Today’s question: Which of the recently announced NTT INDYCAR SERIES team driver lineups for 2025 intrigues you the most?

Curt Cavin: There is no wrong answer to this question because so many of the new combinations announced so far are interesting. How will PREMA fare in Year 1? What will be Alexander Rossi’s impact at Ed Carpenter Racing? There’s always Dale Coyne Racing intrigue. But for my money, it’s AJ Foyt Racing with this interesting pairing of Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas. Look, I don’t know if either driver can finish higher in the standings than about where Ferrucci finished this year – he was ninth – but I think either or both could win a race as the alliance with Team Penske grows. These two outspoken drivers will challenge each other in what should be a positive manner, and you can imagine, at a minimum, that they challenge the more decorated teams on a more regular basis.

Eric Smith: I’m excited to see the next step of growth for Meyer Shank Racing. Felix Rosenqvist told me in Nashville that he feels like the team made as much of a growth between 2023 and 2024 as any outfit in the paddock. He’s not wrong. The No. 60 Honda that Rosenqvist drove improved 13 spots in entrant points between the two seasons, climbing from 25th to 12th. His 12th-place points finish in the best championship result ever for an MSR driver. He and teammate David Malukas, who drove the No. 66 Honda for MSR in the final 10 races after replacing Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves, qualified 15 times in the top six and finished 10 times in the top 10. Marcus Armstrong, the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie of the Year, replaces Malukas in the second car next season teaming with Rosenqvist. The New Zealand native is trying to build off of a strong sophomore season with eight top-10 finishes in 17 races, including four in the last six. In addition, MSR entered into an alliance with Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2025 season. CGR, which has won four of the last five NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships, will provide dampers, chassis setups and engineering personnel. If MSR continues the ascension, it could be primed for an opportunity for a second career victory, if not more. The only time MSR visited victory lane was the 2021 Indianapolis 500 with Helio Castroneves. The popular Brazilian is back for a fourth attempt at earning his fifth “500” win in an Indy 500-only entry and could write a new chapter in Indianapolis Motor Speedway lore next May.

Paul Kelly: PREMA, without question. Team officials indicated when announcing their plans to enter the NTT INDYCAR SERIES that they wanted to pair a series veteran with a rookie for their initial campaign in 2025. Many figured that vet would be Alexander Rossi, who instead signed with Ed Carpenter Racing. PREMA chose a familiar face, its former European Formula 3 driver Callum Ilott. But is the Brit experienced enough here to lead a team completely foreign to North America’s top open-wheel series? Ilott has made 38 NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts over the last four seasons. That’s slightly only more than two full seasons. But he performed well and learned lessons about how to extract more from less during his tenure with Juncos Hollinger Racing, so that bodes well for PREMA. Still, if PREMA selects as its second driver Robert Shwartzman, who has zero career series starts in the INDYCAR SERIES or INDY NXT by Firestone, will there be enough experience in the driver lineup? PREMA has enjoyed plenty of success in European racing, so it should establish a foundation next season led by Ilott and veteran managers like Piers Phillips that should lead to future success. Still, Carlin was a European junior formula powerhouse like PREMA that jumped from winning an INDY NXT title in 2016 to the INDYCAR SERIES in 2018 with grand ambitions and left the series after 2021. PREMA, Ilott, presumably Shwartzman and team management have a lot of work in front of them. I’m eager to see how this unfolds.