A Surprising Addition to the 2024 Grid
Shortly after I got to work on Monday morning, there was an e-mail in my Inbox that I had not expected to see. Chip Ganassi Racing is adding a fifth car for Indy NXT graduate Kyffin Simpson. Most of the reaction from fans on social media was a collective Who?
While I was somewhat familiar with his name, and knew his background – I wouldn’t know Simpson from Adam, if I was to see him at a race track. The only reason I even recognized Simpson’s name was because I’ve heard the guys on Trackside talking about him, since early this summer.
Most here know that I don’t follow any of the support series – and that includes Indy NXT. I don’t have enough room in my brain to keep up with which drivers might make it up to IndyCar. I just wait until they actually make it, before learning anything about them. It’s the same with college football. I love the sport, but I pay absolutely no attention to high school recruiting. I don’t have the time, the energy, the brain power or the desire to keep up with what a sixteen or seventeen year-old decides to do. With NIL and the Transfer Portal, it’s even more maddening than ever. At least the open-wheel support series don’t have to deal with that.
Kyffen Simpson was busy in 2023. He drove in IMSA, the Asian Le Mans Series, the European Le Mans Series and thirteen of the fourteen Indy NXT Series races. Simpson finished third in the Asian Le Mans Series, and second in the European Series, but finished tenth while missing one race in Indy NXT (Gateway).
Simpson has been a development driver with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) in 2022, which was also his first year in Indy NXT, when he ran all of the races and finished ninth. He tested an Indy car for Ganassi this past winter at Sebring, where I hear things went OK, but he didn’t just blow everyone away.
Simpson’s father is also a CGR sponsor through their Ridgeline Lubricants brand. The general consensus, on Trackside anyway, was that Kyffin Simpson would be able to move up to IndyCar anytime he wanted to, but most observers seemed to think that he could benefit from another year of seasoning.
When CGR announced a couple of weeks ago that they had signed Linus Lundqvist to fill the seat of the departed Marcus Ericsson, it appeared that the Ganassi stable was full. Alex Palou was coming back, along with Scott Dixon. Marcus Armstrong was signed fulltime to the No. 11, that he shared with Takuma Sato this past season. With Lundqvist going to the No. 8 car, everyone though CGR was full.
But when a major sponsor waves enough money under your nose to run a fifth car for his son – you pay attention, especially when his son is considered having some potential. Simpson is young, very young. He turns nineteen next month. By the time he was born, Scott Dixon had already won his first IndyCar championship. But from what I have heard and read this week, this is not just a case of a rich Daddy buying a ride for Little Timmy, just because Little Timmy wants to be a race car driver. People that know more about such things than I do, swear the kid has talent.
I’m sure Ganassi and the elder Simpson have considered that there is likely to be a large repair bill for the fifth car. This is in addition to the other young drivers that Ganassi will be fielding next season. Aside from Simpson, Lundqvist will be a rookie and Armstrong doesn’t have a full season under his belt yet. The youth movement is definitely on at CGR.
Does a fifth Honda engine lease at Ganassi confirm that Andretti Global will not be running the No. 29 next season? That was my initial thought, but according to Patrick Stephan at Trackside Online, that’s not necessarily the case. But his sources at Honda say the two are completely independent from each other. He was cautioned not to connect those dots. If you are not a Trackside Online subscriber, you should be. Patrick is very much on the inside, and it will be the best $22 you will spend each year.
I’ll admit I’m surprised that Ganassi is running five cars next season. I don’t recall any team running ever running five fulltime cars before. If Andretti Global does decide to run the No. 29 car next season, that will be sixteen cars for Honda and twenty-eight fulltime cars on the grid. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that kind of number.
I’m a little surprised that Kyffen Simpson will be moving up in 2024, but most seemed to think it was just a matter of time before Chip Ganassi found a place for him. I guess he figured better to do it sooner than later.
I expect some rough patches for the young native of Barbados and then the Cayman Islands. It’s only natural for a (very) young rookie thrown to the wolves. But I imagine Ridgeline Lubricants will make it worthwhile for Ganassi to be patient. Unless he becomes a major menace to his fellow drivers, he will probably benefit from all of the experience he gets. But it will be interesting to watch him for the first few races next spring, until he finds his way. Things could get spicy.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
September 20, 2023 at 5:50 am
I was very surprised by this move. The young man definitely shows some promise. I think it might be a year too early. But time will tell.
September 20, 2023 at 7:11 am
I just hate it when drivers daddy’s buy their way in. At minimum he should have to do better in NXT. There should be a bare minimum of success one achieves before he moves to the top level. Simpson hasn’t done that yet.
