IndyCar Rumors: Two of Ganassi’s ride-buyers on shaky ground
Ride-buyers abound on the IndyCar grid, that’s the way it has been for many years, but now more than ever. Chip Ganassi Racing expanded from four to five cars for the 2024 season and two of the team’s ride-buyers could lose their seat.
IndyCar’s proposed charter system, which could go into effect as early as next year, would award 25 charters based on the 2023 entrant standings, with a maximum of three per team.
Field sizes would be capped at 27 cars, and all 25 charter entries would be locked into every race except for the Indy 500.
Prema Racing are set to become IndyCar’s 11th full-time team next year, and they are slated to add two cars for two ride-buyers. That would bring the full-time field to 29 entries (too many for many of IndyCar’s pit lanes), and between two of Ganassi’s cars and the two Prema cars some drivers would not qualify to race. Imagine telling a sponsor, or a ride-buyer’s rich daddy, that their driver won’t be on the grid come race time despite writing a check for millions of dollars.
Given the advantages of holding one of the 25 charters vs. running an entry without one, it wouldn’t make sense for Ganassi to continue to operate with two non-charter cars.
According to RACER.com’s Marshall Pruett, this entire proposition could spell trouble for Armstrong and Lundqvist because their ride-buyer checks may not be big enough.
Both drivers have secured a podium finish in their first season as full-time drivers, with Lundqvist even securing a pole position, but neither one brings the funding that Simpson does and in IndyCar, he who brings the biggest check gets the ride.
Though Lundqvist drives the No. 8 Honda, Simpson would likely be the one given the third charter entry moving forward, due to the significant funding he brings from his father David’s ties to primary sponsor Ridgeline Lubricants.
Simpson has finished no higher than 12th place in his rookie IndyCar season and sits down in 20th in the standings following a stretch of eight races during which he placed inside the top 20 only twice.