Heading into the offseason with Pato O’Ward, Scott Dixon, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard, Rinus VeeKay, Josef Newgarden, Callum Ilott and Nolan Siegel

Bruce Martin:
IndyCar fans, it's time to skirt your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans an insider's view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek, and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to Fit Pass Indy as we continue our fifth season of giving IndyCar fans an inside look at the most exciting form of racing on the planet, the NTT IndyCar Series. The 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season is over and Alex Palou is celebrating his fourth IndyCar Series championship, including the past three seasons in a row. Although the season concluded with Team Penske's Josef Newgarden winning the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville's Super Speedway on August 31st, there are plenty more major storylines to cover in IndyCar in the early days of the off-season. The first is IndyCar's announcement on Saturday, September 13th that an expected race at Autodromo Romanos Rodriguez in Mexico City will not be on the 2026 schedule for a variety of reasons. That venue hosts the Formula One World Championship every season. Formula One owner Liberty Media has an ownership stake in Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and reportedly wanted a higher track rental fee and larger cut of ticket sales, making it challenging for IndyCar and potential promoters. Another key part of the equation is IndyCar's television partner at Fox Sports will televise next year's World Cup International Soccer Tournament, creating a unique challenge as all races on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule are televised live on the major Fox network. Fox also purchased a one-third ownership stake in IndyCar in late July 2025. On Tuesday night, September 16th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Alex Pillow was honored for his fourth NTT IndyCar Series championship in the past five seasons at the annual IndyCar Championship Victory Lap. Also honored were the top five in the standings, including second place Pato Award of Errol McLaren, third place Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, fourth place Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global, and fifth place Christian Lungard of Errol McLaren. Also, Pillow's championship crew at Chip Ganassi Racing, IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year Louis Foster of Rahal Lerman Lanigan Racing and Indy Next By Firestone Champion Dennis Hauger of Andretti Global were honored at the IndyCar Victory Lap. Honda was honored for winning the 2025 IndyCar Manufacturers Championship. On Thursday, September 18, Palou will travel to Tryon, North Carolina, where he will sit in on a sculpting session with famed sculptor William Behrens in an important process, as Palou's face will be added to the BorgWarner trophy later this year for his victory in the 109th Indianapolis 500. PitPass Indy will have more on those important events on upcoming shows. Today's Pit Pass Indy, however, features exclusive interviews with drivers that had great seasons, but didn't win the championship. Those include Pato Award of Errol McLaren, who finished second in the IndyCar Championship, but was a distant 196 points behind Palou. Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing finished third in the standings, the 16th time since 2003 he has finished third or better in the IndyCar Series standings. Dixon is a six-time IndyCar Series champion, just one championship short of tying the great A.J. Foyt for most IndyCar titles with seven. Kyle Kirkwood won three IndyCar Series races in 2025, second only to Palou's incredible eight wins. Kirkwood finished fourth in the standings in the number 27 Honda for Andretti Global. Christian Lungard of Arrow McLaren had his best season to date in terms of the championship as he finished fifth. Arrow McLaren and Chip Ganassi Racing each had two drivers in the top five in the 2025 IndyCar Series Championship. Pit Pass Indy has exclusive interviews with each driver on this episode, so let's start with Lungard as he talks about his season.

Bruce Martin: He's Johnny on the spot today.

Bruce Martin: It's Christian Lungar, Errol McLaren. Christian, we're closing out the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series Championship season. You're first with Errol McLaren. In a lot of ways, you made some great strides. I'm sure that in other ways, you're not satisfied with the way the season's going. So as a whole, how would you assess 2025?

Christian Lundgaard: No, it's been a really good season. I think if I look at it realistically, I don't think anyone is satisfied with this season other than the 10 car. I think all of us need to improve moving forward to really call it a proper successful season, but I think If you would have told me the results of 2025 before the season started, obviously I would have taken that and been happy. I think we made a lot of progress. I think we've, considering the change and getting to work and no new people, I think we've done a great job on the seven cars. So I'm only excited for the future to come.

Bruce Martin: Did it surprise you after the start of the season that you had that Alex Pillow never slowed down? There were a lot of times where you and him on the podium, he was the winner, you were second or third. But did it really surprise you that everybody thought, well, at some point, reality's got to hit and there's going to be some bad races. He never really had any.