September 20, 2023 at 8:39 am
While I can understand the perspective that Simpson has spent 2 years in NXT and doesn’t feel the need to spend money there anymore when he can spend it in Indycar… his results and age both indicate that he’s likely not ready to tackle an Indycar. Drivers with much better results than Simpson in the ladder series have found themselves moved up before their results or age would indicate they were ready and wound up washed out of the sport in short order. What Simpson will have that most of those others won’t is a top-level team in Ganassi (coming off their strongest season in a decade plus, no less). Given that, he’s not going to get much grace from fans or fellow drivers if he does not show competent speed and racecraft.
Andretti fielded 5 full time cars in 2020, though they largely did so to keep Harding’s foundering (fundering?) entry on the grid rather than expand in the way that Ganassi is doing here. I think they probably would have kept 5 cars in 2021 had the #98 entry qualified for the Leader’s Circle.
September 20, 2023 at 9:28 am
Here’s how Simpson’s 2023 Indy Lights/NXT season compares with the final Lights seasons of other post unification Lights graduates whose moves to Indycar were, as I recall, generally less than celebrated. The starting and finishing percentages shown here are calculated by dividing average start/finish by the number of cars that started the race, to control for the wildly varying field sizes Lights has seen over the years (which can help juice podium numbers for some drivers). Thus, a finishing percentage of 40% means that a driver finished behind 40% of the field on average (about 7th place in an 18 car field).
Kyffin Simpson 2023 –
Start 34%, Finish 59%, 0 wins, 1 pole, 2 podiums
Benjamin Pedersen 2022 –
Start 38%, Finish 40%, 1 win, 1 pole, 5 podiums
Sting Ray Robb 2022 –
Start 27%, Finish 30%, 1 win, 2 poles, 8 podiums
Ana Beatriz 2009 –
Start 39%, Finish 45%, 1 win, 0 poles, 2 podiums
Charlie Kimball 2010 –
Start 35%, Finish 40%, 0 wins, 0 poles, 5 podiums
Sebastian Saavedra 2020 –
Start 32%, Finish 49%, 1 win, 1 pole, 3 podiums
Zach Veach 2016 –
Start 40%, Finish 38%, 3 wins, 1 pole, 8 podiums
Jack Hawksworth 2013 –
Start 31%, Finish 51%, 3 wins, 2 poles, 6 podiums
Dalton Kellett 2019 –
Start 69%, Finish 77%, 0 wins, 0 poles, 1 podium
Zachary Claman DeMelo 2017 –
Start 44%, Finish 42%, 1 win, 0 poles, 4 podiums
Matheus Leist 2017 –
Start 52%, Finish 46%, 3 wins, 2 poles, 4 podiums
Simpson actually had some nice races last year and his qualifying speed compares quite favorably with the drivers listed above. Only twice did he fail to qualify in the top half of the field (and was in the top 1/3 in 9 of 13 races). However, he often found himself going backwards in the field and/or colliding with things. The only driver listed above that he was clearly better than was Dalton Kellett, though he is closer to many of those other drivers than Kellett is to him.
September 20, 2023 at 1:22 pm
It occurs to me that the Series is chewing up and spitting out all but the top level drivers. Back in the 60s and 70s there were far more teams with far more equipment to the point that MANY could find (or buy) a ride. The lid “Bubble Day” really meant something as you could find all manner of deals being struck on that Sunday to get a car into the race.
Nowadays, however, with limited equipment, we have neither enough engines or chasis to have that kind of day. Plus we’ve gotten to the point that you may only have ONE ride above the 33, and a resounding fear of not getting into the show at the increased “price of poker.” Until we get at least a third badged engine (and maybe an alternate chassis, I fear that in spite of Mr. Penske’s best intentions, you can only have so much “theater” with only 33-35 cars.
September 20, 2023 at 10:43 am
I noticed no car number was announced. As we all know Ganassi has run 8, 9, 10, and 11 in most years for quite some time now. Arrow McLaren has 7 and Penske has run Power in 12 for what seems like forever, so those numbers are not available unless either team agrees to give them up.
Chip does have the right to run number 1. Will he exercise that option?
September 20, 2023 at 11:43 am
It’s interesting watching the professional commentators trying to justify this signing. Let’s hope it works out and does not cost other teams too much money in crash damage. Let’s also hope that CGR put together a more competent sponsorship procurement team enabling the team to dictate the drivers. As the series seems to ratchet up each season in terms of competitiveness the drivers are going to become even more important. Time to lose these kind of signings and start employing drivers who have earned it.
September 21, 2023 at 9:36 am
George has the coolest Indy Blog out there. This is some amazing stuff.