{"id":619762,"date":"2026-10-03T21:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619762\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T21:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T21:28:10","slug":"chip-ganassi-indycar-announcement-leaves-5-empty-seats-for-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619762\/","title":{"rendered":"Chip Ganassi IndyCar announcement leaves 5 empty seats for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

At long last<\/a>, Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed that it’s Christian Lundgaard who is set to replace six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon<\/a> behind the wheel of the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for the 2027 NTT IndyCar Series season.<\/p>\n

Lundgaard was left without a ride when Arrow McLaren bafflingly decided to cut ties with him<\/a> after just two years to make way for Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist, amid a season in which he led the team with a third place finish in the championship<\/a> and seven podium finishes, including two wins.<\/p>\n

Now Chip Ganassi Racing’s lineup is set, with Lundgaard set to join Kyffin Simpson in the No. 8 Honda and five-time (four-time reigning) champion Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda.<\/p>\n

5 open seats remain after Lundgaard joins Ganassi<\/p>\n

There were seven open seats in the 25-car lineup for 2027 entering the offseason, and two of them are now taken. The first was the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet<\/a>, where 2026 Rookie of the Year Dennis Hauger is set to replace Santino Ferrucci after spending the season with Dale Coyne Racing.<\/p>\n

Now, with slightly more than five months remaining until the season is schedule to get underway in St. Petersburg, Florida, five vacancies remain.<\/p>\n

A.J. Foyt’s team have yet to confirm who will be in the car opposite the No. 14 entry, after rookie Caio Collet drove that car, the No. 4 Chevrolet, in 2026. Josh Pierson remains the favorite due to his budget, even amid the introduction of IndyCar’s new licensing standards<\/a>, although a part-time deal which sees Ferrucci come back for the ovals is reportedly not out of the question.<\/p>\n

Then there is Dale Coyne Racing, which have yet to replace Hauger in the No. 19 Honda and have not confirmed whether Romain Grosjean will be back in the No. 18 Honda. This is a team that historically waits deep into the offseason to solidify their roster, and they’re almost always the final team to do so. Don’t rule out reigning Indy NXT champion Nikita Johnson.<\/p>\n

Juncos Hollinger Racing have also confirmed nothing about their driver lineup for next year, although Rinus VeeKay returning to the No. 76 Chevrolet seems like even more of a foregone conclusion than Lundgaard joining Chip Ganassi Racing did. The big question mark is the No. 77 Chevrolet, a car that numerous drivers have been linked to in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

A reunion with Callum Ilott, who drove for the team from 2021 to 2023, seems increasingly likely, given some of the changes that have been made following the ugly 2023 divorce<\/a>. For as talented as he is and as deserving as he is of landing a ride based purely on merit, he reportedly has a sizable budget to offer for 2027. And a move back to the No. 77 car would undoubtedly give Juncos Hollinger Racing their best 1-2 punch in team history.<\/p>\n

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is set to open up the 2027 IndyCar season on Sunday, March 7. Live coverage of all races on the 2027 schedule, which has not yet been finalized, is set to be provided by Fox.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At long last, Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed that it’s Christian Lundgaard who is set to replace six-time IndyCar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-619762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}