To the big teams go the spoils… or something like that. Close and competitive racing has been a common theme in the IndyCar Series for years, but the end-of-year results always favor the usual suspects.
Chip Ganassi Racing wrapped up its seventh title over the last 12 years in North America’s premier open-wheel championship, with Team Penske having captured it the other five times over that span. The last time a team other than those two dominant forces won the championship was in 2012 when Andretti Global (then known as Andretti Autosport) won it all with Ryan Hunter-Reayat the helm. And, excluding the Champ Car era that was dominated by Newman/Haas from 2004-07, the most previous title won by a team not named Andretti, Ganassi, or Penske happened over two decades ago in 2002, courtesy of the long since-defunct Panther Racing.
The combination of elite drivers, personnel and resources are obviously all a large part of why the same powerhouse teams are constantly fighting for wins and titles. However, another element that comes into play is how much testing they are provided compared to the smaller teams.
Gavin Ward, Team Principal for Arrow McLaren, widely considered the other member of the ‘Big Four’ alongside rivals Andretti, Ganassi and Penske due to its depth of resources, shared his thoughts on the current testing situation that exists in IndyCar.
“It is ridiculous,” Ward told Motorsport. “IndyCar needs to take a look at itself with regards to competitiveness, as they claim to be a great competitive series. We can put on competitive races, but you can’t deny the last 20 years that three teams have won championships, and only one outside of Penske and Ganassi. In that time, every time there’s a new aero package, every time there is a tire test, who gets favorability? The teams that are winning.”
And that was certainly the case during the early phases of the hybrid unit. When the current 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine was initially paired with hybrid power in August 2023, it was Penske and Ganassi leaned on heavily by respective manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda. Andretti and Arrow McLaren received their turns in October of 2023. Over the introductory three months, the four teams, stretched across 13 drivers, logged a total of 15,256 miles.
It wasn’t until late March of 2024 the remaining teams of AJ Foyt Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Meyer Shank Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, were provided the first on-track outing with the hybrid — ending up with nearly 2,000 miles combined over two days of running.
“We’re somewhere in the middle because we got to do some testing that other teams didn’t get to do but we certainly didn’t get to do near what Penske and Ganassi were able to do,” Ward said.
The benefits also extended to tire testing, with Penske and Ganassi getting the chance to log laps at Milwaukee in October 2023. How it played a vital part, according to Ward, is in allowing the teams to return with data to bolster setups when there was a series-wide hybrid test back in June.
“Even this year, Penske and Ganassi got to test at Milwaukee last October, so they showed up at the Open Test having done a 7 post session, built the track, optimized the dampers and they’re one test ahead of everybody else because they could do that,” Ward said.
“Now, the rules say they can only do one tire test burned. We go to Nashville. Arrow McLaren and Andretti go to Nashville. I have a tire failure (with Pato O’Ward), come back to Nashville and who do they invite? Penske and Ganassi. So, where’s our advantage? Where’s the equalization? It doesn’t make any sense. Invite Coyne. Invite Carpenter. Invite Rahal for crying out loud.
“Meanwhile, you look at last year with the hybrid system, we got the advantage of doing some testing. You know where we tested? Sebring and Homestead; two places we don’t race. You know where Penske and Ganassi tested in addition to those places? Gateway, Barber, Road America. IndyCar has a testing equality problem. And I’ve told them that before.”
Chris Simmons, Director of Performance at Chip Ganassi Racing, had his own counterpoints on why the smaller teams should not be the ones leaned on, specifically for tire testing.
“To be honest, what we see with this is those teams show up to do a tire test and not push the tires as hard to the point there could be reliability problems,” Simmons told Motorsport.com.
“I think you want the teams that are pushing the tires to the limit during the test, otherwise you end up showing up to a race weekend and they’re not in the load range that was predicted for the tires and then you end up with problems across the board from the aero-spec, tire-spec, everything.”
Simmons stressed the testing is “very limited as it is” and noted it is part of the reasons first-year drivers have a tendency to struggle in IndyCar.
“Even for the rookies, it might be a way for them to have a chance of catching up,” Simmons said. “We don’t have enough tires to run. It’s tremendously difficult to come in as a rookie and be on pace, whether that’s the team or the driver. The teams that have the resources to do those tire tests have the drivers to push the cars are probably the ones that should be setting what spec compound it should be. … Everybody who doesn’t get to test is always going to be upset, I get that. Everybody is always pointing fingers at everybody else thinking they got the advantage. I think the really important thing is that we end up with the right tire-spec and the right aero-spec to put on the best show we can and let the teams go race for it.”
