Bullet points from IndyCar’s wildest season

I’ve been a fan of IndyCar for most of my life, worked in it across a variety of team and media roles for four decades, and seen just about everything of interest that’s taken place since the 1980s. With that context in mind, when I wind back through all of those years, I can’t think of a single season which tops the non-stop volatility that defined the 2024 championship.

It was one step forward, three steps back, two more forward, and constant gaining and losing of yardage with storylines. The endless eruptions were either humorous, embarrassing, positive, or poignant. And steeped in drama. Good Lord, the drama, and not always the good kind. It rained on IndyCar in biblical ways.

Never boring, and in no particular order, everything below actually happened:

• A mannequin hung from a bridge by the eccentric owner of Barber Motorsports Park breaks free and falls during the race, bringing out a caution to clear the female fashion figure from the circuit. Later deposited in the media center, race winner Scott McLaughlin poses with the mannequin, which is quickly turned into an official trading card by the series.

• Waterlogged skies threaten to postpone IndyCar’s crown jewel, but fans are gifted the best Indianapolis 500 in ages which goes down to the wire after an extensive rain delay pushes the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” into an evening thriller. Settling near sunset between Pato O’Ward and new two-time winner Josef Newgarden, it’s also a smash for viewers with the local blackout being lifted due to the long delay. Ratings for the race are remarkable.

• David Malukas is hired by Arrow McLaren as its one new driver for 2024, but breaks his hand in a pre-season cycling incident, waits on the sidelines to heal for four races without success, and is dropped, never racing for the team.

• The adage, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog” comes to life in Michigan: Angered by a brief clash during practice with Kyle Kirkwood on the ridiculously tight Detroit street circuit, 5-foot-nothing Santino Ferrucci jumps over the pit wall after the session and walks down the full-size and approaching Kirkwood, all while dropping f-bombs and other choice curse words on live TV. Kirkwood is panned by his Andretti Global teammates for failing to hold his ground. A.J. Foyt Racing’s Ferrucci is called into the IndyCar hauler and receives some choice curse words from officials. He issues an apology.

• Arrow McLaren hires ex-Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Callum Ilott to stand in for the injured Malukas at the first race.

• With two cars and nobody to pay for an entire season of racing in either machine, Dale Coyne Racing enters a revolving cast of nine different drivers to keep both cars in motion throughout the year. Five of the nine get their first opportunities to race in IndyCar as a result of Coyne’s approach. And nine drivers in rotation, it’s believed to be a modern record. It also leads Penske Entertainment to implement a new restriction — informally dubbed the Dale Coyne Rule — for 2025 where a limit of three drivers per entry is enforced.

• IndyCar makes a big and successful return to the historic Milwaukee Mile after an eight-year hiatus. Hearty crowds show out for the doubleheader event.

• While discussing racing venues, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles says returning to circuits which formerly held IndyCar races isn’t the right approach for the series. The comment is given sitting in the infield at the Milwaukee Mile… More than half of the races on the 2025 calendar are venues where IndyCar has left and made a return.

• When Callum Ilott has a date clash with his primary team in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Arrow McLaren brings in new Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire for the second race of the year at Long Beach. The scrappy Frenchman shows strongly, placing 11th without the chance to test the car before the event. Arrow McLaren is showered with praise for giving Pourchaire a shot.

• Roger Penske, owner of the IndyCar Series, is embroiled in a stunning cheating scandal when his Team Penske cars are caught using 50-horsepower push-to-pass boosts during pre-race warm-up at Long Beach. Rival teams notice the use while the P2P system was malfunctioning and inactive, questioning why Penske’s cars were shown deploying P2P on the timing and scoring monitors when the rest of the drivers were unable to get the 50hp blasts.

• An investigation finds Newgarden and McLaughlin, but not teammate Will Power, made illegal use of the extra horsepower — while the system was disabled for the entire field — at the first race of the year in St. Petersburg, thanks to software settings enabled by the team within the onboard electronics carried by its three cars. St. Pete is won in dominating fashion by Newgarden with McLaughlin coming home a distant second. Both are disqualified and fined, and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward is awarded the victory six weeks after the checkered flag waved.