors with the full anticipation of racing with those engines in 2023.

• The second keystone decision was related, and involved the series’ planned shift into hybrid engines, which was ratified in 2019 as part of the new 2.4-liter package due in 2023.

• Having dealt with repeated deadline and delivery failures by its chosen energy recovery system vendor, IndyCar would be unable to go hybrid as scheduled. IndyCar would not have new engines and would not join Formula One, IMSA and other series as a hybrid-powered championship in 2023 and pushed the introduction to 2024.

• To save IndyCar’s aborted hybrid mission, Chevy and Honda agreed to halt their 2.4-liter engine programs and reroute those sizable budgets toward the joint development of spec ERS units for IndyCar. In one early December news release, the series turned its upcoming season on its head.

January 2023

• Two significant driver signings kick off the new IndyCar season as 2021 NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson is announced as Arrow McLaren’s newest Indianapolis 500 pilot…with the longest runway imaginable as the Californian is confirmed not for 2023, but for the 2024 edition of the great American race in a partnership between the McLaren Formula One-owned team and Larson’s Cup team owner, Rick Hendrick.

• Argentina’s revered Agustín Canapino, a 15-time champion within its domestic touring car series, is confirmed as the new full-time driver for the Argentine-American Juncos Hollinger Racing squad. A legend at home, Canapino is a complete mystery to IndyCar fans and brings no open-wheel or oval racing experience to the high-risk endeavor.

• IndyCar completes the first test of its hybrid engine package with its new and custom ERS unit fitted between the internal combustion engine and transmission. The successful January run offers encouragement for the series and all of the project’s partners with the turn to hybridization in competition due in 14 months — March 2024 — which is an eternity in motor racing.

• Dale Coyne Racing signs junior open-wheel driver Sting Ray Robb.

• The month closes with an announcement from A.J. Foyt Racing, IndyCar’s oldest team as its second entry, the car driven by rookie Benjamin Pedersen, will undergo a change of number from 88 to 55, Thanks to fans on social media who pointed out that in combination with the team’s primary car, the No. 14 driven by Santino Ferrucci, the numbers 14 and 88 are often used by white supremacist groups in reference to Nazi ideologies. “AJ Foyt Racing does not condone nor support any such ideologies or symbols,” the team wrote, “and to avoid any reprehensible associations, we have changed the entry number from 88 to 55.”

February

• The secluded and exclusive Thermal Club road racing circuit, located near the Coachella music festival in the Southern Californian desert, plays host to IndyCar for the first time as the series makes use of its warmth to hold spring training for its 10 teams. The gated property, which is patrolled by armed guards, is not open to the public, nor is the three-day event televised.

• Despite going dark, a number of important developments for the upcoming season emerge as IndyCar enrages some of its team owners when they learn the series is taking $150,000 out of their guaranteed prize money packages in order to increase its marketing budget. Penske Entertainment, the series’ owner, boils over when news of its taking-from-the-teams decision is made public.

• Spring training also introduces a first for the series with the adoption of Shell’s new renewable fuel which will power the series. IndyCar also uses the test to make progress in safety with a revised head surround-the padded foam collar that protects each driver’s head in the cockpit.

• The trip to Thermal produces two nice surprises as 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood, who joined Andretti Autosport for his sophomore season, was the quickest driver throughout the test and Canapino, who most figured would be miles behind the open-wheel veterans, was among the fastest rookies and displaced some seasoned drivers as well.

• Former IndyCar driver Katherine Legge is announced as the fourth Indy 500 driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Her return offers the potential for the series’ biggest race to have a woman in the field of 33 starters after a one-year absence following Simona De Silvestro’s gritty drive in 2021 for Beth Paretta’s Paretta Autosport team.

• Beloved 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan announces that his May Indy 500 appearance with Arrow McLaren will be the last of an illustrious IndyCar career that began in 1998 and delivered an IndyCar championship in 2004 with Andretti Autosport.

• Firestone, IndyCar’s long-serving official tire partner, expands its use of guayule, a renewable shrub it harvests in the American Southwest, in the sidewalls of its tires for the numerous street races on the calendar. With most racing series searching for new ways to promote sustainability, Firestone’s green-banded guayule sidewalls mark a genuine advancement among tire manufacturers involved in the sport.

