The new year is in high gear, and soon the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season will be.
As with any change of the calendar, there are new things to watch when cars hit the track for the season-opening race, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on Sunday, March 2. Drivers have switched teams, and a new team has joined the ranks. There’s even a new track on the official schedule.
Before the engines fire, we set the table.
New Places for Familiar Faces
For the third straight year, a record 27 car-and-driver combinations will take the green flag when the season begins. As many as 11 of those seats will be occupied by drivers who weren’t in them when the 2024 season ended, potentially including the two spots at Dale Coyne Racing that have yet to be announced.
Nine of the 11 teams have different driver combinations for 2025. On the Honda side, four of the five teams have made changes, including Chip Ganassi Racing, which will field three cars instead of five last season. Six of the seven Chevrolet teams have new faces, the most significant being PREMA Racing, a European-based organization that is taking its first shot at the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. Its drivers will be series veteran Callum Ilott and newcomer Robert Shwartzman.
PREMA’s arrival gives the series its most full-time teams since 2018. It is the fourth team to join the series full-time since 2020, following Meyer Shank Racing, McLaren Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Among the high-profile driver changes for the upcoming season are Alexander Rossi at Ed Carpenter Racing and David Malukas at AJ Foyt Racing. Christian Lundgaard is now with Arrow McLaren, and Marcus Armstrong has switched to Meyer Shank Racing.
So far, two rookies are confirmed: Shwartzman and 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone champion Louis Foster at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Two teams will have the same driver lineups for 2025: Team Penske, which returns Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin; and Andretti Global, which again has Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson.
The field is represented by full-time drivers from 11 countries. Shwartzman is believed to be the first INDYCAR SERIES driver born in Israel. Alon Day competed in INDY NXT by Firestone in 2012.
New Features to Schedule
There are 17 races on the calendar for the fourth consecutive year, although there are new features to the event lineup.
The Thermal Club in Southern California will host a points-paying race for the first time. This year’s event, the second of the season, is on the same weekend – The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix will be March 23 – as last year’s exhibition race won by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou.
The Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park slides back a week in the calendar, giving pushing a busy month of May to three races, highlighted by the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 25. The Bommarito Automotive 500 is now June 15 – it was held in August the past 12 years – and the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will be July 27 rather than in June as it was last year.
The season ends on the last day of August when the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is held Aug. 31 at Nashville Superspeedway. Last year’s season finale was Sept. 15.
The schedule continues to be diverse, featuring seven natural terrain road course races, six oval races and four street circuit races. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be held for the 50th time on April 13.
Drivers Eye Historical Achievements
There will be several historical feats on the line this season.
Josef Newgarden has a chance to become the first driver to win three consecutive “500s.” The last driver with such an opportunity was also a Team Penske driver – Helio Castroneves – in 2003. Castroneves finished second in that race. Al Unser’s bid for three straight Indy wins, in 1972, also ended with a second-place finish.
Castroneves will again go for a record-setting fifth “500” victory. This year’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be his 25th start, making him one of only four drivers with as many. Also returning to the “500” will be 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who will take a second shot at being one of the few drivers to compete at Indy and Charlotte – a feat known as “The Double” on Memorial Day weekend – in the same day. The last to do so was Kurt Busch in 2014.
It’s been more than a decade since an INDYCAR SERIES driver has won three consecutive season championships, but Palou has a chance to do just that. Sebastien Bourdais won four in a row (2004-07) while Dario Franchitti won three straight (2009-11). The only other driver with such a feat is Ted Horn, a three-time champion in 1946, 1947 and 1948.
If Palou wins a fourth overall series title, he will join five other drivers with at least as many.
New Ways to Watch
For the first time ever, all 17 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races will air live on broadcast television.
FOX also will provide coverage of “500” qualifications on both Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18, bringing the total number of broadcast network windows to 19, a record for the series. INDYCAR will become the only premier motorsport in the United States with exclusive major broadcast network coverage for all its races.
The immersive collaboration will see all practice and qualifying sessions for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES telecast on cable on FS1 and FS2. All races will be available on the FOX Sports app.
The majority of INDY NXT by Firestone races will also air on FS1, with FS2 providing supplemental coverage of additional races.