Christian Lundgaard: Um, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say I'm surprised. Uh, I think in a sense, you know, the, the 10 car surprised all of us, um, looking at the state and, and, and how well they've performed and some of the stuff that they're doing, uh, you know, they're just doing everything better. And, and I think it's showing from a result perspective. I don't think it's a surprise to anybody. We've seen it the past couple of years. You know, he's now won three championships in a row, and you don't really do that by mistake.

Bruce Martin: When you look at Errol McLaren as a whole, next year you're going to get a new shop. I drove by the current shop on Kaufman Road yesterday, as a matter of fact. When I look at the shop that you're operating out of, sometimes I ask myself, how do they get one car out of there, let alone prepare three or four for the Indy 500? But to be able to go into the new shop, what's it going to allow you guys to do?

Christian Lundgaard: Yeah, I've been through that process once before, obviously with Rahal, you know, moving from the old shop to the new shop. So, you know, from my perspective, at least I know what to expect. I think it's going to be a long off season for everybody in the team, you know, getting moved in and preparing for next year. But, you know, looking at how the team's operated in the past many years, being in the old shop, you know, You know, everybody said that we were out of space. You know, I see gaps in there. Everybody's done a tremendous job getting cars ready from there. And I think we're all just excited for more space and a new future.

Bruce Martin: Your teammate, Pato Ward, is the most popular driver in IndyCar. Do you enjoy when you go out to the grid? All the fans are going after Pato. Kind of allows you to fly under the radar and do what you need to do without necessarily getting distracted.

Christian Lundgaard: Yeah, Paddo has a massive fan base and it's only helping the series. You know, obviously doing a lot of media on the side of Paddo, you know, it raises attention and it increased some of my attention. You know, I think overall it's just good to have a guy like Paddo in the series and his personality is I think we all know he's great, and he's not shy to say what he thinks and what he means.

Bruce Martin: And finally, highs and lows for 2025. What are your highs?

Christian Lundgaard: What are your lows? Highs are probably all the silverware I've brought home. And I'd say some of the lows has been the weekends where we didn't get the result I feel like we deserved and should have gotten. There's things to work on for 2026. So, yeah.

Bruce Martin: Well, Christian Lundgaard, you certainly impressed a lot of more people in 2025. Not that they needed to be impressed anyway. You were already an IndyCarSeries race winner. But enjoy the offseason. Good luck in 2026.

Bruce Martin: And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy. Thank you.

Bruce Martin: Kyle Kirkwood was the most successful driver in the three-driver lineup at Andretti Global that also included Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta. Ericsson returns to the team in 2026, but Hurta has left IndyCar for Europe as he joins the Cadillac F1 team as its test driver and will compete in Formula 2 for a team yet to be announced. IndyCar legend and two-time IndyCar Series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power joins Andretti Global next season in the number 26 Honda. Hurta drove to nine IndyCar wins in his career before making the decision to head back to Europe. Palou and Kirkwood were the only drivers that won IndyCar Series races until Scott Dixon drove to victory at Mid-Ohio on July the 6th. Here is my exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview with Kyle Kirkwood, who finished fourth in the NTT IndyCar Series Championship.

Bruce Martin: Wrapping up the season here with Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti Global.

Bruce Martin: Kyle, you go into the offseason, three-race winner in IndyCar. A lot of great moments for you. Could be four. Could be four. Could be four. Could be four. I'm sure that if you win the last race of the year here at Nashville Super Speedway, you get to celebrate it all the way through the offseason. But when you look at the season as a whole, you've got to be pretty happy. There was many ups, a few downs.

Kyle Kirkwood: So how do you assess the season? I think it's exactly that. It's been up and down. Some major highlights in those three race wins. But we had some lowlights, too. I think a couple of our short oval performances. And some of our road course stuff just was not phenomenal. So we have something to work on. We have something to be excited for in the pace that we had at Street Courses and Gateway and Indy, I think. But we also have some work that needs to be done in the off season. So a bit of both.

Bruce Martin: The three victories, though, not many drivers in IndyCar can say that, especially in a year where Alex Blow entered the last weekend of the season with eight wins. We'll know by the time this interview airs whether he made it to nine or not, but to be able to have multiple wins in a year where there was a dominant driver has to really boost your confidence.