March

• The first event in the 17-race season opens at St. Petersburg where Andretti’s Romain Grosjean, coming off a bitterly disappointing 2022 debut with the team, earns pole position. The result is encouraging as qualifying was the team’s greatest weakness to address in the offseason. After moving to IndyCar in 2021, the popular Swiss-born Frenchman has a prime opportunity to capture his first win.

• A red flag is triggered three turns into the season opener as a clash between Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist causes a slowdown and pileup behind them. Multiple cars are destroyed, including Pedersen’s new No. 55 Foyt car after he arrived on the scene at unabated speed and fired Devlin DeFrancesco’s Andretti car into the air. Five cars are lost on the spot and myriad injuries are suffered, but all drivers will be able to race at the next round.

• The race resumes after a lengthy cleanup and Grosjean leads and appears to have that maiden victory in hand. But contact while fighting over first with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin dashes his hopes; McLaughlin stumbles later in the contest, and 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing claims a remarkable fourth career win in a race where a red flag was required.

April

• A long break from the March 5 St. Petersburg race is ended with Round 2 at the Texas Motor Speedway oval, where Arrow McLaren’s Rosenqvist earns pole. An improved aerodynamic configuration mandated by IndyCar brings great racing in front of a larger crowd where the defending winner, Penske’s Josef Newgarden, wins again.

• The series moves to the streets of Long Beach for Round 3 and Andretti’s Kirkwood secures his first pole — the team’s second in three races — as the Floridian goes on to dominate the race and take his first IndyCar victory.

• A bizarre stretch in the second half of the race sees Canapino’s team leave him out under a caution period while almost the entire field pits. He inherits the lead by staying out, holds the lead for a brief period, but is held up by teammate Callum Ilott, who pitted and returned to the track in front of him. Canapino would soon crash on his own, but the Spanish-language commentator pins the blame on Ilott, and by the time Ilott gets back to the team’s transporter after the race, he finds waves of Canapino’s fans have gone on the social media attack. Ilott’s Juncos Hollinger Racing team, and IndyCar, are slow to respond as the attacks and threats continue overnight. It’s a first for the series and team, and by every measure, both were unprepared to handle the matter. Ilott feels scorched by the experience but moves on amid rising tensions with his employer.

• IndyCar’s “100 Days to Indy,” its version of Netflix’s “Drive To Survive” juggernaut that launched Formula One into the stratosphere, debuts on The CW, the nation’s fifth-largest network. The first installment is watched by 189,000 people; a combined 1,161,000 viewers watch as the six episodes premiere through June.

• The entry list for the Indy 500 is set with the addition of Abel Motorsports, an Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) team that becomes the 34th car and driver combo with rookie RC Enerson. Owing to the race’s traditional 33-car field, one entry will be sent home after qualifying.

• The tour heads to Alabama and the Barber Motorsport Park road course for Round 4, and Grosjean and McLaughlin, the protagonists from Round 1, strike again as the Andretti driver locks down another pole but race strategy moves made by Penske vault McLaughlin into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. Grosjean holds onto his second runner-up result in two events.

• The season is almost at the 25% mark, and Andretti has owned qualifying so far and wins have been taken by Ganassi, Andretti and a pair by Penske. Preseason championship favorites such as Andretti’s Colton Herta, McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Ganassi’s Dixon and Álex Palou and Penske’s Will Power — the reigning title winner — are surprise no-shows in Victory Lane.

May

• The company hired by Andretti Autosport to build its giant new shop in greater Indianapolis sues the team for more than $10 million in an alleged breach of contract that includes late payments.

• IndyCar’s pre-Indy 500 primer on the Indianapolis road course takes an interesting turn as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, amid a yearlong slide, earns pole with Denmark’s Christian Lundgaard, the promising Formula 2 graduate in his second season with the team. The Round 5 race had a different script in mind as Palou romped to a staggeringly dominant win for Ganassi and took the lead in the Drivers’ standings as opening practice for the Indy 500 loomed in the coming days.

• Andretti’s Herta has the surprise of surprises in store for his father, Bryan. The elder Herta, a front-running CART IndyCar Series driver at the close of the last century, is duped into heading to his Indy-area shop for an interview on his birthday but finds his son waiting for him with the 1998 Reynard-Ford/Cosworth CART IndyCar he drove to victory at Laguna Seca. Colton bought the car, which was preserved after that win, in running condition. Touched by the gesture, Bryan vows to restore the car and turn a few laps in it before letting his son get a taste for the wicked-fast machine from IndyCar’s yesteryear.

