Note: This is the first of a series of 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com from Feb. 26-March 1. The season starts Sunday, March 10 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
Starting Lineup: Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Honda), Alex Palou (No. 10 DHL Honda), Marcus Armstrong (No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda), Linus Lundqvist (No. 8 The American Legion Honda), Kyffin Simpson (No. 4 Journie Rewards Honda).
2023 in Review: It was nearly a perfect season for Chip Ganassi’s organization, with Palou and Dixon finishing 1-2 in the standings, Marcus Ericsson nearly winning his second consecutive Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, and Armstrong capturing the season’s Rookie of the Year award. Palou (five), Dixon (three) and Ericsson (one) combined to win nine of the season’s 17 races, and Ericsson finished .0974 of a second behind Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the “500.” Palou’s margin over Dixon at year’s end was 78 points, but it took one of the most outstanding years in recent NTT INDYCAR SERIES history for Palou to keep Dixon from a record-tying seventh season title. Palou’s average finish of 3.7 helped him become the first champion since Dan Wheldon in 2005 to clinch in advance of the year’s final race. Dixon’s late charge was fueled by three wins in the final four races. Palou never finished worse than eighth all year; Dixon’s only finish outside the top seven came in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach when he got bumped into the tires by Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward. Ericsson won the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding, the season’s opening race, and finished in the top six of the standings for the third consecutive year. Palou’s championship gave the Indianapolis-based organization its 15th series title. Only Team Penske (17) has more.
New for ’24: The squad increases from four entries to five this year, and that includes a pair of rookies (Lundqvist and Simpson). Lundqvist made three series starts last year with Meyer Shank Racing; Simpson will make his first series start in St. Petersburg. This will be the first time CGR has fielded five full-time cars in the series.
Keep an Eye on This: With a pair of race wins last year for Andretti Global, Kyle Kirkwood has established himself as a top-flight driver in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and Arrow McLaren thought enough of David Malukas to hire him for 2024. But it was neither Kirkwood nor Malukas who won the first or last race of the 2021 INDY NXT by Firestone season. That honor went to Lundqvist, who like Kirkwood was in his first season in the series. Many have considered Lundqvist bound for stardom for years, and his INDY NXT by Firestone title in 2022 and last year’s three-race fill-in for Simon Pagenaud at Meyer Shank Racing seemed to validate that. How he performs with CGR will be a big watch in the upcoming season.
Little-Known Fact: Palou is on a pace for the ages. Through 64 career series starts, he has more top-10 finishes (45) than Mario Andretti (44), A.J. Foyt (42), Will Power (41) and Dixon (39) had at this juncture, and he has nine more top-three finishes than Power and 12 more than Dixon did. Palou also scored his second series championship at the same age as Dixon was when he captured his second.