Kyle Kirkwood: Yeah, I mean. likely coming out of this weekend will be second on the most wins list of the season. So I'll take it. I'm happy with the success that we've had, but there's also some sour taste because there's somebody else that's doing it a lot better than you. So we still have work that needs to be done.

Bruce Martin: Where do you see the area where the championship started to slip away? Not that anybody else had a really good shot at it, because as I said, Alex has just had a season for the ages. But at what point of the year did you start feeling it slip away?

Kyle Kirkwood: It was Iowa for us. Iowa was a bit of a catastrophe for us at Andretti Global. And still something that we're scratching our heads about. And since then, it's kind of just trickled down from there. So yeah, that was the turning point. It felt like we were clawing back. We cut the points deficit in half to pull out between Detroit and Gateway. And then all of a sudden, it started slipping away from us. So yeah, that was kind of the turning point in the season.

Bruce Martin: As far as Andretti Global as a whole, you were the most productive driver, the most successful driver. Colton had some good runs. Marcus, though, struggled a little bit. And I know that he's thought a lot about that and about how to step up for next season. How would you assess the entire three driver operation in 2025?

Kyle Kirkwood: Yeah, you got to look at our whole organization. I think Colton's done a phenomenal job this season, although his efforts have not been rewarded as much as ours has been. So and that was similar to me last year with Colton. where Colton got a couple wins, and we didn't really get anything, although we put ourselves in a lot of positions to win. So, you know, I think, and then Marcus, you got to remember, Marcus at another team led the championship two years in a row for a long period of the season, won a 500. It's questionable if he could have won another one, right? That one's still a little bit weird in my eyes, so. I mean, he's a phenomenal driver. And he's going to have success. It's just taking some time for him, gelling with his team. And he just has not had good luck. It's plain and simple. It's just cartoon anvils falling on him constantly.

Bruce Martin: How big a gut punch was it to you and DeMarcus, the Indianapolis 500, realize the next day that's not where you finish, they moved you to the back because of the penalty?

Kyle Kirkwood: To be honest, I was happy with the performance that we had there. I was happy with the cars that we had. I think… The penalty was arbitrary, and that's the way we look at it. So yeah, we'll forget about it. We know we got good cars around there, regardless of how it's built like, and go from there.

Bruce Martin: So with the improvement that you've shown every year that you've been an IndyCar, you have to feel that next year is the year you'll be a serious championship contender. You were a serious one for half the season this year.

Kyle Kirkwood: Yeah, we needed to continue through this weekend, so that's the goal.

Bruce Martin: But to be able to go into 2026 and have a really good chance of fighting for the championship, how confident are you that you can do that?

Kyle Kirkwood: I mean, it's dependent on some things, right? I'm confident that we can do it. We had a chance this year, but we also need a little bit more performance at some of the road courses and some of those short ovals that we just struggle a little bit at. So if we can get that, we'll be extremely dangerous, right? I think the season is shaping up to be more in our favor with the tracks that we're going to. But we also need to get better at places like Portland, IndyGP, Laguna, and to have a serious chance at winning a championship.

Bruce Martin: And finally, what are you going to do during the offseason?

Kyle Kirkwood: I'm going to go fishing instantly. So Tuesday after Labor Day, I get to have a fun event and in California next week and then actually going out to Marcus Ericcson's wedding in Italy. So that's what that's where I'll be in just about a week from now. So you're going to Italy, traveling to Italy. Lake Como, yes. Not a bad wedding venue.

Bruce Martin: Yeah, I'll tell you what, Marcus Ericcson and his lovely wife Iris, they know how to do it up big. Yep, and that's exactly what they're doing, so we're looking forward to that. Well, you certainly did it up big in 2025. You've also been very helpful here on Pit Pass Indy, and I appreciate that. But Kyle Kirkwood, congratulations on a very productive 2025 season. Good luck during the offseason. We'll see you next year, and thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

Kyle Kirkwood: Thank you, Bruce.

Bruce Martin: We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break. Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy.

Bruce Martin: Scott Dixon may be 45, but he is just as fast as ever as he proved in 2025 with a third-place finish in the IndyCar Championship. Here is my exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview with the six-time IndyCar Series champion. We're wrapping up the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season now with Scott Dixon. Scott, you're still a six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion. You won the 2008 Indianapolis 500. You came pretty close to finishing the season second in the championship, which would have given Chip a one-two sweep with Alex Polo, of course, winning the title. You kept your victory streak going. So how would you look back at 2025?

