Chip Ganassi Racing is increasing to 5 automobiles for subsequent 12 months’s IndyCar season to accommodate 18-year-old improvement driver Kyffin Simpson.
The growth for Simpson will give Ganassi three rookies in subsequent 12 months’s Indianapolis 500. Marcus Armstrong already received IndyCar rookie of the 12 months this season, however is including ovals to his schedule subsequent 12 months and can be an Indy 500 rookie. Identical for Linus Lundqvist, who ran a road course, a street course and an oval as a substitute driver this season.
Ganassi sat with a gaggle of reporters every week in the past at Laguna Seca to debate his staff’s future forward of Álex Palou and Scott Dixon’s 1-2 end within the championship standings. He was evasive on Simpson, a Cayman Islands native who’s the son of businessman David Simpson, whose Ridgeline Lubricants firm has sponsored many Ganassi automobiles since mid-2022.
“We simply throw darts. We do not actually play a lot,” Ganassi joked when requested what the longer term would possibly appear like for the Cayman Islands-native. “I do not know what it’s but. I wish to share it with someone, however I do not know what the hell it’s.”
He does now.
Simpson would be the youngest driver on the IndyCar grid subsequent season. The 2024 Ganassi lineup would be the first with 5 drivers since Michael Andretti ran 5 automobiles in 2020.
He received to the IndyCar stage by way of his father’s monetary backing, which has allowed Kyffin Simpson to enter a slew of various racing sequence for helpful seat time. He was a part of the successful LMP2 sports activities automotive on the Twelve Hours of Sebring earlier this 12 months.
“It has been unimaginable working with Chip Ganassi Racing as their improvement driver during the last couple years, and I have been in a position to be taught a lot. I’m very excited to be making the subsequent step to IndyCar with this staff,” Simpson mentioned.
Simpson received the 2021 System Regional Americas title with seven wins in 18 races. He was a rookie within the Indy NXT sequence final 12 months and completed ninth in factors. He was tenth on this 12 months’s standings with two podiums.
Simpson presently races within the European Le Mans Sequence, the place Algarve Professional Racing is first within the LMP2 standings midway by way of the six-race schedule.