What a surprise for Colton Herta! 😯

To honor Bryan Herta’s first career win at Laguna in 1998, Colton was surprised with a throwback livery that he’ll race at Laguna in a few weeks. pic.twitter.com/QYEQx0X4rx

— Andretti IndyCar & Indy NXT (@AndrettiIndy) August 18, 2023

• Ganassi’s mastery of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2022 carries over during the first week of running as Palou rockets around the 2.5-mile oval to snatch pole with an astonishing four-lap average of 234.217 mph. The field of 33’s average of 232.184 mph also ranks as the fastest in history.

• Despite their pole on Indy’s road course, the Rahal team is in trouble on the big oval. Graham Rahal, the son of team co-owner and 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, is bumped from the field and sheds many tears on pit lane as he’s embraced by his wife and children. Thirty years prior, his father faced the same outcome after failing to make the 1993 race.

• The surprise of Rahal’s failure to qualify with a team that’s earned three Indy 500 victories was matched by the minnows at Abel Motorsports — the global favorite to miss the show — which shocked the establishment by earning 29th in the field, ahead of three Rahal cars and one from Dale Coyne Racing. Kentucky construction magnate Bill Abel is nearly speechless after achieving what was seemingly impossible.

• Drama is always ready to pounce at Indy, and it happens the day after qualifying. During the abbreviated Monday practice session, Rahal’s teammate Legge plows into the back of Stefan Wilson entering Turn 1; Wilson’s Cusick Motorsports/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car slams into the wall.

• Wilson suffers fractures to his back and is ruled out from starting in the race where he had qualified 25th. The Cusick/DRR team was able to fix Wilson’s car, and with his blessing, Wilson gave the green light for Rahal — an old family friend — to take his place in the cockpit. Rahal would start last and hold on to finish 22nd; Legge, the first to crash in the race, would finish last.

• Round 6, the 107th edition of the Indy 500, is a thriller with a controversial finish as Ganassi’s Ericsson leads when a red flag is thrown as the checkered flag was about to be unfurled.

• Once the crash is cleared, the race stewards, citing the abandonment of procedures clause in the rulebook, elect to go green at the end of the out-lap for a single-lap sprint to the finish line. Had the series done as expected, the field would have left the pits, driven around past the start/finish line and completed one more warm-up lap, as is standard, and the race would have finished under caution. Instead, the pace car leads the field out of the pits, pulls around Turn 4 and returns to the pits to make Lap 200 a shootout for the ages.

• Penske’s Newgarden, holding second for the restart, makes use of the aerodynamic tow generated by the leader, drafts by and picks off Ericsson with relative ease to claim a career-defining win at Indy.

• Caitlyn Brown, a mechanic and pit crew member on Newgarden’s car, becomes the first woman to win the Indy 500 as an over-the-wall tire changer.

• A freak accident during the race sees a collision that causes the left-rear wheel assembly to break free from Kirkwood’s Andretti car. The heavy components bound over the fence, then, to the relief of the 300,000-plus in attendance, cleave through a gap in the grandstands and miss throngs of fans, but they do strike a parked car.

• Track and series owner Roger Penske replaces the woman’s damaged car with a new model. The series would eventually announce design changes to its rear suspensions to prevent it from happening again.

June

• Palou, who was disappointed to finish fourth at the 500, turns the page the next weekend with a statement-making pole and runaway win at Round 7 on the streets of downtown Detroit.

• In the free week between Detroit and Round 8, the struggling Conor Daly gets the boot by Ed Carpenter Racing, replaced by 2012 IndyCar champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. “Captain America,” as Hunter-Reay is known, would highlight a range of improvements for the underperforming team to make, but the finishing results for the rest of the season weren’t markedly different from what Daly produced in the same car.

• Trouble is brewing for the rest of the IndyCar drivers not named Álex Palou. Round 8 at Road America ends with the Ganassi ace standing atop the podium yet again. Through eight races, the Spanish driver owns four podiums and has yet to finish worse than eighth.

• In a post-session interview, Penske’s Power is critical of the Road America’s resurfacing efforts. Unimpressed, track president Michael Kertscher grabs the keys to one of the circuit’s odiferous “pumper” trucks, which are used to remove human waste from the portable toilets positioned around the 4-mile course, and parks it in front of Power’s motor home.

• Kertscher’s rationale of “Call it a **** track, get the **** truck” leads to an exchange with Power, who fires up the truck and parks it in front of rival Scott Dixon’s motor home. The incident would inspire a small run of “Kertscher’s Septic Service” t-shirts.

