Another IndyCar season has concluded, and we have some distance from the Laguna Seca season finale. It is time to go over the IndyCar grid and look at how each team and driver performed this year. We start in a familiar place, A.J. Foyt Racing. A champion left the team with another young driver coming in. The team also expanded to three cars with a rookie and a veteran splitting the seat based on circuit discipline. For all the positivity entering the season, it quickly disappeared once the cars hit the circuit.
Kyle Kirkwood
Fresh off an Indy Lights championship, Kirkwood moved up to IndyCar with Foyt, effectively on the loan from the Andretti Autosport organization. In a rookie class split between Road to Indy participants and those with a European background, Kirkwood was seen as a favorite for Rookie of the Year honors based on his ladder series success. Sunny days were few for the Floridian.
What objectively was his best race?
At Long Beach, Kirkwood started 12th and spent basically the entire race between tenth and 13th. He ended up finishing at the front end of that range in tenth position, the first top ten finish of his IndyCar career.
What subjectively was his best race?
Fresh off an Indy Lights championship, Kirkwood moved up to IndyCar with Foyt, effectively on the loan from the Andretti Autosport organization. In a rookie class split between Road to Indy participants and those with a European background, Kirkwood was seen as a favorite for Rookie of the Year honors based on his ladder series success. Sunny days were few for the Floridian.
What objectively was his best race?
At Long Beach, Kirkwood started 12th and spent basically the entire race between tenth and 13th. He ended up finishing at the front end of that range in tenth position, the first top ten finish of his IndyCar career.
What subjectively was his best race?
Though the final result says otherwise, it would be Belle Isle, and that might be his best weekend period. He started the weekend topping IndyCar Friday practice, and he won the pole position in the GT Daytona class for the IMSA race, where Kirkwood substituted for an injured Jack Hawksworth in a VasserSullivan Lexus.
Then Kirkwood broke his wrist on Saturday morning in IndyCar practice. With his hand constantly wrapped in ice, he qualified fifteenth for the IndyCar race, but he won in GTD with Ben Barnicoat in the IMSA race.
In the IndyCar race, Kirkwood was making up ground on the two-stop strategy and then hit the barrier on an out-lap and it ended what looked to be developing into another top ten result.
What objectively was his worst race?
Kirkwood was 26th in two races, first the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after contact from Graham Rahal broke Kirkwood's gearbox and ended what was likely going to be no better than a 15th-place finish, and the second was at Mid-Ohio, where Kirkwood started ninth and it looked like he was bound for a turnaround result only to go off course in turn eight and into the barriers not long after making a pit stop.
What subjectively was his worst race?
It is Mid-Ohio because that felt like it was going to be a race where Kirkwood could hit his marks and score a respectable result. Instead, it was a mistake from overdriving the car early in the race and it led to another retirement, one of too many this season for the rookie.
Not every retirement was his fault, and he was 25th at Texas after Devlin DeFrancesco got loose underneath Kirkwood in turns three and four and spun the American. Kirkwood was impressive before that and could have pushed for a top ten in that race as well.
Kyle Kirkwood's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 24th (183 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led: 5
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 3
Average Start: 19.412
Average Finish: 20.176
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 3
Average Start: 19.412
Average Finish: 20.176
Dalton Kellett
For the third consecutive season, Kellett was back in the Foyt fleet. This was his second full season, and he was looking to improve from 23rd in the championship with a best finish of 12th in the 2021 season. An extra race on the 2022 schedule did not work to the Canadian's favor.
What objectively was his best race?
Kellett picked up a 17th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. He has started 22nd.
What subjectively was his best race?
For the third consecutive season, Kellett was back in the Foyt fleet. This was his second full season, and he was looking to improve from 23rd in the championship with a best finish of 12th in the 2021 season. An extra race on the 2022 schedule did not work to the Canadian's favor.
What objectively was his best race?
Kellett picked up a 17th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. He has started 22nd.
What subjectively was his best race?
