2022 IndyCar Series

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2022 IndyCar season
NTT IndyCar Series
IndyCar Series textlogo.svg
Season
Races17
Start dateFebruary 27
End dateSeptember 11
Awards
← 2021
 →
Álex Palou, the reigning 2021 champion

The 2022 NTT IndyCar Series is set to be the 111th official championship season of American open wheel racing and the 27th season under IndyCar Series sanction. The premier event will be the 2022 Indianapolis 500. It will be the third year under Penske management after they took over in late 2019. The season will begin February 27th with a 10-bell salute to Al Unser at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Background[]

Álex Palou enters the season as the reigning 2021 IndyCar Series champion. Palou won three races in 2021. Hélio Castroneves is the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, beginning his first full-time season in Indycar since 2017.

2022 is scheduled to be the final season for the 2.2-litre V6 twin-turbocharged engine package that debuted in 2012. A new 2.4-liter V6 twin-turbocharged hybrid engine formula is set to be introduced in 2023, integrated into Indycar's current spec-series Dallara chassis.

Confirmed entries[]

The following teams, entries, and drivers have been announced to compete in the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season. All teams use a spec Dallara IR18 chassis with universal aero kit and Firestone tires.

Team Engine No. Driver(s) Round(s)
A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 4 Canada Dalton Kellett[1] All
14 United States Kyle Kirkwood[2][3]  R  All
Andretti Autosport Honda 26 United States Colton Herta[4][5][6] All
27 United States Alexander Rossi[7] All
28 France Romain Grosjean[8] All
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport 29 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco[9]  R  All
Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet 5 Mexico Pato O'Ward[10][11] All
7 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist[12][13] All
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 8 Sweden Marcus Ericsson[14] All
9 New Zealand Scott Dixon[15] All
10 Spain Álex Palou[12][16][17] All
48 United States Jimmie Johnson[15][18] All
TBA Brazil Tony Kanaan[19][20] 2, 6, 11–12, 15
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda 18 United States David Malukas[21]  R  All
Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing 51 Japan Takuma Sato[22] All
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 23 United States Santino Ferrucci[23] 6
24 United States Sage Karam[23] 6
Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 20 United States Ed Carpenter[24] 2, 6, 11–12, 15
TBA[24] 1, 3–5, 7–10, 13–14, 16–17
21 Netherlands Rinus VeeKay[25] All
Juncos Hollinger Racing[26] Chevrolet 77 United Kingdom Callum Ilott[27]  R  All
Meyer Shank Racing Honda 06 Brazil Hélio Castroneves[28] All
60 France Simon Pagenaud[29] All
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 15 United States Graham Rahal[30] All
30 Denmark Christian Lundgaard[31]  R  All
45 United Kingdom Jack Harvey[32] All
Team Penske Chevrolet 2 United States Josef Newgarden[33] All
3 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin[34] All
12 Australia Will Power[33] All
R Eligible for Rookie of the Year

Driver changes[]

  • On July 22, 2021, Meyer Shank Racing announced that the defending and four-time overall Indianapolis 500 winner Hélio Castroneves will drive the No. 06 entry full-time in the 2022 season and Jack Harvey will not return to drive the No. 60 entry. Harvey had raced with the team since the 2017 season.[28] This will be Castroneves's first full-time Indycar season since driving for Team Penske in 2017, when he won at Iowa Speedway.
  • On September 14, 2021, it was announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay will not return to Andretti Autosport after 12 seasons with the team.[35]
  • On September 24, 2021, it was announced that Romain Grosjean will drive the No. 28 entry for Andretti Autosport full-time in the 2022 season.[8]
  • On September 27, 2021, it was announced that Simon Pagenaud will drive the No. 60 entry for Meyer Shank Racing full-time in 2022, parting ways with Team Penske after seven seasons.[29]
  • On October 5, 2021, it was announced that Takuma Sato will not return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after driving with the team for five seasons in 2012 and from 2018-2021.[36]
  • On October 11, 2021, it was announced that Jack Harvey will drive the No. 45 entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing full-time in the 2022 season, with backing from HyVee.[32]
  • On October 19, 2021, Sébastien Bourdais announced that he would not be returning as a full-time driver for A. J. Foyt Enterprises after signing a deal to drive full-time with Chip Ganassi Racing's IMSA team, however he stated he was still negotiating a possible part-time effort with the team.[37]
  • On October 20, 2021, it was announced that Christian Lundgaard will drive the No. 30 entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing full-time in the 2022 season, having signed a multi-year agreement.[31]
  • On November 4, 2021, it was announced Devlin DeFrancesco will drive the No. 29 entry for Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport. He will replace the outgoing James Hinchcliffe.[9]
  • On November 10, 2021, A. J. Foyt Enterprises announced that reigning Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood would join the team for the full season in the no. 14 car, replacing Sébastien Bourdais. For winning the 2021 Indy Lights title, Kirkwood received a scholarship to partake in at least three rounds of the championship, including the Indianapolis 500.[2][3]
  • On December 9, 2021, it was announced that two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato will join Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing for the 2022 season and will drive the No. 51 entry replacing Romain Grosjean.[22]
  • On December 14, 2021, James Hinchcliffe announced that he will step back from full-time competition in the IndyCar Series.[38]
  • On December 15, 2021, Jimmie Johnson announced that he will drive full-time for Chip Ganassi Racing for the 2022 season.[18]

