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: Alexander Rossi (No. 20 Java House Chevrolet), Christian Rasmussen (No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet), Ed Carpenter (No. 33 Chevrolet for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge).
2024 in Review: Rinus VeeKay’s fifth and final season with ECR featured a fourth consecutive year of leading the “500.” He reached the second round of qualifying on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for the fifth straight year, earning the seventh starting position. He finished ninth. His other seventh-place qualifying effort was in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. VeeKay finished season-high fifth and ninth in the two races at Iowa Speedway, and he posted seven top-10 finishes in winding up 16th in the standings. Rasmussen made 14 starts in his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES season as he shared the entry with Carpenter (ovals only). Rasmussen’s best two events were the “500,” where he was the top-finishing rookie in 12th place, and The Honda Indy 200 presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he earned the eighth starting position and finished ninth, both season highs. Carpenter earned a starting position for the “500” for the 21st time to become one of 11 drivers to achieve that mark. He qualified and finished 17th in his 12th start as an owner/driver in the race. He led three laps to pass 1925 race winner Peter DePaolo for 41st place on the all-time laps-led list with 149. Carpenter competed in four oval races during the season. Rossi competed in 16 of the 17 races in his second and final season with Arrow McLaren, missing the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto due to a broken thumb in that event’s practice. His season began by driving from 15th to finish sixth in St. Petersburg, then took seventh place in the exhibition race at The Thermal Club before finishing 10th in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Rossi had another strong Month of May in Indianapolis, finishing eighth in the Sonsio Grand Prix and fourth in the “500.” He led 12 laps in the latter, finishing in the top five for the third consecutive year and the sixth time overall (nine starts). His best finish of the season was a third-place effort in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He finished seventh and sixth, respectively, in the two Milwaukee Mile races and led 109 laps for the season, his highest total since 2019. Rossi’s 10 top-10 finishes gave him double digits in that category for only the second time in the past five seasons, helping him finish 10th in the standings.
New for ’25: Just about everything is new with the organization long led by Ed Carpenter, Tony George and Stuart Reed, from the hiring of Rossi to the addition of Ted Gelov as a partner to new sponsors to a rebranding with different colors and a throwback style. Rossi’s leadership, experience and on-track success (eight career race wins, seven career poles) is the public-facing headliner of the new season, but the infusion of resources offered by Gelov can’t be overstated. Gelov owns Heartland Food Products Group, an Indiana-based company best known for its consumer brands Splenda and Java House Coffee. Splenda and Java House will be featured on the race cars, and all of ECR’s display has updated fonts and emblematic colors to reflect the team’s legacy, deep Indianapolis roots and passion for the sport.
Keep an Eye on This: Carpenter has yet to detail how the additional resources have been allocated to the race teams, but count on them making a difference on the track. From investing in crew members to additional simulator time, there are numerous ways a cash infusion can be beneficial. The team last won a race with VeeKay in 2021 (on the IMS road course), but it could be positioned to make gains toward reaching victory lane this year. Rasmussen, who won five races and five poles in his championship-winning INDY NXT by Firestone season in 2023, is already proven to be fast, and he figures to see improved race results this year with a year of NTT INDYCAR SERIES experience. Rossi has finished in the top five of each of the past three “500s” with two different teams and two different engine manufacturers, so he could be a threat for a second spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy. Rasmussen finished last year’s “500” as the highest-place rookie driver (Arrow McLaren’s Kyle Larson won the Rookie of the Year award). Rossi finished fourth. Carpenter will make his 22nd start at Indy. He finished second in 2018 and has won three poles in the event.
Little-Known Fact: The organization’s new logo includes ECR’s abbreviation inside an oval shape as a nod to IMS. While Carpenter formed ECR before the 2012 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, his family legacy within the sport dates to 1945 when Anton “Tony” Hulman Jr., Carpenter’s great-grandfather, purchased the track to prevent it from closing following World War II. The Hulman-George family operated the historic facility through 2020.