It has been nearly two weeks since I last posted here. I’ll promise that was not planned, it just sort of happened. That would sound better if there was some family emergency or something, but there wasn’t (thank goodness). My excuse is really rather flimsy – summertime activities just got in the way.
That conjures up images of floating in the pool, while drinking adult beverages. I would be lying if I said none of that has taken place over the last two weeks. But there has also been a lot of outdoor retirement projects that I have been tackling in 98° heat – like clearing out a lot of brush that has been accumulating over the fourteen years that I have lived here. I have intentions of writing, and even thinking about what I’m going to say while doing the various projects; but when I am done and showered – it’s very easy to put it off another day. Such is the life in retirement.
Speaking of my retirement, it didn’t last very long. I retired from my day job after sixteen years back in January. Since then, I have absolutely loved it. Those people that told me I would get bored were lying. I have stayed quite busy and wonder how I had time to do everything and work a fulltime job. But I got a call last Thursday night, asking me to come back temporarily. My replacement had surgery yesterday, and she will be out six to eight weeks. They have asked me to come back part-time, three days a week for those six to eight weeks.
I said no, initially. I was not looking forward to giving up any of my summer. The money part that I had been worried about was working out, and I really had no reason to go back even part-time. But then the Executive Director asked me to do it. She has been very good to me over the years, and I also have tremendous respect for her. I couldn’t say no to her. We agreed on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday schedule, beginning next Tuesday July 7, not to go past Aug 27. I told them there was a chance we may go to Milwaukee that weekend, and we may shift my days that week to Monday through Wednesday.
With a manageable part-time schedule, and the fact that there is a finite end to this, I agreed to briefly come out of retirement and help out. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that they are making it worth my while. So there has been a lot going on since we returned from Road America last Monday.
There has also been a lot going on in the IndyCar world. Oh, by the way – there is a race this weekend. More on that later.
It’s safe to say that the silly season is here. Just a few weeks ago, it looked as if there would not be a lot of noise made this silly season. The biggest question was the future of Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, who was coming off two very forgettable seasons since leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after the 2023 season. Ericsson’s three-year deal was up and no one knew whether or not the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner would be invited back for next season.
Christian Lundgaard’s deal was coming to an end at McLaren, but he was having a strong season so there was not much mystery surrounding him. Felix Rosenqvist’s future had been in doubt, but he seemed to solidify his current seat at Meyer Shank Racing by winning the Indianapolis 500. Scott Dixon is always on a short-term deal, so it raised no eyebrows for everyone to know that his current contract was ending at Ganassi. If he wanted to keep driving, he always had a home at Ganassi. Most of the other contracts ending at the end of the season involved the back of the pack, where there wasn’t a ton of interest on who went where.
Things changed after the Month of May. Felix Rosenqvist suddenly generated a ton of interest from other teams – bigger teams. Just before Road America, he informed Meyer Shank Racing that he would be taking his talents elsewhere for 2027. Most jumped to the conclusion that Andretti Global had parted ways with Ericsson and they were trading one recent Indianapolis 500 winner from Sweden for another one. Connecting the dots and seeing no more attractive seats, those same people assumed Ericsson would end up at Meyer Shank and that would complete the biggest names of silly season.
Then Jenna Fryer, formerly of the Associated Press, divulged that Scott Dixon was looking around. Most wrote that off as him doing due diligence, just in case PNC Bank had not been resigned as his primary sponsor.
Marshall Pruett of Racer.com reported that he was hearing rumors that Dixon might be headed to Mclaren, but he admitted it was just a rumor – he had no sourcing at the time. Credit Kevin Lee on Trackside for correctly connecting the dots…seemingly. A couple of weeks ago, he presented a scenario that had Rosenqvist headed to Arrow McLaren, instead of Andretti Global. He also added fuel to the Dixon rumors that he was headed there as well. He was the first to mention that with Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR) headed for an ownership overhaul and Ricardo Juncos bowing out, that the McLaren/JHR relationship that was torpedoed by Augustin Canapino and rabid Argentine fans might be restored. His theory is that Nolan Siegel would be farmed out to JHR, probably a place more suited for him at this point in his career.
As far as I know, Kevin Lee was the first to publicly predict that Arrow McLaren would part ways with Christian Lundgaard – which sounded completely absurd at the time. Lundgaard was just coming off of an improbably victory at Road America – his second win of the season. No other Arrow McLaren driver has even scored a podium finish this season. Lundgaard is in the middle of his second season at McLaren; where he replaced Alexander Rossi, who went winless in that same car. Why on earth would Arrow McLaren part ways with Lundgaard?