Scott Dixon: Yeah, just pretty blah, to be honest, pretty average. Lots of, well, downs, really, not so many ups. You know, the win at Ben Ohio was nice. You know, it would have been great to kick off the season with a win at St. Pete. We had our issues, but yeah, it's just been a lot of penalties, a lot of pretty average weekends, and yeah, just looking forward to trying to win the last one and get on to next year.

Bruce Martin: An average weekend, an average season for you is still top five finish in the standings, so that's not bad. But it goes to show that you set your standards pretty high. With all the young talent that's in the series, you do a pretty good job matching them every week. But how much more difficult does it get to find that inner reserve to lift your game?

Scott Dixon: I think it actually fuels it, to be honest. I think all of us in this situation hate to get beat. Top three in the championship, I guess we can fall to maybe the worst could be fifth, I think, if we have a horrible weekend. But honestly, it feels like not even a top 10 year in the championship. I don't know. It's just been one of those years. I don't, you know, you can kind of go on and on about it. But, you know, for me, I think it definitely fuels it more. I think for us, the focus is making sure we get what we need to get done in the offseason. It's a long offseason, obviously, not very much testing and hard to build on that. But, yeah, we've got some good ideas and some good things that I think we can change. But, yeah, the fuel, the burn is strong, man.

Bruce Martin: Well, that's good. And do you ever get tempted to go up to some of IndyCar's younger drivers and remind them, I was winning IndyCar races before you were even born?

Scott Dixon: No, you know, I think everybody's respectful in this category. And for me, there's a lot of young, great talent coming in. And that's really what IndyCar is about. If you didn't have that, then it would not be a good look. So I think a great mix of personality is always a great mix of backgrounds and where people come from. And I think that's what's so special about the IndyCar series is, one, the different disciplines, but also the different characters that you've got competing each weekend.

Bruce Martin: You're the ultimate team player. So how do you assess just the run that Alex has been on lately?

Scott Dixon: You know, I think it's been fantastic, you know, for Alex, for the team, for the 10 car side, you know, it's it's been a tremendous year. You know, I think it's really hard to kind of top these years. I've been involved in some similar, but I think we set two goals each year at Ganassi, and it's first to win the 500 and second to win the championship. They've done that. Those are the goals. The next goal for us was a 1-2 in the championship. We've missed out on that, so now we've really got to focus on trying to get a top three, but a huge year for him and very, very happy for him and the team.

Bruce Martin: 17 IndyCar Series championships for team owner Chip Ganassi. Ties Penske Racing for the most all time. Chip got there quicker. So when you look at the era that Chip's been able to win them, very competitive. That has to be an achievement that really needs to be emphasized even more.

Scott Dixon: Yeah, I agree 100%. You know, I think when you look at shift stats just in general, you know, not just in IndyCar, but across the board, you know, you know, Brickyards, Daytona 24-hour, Le Mans 24-hour, you know, Sebring 12-hour, IndyCar championships, 500s, you know, the list goes on and on. I think what he's been able to create, his level and standard is exceptional. And I only see it continuing to get better and better. So for me, it's been a no-brainer to be a part of this team and hopefully join in some of those successes.

Bruce Martin: What are you going to do during the offseason?

Scott Dixon: Still pretty busy. You know, go straight from here Sunday night to England for a Goodwood revival test on Monday and Tuesday. Then revival is the following week. Back to Indy, some sim days. Chip's got a party going on in Pittsburgh for that. And then we've got Petit Le Mans. But most looking forward to getting back home. Haven't been back home for a couple of years. So looking forward to getting back to New Zealand.

Bruce Martin: And finally, you still split a lot of time between England and Indianapolis. Does all that time back and forth, transcontinental travel, does that give you a chance to clear your mind? Because I know a lot of people can look at long plane flights several different ways.

Scott Dixon: Yeah, for me, it's actually not that bad. I think even if you're just doing London to New York, it's five, six hours, six, seven hours maybe. A lot easier going there than to New Zealand. But for me, I'm mostly based out of Indy, whether it's February through September or October, depending. You know, the kids and Emma have to travel probably a lot more than I do. But, you know, the split that we have right now is fantastic and it's enjoyable. And, you know, giving our kids a different view of, you know, India and then also Europe has been a lot of fun and definitely opened their minds to a lot of different things, I think, for later on in their life.

