IndyCar

The repeat victim in IndyCar's cut-throat silly season

by Jack Benyon
3 min read

A cut-throat IndyCar driver market was always going to bloodthirstily claim new victims ahead of 2025. Top of that list is a rookie who scored a pole and two podiums last year.

The 2024 IndyCar rookie of the year Linus Lundqvist already faced much hardship on his route to the series. One of many on the well-trodden path of 'talented driver without the cash', he used America's scholarship system to great effect until he won Indy Lights in 2022 in the year the budget for the winner was cut. He spent most of 2023 on the sidelines as a result.

An impressive cameo at Meyer Shank in 2023 in place of the injured Simon Pagenaud earned him a full-time seat at Ganassi, where it must be said that he was part of a five-car team that inevitably prioritised Scott Dixon and Alex Palou - even if it did its best to make sure everything was equal.

An incredible pole at Road America before being taken out by team-mate Marcus Armstrong and excellent podiums in a charging drive at Barber four races in and at Gateway with four races to go bookended an otherwise tough year where so much went against him.


Lundqvist's tough breaks

St Petersburg: Taken out by Grosjean while 12th
Indy GP: Didn't get enough fuel in a pitstop, finished 24th
Indianapolis 500: Taken out on first lap at the first corner
Detroit: Caught up in multiple crashes, finished 22nd
Road America: Spun out of pole at Turn 1 by Armstrong
Iowa race one: Mechanical issue
Milwaukee race two: Taken out; critical of yellow and green flags being shown at the same time


He finished the season with four top 10s and was 19 points behind sophomore team-mate Armstrong.

It was clear that, had Lundqvist retained his seat, the expectation would be to add more consistency to the peaks he reached in 2024. Ganassi has dropped from five cars to three this year, and it's easy to see why it kept Kyffin Simpson for its third seat, because of the sponsorship opportunities he opens up.

That was going to have a negative outcome for one driver.

The team has initiated a technical tie-up with two-car team Meyer Shank, which Armstrong has moved to, but Armstrong is also believed to bring sponsorship, had worked with the engineers moving over, and Shank said it really wanted Armstrong - who was only doing his first season of ovals last year.

Neither Armstrong nor Lundqvist deserved to lose a seat, or miss out on others to some drivers who have joined or remained in the series. But Lundqvist doesn't bring significant budget and that's the top and bottom of it. Especially with budgets rising thanks to the addition of the hybrid unit last year and spiralling personnel costs.

He'll be attending St Petersburg this weekend - "I will be there, although I wish under different circumstances, as I will not be in a race car", he said in a statement issued Wednesday.

Lundqvist paid tribute to the people he had worked with at Ganassi, but said he "was officially notified by the team just this past January that my contract with CGR was being terminated".

"I am hopeful that, through the provisions in my CGR agreement, we will be able to reach a resolution that would place me back in a competitive seat," Lundqvist added.

"In the meantime, I will continue to pursue other racing options, preferably in IndyCar where I hope to continue my career and build on my open-wheel successes to date."

It's not clear what the agreement Lundqvist refers to is, or how soon he expects to be back in a drive, but this story might not be over just yet and that statement certainly feels juicy.

Whatever happens, it's a shame a driver who showed he can compete at this level is facing yet another spell on the sidelines.

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