With the 2024 IndyCar season in its Olympic break, let’s grade the mostly full-time drivers based on their performances so far this year. Drivers will appear in championship order.
Alex Palou: A+. The two-time and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion has had a nearly perfect season so far. Other than a collision at Detroit and a spin at Iowa, the Spaniard has finished in the top five in every race so far this season. Palou hasn’t won an oval race yet, so that gives his competitors a chance at the title going to the final few races of the year, but Palou has finished fifth and second in two of the three oval races so far this season.
The championship isn’t out of reach yet for the competition, but Palou has a hand nearing the trophy to grab it.
Will Power: A. The 2018 Indianapolis 500 champion had an off year in 2023 but is back to his 2022 form with a pair of wins and a trio of runner-up finishes. A crash in this year’s Indianapolis 500 and three finishes of 11th or worse in the last four races has put the Australian a decent way back from Palou in points, but Power figured out ovals a while back and will look to claw that gap back as the series heads toward Nashville.
Scott Dixon: A. With two wins in 2024, Dixon reminds the rest of the IndyCar world that he hasn’t slowed down as he’s gotten older. When Dixon has a car capable of victory, he’s extremely difficult to beat. The six-time IndyCar champion has had two bad races this year (Barber and Road America) with a race at Mid-Ohio that was one to forget with a hybrid system malfunction before the start of the race.
Dixon has numerous oval wins, including a magnificent race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway last season, so a seventh title is possible for IndyCar’s modern-day GOAT.
Colton Herta: A. A badly-timed pit stop in Iowa, a small amount of wall contact at the Indianapolis 500 and a frustrating sequence of events at Detroit have kept Herta from scoring many more points this season, but the California native is having perhaps his best season in a few years. Herta’s win in Toronto was vintage Herta and he’s only eight points out of second place in the championship.
Scoring second in the IndyCar championship would give Herta 30 Superlicense points out of the 40 he needs to race in Formula 1. If the best three years out of four requirement is still active, Herta would have 39 points including his fifth place in the 2021 IndyCar title chase and either 10th place finish in 2022 or 2023.
Pato O’Ward: A-. While the Mexican driver “won” in St. Petersburg after the Team Penske disqualification, he wasn’t able to properly celebrate the race win with his team due to when the disqualifications took place. O’Ward finally got the two-year monkey off his back with victory at Mid-Ohio helping move the 2018 Indy NXT champion up to fifth in points.
O’Ward’s disastrous three-race run before finishing second at the Indianapolis 500 was his Achilles heel. A drive-thru after contact with Alexander Rossi at Long Beach, contact with Pietro Fittipaldi and Theo Pourchaire at Barber Motorsports Park and incorrect tire strategy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course really hurt O’Ward, but the summer break will help him look past his spin and DNF at Toronto.
Scott McLaughlin: B+. With his first oval win at Iowa Speedway, McLaughlin finally considered himself a real IndyCar driver. However, 2024 has had as many peaks as valleys. After being disqualified from a podium finish at St. Petersburg, McLaughlin won at Barber Motorsports Park, but that was after a mechanical failure at Long Beach. Collisions at Detroit, Laguna Seca and Toronto have cost McLaughlin a lot of points, but such is a racer’s life.
Kyle Kirkwood: B+. Kirkwood’s last-lap accident in the second race at Iowa Speedway gave the Floridian his only DNF of the 2024 IndyCar season, but Kirkwood’s third IndyCar campaign has been peppered with finishes in the lower half of the top 10 with a trio of top fives and a runner-up finish at Toronto.
Kirkwood played the role of wingman well for Herta as Herta dominated at Toronto, but time is running short on Kirkwood trying to repeat his 2023 success of two wins.
Josef Newgarden: B-. 2024 has truly been a roller coaster for the defending Indianapolis 500 winner. After winning on the road in St. Petersburg, Newgarden went from second to fourth in the final few laps at Long Beach following a bump from Herta. Shortly after that race ended, IndyCar announced that Newgarden and McLaughlin were disqualified from the St. Petersburg results for operating outside the technical regulations.
