Thomas' Thoughts: NTT IndyCar Series Silly Season Edition

Christian Lundgaard is the key domino to the NTT IndyCar Series silly season. (Travis Hinkle/Penske Entertainment photo)

By Thomas Hughes, SWN Open-Wheel Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS (July 15, 2026) – Though the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season is just over halfway through, attention naturally turns to what comes next for a portion of the field’s 25 regular drivers — what comes next for them, who switches race seats and potential retirements looming.

Here’s a look at this season’s major storylines and my non-insider thoughts on what could unfold: 

Christian Lundgaard 

Any talk of the IndyCar silly season must start with Lundgaard. Of the last six races, he’s finished either first or second in half of those events, and he’s won two. Had he not slipped up at Mid-Ohio on lap 42, he potentially could have beaten teammate Pato O’Ward for the victory there.

Lundgaard’s seat is open, however, as a result of six-time champion Scott Dixon and 2026 Indianapolis 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist moving over to join the Arrow McLaren outfit. That leaves Lundgaard and pay driver Nolan Siegel on the ropes.

Unless Lundgaard is to move to Chip Ganassi Racing or to Andretti Global, his movement will be to a team lower down on the pecking order. 

It feels like Lundgaard is — and likely should be — the top candidate to take over Dixon’s vacant No. 9 seat at Chip Ganassi Racing, but with fellow candidates like Rinus VeeKay (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Lundgaard’s path to that seat isn’t as clear-cut as one may think.

Lundgaard has won twice this season, but before that, he only claimed one win during his time with Rahal Letterman Lannigan Racing.

Though McLaren is of a higher caliber and Lundgaard has been a factor in the title hunt, his relative non-competitiveness on the ovals could be what restrains him from a Ganassi ride.

Chip Ganassi Racing

Speaking of Ganassi, they’ll be the marquee squad looking for a new driver with Scott Dixon’s exit to McLaren. Lundgaard, who sits third in the standings, feels like the de-facto No. 1 prospect, though VeeKay, who’s spent time at Juncos Hollinger and Dale Coyne Racing and sits 11th in the standings, could be a factor if he can bring sponsorship with him.

Rinus VeeKay

It feels like VeeKay could be a factor for nearly every team on the grid looking for a replacement, though whether a team like Ganassi or Andretti Global has an opening depends largely on how other drivers perform.

VeeKay’s lack of sponsorship leaves him on the back foot, though he has a solid fall-back option in JHR.

Nolan Siegel

Like Lundgaard, Siegel is out of a seat as a result of the fracas surrounding Arrow McLaren, and his rumored $22 million pool will have to go elsewhere.

A team like Juncos Hollinger Racing could make sense, given that the outfit could potentially need to replace VeeKay with the interest in him from rival teams. 

A Siegel-to-JHR partnership makes sense on the financial front to me, but I think it’ll need to coalesce with what drivers end up on the market, as well as whether or not JHR is able to convert back to having two paid, pro drivers for 2027 as has been talked about inside the paddock.

Andretti Global

It seems like Ericsson may save his seat after producing multiple stellar performances on the ovals, and it does seem like it’ll still be a short-term extension. Ericsson receiving a one-year extension and being judged on his Indy 500 performance in 2027 seems reasonable.

However, if that isn’t the case, it’s hard to look past Formula 2-product-turned-IndyCar-rookie Dennis Hauger – already in the Andretti pipeline. Hauger claimed the 2021 Formula 3 World Championship and finished 10th, eighth in his three years of F-2.

He then moved to the Indy NXT series, where he dominated in his lone season of competition. Of the 14 races Hauger ran, he won six, claiming 11 podiums and winning the title by 72 points over fellow IndyCar rookie Caio Collet.

This year, Hauger has two top-10 finishes and five top-15 finishes with Dale Coyne Racing’s No. 19 Honda. His output peaked with an eighth-place finish at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, though he’s finished 19th or lower in four of the last five races.

Caio Collet

Collet seemed right on the precipice of claiming his maiden IndyCar podium when the series turned up to Gateway and raced through several rain delays. However, in the final portion of the race, Collet DNFed due to mechanical issues.

Collet hasn’t finished in the top-10 yet — his best career finish was at Mid-Ohio with an 11th-placed effort — but his precocious and raw talent could warrant a look from other squads.

He’s currently second of the three rookies in the points with 132, sitting 16 points behind Hauger (148) and 24 ahead of Rahal Letterman Lannigan Racing’s Mick Schumacher (108). Collet is currently only seven points back of teammate Romain Grosjean, as well.

Perhaps Meyer Shank Racing could be an option, given that Brazilian Helio Castroneves is heavily involved with the team. Speaking of which…

Meyer Shank Racing

Meyer Shank took one of the dominos from impacting the rest of the 2027 shakeup when it retained Marcus Armstrong, moving the New Zealander up to their flagship No. 60 car. MSR currently operates in a partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing. Collet or VeeKay seems like a solid bet here.

Linus Lundqvist

Lundqvist drove for Chip Ganassi for one year and was the substitute at Meyer Shank before that for Tom Blomqvist. Both MSR and CGR haven’t promoted him back to a full-time race seat, though, while HRC has brought Lundqvist on to aid in the development of their 2028 machine.

Time is ticking for the 27-year-old Swede, and though he posted five top-10 finishes in 2024, with podiums at Barber and Gateway, it wasn’t enough to retain his seat at Chip Ganassi when the team was forced to downsize to three cars.

It feels like Lundqvist has the talent to stick around on the IndyCar grid, but dependent on that is his ability to find a seat to take over immediately. If he can’t, he may be stuck in a holding pattern.

Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman, Theo Pourchaire

Ilott hasn’t raced this year in IndyCar, a byproduct of PREMA Racing’s financial issues since the team hasn’t run a race yet in 2026. That also applies for 2025 Indy 500 polesitter Shwartzman, who finished 24th in the standings last season.

Ilott finished 21st and compiled four top-10 finishes over the final five races (eighth at Toronto, sixth at Laguna Seca, sixth at Portland, ninth at Nashville).

Other Notes

A.J. Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing are all teams directly impacted by the ramifications of the decisions from Collet, Hauger and VeeKay, with the cascading effects potentially allowing drivers such as Conor Daly to work their way back on the grid in a full-time capacity.

Devlin DeFrancesco also is looking to come back to IndyCar, while Enzo Fittipaldi, Tymek Kucharczyk and Nikita Johnson headline the Indy NXT crop. Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk are currently driving for HMD Motorsports, while Johnson competes for Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR.

Johnson likely won’t have a 2027 IndyCar seat at ECR, since both Christian Rasmussen and Alexander Rossi are under contract, though a potential other Chevrolet team opening up (ex: Juncos Hollinger) could open a door for him.

Fittipaldi could be a factor for Coyne if Hauger isn’t back, while RLL could play into the Silly Season mill if Mick Schumacher doesn’t return for a second season.

Keep in mind that the Indy NXT champion earns a scholarship to move up to IndyCar for some – if not all – of the calendar the following year, so that will come into play with what pieces are in play at that time as well.