Bruce Martin: Now that your son, Kit, has gotten older, what's he into?

Scott Dixon: He's very much about racing, for sure. You know, he kicked off go-karting. I think he's done two races so far. And his excitement was much, probably a lot more than mine, actually, I think, from the memories. I started, you know, kind of seven or eight. You know, he kicked off as soon as he turned five. So it's been fun to be a part of that. It's brought back a lot of fond memories for myself and the journey that my family went through. So we'll see where it goes, I guess.

Bruce Martin: Well, Scott Dixon, you're a real pro and a real hero to many. Good luck during the offseason. Go enjoy the offseason. Good luck in 2026. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

Scott Dixon: We've got a race to win first, man. Let's do it.

Bruce Martin: That's right. Pat O'Ward of Errol McLaren had his best IndyCar season to date, as he won on the short oval in Iowa and backed that up with a win on the streets of Toronto in July. But even that success couldn't pull him closer to Alex Pillow, who led the standings after every race of the season. Award remains IndyCar's most popular driver and joins me for this exclusive PitPass Indy interview. However, it needs to be pointed out that at the time of this interview, it appeared Mexico City would host an IndyCar Series race in 2026. As we noted earlier in the show, IndyCar announced on September 13th that a variety of reasons will prevent that from happening next year. We are leaving awards response from earlier in the interview because it is an interesting take on ensuring a successful event in future years. The most popular driver in IndyCar is joining us now and also one of the most successful. It's Pato Award, Errol McLaren. Pato, you're going to finish the 2025 season second place. It's your best IndyCar series season to date. So how do you look back at 2025? I know you wanted to win the championship, but it's a pretty good year for you.

Pato O’Ward: Yeah, it's been a very strong year. There's been a lot of little wins here and there that make us feel and definitely show us that we're headed the right direction. So we're going to keep on pushing. We've obviously got a pretty high bar to reach with where the 10 car currently is with Alex below right now. But yeah, it's a very fulfilling season up to now. And we've got one to go to lock it in and really strive for even better 2026.

Bruce Martin: What do you see as being the areas you still need to work on in order to be the legitimate champion that you can be in 2026?

Pato O’Ward: We need to win more races and our bad days have to be better because Alex Palou's bad days are sometimes a podium.

Bruce Martin: You're anxiously awaiting the news on the Mexico City race. It looks like it's finally going to happen. From your point of view, I know you've been pushing for that for a long time. How excited will you be when you finally see it on an IndyCar schedule?

Pato O’Ward: I think it'll be lots of years and thousands and thousands of dollars that I've spent of personal money to try and make it happen and continue to grow my own brand and the IndyCar name in Mexico. So hopefully it really does come to fruition and we can have an amazing event as I'm sure it'll be.

Bruce Martin: How inspired are you by what Alex was able to do this year to only make yourself that much better?

Pato O’Ward: Oh, it's been phenomenal to see and, and, you know, as much as we hate seeing it, cause we're competing against him, uh, at some point you just, you get to see it and you, and you praise it and you, you feel happy for him because this is definitely the best year he's ever had. And, you know, when someone's having such, such success, uh, At this point, you need to be happy for them and also be motivated by what they've been able to do. It doesn't mean that anybody else can't. So, yeah, it's been great to see, and we're going to bring the fight to them harder next year.

Bruce Martin: Highs and lows for you in twenty twenty five. Obviously, I think I know what some of the highs are, but what do you consider to be your highs and lows?

Pato O’Ward: Some road course races. We were just horrendous in some others. I would say the qualifying, the qualifying has been the worst qualifying year I've ever had to date. But but I've raced really well on Sunday. So I think that's that's really what's made my championship, you know, what it is.

Bruce Martin: And even in the bad days, you still have the most fans in the paddock, and to be hailed by all of the Padua fans, how good does that make you feel?

Pato O’Ward: Makes me feel good. It's always great and very humbling to see all the number five t-shirts walking around, you know, people chanting and cheering. That's why we do this. We love our fans, and we keep on trying to build on that so we can make a lot of people happy and give them reasons to celebrate on Sunday nights.

Bruce Martin: Well, Pat O'Ward, go enjoy the offseason. Congratulations on finishing second in the championship. Good luck in 2026.