Newgarden won the 2024 Indianapolis 500 in dramatic fashion, finished second to Power after Power pulled off an incredible in-lap before his final pit stop at Road America and finished third at the first Iowa race where nobody could really pass except for immediately after a restart. On the other side of luck, Newgarden finished 16th or lower in five of the seven races that followed Long Beach. It’s either feast or famine for Newgarden in 2024 and there’s been more famine than feast this season. However, winning Indianapolis is a good reprieve from any bad luck that’s happened.
Alexander Rossi: B. When the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner hasn’t had something crazy happen to his car, he’s always finished in the top 10. At Barber his left rear wheel fell off after a pit stop. At Road America he had a wastegate failure that significantly cut his horsepower at a track with very long straights. At Iowa, Rossi ran out of fuel on the last lap of the Sunday race and became a launching ramp for Sting Ray Robb.
Rossi’s been a solid pair of hands for Arrow McLaren in 2024 and that partnership will end after this season. While the pair have not visited victory lane, Rossi has performed well in a team perhaps known more for its off-track dealings than its on-track performances.
Santino Ferrucci: A-. Facts are facts, and the fact of the matter is that Ferrucci is having a great season at A. J. Foyt Enterprises. Much can and has been said about Ferrucci both on and off the track, but looking purely at results, this is statistically the best season for the No. 14 entry in many years.
Ferrucci has seven top-10 finishes in the No. 14 Chevrolet. The last time that happened in the Foyt team? Vitor Meira in 2011. If Ferrucci gets one more top-10, he’ll match what Kenny Brack did for the team back in 1998. The last time a driver scored more than eight top-10s for the Houston-based squad? Robby Gordon in 1993.
Not every race has been perfect, but the Connecticut native has legitimately been impressive in that car.
Christian Lundgaard: B. The Danish racer for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing picked up the team’s most recent win in Toronto in 2023 but 2024 has been rather weird for Lundgaard. Outside of a podium at the IMS road course, Lundgaard has four other top-10 finishes for the year. Last year, Lundgaard finished the season eighth in points. To get to that position, he has to gain 37 points on Newgarden who is currently eighth.
Lundgaard is moving to Arrow McLaren in 2024 in hopes of better results. Time will tell if his move was well-timed.
Marcus Ericsson: B. Ericsson hasn’t had the greatest of seasons, but when things go right they go right in a big way for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner. And when they go wrong, it’s cataclysmic. Ericsson had an early practice crash at Indianapolis that affected the rest of his practice and qualifying sessions at IMS, eventually resulting in a last-place finish after Tom Blomqvist spun in the first turn.
Ericsson scored five top-10 finishes in a row from Detroit to Iowa, including two top fives. But six finishes of 16th or worse have put a dagger in Ericsson’s chances to repeat as sixth place in points for the fourth year in a row.
Felix Rosenqvist: B-. The Swedish racer started off the year with Meyer Shank Racing on a strong note, getting the team’s first pole position at Long Beach in April. However, Rosenqvist has only one top-10 finish in the last eight races, dropping him to 13th in points. Some things were out of Rosenqvist’s control, but luck just hasn’t been available for the one-time IndyCar race winner.
Marcus Armstrong: B-. Chip Ganassi Racing’s other New Zealand racer has some strong results this season with four top-five finishes, including a third at Detroit. However, Armstrong threw away a front-row starting position at Road America with his first-turn collision with teammate Linus Lundqvist and his championship chances took a dive with a spin at St. Petersburg and an engine failure very early in this year’s Indianapolis 500. Armstrong has four races coming up on ovals that he will have to figure out quickly since he didn’t race on them in 2023 en route to winning the 2023 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year award.
