Former IndyCar president Jay Frye has joined one of the series' teams, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, weeks after leaving his role in charge of the championship.
Here's everything we know about the move - which includes Frye overseeing Rahal's IMSA SportsCar Championship BMW team - and why it's significant.
Why is Frye not at IndyCar anymore?
Multiple outlets have reported that Frye and IndyCar did not agree on a future direction for the series' next car, and that a rift had developed. This has not been confirmed by either party.
That new-car process is being led by Penske Automotive COO Rich Shearing, who has not worked in IndyCar before but is massively respected in the car industry and therefore potentially pivotal in IndyCar's bid to attract a new engine manufacturer.
It has been reported that Frye was looking to keep changes, and therefore cost increases, to a minimum on the new car, while Penske could be set to make bigger changes.
Doug Boles, the President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has taken over as president of IndyCar but will hand a lot of Frye's tasks to Mark Sibla, who has taken over the role of senior vice president of IndyCar competition and operations.
What's the biggest challenge at RLL?
The team, owned by Bobby Rahal, talk show legend David Letterman and long-term IndyCar team backer Mike Lanigan, is at a crossroads.
It has recently invested in a massive new factory that it runs its IndyCar and IMSA programmes out of, and its sportscar programme involves running BMW's factory Hypercar efforts which is no small feat. It scored poles and set the fastest laps at the first two races of the season with a brake change by BMW for 2025 reportedly unlocking performance in multiple areas of the car.
On the IndyCar side it has been on the fringes of the top teams but slipping back; capable of a race win a year, but struggling to remain competitive. This is especially the case at the Indianapolis 500, which it won as recently as 2020 but had Graham Rahal's car fail to qualify in 2023. And even if 2024 was a slight improvement, it's still off where it wants to be.
Its best result over the first two races of 2025 is 11th although Devlin DeFrancesco had a puncture while running well in St Petersburg and Louis Foster was taken out on the first lap, before a cockpit item pressuring his shoulder caused a lowly finish at Thermal after a brilliant 10th in qualifying, the team's best so far.
It has lost its prize asset, Christian Lundgaard, to McLaren for 2025, had its shop raided by the FBI late last year, and has fallen behind - as many others have - the top teams and their ability to keep adding top personnel, especially engineers, year on year.
That reads like a really negative take, but there have been some highlights too. While the team was criticised for taking on DeFrancesco for this season, a part-funded third seat keeps the team going. Reigning Indy NXT champion Foster's qualifying pace looks good and Rahal's race pace and tyre management is certainly top 10 in the series.
It has many of the ingredients needed, you just get the feeling that it can't get enough people in every year to get to a stage where it's well stocked enough to fix its issues on track.
Ultimately, the biggest challenge for RLL is to add more personnel in a market where there is a shortage of good people, to understand its shortcomings in terms of performance better and quicker, and, crucially, be able to make the changes that fix those issues.
It needs to establish a long-term driver line-up for the future, and work towards getting its performance into a window where it is a threat for the top 10 every week, especially in qualifying, with at least two of its cars.
What benefits can Frye bring?
Before working for IndyCar, Frye oversaw the Red Bull NASCAR programme and has massive amounts of experience in this industry.
He's not coming in to work on or improve the car, that's not his area. But from his previous role as head of IndyCar, he knows the rules, and the people in the series like suppliers, sponsors and series personnel better than anyone.
Rahal is already one of the best teams in the paddock - especially relative to its results - at finding and keeping sponsors. Everyone from the drivers to the management know their role in this and make this a really strong business. Frye will only add to this with the contacts he has.
He'll also no doubt help in terms of being able to suggest and hire new personnel, many of whom he'll know from his previous role.
What have Frye and the team said?
"I would like to thank Steve Eriksen for all of the work he did for us, particularly at a critical moment in time for the company and we certainly wish him the best in his next endeavour,” said Bobby Rahal, praising the outgoing candidate Frye will replace.
"I'm very pleased to have Jay Frye join the team as president of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. I've known him since his arrival on the IndyCar scene in 2013 and have spent a lot of time with him and think highly of his character and his passion for the sport. I look forward to working with him in the future to take RLL to the place we all want it to be."
Frye added: "Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has a tremendous history of success, both on and off the track.
"I am very proud to be joining the dedicated and talented team of people at RLL. RLL has the foundation, infrastructure and an incredible commitment to continue being successful well into the future."