July

• Palou lands at Mid-Ohio, site of Round 9, with a healthy championship lead and adds to it with his third straight win. Herta secures his second consecutive pole, giving Andretti five to date, but he falls short in both Midwestern races as Ganassi’s leader continues to blitz his title rivals.

• Two days before Palou’s fourth win from the past five races, 2016 IndyCar champion and 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud experiences a brake failure during opening practice at the fastest section of the Mid-Ohio road course. Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing car barrel-rolled repeatedly before coming to a stop against a tire barrier, and while the Frenchman was able to walk away from the jarring crash, the full effects of the incident would manifest by the morning as he was unable to pass the IMPACT concussion test and did not receive clearance to drive. Ex-Carpenter racer Daly deputizes for Pagenaud and impresses in the last-minute call-up to drive.

• Dale Coyne’s standout sophomore driver David Malukas announces he’ll leave the team at the end of the season, but also admits he’s not entirely sure which IndyCar team will be his new home in 2024.

• The series’ lone trip north of the Lower 48 reaches the streets of Toronto for Round 10. Rahal’s Lundgaard becomes the driver to stop Palou’s championship march after turning pole into his first career victory, but no consistent challenger has emerged to put pressure on the Ganassi ace.

• The other piece of news is Palou, in another masterful drive, nursed a damaged car — the front wing was dangling from his car after clipping the wall — to claim second in Canada.

• With Pagenaud out once more, Meyer Shank Racing imports its defending IMSA prototype champion Tom Blomqvist to drive in Toronto. He’d return a few more times and get the nod to replace Pagenaud’s teammate, four-time Indy 500 Helio Castroneves, in 2024 as the Brazilian moves to an Indy 500-only role with the team.

• Rounds 11 and 12 on the short Iowa Speedway oval went exactly as expected as Penske’s alarming pace gives Will Power both poles and Indy 500 winner Newgarden back-to-back victories. Newgarden carved into Palou’s championship lead after the Ganassi driver placed eighth on Saturday and third on Sunday. Finally, the battle for IndyCar’s crown was generating a few sparks.

• Meyer Shank Racing announces it will make use of 2022 Indy NXT champion Linus Lundqvist, who went unsigned coming into the new season, to pilot Pagenaud’s car at the upcoming Nashville event.

August

• IndyCar confirms its season finale in 2024 will move from Monterey’s Laguna Seca road course to a revised layout in downtown Nashville.

• Penske’s McLaughlin takes the Nashville pole in a stellar performance but feels the sting in the Round 13 race as Andretti’s Kirkwood uses a late restart to slip past and become a two-time race winner. Palou takes third and casts an imposing shadow over his rivals as their title chances fade.

• Sweden’s Lundqvist stars on his IndyCar debut, qualifying inside the Fast 12 and running deep inside the top 10 before a mistake and meeting with the wall brings a premature end to his debut. The team confirms he’ll return for the next two races.

• Round 14 is a quick one on its return to the Indy road course as the undercard for NASCAR’s Brickyard weekend. Graham Rahal’s six-year streak of qualifying misses reaches a welcome end with an emphatic pole position.

• McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown informs his team after qualifying that Palou, who was long rumored to have signed to leave Ganassi to drive for Arrow McLaren in 2024, had informed Brown that he would not honor that contract and was staying with Ganassi.

• Palou’s management team announces it has dropped him as a client, and Chip Ganassi, who rarely speaks his mind in print, claps back at Brown, who loves chirping at Ganassi when given the opportunity. “Anyone that knows me knows that I don’t make a habit of commenting about contract situations,” Ganassi said. “Subsequently, I have been quiet since day one of this story but now I feel I must respond. I grew up respecting the McLaren team and their success. The new management does not get my same respect.”

• At the second Indy GP race in August 2022, it was the confirmation of Ganassi suing Palou for trying to leave for McLaren while under contract to Ganassi. 12 months later, it was Palou waiting to be served by McLaren’s lawyers for failing to leave Ganassi’s team.

• Ganassi’s Scott Dixon ruins Rahal’s designs on converting his pole into a win, captures Round 14 and moves into the role of chasing Palou for the title.

• Embattled IndyCar veteran Jack Harvey meets the premature end to his season that was all but inevitable after nearly two full seasons of underwhelming output at the Rahal team.

