As we inch closer to the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg, we move onto the second team preview and a team that far exceeded expectations in 2024.
A.J. Foyt Racing had not placed a driver in the top fifteen in the championship in over a decade and it had not had a driver finish in the championship top ten since 2002. With Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing ended up ninth in the championship and pulled out for more top ten finishes than expected. In 2023, the team had one top ten finish. Last year, Ferrucci had 11 top ten finishes. Now, Ferrucci looks to improve and the team will have a new second driver that should lift the competition.
In 46 days, we will find out if 2024 was a fluke for the Foyt organization or if the team has raised its game for sustained competitiveness.
At First Glance... Results should be better
No offense to Sting Ray Robb but David Malukas is an upgrade. After two seasons at Dale Coyne Racing and a partial season as a mid-year replacement at Meyer Shank Racing, we know Malukas has bursts of speed and can run at the front of the pack without needing strategy to get there. With another driver that can bring the pace, Foyt should be better.
That doesn't mean Foyt will finish higher than it did and best the ninth-place championship finish Ferrucci achieved in 2024. As much as Foyt succeeded, it was all one-sided. Ferrucci did all the heavy lifting. The team could get better because the gap between the two drivers level out. Foyt could end up with more top ten finishes as an organization, let say 13 or 14, but it could come at the expense of Ferrucci. It could be a seven-six split or a seven-seven split between the drivers. Better for the team, but a slight dip for one of its drivers.
As celebrated as Foyt's 2024 season was it is only one season. Prior to 2024, Foyt had not had anything remotely close to a good season since 2013, the year of its most recent victory. Even with all that went well in 2013 with Takuma Sato, who led the championship entering the Indianapolis 500 that year, Sato still finished 17th in the championship.
IndyCar has a knack for the middle of the pack to rotate. It wasn't that long ago Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had two top ten championship finishers and Dale Coyne Racing was winning races and had a top ten championship finisher. It has been difficult for any team that is not Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Global or Arrow McLaren to have sustain success. A team might have a good season or two, but it has yet to last for anyone else.
Much of Foyt's improvement has been linked to the Team Penske technical partnership, and that is certainly a plus, but the team did lose lead engineer Mike Cannon to the new Prema organization. For every step forward, there can be an equal or greater step back. It should not be a complete slide.
For all his faults, Malukas finds a way to have good days. Considering what the team produced with the second car last year, anything more than one top ten finish will be a step in the right direction. Foyt should be more competitive on road and street courses. Malukas has shown promise on ovals with his best days coming at Gateway. That will only help the Foyt organization, however, it must be openly acknowledged the short comings. Malukas is celebrated, but in nearly three seasons, 44 starts, he has three top five finishes, 11 top ten finishes and his career average finish is 15.386.
Many believe Malukas is a future Penske driver, but he must be better and this will be his best chance to prove himself. Ferrucci will feel the need to back up last year. Foyt is going to have two motivated drivers in an organization that must at least match 2024 and cannot afford a dip. This team should not fall off in 2025 even if it does not quite match what we saw the year before.
2024 A.J. Foyt Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 4th (Milwaukee I & II)
Poles: 1 (Portland)
Championship Finishes: 9th (Santino Ferrucci), 20th (Sting Ray Robb)
David Malukas - #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet
Numbers to Remember:
5: Retirements in ten starts last season with Meyer Shank Racing.
8.7: Average starting position last season.
16.0: Average finishing position last season.
What does a championship season look like for him?
Malukas exploding on ovals. It is an Indianapolis 500 victory followed by a victory at Gateway and a sweep of the Iowa doubleheader and then a victory at Milwaukee and Nashville to close the season.
With six oval victories, Malukas will have at least 306 points and only need about about 244 more points to win the championship. That is around 22 points per the 11 road and street course races, an average finish of about ninth. Malukas doesn't quite hit that, but he is respectable and piles up top ten finishes.
There are a few top five finishes on the road and street course races, and he finishes in the top ten in vast majority of them. Malukas benefits from other drivers not being as clinical on road and street courses as he is on ovals. With no other driver winning more than two races in the season, Malukas does enough to pull out the championship with a victory in the finale being icing on the cake.
What does a realistic season look like for him?
Somewhere between tenth and 17th in the championship, a wide range, but we could see Malukas join Foyt and become the best in the team, get the most top ten finishes among the two drivers, run respectable and raise his level to higher than it has been in IndyCar while not winning a race. Or we could see Malukas continue to be a driver that averages a 15th-place finish with two or three really good races, another two or three plain good races and then is rather anonymous for eight to ten races.
There is also the world where Foyt isn't as good as 2024 and the best the team can do is 15th in the championship.
From what we have seen from Malukas is spurts but nothing consistently outstanding. He has pulled off some impressive drives in less than stellar equipment, but that has not been at any greater rate than some of the drivers that preceded him.
In three seasons, we have seen Malukas hit a snag and have a spell where he isn't noticed each year. There is bound to be a four or five-race stretch where we are not thinking about Malukas. That hasn't been a problem when he has been the best driver in his team. However, if his teammate is running respectably at that time, it will not look good.
Santino Ferrucci - #14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet
Numbers to Remember:
13: Times finishing better than his starting position in 2024.
4: Consecutive top ten finishes to end the 2024 season.
9,639: Days between the last time an A.J. Foyt Racing driver had at least five consecutive top ten finishes (Kenny Bräck on October 11, 1998 at Las Vegas) and the 2025 St. Petersburg season opener.
What does a championship season look like for him?
Something similar to what Malukas' dream championship season looks like: Incredible results on ovals and respectable results on the road and street courses.
It likely would include an Indianapolis 500 victory plus three or four more victories, likely all coming on ovals. He would finish in the top five of every oval race and have a strong cushion to the rest of the field.
Ferrucci's road and street course resuts might not match that dominance but they are a step forward. Days that were eighth or ninth-place finishes last year become fourth or fifth-pace finishes. It is consistency that cannot be matched even by the likes of Álex Palou and Patricio O'Ward. Every race sees Ferrucci at the front even if he is not leading the way and it is something the rest cannot beat.
What does a realistic season look like for him?
Somewhere between how he did last year and a slight step back. Nobody saw Ferrucci and Foyt producing those kind of results entering 2024. It will be a tough act to follow. The team should still have good days, especially on ovals. It would surprise no one if Ferrucci found a way to win at Gateway, Iowa or Milwaukee. Even Indianapolis is a plausible place for triumph.
The toughest part will be breaking into that next level. For all the good results, the team had only two top five finishes, both were at Milwaukee. The team ran well on road and street courses but it was mostly breaking into finishes of eighth, ninth or tenth. Six of his 11 top ten finishes were in one of those three positions. He was 11th on the road in the opening race at St. Petersburg and benefitted from two Penske cars being disqualified. Such gifts likely will not come in 2025.
There will be competition that raises its game. Meyer Shank Racing is a greater threat with Chip Ganassi Racing as its technical partner. Marcus Ericsson will look to improve in year two with Andretti. Christian Lundgaard is with Arrow McLaren. Ed Carpenter Racing will look to do more with Alexander Rossi. These are five entries/drivers Ferrucci finished ahead of last year but all could be ahead of Ferrucci in 2025. That is the nature of the IndyCar Series. The middle is tight and a handful of results swinging in one direction can take a driver out of the championship top ten to know fault of his own.
Ferrucci should push for the championship top ten, but probably come down a little bit from the 2024 results. A few top five finishes on ovals will boast his efforts with about seven to nine top ten finishes.
The 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season opens on Sunday March 2 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage of the season opener will begin at noon Eastern Time.
