The offseason between the 2024 and 2025 NTT IndyCar Series seasons featured more driver moves than one may have anticipated at this point last year. Fortunately, it’s a tall task to describe 2024 as a properly disappointing season for most of the drivers and teams in the paddock.
That being said, several drivers will find themselves in new teams (or cars) for 2025, and this season could prove to be a career-defining one for those settling into their new surroundings. Just as with last year, a few faces will be under the spotlight as they look to set a positive tone around their futures with their exploits this year.
Kyffin Simpson
Opening with the only driver to make this list two years in a row, Simpson may have outperformed expectations more than any driver in last year’s edition. That feels ironic to say, given that the Caymanian only took his No. 4 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a best finish of 12th at the season opener in St. Petersburg, but it bears repeating that Simpson’s elevating to an IndyCar Series ride with CGR was widely perceived as being driven solely by the funding he brings.
The team’s decision to retain him for 2025 over Linus Lundqvist, who captured the Rookie of the Year title while driving for the same team, definitely doesn’t help Simpson’s public image but money talks in this sport, for better or for worse. Replacing Lundqvist, who captured third-place finishes at both Barber and Gateway, will demand that Simpson perform far beyond the benchmark he set for himself in 2024.
Conor Daly
By all measures, Daly has already proven himself in IndyCar. His resume currently features two podium finishes, one pole position, and four top-10 finishes in his last six attempts at the Indianapolis 500. By the way, Daly hasn’t raced full-time since his 2022 campaign with Ed Carpenter Racing. At this point, the Indianapolis native is a favorite among fans and is known to be good for publicity no matter where he goes.
Signing with Juncos Hollinger Racing full-time for 2025, Daly will be paired with Sting Ray Robb as the team attempts to improve from 2024, when their two cars finished 17th and 21st in the standings, respectively. Daly, now 33, is also likely seeking his forever home on the IndyCar grid and is in prime position to build a team around himself if his performance can facilitate such development.
All things considered, Daly bringing home JHR’s first podium finish at the Milwaukee Mile last year bodes well for his 2025 efforts.
Bedlam.@ConorDaly22 hugging team owner @ricardojuncos and his mother @bsmevents after scoring @juncoshollinger’s first podium.#HyVee250s #IndyCar pic.twitter.com/gpHvB8ee0g
— Christopher DeHarde (@CDeHarde) September 1, 2024
David Malukas
Like Daly, including Malukas on this list almost feels ironic. I doubt there’s a fan out there who doesn’t remember Malukas’ storming performance at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in 2022, where he charged to a second-place finish off a clever tire strategy call. However, just as well, plenty of the paddock remembers the shock when Malukas was unceremoniously dropped by McLaren in the early days of the 2024 season while he recovered from an offseason injury.
Though he performed well in his brief comeback with Meyer Shank Racing, Malukas now heads to A. J. Foyt Enterprises for 2025 to pair with Santino Ferrucci. Ferrucci drove the team’s No. 14 entry to a ninth-place points finish last year and will certainly be carrying plenty of momentum and morale into this season. Faced with his first full-time arrangement since 2023, and now with a much stronger team, Malukas’ 2025 season will likely be the first true measurement of his potential to be a consistent presence at the front of the IndyCar field.
Christian Lundgaard
The irony continues, as Lundgaard is the only driver on this list with an IndyCar win to his name. Driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the Dane took a dominant victory on the streets of Toronto in 2023 but now departs to drive Arrow McLaren’s No. 7 Chevrolet in place of Alexander Rossi.
Rossi’s time at McLaren was not what the 2016 Indy 500 winner had hoped, with just two podiums throughout 2023 and 2024. As Rossi seeks new opportunities with Ed Carpenter Racing, Lundgaard joins McLaren as part of a major reshuffling at the team which also sees Nolan Siegel take over the No. 6 on a full-time deal. McLaren has a reliable lead driver in Pato O’Ward, but Lundgaard’s first opportunity in top-tier machinery will be closely watched by teams up and down the grid and McLaren leadership alike.
Devlin DeFrancesco
Like Simpson, DeFrancesco has been followed by pay driver accusations throughout his time in IndyCar and Rahal’s decision to put him in the No. 30 entry through at least 2026 was unforeseen for many observers. His two seasons with Andretti Global yielded a best finish of 12th, twice, at Gateway in 2022 and Detroit in 2023.
It’s been no secret that RLLR struggled throughout 2023 and particularly through 2024. In a perfect world, pairing Graham Rahal with DeFrancesco and Indy NXT champion Louis Foster for 2025 may produce a balanced team composed of a veteran, a well-funded second driver and a hot prospect rookie in the third car. In practice, RLLR is in a very unfortunate state and only time will tell if the team can rebound to a better position this year. If nothing else, DeFrancesco has an opportunity to massively up his stock if he performs well in 2025.
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.