Bruce Martin: Thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy. Thank you.

Bruce Martin: And now let's do a quick roundup of some other drivers in IndyCar as they head into the offseason. First up is Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, who had one of the most difficult seasons of his career, but ended with a victory in the final race of the season at Nashville Super Speedway. He was able to rally to finish 12th in the standings. Here is a quick interview I had with Newgarden heading into that race for Pit Pass Indy.

SPEAKER_05: Speaking of Nashville, what's a race weekend like for you when you live here? Well, it's just busier. I mean, you want to take care of everybody, but that's impossible to do. It's impossible to do anywhere, but it's even more so at home. But it's fun.

Bruce Martin: How many more friends and neighbors do you see show up at this race?

SPEAKER_05: Well, you see where the full list is. You didn't realize how big the list was until you come home. Yeah, I didn't know that many people liked me. So you learn something, yeah.

Bruce Martin: Rhenus VeeKay teamed up with Dale Coyne Racing in 2025 and had a chance of finishing the season 10th in the standings. VeeKay didn't make it into the top 10 and announced at the end of the season that he was not returning to Dale Coyne's IndyCar team in 2026 after finishing 14th in the championship. VeeKay joins me for this exclusive PitPass Indy interview. It seems that the team is building for the future, so how much do you want to be part of it, or are you, as you said, you're open for business?

Rinus VeeKay: I mean, I'm open for doing the best for my career. Yes, coin is a very attractive option right now. We've had a really good season, but, you know, it's… Right now, yeah, we just need a bit more time to make a decision, and… Yeah, first get through the last weekend. Hopefully, even though we qualified near the back, we can race to a top 10 and then beat my record of seven top 10s in the season. That would be pretty awesome. So that's my goal right now. And what happens afterwards? Well, we've got a whole season of time. The fact that you're

Bruce Martin: likely going to get a top ten finish in the championship with Dale Coyne racing. How huge of an accomplishment is that?

Rinus VeeKay: Oh, that's huge, yeah. I mean, my goal starting the season was Top 16. I think that was really, really good. Now we're 13th now. Kind of having a stretch where things are not really going the way we want it to after Toronto, but, you know, another day to turn it around tomorrow. So I think, yeah, we can do really well, and I think we've exceeded everybody's expectations this year, even my own expectations, and I'm sure also Dale's.

Bruce Martin: Have you gotten some interesting scenarios that may not have existed two, three weeks ago?

Rinus VeeKay: What do you mean? For next season. Scenarios? Well, there's a lot of weird scenarios. I heard there's a driver retiring after this weekend, so I don't know. I don't know what to believe. I don't know whose ex-account that is. My mom comes up with a lot of stuff. I'm like, what's the source? Sources are very important right now, so I don't know. I really don't know. Honestly, I would love to see Colton in F2. Just, I don't know. I think it would be kind of fun with him being the oldest guy in the series. That's never happened. So, no, I don't know. I think there's a lot of weird rumors out there. I've heard some rumors that are pretty interesting, to say the least. So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. For me, I'm… It's a bit goofy right now. I have to make sure I shine every year. You kind of have to exceed yourself every season after the other. whatever I can do to really show my true capabilities and, you know, just kind of do what I did this year, but then still a little bit better. So, yeah, I mean, I want to win. That's number one and everybody's here for that, but… After the podium in Toronto, that is, you know, that is possible at COIN. So we just need to see, yeah, see, kind of take a step back to see the full picture and then make a decision without any hurry of last races or, you know, stuff like that.

Bruce Martin: Do you believe you at least deserve to have a discussion with Team Penske?

Rinus VeeKay: I mean, sure. Yeah, I'll have a discussion. Yeah, I mean, they haven't contacted me, really. So I don't know. I don't know. But I'm always open to talk to everybody. So I'm a friendly guy. I like to meet new people.

Bruce Martin: Well, you certainly are a friendly guy, ReanusVeeKay. Good luck in that search. And thank you for joining us on Pit Passing.

Rinus VeeKay: Thank you.

Bruce Martin: Callum Eilat finished 21st in the IndyCar standings in Prema's first season in the series. Prema's future in IndyCar remains uncertain at the moment because the team does not have an IndyCar charter and did not line up with a sponsor to keep the team rolling into the future. That leaves Eilat's return in doubt, but the driver from Great Britain tells me his goal is an IndyCar return in this exclusive PitPass Indy interview.