• McLaren sues Palou; it’s later revealed that more than $20 million is sought by the embarrassed team from its almost-driver who, allegedly, took advance monies from his 2024 McLaren contract while driving for Ganassi.

• Round 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway’s oval doesn’t disappoint as McLaughlin is fastest once again in qualifying. And in typical Dixon fashion, he rallies late in the season to win while making use of his otherworldly fuel-saving talent as Palou places seventh. Despite Dixon’s surge, his teammate is on the verge of becoming a two-time champion before the season finale.

• IndyCar tries using Firestone’s alternate tires — softer, faster, but less durable rubber — for the first time on an oval, but it didn’t make much of a difference in the racing or strategies deployed at WWTR.

• Incensed by David Malukas, who raced him extremely hard and made side-by-side contact at one point, McLaughlin heads to the podium to confront the third-placed Coyne driver.

• Amid the loud music and podium festivities, the irreverent Malukas, who hails from Illinois, mistakes the sturdy New Zealander’s words and intent, believing McLaughlin stopped by to say, “You’re a beast, mate.” McLaughlin later confirms he said the word “You’re,” but the rest of the sentence wasn’t complimentary.

• IndyCar conducts its first hybrid test, using the new ERS units designed by Chevy and Honda, since the beginning of the year. The test, held in severe heat, humidity and rain in Florida, is hailed as a success.

• Andretti confirms Ganassi’s Ericsson will join its team next season and will likely downsize to three cars in an effort to concentrate its skills and output after falling drastically short of expectations.

• August ends with another Ganassi-related driver bombshell. Meyer Shank Racing thought it had Lundqvist on the line to take a full-time drive, but Ganassi swept in and secured his services to replace countryman Ericsson.

September

• The penultimate race is here and Rahal’s stellar qualifying form has held; he’s on pole in Portland and Palou, who simply needs to finish the race in a decent position, could clinch the title at Round 16.

• History is made after qualifying as Myles Rowe becomes the first Black driver to win an IndyCar-affiliated open-wheel championship by romping to the USF Pro 2000 title at Portland. The driver from Powder Spring, Georgia, is headed to the top step of the training ladder in Indy NXT with the powerhouse HMD Motorsports team with funding from Andersen Promotions — owners of the USF Championships — and Roger Penske.

• Cruising to the title wasn’t in Palou’s playbook; he demoralizes the field with racing’s equivalent of a walk-off home-run after leading the most laps and snaring his fifth win of the season. It has been more than a decade since an IndyCar champion was crowned prior to the last race. Palou, who avoided pitfalls and misfortune for 16 races, seals his title in the most fitting way possible.

• With Pagenaud at the end of his two-year contract with Meyer Shank Racing and stuck on the sidelines with the lingering effects of his concussion and also, the team signs Arrow McLaren’s Rosenqvist as his replacement for 2024.

• True to his word, Bryan Herta has his 1998 Indy car ready to go for Laguna Seca. Father and son blast around the 2.2-mile road course and relish in a state of rapture for the rest of the event.

• To the surprise of most, Malukas is signed to backfill Rosenqvist’s seat at Arrow McLaren.

• The repaved Laguna Seca hosts IndyCar’s farewell to the 2023 season and Round 17 is nothing less than a mess as Rosenqvist takes a departing pole for Arrow McLaren and Dixon wins again as constant crashing and poor driving standards stain the championship sendoff.

• Taking a page from Long Beach in April, actual contact between teammates Canapino and Ilott where Canapino locked his front brakes and hit the rear of Ilott’s car, which broke Canapino’s front wing, lights the fuse on another wave of social media attacks on Ilott by some of Canapino’s fans.

• Seven drivers did all of the winning in 2023, but only Palou, Dixon, Newgarden and Kirkwood won more than once. Ganassi’s nine-win season, including the last four rounds, added to its recent legacy of IndyCar titles earned in 2020 with Dixon, 2021 with Palou and Palou yet again in 2023.

• Penske’s peerless title run in 2022 with Power where the team combined for the same 9-for-17 win tally, was met with a muted, four-win response where Newgarden won a lot of races but faded and watched as McLaughlin elevated to fourth in the standings, the best among Penske drivers.

• Power, who went without a victory, acknowledged his disappointment while at Laguna Seca, but pointed to dealing with wife Liz’s nearly fatal illness throughout the year as something that made it hard to deliver his usual laser focus to the sport. With his wife in a better state of health by September, Power vows to rediscover his title-winning form of 2022 and put the travails of the last season in the rearview mirrors.