Rinus VeeKay: B. Ed Carpenter Racing’s Dutch charger got his first top five finish in two years at the first race in the Iowa Speedway doubleheader and four other top-10 finishes shows that the team is improving from its 2023 form. However, seven finishes of 14th or worse have done the 2018 USF Pro 2000 Champion no favors in the championship table. If ECR’s oval program has picked up, expect good form from VeeKay in the final part of the season.
Romain Grosjean: B-. While feast or famine is a central theme for much of the IndyCar grid, Grosjean has had more good days than bad for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger’s team needs more solid results to solidify their position in the Leader’s Circle program and Grosjean has been steadily delivering as of late with four top-10s in the last six races.
Grosjean’s only blemishes in the other two races stem from a late spin at Mid-Ohio and involvement in an early crash at Iowa Speedway. With an eighth-place finish at Long Beach, the Swiss-born Frenchman has five top-10 finishes on the season to currently sit 16th in points.
Graham Rahal: C+. An eighth, a ninth and two 10th-place finishes have been Rahal’s only highlights in 2024 and there just hasn’t been a lot to write home about for the Ohioan. The only DNF Rahal has in 2024 was because of someone else’s spin in front of him at Laguna Seca, so finishing races hasn’t been an issue. Positions, however, are what Rahal seeks to improve.
Linus Lundqvist: C. Lundqvist had a pole at Road America that went away after a first corner collision, a podium at Barber Motorsports Park and nothing else. His best finish of the season has been 12th, twice.
Pietro Fittipaldi: C-. Fittipaldi’s best finish of the year was 13th, which happened at St. Petersburg and Detroit. Nothing else really stands out for the Brazilian this year.
Kyffin Simpson: C-. Simpson’s rookie season has been pretty anonymous, his best finish of the year so far being a 12th at St. Petersburg with the race’s fastest lap. While Simpson is renowned for his work ethic to show detractors why he belongs, more has to be expected if his program continues into 2025.
Sting Ray Robb: D+. If your teammate is your biggest measuring stick, then Robb is a few inches short on Ferrucci. His best finish this season is 15th at the first race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader and his other highlight this year was leading the Indianapolis 500 after an off-sequence pit strategy put him near the front.
Christian Rasmussen: C. Rasmussen’s debut IndyCar season after winning the 2023 Indy NXT crown has had several valleys, but this year’s highest-finishing rookie at the Indianapolis 500 scored a much-needed top-10 finish for Ed Carpenter Racing with a ninth at Mid-Ohio. If the Danish racer can get a full season program in 2025 with ECR and the team can improve just a bit more, expect more results from the duo.
Agustin Canapino: C-. The Argentinian touring car legend hadn’t made the progress in 2024 that Juncos Hollinger Racing had hoped for, and after a rough summer stretch no longer has his ride at JHR. It’s a shame for Canapino, but with the No. 78 Chevrolet falling closer and closer to the bottom of the Leader Circle program points, a change had to be made.
Nolan Siegel: C+. Siegel started the year with Dale Coyne Racing, failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, substituted in a hurried fashion for Canapino at Road America, won the LMP2 class at Le Mans the following week and now has a multi-year contract with Arrow McLaren.
The teenager has been on a wild ride so far in 2024 and hasn’t done too bad considering how fast he got thrown into his new team.
David Malukas: C+. So far, Malukas has been impressive in his Meyer Shank Racing ride after the Chicago native lost his seat at Arrow McLaren due to a wrist injury. Malukas’ qualifying performances have been great, but converting them to race results has been a bit elusive until his recent sixth-place finish on the streets of Toronto. With five races left, look for Malukas to move further up the standings.
Jack Harvey: Incomplete. Harvey hasn’t had a full-time teammate to properly be his benchmark given that Colin Braun, Katherine Legge, Toby Sowery, Siegel, Luca Ghiotto and Tristan Vautier have all raced in the No. 51 entry alongside Harvey and Dale Coyne Racing is trying to regain their footing in IndyCar competition. Earlier in his career, Harvey showed the world his capabilities, especially at Meyer Shank Racing, but something never clicked for him at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and it’s difficult to find that form at a different organization.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.