Note: This continues a series of 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com. The season starts Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding (noon ET, FOX, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Starting Lineup: Graham Rahal (No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda), Devlin DeFrancesco (No. 30 EVTEC Honda), Louis Foster (No. 45 Mi-Jack Honda).
2024 in Review: Christian Lundgaard had the team’s best season in 2024, delivering his best Month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning five top-five finishes and finishing 11th in the point standings. He led five laps in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and finished 13th. He led three additional races through the season, leading 35 laps and finishing third in the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Rahal finished 18th in the standings with a best result of eighth in the Hy-Vee One Step 250 at Iowa Speedway. Five of the seven laps he led during the season were in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. In the “500,” he ranked second in positions gained with 18 (from 33rd to 15th). Pietro Fittipaldi’s first participation in the series since 2021 saw a pair of 13th-place finishes, and he was collected in the first-turn accident in the “500,” resulting in a 32nd-place finish. DeFrancesco did not have a series ride last season. Foster won the INDY NXT by Firestone championship for Andretti Global, scoring eight wins, 12 podium finishes, six pole positions and seven fastest laps. He finished the season 122 points ahead of second-place Jacob Abel of ABEL Motorsports.
New for ’25: Coming off a difficult season, Rahal said the organization went through a “reset,” and the new faces extend beyond the addition of DeFrancesco and rookie Foster. Yves Touron, the former technical director at Juncos Hollinger Racing, is Rahal’s new lead engineer, and that figures to be a difference-maker. Ashley Higham, who engineered Rahal’s car in the second half of last season, will work with DeFrancesco. Todd Malloy, one of the sport’s most experienced engineers and an Indy 500 winner, is now RLL’s technical director.
Keep an Eye on This: RLL has shown well in recent years on road courses and street circuits, with Lundgaard winning the Toronto race and earning two poles in 2023 while Rahal dominated that year’s second road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before finishing second. But the organization’s “500” program must find more speed. Rahal has been in the Last Chance qualifying session each of the past two years, and he was bumped from the field in ’23.
Little-Known Fact: Rahal recently joked about being one of the sport’s older drivers, and relatively speaking that’s true given that at age 36 he is third oldest among those with full-season employment. But the more interesting number is Rahal’s place among the all-time series participants. If all goes as planned, Rahal will make his 300th career start June 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway. That will make him only the 11th driver in history to reach that total, and there are only two current regulars with as many starts (Scott Dixon enters the season with 402, Will Power 302). The only other full-time driver with even 150 career starts is Josef Newgarden (215). Additionally, Rahal has started 238 consecutive races, and he could pass Marco Andretti (248) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (239) this season. Only Dixon (339) and Tony Kanaan (318) have started more series races in succession.