• After Power, the extended list of those who went winless was astonishing as Arrow McLaren was blanked; pre-season favorites Pato O’Ward and 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi went oh-fer-2023, as did Andretti’s Herta and Grosjean, whose early-season form spiraled downward and led to shouting matches with his team in the closing stages of the championship.

• IndyCar reveals its 2024 calendar; Texas Motor Speedway is gone, a return to an old favorite, the Milwaukee Mile, is on.

• With six weeks of inactivity to fill between Round 1 at St. Petersburg on March 10 and Round 2 at Long Beach on April 21, the series and The Thermal Club devise a $1 Million Challenge all-star non-championship race over March 22-24.

• Fans ask if there was a typo — if an extra zero was mistakenly included in the price — when they learn 2,000 tickets will be made available by Thermal at $2,000 apiece. The series confirms it isn’t a typo and goes on an offensive to justify the costs.

• Andretti Autosport rebrands as Andretti Global to align all areas of its business with the name of its proposed F1 team. It also gets ahead of the game by signing Kirkwood, its breakout star, to a contract extension before he entered the free agent market in 2024.

October

• Arrow McLaren and Juncos Hollinger Racing form a “strategic alliance” which allows McLaren to use one of the Juncos Hollinger cars to carry its sponsors.

• Now-former Andretti driver Grosjean sues Andretti for allegedly failing to execute a contract both sides developed earlier in the season that would keep him in the team for the coming years. Allegedly, Grosjean received a contract extension from the team, signed it and returned it, but it wasn’t countersigned. Grosjean seeks to resolve the matter through arbitration.

• IndyCar remains busy with testing of its hybrid engine package as cars directed by Chevy and Honda visit road courses, short ovals and the big Indianapolis oval to gain mileage and refine the ERS units prior to mass producing them in 2024.

• Former Dale Coyne driver Pietro Fittipaldi, who recently worked as the Haas F1 team’s test and reserve drivers, is headed back to IndyCar to complete Rahal’s three-car lineup.

• Denmark’s Christian Rasmussen, the peerless 2023 Indy NXT champion, is signed by Ed Carpenter Racing in Daly and Hunter-Reay’s previous ride.

• Juncos Hollinger Racing which, for a midfield team, was in the news at a frequent pace and not always for the best reasons, and Ilott issue joint statements confirming the end to their relationship. Ilott had one year left on his contract, but the chasm between team and driver was too wide to repair.

• New Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire expresses an interest in racing in IndyCar.

November

• Juncos Hollinger Racing signs Grosjean to replace Ilott. Just when he it was looking like he was done in the series, Grosjean’s acquisition is the latest reminder that IndyCar is never boring.

• Hybrid testing moves into its final phase early in the month, but hiccups emerge. Testing will resume in December.

• Another blow to the IndyCar series is delivered by its chosen video game development partner, which announces it has undergone worrying financial losses and stops its work on the already-delayed game.

• IndyCar announces it’s terminating its video game licensing agreement, searching for a new vendor and doesn’t anticipate it will have a product to offer until at least 2025.

December

• Stefan Wilson, forced to miss the Indy 500 due to injury, spent the rest of the year healing and receives clearance to resume racing.

• IndyCar cancels all hybrid testing for December.

• IndyCar confirms it won’t be going hybrid to start the new season but says ERS development has been going well. An unnamed vendor is blamed for being unable to provide an important component in the quantities required to supply the entire field by Round 1 in March. The latest hybridization delay reserves its introduction until an undefined point after May’s Indy 500.

• Honda’s mounting concerns for the untenable costs to supply engines for half of the grid-or more-are shared with the series in private and public forums.

• The Foyt team announce Sting Ray Robb as its newest driver, and in another number change, the 55 is being retired for the No. 41.

• Benjamin Pedersen, the driver of the No. 55 who was announced entering the 2023 season as having signed a three-year contract with Foyt, isn’t mentioned in Robb’s press release or by the team on a teleconference until a reporter raises the subject. Pedersen takes to social media and welcomes Robb to the team.

• With the McLaren vs. Palou, Contractor vs. Andretti, and Grosjean vs. Andretti litigation in mind, IndyCar could bid farewell to the year with a fourth lawsuit, Pedersen vs. Foyt.

And what does 2024 have in store for IndyCar teams and fans? I’m legitimately afraid to find out.