Team changes[]

  • Meyer Shank Racing is set to expand to two full-time entries.[28]
  • Juncos Racing will return to the IndyCar Series for the first time since the 2019 Indianapolis 500. Team owner Ricardo Juncos has formed a partnership with Brad Hollinger to create Juncos Hollinger Racing and having competed in the final three rounds of 2021, the team will race full time in 2022 with Callum Ilott.[39][27]
  • Arrow McLaren SP announced on August 8, 2021, that McLaren Racing had purchased a 75% majority ownership stake in the team, effective after the 2021 season.[13] Since 2020, McLaren and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports had operated a joint entry with the former having no stake in the team. As part of this announcement, McLaren CEO Zak Brown also confirmed that drivers Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist would be returning to the team for the 2022 season.
  • With the addition of Jack Harvey, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will expand to three full-time entries in the 2022 season.[32]
  • After running four full-time entries in the 2021 season, Team Penske owner Roger Penske confirmed that the team will downsize to three full-time entries for the 2022 season.[40]
  • On November 4, 2021, Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed it would field a fifth car at the Indianapolis 500 for Jimmie Johnson.[41]
  • Vasser Sullivan Racing will end their partnership with Dale Coyne Racing after five seasons together.[42]
  • After running one entry in the 2021 Indianapolis 500, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing will field two entries in the 2022 Indianapolis 500 with Santino Ferrucci and Sage Karam.[23]
  • Dale Coyne Racing will form a partnership with HMD Motorsports with 2021 Indy Lights runner-up David Malukas as their driver.[43]

Schedule[]

Rd. Date Race name Track Location
1 February 27 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg  R  Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida
2 March 20 Genesys 600  O  Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas
3 April 10[44] Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach  R  Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California
4 May 1 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama  R  Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama
5 May 14 GMR Grand Prix  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana
6 May 29 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500  O  Indianapolis Motor Speedway
7 June 5 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix  R  Belle Isle Street Circuit Detroit, Michigan
8 June 12 REV Group Grand Prix at Road America  R  Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
9 July 3 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio  R  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio
10 July 17 Honda Indy Toronto  R  Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario
11 July 23 Hy-VeeDeals.com 250  O  Iowa Speedway[45] Newton, Iowa
12 July 24 Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300
13 July 30 TBA  R  Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana
14 August 7 Big Machine Music City Grand Prix  R  Nashville Street Circuit Nashville, Tennessee
15 August 20 Bommarito Automotive Group 500  O  World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois
16 September 4 Grand Prix of Portland  R  Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon
17 September 11 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey  R  WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
O Short oval/Superspeedway
R Road/street course

Schedule changes[]

  • On August 19, 2021, it was confirmed that the Iowa Speedway would return to the schedule.[45]
  • On September 19, 2021, the full schedule was released. The changes included Texas and Detroit becoming single races, rather than doubleheaders, and a return to Toronto, having been removed from both the 2020 and the 2021 schedules due to travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • St Petersburg was returned to the opening race of the season and will be run in February, marking the earliest season start since 2000.
  • Texas was moved to the 2nd race of the season, due to be held on March 20.
  • Long Beach returned to its traditional date in April, having been moved to September the previous season.
  • On November 3, 2021, the Detroit City Council and Penske Entertainment reached an agreement to move the Detroit Grand Prix back to the downtown streets around The Renaissance Center, making the 2022 event the final time IndyCar will race at Belle Isle.[46]

See also[]