Oof... this is a tough one. Road America was his only lead lap finish and that was a 23rd-place result. Not great. He was 18th at Gateway. It is likely Texas or Gateway. He was also 20th at Belle Isle.
What objectively was his worst race?
Twice was Kellett 27th, both at Indianapolis and both in the month of May. In the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, he spun into the barrier in the turn five and six section. In the Indianapolis 500, he was slow, qualified 28th and finished two laps down in 27th.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Kellett was quite poor at Nashville. After catching a break and being elevated into the second round of qualifying when Colton Herta got into the barrier in that round one qualifying group Kellett was a roadblock until he was caught in the lap 25 logjam in turn seven.
Dalton Kellett's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 25th (133 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 0
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 23.176
Average Finish: 22.764
Tatiana Calderón
After splitting the last few years between Super Formula and sports car racing, Calderón moved into IndyCar for the 2022 season. She tested the year before with A.J. Foyt Racing at Mid-Ohio. The plan was for Calderón to split the #11 ROKiT Chevrolet with Calderón taking the road courses and J.R. Hildebrand running the ovals. Money became an issue for this entry midseason.
What objectively was her best race?
It was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis where Calderón was 15th in the wet and led a lap through pit cycle. She benefitted from other cars having problems and falling out of the race, but Calderón kept it on the circuit and in changing conditions that is most important.
What subjectively was her best race?
After splitting the last few years between Super Formula and sports car racing, Calderón moved into IndyCar for the 2022 season. She tested the year before with A.J. Foyt Racing at Mid-Ohio. The plan was for Calderón to split the #11 ROKiT Chevrolet with Calderón taking the road courses and J.R. Hildebrand running the ovals. Money became an issue for this entry midseason.
What objectively was her best race?
It was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis where Calderón was 15th in the wet and led a lap through pit cycle. She benefitted from other cars having problems and falling out of the race, but Calderón kept it on the circuit and in changing conditions that is most important.
What subjectively was her best race?
It is probably the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, but Long Beach deserves a mention because she was 16th and only a lap down in that one. Again, benefitted from others falling out, but she kept her nose clean.
What objectively was her worst race?
Her worst finish was 26th at Barber Motorsports Park, finishing two laps down.
What subjectively was her worst race?
How about the races she didn't get to do because the ROKiT funding dried up after Mid-Ohio causing her to miss five races? Calderón struggled in IndyCar. We cannot ignore that. St. Petersburg was tough with her finishing three laps down. She was wrestling the car at Belle Isle. But she wasn't dragging the rear of the field. She had a reasonable speed. Those extra few races would have benefitted her development.
Tatiana Calderón's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 29th (58 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 1
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 25.143
Average Finish: 22
J.R. Hildebrand
Splitting the #11 Chevrolet, Hildebrand was set to return for his 13th IndyCar season, but his first year competing in multiple races since the 2017 season when he was full-time driving for Ed Carpenter Racing. Hildebrand drove for A.J. Foyt Racing the year before at the Indianapolis 500, where he was the top qualifier and top finisher for the team in his only start in 2021.
What objectively was his best race?
Hildebrand was 12th at the Indianapolis 500, the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher for a second consecutive year.
What subjectively was his best race?
Splitting the #11 Chevrolet, Hildebrand was set to return for his 13th IndyCar season, but his first year competing in multiple races since the 2017 season when he was full-time driving for Ed Carpenter Racing. Hildebrand drove for A.J. Foyt Racing the year before at the Indianapolis 500, where he was the top qualifier and top finisher for the team in his only start in 2021.
What objectively was his best race?
Hildebrand was 12th at the Indianapolis 500, the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher for a second consecutive year.
What subjectively was his best race?
It is Indianapolis, but what makes that result even more impressive is Hildebrand made an early first pit stop, however the way the cautions fell early in the race trapped Hildebrand a lap down. He was waved back onto the lead lap and then drove into the top 12.
What objectively was his worst race?