Callum Ilott: I'm confident in my abilities, knowing that I'll be back whatever happens. But at the end of the day, I have a multi-year deal, and that's up to them. But I have the talent to stay here, and I've been able to show that the last couple of races.

Bruce Martin: How difficult is it to be in this position seemingly season after season? What position is that? Where you don't really know about next season.

Callum Ilott: I mean, I do until I don't. That's the way it is. That's the way it was in 23. And, you know, I had to make some adjustments and, you know, I've recovered from that. But at the moment, I know what I'm doing until I don't.

Bruce Martin: Well, and also you've done a lot of stuff that should merit coming back. You've been good here since you showed up a couple of years ago. What do you see that you need to improve upon so that you don't have to go through that every off-season?

Callum Ilott: Honestly, just consistency. Like, you know, coming into a program knowing you can build on it, um, and having the patience. Like, I knew we had the potential to have the results that we've had the last couple of races. It just took some time, and we had to put it together. And as soon as we did, I'm fighting for top tens. I think we've thrown away around 80 points since Indy, including Indy, um, through mistakes. You know, that's what it is. And otherwise, I'd be fighting top 15 in the championship without that, so… Highs and lows of 2025.

Bruce Martin: What are your highs?

Callum Ilott: What are your lows? Highs would be… I mean, the race of the 500, I think, was the first time everything clicked, and I did a great job on that. Unfortunately, we found out on Monday that that was taken away. But the last couple of races, just, it's been… Laguna was great. I think something that we built on a lot after… Toronto and even Portland as well just having solid solid race pace and you know some results that we deserved I'm also really proud of the the pit crew as well they've improved and improved a lot across the year and you know they put themselves in the top ten of the leaderboards at Portland on pit stops as well which from where we started was was a great achievement.

Bruce Martin: Well Callum Eilat good luck hope to see you back in 2026. Thank you very much hope so too. We wrap up today's Pit Pass Indie with 20-year-old Nolan Siegel of Arrow McLaren. The kid from Palo Alto, California finished 22nd in the standings and gave his highs and lows of the 2025 season in this exclusive Pit Pass Indie interview.

Bruce Martin: Nolan Siegel, you're still relatively new in IndyCar.

Bruce Martin: This is your first full season in IndyCar. So how would you gauge the way the full season went for you?

Nolan Siegel: It's been very up and down for us. I feel like obviously the results have not been what we've wanted. I think we've had a lot of potential and we've had plenty of weekends where we're fast. So the positive is that we're not just slow all the time, you know, and we're not just running at the back all the time. We haven't been able to produce the results on Sundays that we've wanted to, but I think that's a problem that we can fix and we're not necessarily looking for outright pace, which can be really hard to find. So I think if we kind of refine our program a little bit and can find a bit more consistency and a bit more, we just need complete weekends and we've been struggling to do that. So that starts this weekend and hopefully next year we can put all the pieces together.

Bruce Martin: What are your highs and what are your lows from 2025?

Nolan Siegel: I think the highs were a goal for me was to improve qualifying from 2024 and we were in the fast six twice qualified in the top five. I think three or four times and. I think that's super positive and it shows that we have pace. So that's definitely the high. The lows, I would say the lows have been weekends when we felt like we're really strong and we haven't been able to get a result for whatever reason. I feel like there have been weekends where I've been taken out. I've made mistakes. We've had, you know, weekends where the strategy hasn't worked out and it just seems like it's been really hard to put everything together, which is. Frustrating when you feel like there's potential, you know? On a weekend when you're like 18th fastest and you finish 18th, you're like, all right, we did what we could. On a weekend when you feel like you're fifth fastest and you finish 18th, it's a hard pill to swallow.

Bruce Martin: Enjoy the off season. We'll see you next year. Thank you.

Bruce Martin: We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break. That puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy.

Bruce Martin: We want to thank our guests, Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global, Christian Lungard of Arrow McLaren, Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, Rinas Vike of Dale Coyne Racing, Callum Eilat of Prima, and Nolan Siegel of Arrow McLaren for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy your path to victory lane in IndyCar. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me on X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team. Executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Sean Rule Hoffman and Nathan Corson. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com.

Bruce Martin: Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.