Rookie of the Year Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer All the talk and preparation is over as the 2024 INDYCAR season kicks off at the popular St. Petersburg Street Circuit in Florida. Several headlines will be made throughout the 18 sanctioned events, highlighted by the million-dollar exhibition race at Thermal Club, and the return of both Milwaukee and Nashville Superspeedway. The stories range from veterans moving onto new teams to others looking to reclaim their reputation as racers. As always, you’ll have a new breed of competitors ranging from Indy NXT grads to a formerRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer INDIANAPOLIS – What started off as a three-man rookie class, one man stood out throughout the Month of May. That man being Scott McLaughlin, who wins this year’s Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors. Far from an ideal race indeed, but the 20th place finisher will leave IMS with an accolade. His fellow rookie competitors Pietro Fittipaldi finished a lap down in 25th while RC Enerson failed to qualify. After the race McLaughlin described his Indy 500 debut as a “pretty awesome experience.” “ReallyRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On a day where all rookies were snake bitten in some shape or form, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward survived the 104th Indianapolis 500 with a sixth-place finish and likely to claim Rookie of the Year honors. After failing to qualify last year for Carlin, O’Ward had a noble showing in his Indy 500 debut Sunday, but it would take such showing and a lot of help from other rookies to make it possible. That’s because at the start of the race, it was Rinus VeeKayRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Rookie Rinus VeeKay made a big statement in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix, finishing fifth at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. This comes a month after his disastrous NTT IndyCar Series debut at Texas Motor Speedway where he wrecked two cars, causing some ire from his boss Ed Carpenter. Fortunately, the 19-year-old put that nightmare behind and focused on having a contrasting performance at the 2.439-mile road course. Mission was accomplished and certainly will put a smile on Carpenter’s face as VeeKay’s No. 21 SONAX ChevroletRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – The toughest crop of rookies in recent memory for the NTT IndyCar Series wrapped up their grinding seasons and the man who stood on top of the peddle stool was Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist. Although rookie rival Colton Herta went on to steal the headlines by putting on a flawless performance in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, it was Rosenqvist who took Rookie of the Year honors by five points over the 19-year-old. The sixth place finisher becameRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – Felix Rosenqvist being justifiably upset was an understatement at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. After being the fastest man during Saturday’s final practice, the NTT IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year points leader faced a controversial penalty in Group 2 of qualifying. Rosenqvist’s No. 10 NTT Data Honda was given a penalty which resulted his two fastest laps that would’ve advance him into the next round revoked due to causing a local yellow and impeding another competitor’s lap. As a result, he would haveRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer MONTEREY, California – The three NTT IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year title contenders swept Friday morning’s practice charts at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with Colton Herta being both fastest and snake bitten by “The Corkscrew” to close out the 45-minute session. Herta’s time of 1:10.7335 was just 0.0719 seconds faster than rookie points leader Felix Rosenqvist. Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top-three as he was 0.1502 seconds behind. In the closing seconds of practice, Herta’s rear of his No. 88 Capstone Turbine Corporation Honda lockedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Ore. – An all-around solid weekend in the Pacific Northwest for Felix Rosenqvist was capped off with a career equal runner-up finish in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland. Rosenqvist’s second career podium finish can be summarized as mastering the Firestone red compounds, solid fuel conservation and excellent teamwork by the No. 10 NTT Data squad that propelled him from the fifth starting position to the second, trailing a strong Will Power for most of the race. It appeared that Power was on cruise control ofRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Santino Ferrucci put on a blistering performance in front of his biggest fans and family members at Pocono Raceway. From dodging the opening lap melee to the race being called off due to weather after 128 of 200 laps, Ferrucci brought his No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda home in fourth during Sunday’s ABC Supply 500. The Northeasterner’s homecoming race started off by going full throttle to avoid the five-car accident in Turn 2, involving his Rookie of the Year rival Felix Rosenqvist, who’s car endedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer What’s already been a dynamic off-season in the NTT IndyCar Series, one storyline that’s going to be quite the tale is the Rookie of the Year battle, consisting of five full-time drivers, two more from last season, all with something to prove. Each have their own tales, with some coming out of the world of Formula One, a re-branded squad featuring Indy Lights alumnus and another that’s given the biggest opportunity of his racing career. This crop of rookies have the potential of providing an intenseRead More