IndyCar 2023 preview: Team by team

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda

Simon Pagenaud, Meyer Shank Racing Honda

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06 – Helio Castroneves
Races – 374, Best championship finish – 2^nd, Wins – 31, Poles – 50

60 – Simon Pagenaud
Races – 199, Championships – 1, Wins – 15, Poles – 12 

It seems strange to observe that Jim Meyer’s and Michael Shank’s team needs to make the next step, when the group has already conquered the Indianapolis 500. But truth is, the MSR cars were anonymous far too often in 2022, only Simon Pagenaud’s excellence in the wet on the Indy road course preventing a podium-free season for the Ohio players. Given their experience – and talent – Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves should be able to dial in their cars, so long as the shared engineering with Andretti Autosport has taken a step forward in the off-season. If the team has conquered its rear tire wear issues, there’s zero reason why this pair can’t figure in the top 10 at year’s end.

Team Penske-Chevrolet

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

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2 – Josef Newgarden
Races – 181, Championships – 2, Wins – 25, Poles – 16

3 – Scott McLaughlin
Races – 34, Best championship finish – 4^th, Wins – 3, Poles – 3

12 – Will Power
Races – 268, Championships – 2, Wins – 41, Poles – 68

Penske contains two of the best IndyCar drivers of this century, and the fact that the third one often matched them in only his second season suggests the flaws in the driver line-up are few and far between. The team, too, was fantastic in 2022, taking nine wins and largely erasing memories of the previous season when somehow it took until the 10^th round for the Roger Penske’s squad to get a W. The key questions that need to be answered are whether the team has overcome its speed deficit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as seen over the past three years, and whether the Porsche IMSA project has been a distraction.

Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet

Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet

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5 – Patricio O’Ward
Races – 55, Best championship finish – 3^rd, Wins – 4, Poles – 5

6 – Felix Rosenqvist
Races – 62, Best championship finish – 6^th, Wins – 1, Poles – 3

7 – Alexander Rossi
Races – 114, Best championship finish – 2^nd, Wins – 8, Poles – 7

66 – Tony Kanaan (Indy 500 only)
Races – 389, Championships – 1, Wins – 17, Poles – 15

McLaren has invested a lot of financial and human resources in its IndyCar squad, and while there are always growing pains, time needed for talented individuals to gel as a team, the team must start showing some reward for its efforts. The driver line-up is very strong, there are engineers within the team who are among the very best in the series, and there are now three Arrows in the quiver at all races. If AM doesn’t have at least one driver in contention for the title come Laguna Seca, some hard questions will need to be asked.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

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8 – Marcus Ericsson
Races – 63, Best championship finish – 6^th, Wins – 3, Best qualifying – 2^nd

9 – Scott Dixon
Races – 368, Championships – 6, Wins – 53, Poles – 28

10 – Alex Palou
Races – 47, Championships – 1, Wins – 4, Poles – 1

11 – Marcus Armstrong (road and street courses)
Rookie

11 – Takuma Sato (ovals)
Races – 215, Best championship finish – 7^th, Wins – 6, Poles – 10

The 14-time champion team scored four race wins between three drivers in 2022, including Indy 500 glory, and while Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson finished ‘only’ third, fifth and sixth in the point standings, you’d hardly call it a stumble. On their best days, Ganassi could still be class of the field and it definitely has the capability of regaining preeminence over Penske in 2023. The qualities of Dixon and Palou don’t need repeating, while Ericsson is one of the best pure racers. Rookie Marcus Armstrong and veteran Takuma Sato are of course canny picks for road/street courses and ovals respectively.

AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet

Benjamin Pedersen, AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet

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14 – Santino Ferrucci
Races – 43, Best championship finish – 13^th, Best finish – 4^th, Best qualifying – 2^nd

55 – Benjamin Pedersen
Rookie

Michael Cannon, after three years at Chip Ganassi Racing, has it all to do at his new berth in AJ Foyt Racing. Simplifying the array of setup choices was one of his main priorities after three straight years of shifts in Foyt’s driver line-ups, but the fact is that now there is another change – wholesale – and both drivers have much to prove. In his full-time return to open-wheel racing, Santino Ferrucci needs to display the same adeptness on road and street courses as we’ve seen from him regularly on the ovals, while Benjamin Pedersen has to prove worthy of an IndyCar ride after respectable but not outstanding junior formula record.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda

Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

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15 – Graham Rahal
Races – 258, Best championship finish – 4^th, Wins – 6, Poles – 3

30 – Jack Harvey
Races – 65, Best championship finish – 13^th, Best finish – 3^rd, Best qualifying – 2^nd

44 – Katherine Legge (Indy 500 only)

Races – 39, Best championship finish – 15^th, Best finish – 6^th, Best qualifying – 7^th

45 – Christian Lundgaard
Races – 18, Best championship finish – 14^th, Best finish – 2^nd, Best qualifying – 3^rd

Graham Rahal having now run driven in more than 250 Indy car races – and still being only 34 – is making many of us feel old. Thankfully, it hasn’t made him feel old, and he approaches the 2023 season displaying a new air of optimism. RLL has settled in its new Brownsburg facility, Stefano Sordo has injected the team with vigor and F1-style thinking, and in Christian Lundgaard, it seems to have a rough diamond. If in his sophomore IndyCar season he makes gains in the same manner as McLaughlin did in his, the quiet Dane will take RLL back to victory lane.