I’ve got a good friend who lives in Indianapolis and is directly connected with the series. The way he put it is that Lundgaard’s lack of oval development is the culprit. Plus, he has not developed his overall racing craft to the level where they expect him to be. He was hired to win championships and win the Indianapolis 500, not win at the Indy GP and Road America. In his two seasons at McLaren, Lundgaard has started eighth and finished seventh in the 2025 Indianapolis 500, and then started eighteenth and finished seventeenth this past May. He was hired to improve more than one position each year. Last year he finished fifth in the championship, and currently sits in fourth for 2026, behind Alex Palou, David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood. Is he a disappointment, or are Arrow McLaren’s standards way too high?
There is one more element that I hesitate to bring up. It’s more hearsay than anything, but it could help to explain what is apparently about to happen. I have a friend that works for another team that is not involved in any of this, but people in the paddock talk. He maintains that Lundgaard is not well-liked among the team. We’ve all worked in job situations where no matter how well someone did their job, people flat-out didn’t like them – for whatever reason. It could be they didn’t like their shoes, or maybe it was the way they treated people or just an outright personality clash. It happens. Felix Rosenqvist is considered one of Pato O’Ward’s best friends. I’ve never seen or heard anything to suggest that O’Ward and Lundgaard don’t get along, but you also never see them together on race weekends, except for team meetings.
Lundgaard is ten years younger than Rosenqvist and has more career wins than Rosenqvist. He is almost twenty-two years younger than Scott Dixon. To put that into perspective, Lundgaard was two, when Dixon won his first IndyCar championship. Between the three of them, who would you say has the greater long-term upside? There has to be more to this story than he hasn’t yet mastered the ovals.
Yesterday, we got our first indication that this was really happening, as Chip Ganassi Racing released a statement that Dixon has chosen to leave Ganassi even though they offered him a multi-year contract. Some have compared Dixon moving to McLaren as Johnny Unitas finishing his career with the Chargers, which didn’t go well at all. Others have likened it to Peyton Manning leaving the Colts and going on to two more Super Bowls with Denver, and winning one. Time will tell, but it has turned what looked like a relatively tame silly season into one of the wildest ever. It’s not over yet. Stay tuned.
As I mentioned, there is also a race this weekend. It happens to be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, a track where Scott Dixon is the reigning champion and has won there a total of seven times. Is he the favorite? He’s one of them. To be fair, Dixon won last year as a result of a rare Alex Palou mistake late in the race. But Dixon was running up front waiting for his chance to pounce. When the opportunity arose last year, he made the most of it.
It will be interesting to see how all the drivers and the respective teams involved with the silliness mentioned above will fare this weekend. Lundgaard is coming off of a big win at a track similar to Mid-Ohio, but has learned that he is now a free-agent. How will he handle this. Will he be the consummate professional and compartmentalize any hard feelings, or will his emotions take over. That’s not always a bad thing. He may channel his anger into proving them wrong and producing another win.
Mid-Ohio has produced a few duds over the years, but they have not been as common with the DW-12. The current chassis has produced some fairly good races there over the years. There have been a few scary moments there as well – most notable when Michael Andretti went tumbling during the race in 1998, or Simon Pagenaud in a Saturday morning practice crash in 2023 that effectively ended his career.
Like most of the country, the weather promises to be hot at Mid-Ohio this weekend, especially on Friday, but cooling off slightly as the weekend goes on. The high on Race Day is predicted to be 88° with a chance of thunderstorms. Hmm…Hopefully that will come after the race is over, which will be early.
The holiday weekend gets underway with Practice One on Friday afternoon a 3:00 pm EDT on FS1, Saturday’s Practice Two starts at 10:00 am on FS1, Qualifying begins at 2:30 pm EDT on Saturday afternoon on FS1. Sunday’s Morning Warm-up starts at 9:00 am EDT on FS1 and race coverage begins at 12:30 pm on Big FOX.
Who will win on Sunday? Chip Ganassi does well at this track. Amid the distractions with Scott Dixon, I don’t think it will affect the team, but Scott Dixon will not be in Victory Lane this year. It will be his teammate getting back in winning form since more than a month. He has toyed with the field long enough, and no one has acted like they want to challenge him. This weekend he begins stepping on everyone else’s collective throats and starts to officially close out the 2026 championship. Alex Palou will win Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. We’ll see.
George Phillips