A 14th at Texas, but Hildebrand did well in that race trying a few different things to move up from 25th starting position.
What subjectively was his worst race?
Like Calderón, the races Hildebrand didn't get to do. The Iowa races and Gateway. Hildebrand did two races and was the best Foyt driver of the season. Kirkwood was ok at Iowa, good enough to finish 15th in the first Iowa race. I think Hildebrand could have beat that and possibly contended for a top ten result.
J.R. Hildebrand's 2022 Statistics
Championship Position: 30th (53 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 1
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 21
Average Finish: 13
An Early Look Ahead
Uncertain is one way to describe Foyt's future. Foyt is a team with no sponsors, no money, no agreement with any drivers and no exceptional engineering ability to carry the team up the grid.
It is hard to see how Foyt improves from this situation in 2023. Juncos Hollinger Racing entered IndyCar last year after throwing together a program for the final three races of 2021 and ran significantly better than Foyt. JHR was competitive, even making the Fast Six at the Laguna Seca season finale. Foyt rarely showed competitiveness for the top fifteen.
There are so many things wrong with this team that my biggest wish is somebody with millions of dollars to burn who wants to own an IndyCar team decides to buy it and take the Foyt name off the grid. That is what the Foyt team is best served to be entering the 2023 season, a starting point for someone else.
Who is going to drive there that is much better than Dalton Kellett? With no sponsors, it is dependent on drivers with funding, nothing wrong with that, but with how poor the results have been, why would any respectable driver step down to drive at Foyt when JHR is expanding to two cars? The team's average finishing position in 2022 was 21.162. I know the IndyCar grid grew a little bit in 2022, but the team couldn't average cracking the top twenty in a 26-car field with three cars in half the races! What competent driver would join such an organization?
Even worse is the team isn't sure it will take Kellett back. Being down to nobody, what is Foyt hoping to accomplish next year?
Indy Lights driver Benjamin Pedersen has been linked to Foyt since June, but I don't see Pedersen as the knight in shining armor that will save the team. Pedersen has been good in Indy Lights, but he hasn't shown any outstanding skill to suggest he will be someone who can lift the worst IndyCar team out of the cellar. Even if it signed Pedersen, the team would still need a second driver.
I doubt Santino Ferrucci would step down to Foyt to run a full-time program and Ferrucci has been part-time the last two years. There will be available Formula Two drivers, but Foyt would be a bad choice to enter IndyCar with. It is baffling American Logan Sargeant was in talks with Foyt for a move for the 2022 season before Sargeant returned to Formula Two, won multiple races and currently sits third in the championship with two races remaining and has a chance to clinch 40 Super License points as the American has been linked to a Williams F1 seat for 2023.
I am at the point where I would rather see Foyt close down and those two Chevrolet engine leases go to Ed Carpenter Racing and Paretta Autosport. We would at least have two more competitive cars on the grid at that point. Hell, Dale Coyne Racing wants to expand but Honda doesn't have any more engines to give. I would rather Foyt close, Coyne switch to Chevrolet and Coyne easily expand to three cars.
The best thing for this team and for IndyCar would be someone else stepping in and taking over with a fresh set of ideas. One team always has to be at the bottom, but it has been Foyt for too long in IndyCar. Foyt has only twice had a driver finish in the top fifteen in the championship since the 2012 season. It hasn't had a top ten championship finisher since 2002.
With the DW12 chassis we have seen a number of teams pull out respectable results. Dale Coyne Racing has been a semi-regular race winner. Meyer Shank Racing has come in and been competitive. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing have had drivers compete for championships. Foyt has been none of that. Worse of all, for most the last decade it was one of the better funded teams on the grid.
Next season will be ten years since Foyt won at Long Beach with Takuma Sato and Sato ended up leading the championship into the Indianapolis 500. It was a victory that many said showed how the DW12 leveled the playing field and had many considering Foyt as a sleeping giant. The team hasn't been asleep. It has been in a coma, and it doesn't show signs of waking up anytime soon.
