Is the Silly Season Finally Over?
When would you say the IndyCar silly season actually started? Some point to June at Detroit when questions started to become serious about Will Power’s future at Team Penske. For most of the summer, there was a lot of speculation about David Malukas – the second driver at AJ Foyt. There was also a lot of conjecture through the summer on the status of Nolan Siegel at Arrow McLaren, but Zak Brown swore that their lineup would return for 2026. For some reason, some didn’t believe him.
Whenever it started, it was long before the season ended at Nashville at the end of August. Many drivers switched teams over the offseason. The strangest to me is how Rinus VeeKay snubbed Dale Coyne Racing and a sure seat, following a surprisingly decent season at Coyne. VeeKay finally landed at Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR), at the expense of Conor Daly; even though Daly clearly outdrove his JHR teammate (Sting Ray Robb). And that comes from a guy (me) that thinks Robb is a better driver than most fans give him credit for. But Robb had one thing that Daly did not – money.
If the silly season actually started at Detroit, then this silly season has lasted longer than the IndyCar season and the IndyCar offseason. If rumors are true, we may get confirmation this week that all open fulltime seats may finally be filled.
You Tuber David Land is reporting a possible cyberleak, or a simple mistake of someone jumping the gun. Apparently for a short while this past weekend, Dale Coyne Racing’s website was reporting that Romain Grosjean will be the driver of the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing entry.
That’s no huge shock. Many have speculated for months that that’s who would be in the cockpit, when the season started in St. Petersburg. I guess the news was taken down, when they realized someone had goofed. But even though the cat was out of the bag, no one was gasping for air due to shock.
Grosjean is not the most popular driver that ever spent time in the IndyCar paddock. Some followed him throughout his time in Formula One, and had already grown tired of his reputation of being difficult to work with. But he became a sympathetic figure after almost losing his life in a fire in November of 2020, which turned out to be his last drive in a Formula One race, although he did do a test for Haas this past September.
I don’t follow F1 that closely. I knew who Grosjean was before the fire, and I knew he drove for Gene Haas; but that was about the extent of it. I heard a few grumbles when he was announced for Dale Coyne Racing before the 2021 season, for the non-ovals only. He had never driven on an oval before and subscribed to the theory that most F1 drivers do – that oval racing is highly dangerous and you have to be insane to do it.
Due to lingering COVID fears, St. Petersburg was moved to the second race of the season, so the opener was at Barber. Grosjean debuted with an impressive tenth-place finish at the track just east of Birmingham, Alabama. He finished thirteenth at St. Petersburg before turning the car over to Pietro Fittipaldi for the double-header at Texas.
It was May before we saw Grosjean in the car again, but it was worth the wait. Grosjean put the Coyne car on the pole at the Grand Prix on the IMS road course, and finished second. He sat out the 500 that season, but he was quickly building a following with his skills and his seemingly good nature. I was wondering why those that followed F1 more closely than I did, had such disdain for Grosjean.
He had a poor showing a Belle Isle that season, finishing twenty-third and twenty-fourth respectively in the double-header.
Then came Road America. Many of you have probably read this story before, but bear with me. On Friday at Road America, Susan and I were eating lunch at the Honda Hospitality tent. Most of the Honda teams and drivers go there for meals (along with most IndyCar media), because the food there is fantastic. Plus, its free.
Most tables were full, and seating was scarce. Susan and I grabbed the last available empty table and had been eating our lunch for about five minutes. I had seen Grosjean walk in, but didn’t think that much about it as he fixed his plate. The surprise came when I looked up and he politely asked if we minded if he joined us. Of course, we said “yes”.
I’m not one to bother famous people, especially when they are trying to eat. Susan is not as reserved. In fact, I’m convinced she could strike up a conversation with a street light. I was relieved though, when she did not mention the devastating fire that caused the still very apparent scars on his hands. Later she said she knew better, as if I was a moron to even think she might bring up that painful subject.
We kept the conversation light, and talked mostly about his impressions of IndyCar. Of course, Grosjean said all the right things, how he was impressed with the tracks and the depth of the competition. Susan asked about his wife and kids, and he could not have been more pleasant. It was a thoroughly enjoyable conversation, and he could not have been nicer. I was a little shocked when he said he had never heard of Oilpressure.com, but I digress…
Needless to say, I had become a fan. Any driver that will do more than say hi to us, is worthy of my fandome. Grosjean went on to have a good debut season and finished fifteenth in the points. That’s not bad considering he missed both races at Texas, and the double-points Indianapolis 500. He elected to try his had at ovals and drove at Gateway later that year. He had some moments when you couldn’t help but notice his skills, but there were a couple of times you could tell it was his first oval. Still, he kept his nose clean and finished fourteenth. He finished second again at the fall IMS Road Course race, showing that the race in May was no fluke.
Michael Andretti signed Grosjean to replace Ryan Hunter-Reay in the DHL car for the 2022 season. It started out OK, with a fifth-place finish at St. Petersburg. His second oval ever at Texas did not go so well, finishing twenty-sixth. He redeemed himself at Long Beach by finishing second. He ruffled a few feathers with his fellow drivers at Barber, but still finished seventh. And then it all went terribly wrong.
The results stopped coming. His only real bright spot for the next several races was a fourth-place finish at Road America. In the middle of his results drought, Grosjean made the curious decision to embrace the role of being the villain and seemed to enjoy put his competitors into the fence – including his own teammate, Alexander Rossi.
Grosjean had three Top-Ten finishes in the second half of the 2022 season, but the honeymoon was over.
He returned to Andretti for the 2023 season. By the Music City Grand Prix – the last to run around Nissan Stadium, rumors were rampant that Grosjean would not be back with the team in 2024. I spoke to someone closely associated with the team that I’m friends with, and asked him if he thought Grosjean would be back. His response spoke volumes; “God, I hope not”. He got his wish.
Grosjean took his craft to JHR for the 2024 season; with the intent to team him with Agustin Canapino, who had his own issues. Canapino’s presence had run off Callum Ilott the previous season. When Argentine fans got to be too much to deal with, Canapino was out. Nolan Siegel drove one race before Canapino came back, but Conor Daly finished out the season in that car for the remaining five races. At the end of the tumultuous 2024 season for JHR, poor results and frequent complaining made Grosjean expendable and he was not invited back for 2025.
In fact, Romain Grosjean did not drive in any IndyCar races for the 2025 season. It seems he is about to return to the team where his greatest IndyCar success took place – Dale Coyne Racing (DCR). Can Coyne and Grosjean regain the magic they had in 2021? There is one key ingredient that will be missing this time around – Olivier Boisson, his engineer that followed him to Andretti. Boisson is now in a management role with Andretti and is not likely to leave, just to get the old gang back together.
On paper, it looks good. Dale Coyne has already signed 2025 Indy NXT Champion Dennis Hauger to drive the No 18, with support from Andretti Global. I don’t think that support extends to the No. 19. I wonder how that dynamic will work, given that there was not a whole lot of love lost between the Andretti team and Grosjean not that long ago.
It would be nice to think that Dale Coyne will be the polished veteran to help mentor the promising, but inexperienced rookie. Will we see that Romain Grosjean? I would like to think so. The Grosjean we saw at Dale Coyne in 2021 would have done that.
Or will we see the villainous Grosjean that we saw at Andretti and JHR – who was rumored to be hard to get along with, made enemies on the track while posting poor results? Most of the Grosjean haters are betting that’s who we will see. They may be right, but I hope not.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
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