Footnotes[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Kellett returning with Foyt". RACER. December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Pruett, Marshall. "Foyt confirms Kirkwood for full-time IndyCar campaign". RACER. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Cavin, Curt (November 12, 2021). "Kirkwood Can't Wait To Start Top-Level Journey with Foyt Team". Indycar.com.
  4. ^ Pruett, Marshall (September 10, 2020). "Andretti looking to finalize 2021 IndyCar lineup". Racer. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc.
  5. ^ "Herta switching to Andretti's Gainbridge-backed No. 26". RACER. December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  6. ^ https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/05/GMR-GP-entry-list.pdf
  7. ^ Cheek, Adam (July 27, 2019). "Andretti Autosport Signs Alexander Rossi, Honda to Extension". frontstretch.com. Front Stretch. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Pruett, Marshall (September 24, 2021). "Andretti Autosport confirms Grosjean for 2022". Racer.com.
  9. ^ a b Pruett, Marshall (November 4, 2021). "DeFrancesco completes Andretti IndyCar line-up for 2022". Racer.com.
  10. ^ Pruett, Marshall (September 12, 2020). "IndyCar Silly Season 2020, Ep. 1". Racer. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  11. ^ Pruett, Marshall (October 13, 2020). "O'Ward signs new deal with AMSP". Racer. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc.
  12. ^ a b Pruett, Marshall (July 26, 2021). "The IndyCar summer break Silly Season update". racer.com. Front Stretch. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  13. ^ a b "McLaren becomes majority owner of its IndyCar team". The Race. August 8, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  14. ^ "Marcus Ericsson and Chip Ganassi Racing Continue INDYCAR Partnership in New, Multi-Year Deal". chipganassiracing.com. Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. October 28, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Fryer, Jenna (September 9, 2020). "Jimmie Johnson teams with Ganassi on 2-year IndyCar program". The Associated Press. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  16. ^ Brown, Nathan. "'I want to do it again': How Alex Palou tossed F1 dreams, turned confidence into IndyCar title". IndyStar. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  17. ^ "Twitch". Twitch. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  18. ^ a b Pruett, Marshall (December 15, 2021). "Johnson commits to full-season IndyCar campaign in 2022". Racer.com.
  19. ^ "Tony Kanaan To Run Ovals In Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 48". www.frontstretch.com. November 23, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  20. ^ "PRUETT: IndyCar silly season update - the Portland edition". RACER. September 10, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  21. ^ "Dale Coyne Racing signs David Malukas for No. 18, HMD Motorsports to serve as partner". Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  22. ^ a b Malsher-Lopez, David (December 9, 2021). "Sato confirmed at Dale Coyne Racing with RWR for 2022". Motorsport.com.
  23. ^ a b c "Karam, Ferrucci get Dreyer & Reinbold call-up for Indy 500". Racer.com. December 9, 2021.
  24. ^ a b Malsher-Lopez, David (October 25, 2021). "Carpenter happy with Hunter-Reay but ride still not certain". Motorsport.com.
  25. ^ Pruett, Marshall (September 26, 2021). "VeeKay signs contract extension with ECR". Racer.com.
  26. ^ "Juncos to return to IndyCar full-time as Juncos Hollinger Racing". RACER. August 3, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  27. ^ a b "Ilott returning for full IndyCar season with Juncos Hollinger in 2022". RACER. September 24, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  28. ^ a b c Pruett, Marshall (July 22, 2021). "Castroneves in, Harvey out at Meyer Shank in 2022". Racer.com.
  29. ^ a b "Pagenaud joins Meyer Shank Racing for 2022 IndyCar campaign". RACER. September 27, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  30. ^ Hawkins, Stephen (June 9, 2018). "Rahal signs 5-year extension with Rahal Letterman Lanigan". The Associated Press. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  31. ^ a b "Team RLL confirms 2022 IndyCar program for Lundgaard". Racer.com. October 20, 2021.
  32. ^ a b c "RLL confirms Harvey for 2022 IndyCar campaign". RACER. October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  33. ^ a b Brown, Nathan (August 17, 2020). "Roger Penske doesn't rule out another run with Helio Castroneves; Power, Pagenaud, Newgarden to return". Indy Star. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  34. ^ "TEAM PENSKE WILL NOT RETURN TO SUPERCARS IN 2021". October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  35. ^ Kelly, Paul (September 14, 2021). "HUNTER-REAY, ANDRETTI TO PART COMPANY AFTER 2021 SEASON". Indycar.com. IndyCar Series.
  36. ^ Malsher-Lopez, David (October 5, 2021). "Rahal Letterman Lanigan bids farewell to Sato". Motorsport.com.
  37. ^ Pruett, Marshall (October 20, 2021). "No goodbye to IndyCar from Bourdais despite full-season Ganassi Cadillac IMSA deal". Racer.com. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  38. ^ Glendenning, Mark (December 14, 2021). "Hinchcliffe steps back from full-time IndyCar competition". Racer.com.
  39. ^ Boxall-Legge, Jake (August 3, 2021). "Juncos to return to IndyCar in partnership with Hollinger". motorsport.com.
  40. ^ Pruett, Marshall (October 26, 2021). "Penske confirms reduction to three cars for 2022 IndyCar campaign". Racer.com.
  41. ^ Pruett, Marshall (November 5, 2021). "Ganassi plans five-car Indy entry". RACER. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  42. ^ Pruett, Marshall (December 6, 2021). "Vasser Sullivan, Coyne to end IndyCar partnership". Racer.com.
  43. ^ Pruett, Marshall (December 15, 2021). "Dale Coyne Racing confirms Malukas, HMD partnership for '22 IndyCar season". Racer.com.
  44. ^ "IndyCar Schedule | US Agent | Travel Packages". February 24, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  45. ^ a b Ryan, Nate (August 19, 2021). "Iowa Speedway will return to 2022 IndyCar schedule with doubleheader in multiyear deal".
  46. ^ Guillen, Joe. "Detroit Grand Prix to return downtown in 2023 under contract approved by City Council". Detroit Free Press.com. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved November 3, 2021.

Sources[]

External links[]

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