Jack Harvey is well aware that he needs to tap the potential we believe he has. A couple of truly confidence-boosting results could be all it takes for him to let the talent flow once more.

Dale Coyne Racing-Honda

David Malukas, Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda

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18 – David Malukas
Races – 17, Best championship finish – 16^th, Best finish – 2nd, Best qualifying – 5th

51 – Sting Ray Robb
Rookie

David Malukas rapidly became one of the most popular drivers in the series in his rookie season, and the fact that he spurned offers from elsewhere to remain at Dale Coyne Racing for 2023 has probably cemented that status. His former race engineer Ross Bunnell is now running Dixon at Ganassi, but Malukas is mature yet malleable enough to work with anyone – including Bunnell’s replacement, Alex Athanasiadis, who was assistant engineer on the #18 last year.

Judging by his performances in previous series, Sting Ray Robb tends not to shine in new environments, his true potential only showing in his second year. But even as a rookie, he should have the capacity to surprise come the second half of the season, especially with Coyne’s careful nurturing.

Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet

Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet

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20 – Conor Daly
Races – 97, Best championship finish – 17^th, Best finish – 2^nd, Poles – 1

21 – Rinus VeeKay
Races – 46, Best championship finish – 12^th, Wins – 1, Poles – 2

33 – Ed Carpenter (all ovals)
Races – 196, Best championship finish – 12^th, Wins – 3, Poles – 4

As ever, it’s hard to judge this team because one day ECR team can be as fast as Penske and Ganassi, and on other days, the team can be mired in midfield. Many feel Rinus VeeKay has that Pato O’Ward/Colton Herta-type combo of speed and self-confidence – witness his pole at Barber last year and his win on the Indy road course the season before. It’s therefore a compliment to Conor Daly whenever he can keep up with or outpace his teammate, and that does happen but mainly on short ovals.

Ed Carpenter himself should be a winning threat at Texas and Indy, but may find his happiest days when his squad finds that elusive consistency.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet

Stefan Wilson, DragonSpeed / Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

23 – TBA

24 – Stefan Wilson
Races – 5, Best championship finish – 33rd, Best finish – 15^th, Best qualifying – 21^st

Consistently one of the best one-off Indy teams for the past dozen years, Dennis Reinbold’s outfit tends to quietly outshine far more prestigious outfits on Memorial Day Weekend. Reinbold is a caring boss, too, who will coax the best out of Stefan Wilson. However, given the Briton’s sporadic IndyCar outings over the past few years, he will likely only reveal his true potential if paired with an experienced driver.

Andretti Autosport-Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda

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26 – Colton Herta
Races – 65, Best championship finish – 3^rd, Wins – 7, Best qualifying – 9^th

27 – Kyle Kirkwood
Races – 17, Best championship finish – 24^th, Best finish – 10th, Best qualifying – 9^th

28 – Romain Grosjean
Races – 30, Best championship finish – 13^th, Best finish – 2^nd, Poles – 1

29 – Devlin DeFrancesco
Races – 17, Best championship finish – 23^rd, Best finish – 12^th, Best qualifying – 10^th

98 – Marco Andretti (Indy 500 only)
Races – 250, Best championship finish – 5^th, Wins – 2, Poles – 6

The competition for supremacy in this team could get extremely heated. Romain Grosjean is the established F1 ace trying to regain momentum from his rookie IndyCar season after watching it dissipate in 2022. Colton Herta is a frustrated super-talent who made too many errors last year but who could be an eight-time champ by the time he retires. We suspect Kyle Kirkwood is of similar potential but he too had an incident-filled rookie season at Foyt.

Andretti Autosport struggled in pitstops at the start of the season but seemed to improve in the second half. Basically, it comes down to this: if the talents onboard Michael Andretti’s team can be channeled into one harmonious whole, there’s no reason why it should be replaced in IndyCar’s Big Three by Arrow McLaren.

Juncos Hollinger-Chevrolet

Callum Ilott, Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

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77 – Callum Ilott
Races – 19, Best championship finish – 20^th, Best finish – 9^th, Best qualifying – 2^nd

78 – Agustin Canapino
Rookie

Giant-killers? Callum Ilott has the potential and Ricardo Juncos has also assembled some strong team members, and has the natural racer’s instinct. Testing went well, continuing the momentum we saw gathering over the course of 2022. Ilott is a realist and even he believes a podium or two are possible this season.

Argentine touring car ace Agustin Canapino has a hell of an uphill struggle ahead of him, converting to open-wheel racing at the age of 33, but he’s already looked far quicker than the doom-mongers expected, so now it will come down to physical fitness. His basic talent should enable him to spring surprises in the second half of the year.