![\"Pato](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01-27-Pato-Rahal-Content-Days.jpg\")
<\/p>\nStart the baby watch.<\/p>\n
For Felix Rosenqvist, the first official day of fatherhood is projected to be May 14. You know what that means: The Swede will be in the midst of practicing for his eighth Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, a race of significance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
\u201cFast Thursday,\u201d Rosenqvist said Jan. 27 of that spot in the hectic May schedule as he discussed impending fatherhood during the first of two NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis. \u201cI may or may not be there. At least we\u2019re at home, which is nice. I (won\u2019t be) in Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosenqvist and his wife, Emille, who live in Indianapolis, are having a girl.<\/p>\n
Alexander Rossi and his wife, Kelly, gave birth on May 11 last year. His juggling advice to Rosenqvist, who happens to be a new neighbor: \u201cGood luck,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n
As Juan Pablo Montoya once said, drivers can expect to lose a couple tenths of a second in performance when their family priorities shift. Rosenquist isn\u2019t concerned about that, pointing to the success of Alex Palou, who has won two of his four NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships since his daughter, Lucia, was born in December 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex seems to be nailing it, though, I have to say,\u201d the driver of Meyer Shank Racing\u2019s No. 60 Honda said. \u201cEveryone thought he was going to get slower \u2026 \u2018How do we beat Alex?\u2019 Pop out the kid, and there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosenqvist is joining a large list of INDYCAR SERIES drivers who are fathers. Including Palou, Scott Dixon (three children), Graham Rahal (three), Josef Newgarden (two), Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Rossi. Additional fathers who are expected in this year\u2019s \u201c500\u201d include Ed Carpenter (three children), Ryan Hunter-Reay (three), Takuma Sato (two) and Helio Castroneves.<\/p>\n
Siegel Understands Kanaan\u2019s Expectations<\/p>\n
Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan has set the bar high for Nolan Siegel\u2019s second full season in the No. 6 Chevrolet: Finish in the top 10 in this year\u2019s standings after finishing 22nd last year or he \u201cdoesn\u2019t think I can keep him.\u201d Siegel is optimistic he can reach that objective in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it doesn’t really change anything,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cThe goal for me is always to finish as far up the grid as I possibly can and perform at my best all the time. So, I show up every weekend, I’m pushing myself as far as I can and trying to perform the best that I possibly can. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the expectation is, I’m still going to be doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kanaan raised eyebrows, including those of Siegel, when he made those comments last month to Motorsport.com. Siegel said he still hasn\u2019t met with his boss, but he doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s a need to either. He figures they will \u201cchat\u201d when the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Siegel, who is still only 21 years old, understands the challenges of competing in the most competitive series in motorsports.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do have to be almost perfect every weekend,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing new, especially with such a long offseason, so little testing, so little time in the car, it takes time. It takes time to learn. There’s no real way to accelerate that process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s part of the reason I’m so excited for 2026. I feel like I learned a huge amount in 2025. I’m lucky to have TK and great teammates around me that are teaching me so much. I feel like I’m in a much better spot going into 2026 than I was in 2025 with all those people around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Odds and Ends<\/p>\n
Rahal (photo, above, right) told new Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Mick Schumacher that Mick\u2019s father, Michael, was likely more of a motivation for him to pursue a career in motorsports than his own father, Bobby.<\/p>\n
Pato O\u2019Ward (photo, above, left) was clearly pleased with his new FOX commercial, which debuted this week with him speeding through a neighborhood in a trash truck. \u201cIt was one of the coolest shoots I\u2019ve ever been part of,\u201d he said. \u201cIt involved me doing something that I\u2019m more familiar with. It was just enough funny, lighthearted (and) on brand, so to speak. As soon as I heard the idea, I was all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Ward on the new Arrow McLaren facility in northwest Indianapolis, which previously was Andretti Global\u2019s HQ. \u201cIt feels like we\u2019re going from a studio apartment to the penthouse considering where we were.\u201d Arrow McLaren will officially debut the facility next month.<\/p>\n
Newgarden said his team\u2019s plan for improvement this season is simple to explain. \u201cIf we don\u2019t want to finish 12th again (in the standings), we\u2019ve got to finish more races,\u201d he said. The finish was his lowest in the series since 2014.<\/p>\n
Newgarden said INDYCAR\u2019s recent tire test at Phoenix Raceway was \u201cweird\u201d given that Power wasn\u2019t his Team Penske teammate and Ron Ruzewski, the former Penske general manager who like Power has moved to Andretti Global, wasn\u2019t available to him to talk tire selection. \u201cIt was so silly,\u201d Newgarden said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take some time to get used to we\u2019re not on the same squad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rossi said he and podcast co-host James Hinchcliffe have new athletic adventures coming. Rossi must run 13.1 miles \u2013 the distance of a half-marathon \u2013 and Hinchcliffe must ride 100 miles on a bike. \u201c(Hinchcliffe) was talking aggressively, thinking I\u2019d never say yes to this,\u201d Rossi said. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t ridden a bike in the better part of a decade, so I jumped on that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Louis Foster arrived at Content Days with a mustache that has become his look. But there will be a change. Last year he agreed to shave it for someone\u2019s charitable donation of $1,000. (He did win his first series pole that weekend at Road America.) If asked to participate this year, his minimum price will be $10,000. \u201cDario (Franchitti) threw that in like it was a blink of an eye,\u201d Foster said. \u201cWe\u2019re upping the financial requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christian Lundgaard\u2019s family had a recent bet that anyone scoring a hole-in-one in golf would have to get a cat. Lundgaard lost a different competition, but he still had to get a cat. \u201cThree days ago, my girlfriend goes and makes a hole-in-one,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we have to get another cat. Who is left (to care for) the cat? I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes the signing of contracts isn\u2019t as glamorous as it might seem. Jack Harvey said he signed to return to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing\u2019s \u201c500\u201d program \u201cat the season finale in the parking lot (at Nashville Superspeedway).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Start the baby watch. For Felix Rosenqvist, the first official day of fatherhood is projected to be May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-260756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}