re: 2023 IndyCar Season - R17 Laguna Seca 9/10 2:30 pm ET (NBC)

2022 Driver Championship - Full 2022 driver standings

1. Will Power 560 pts (1 win)
2. Josef Newgarden 544 pts (5 wins)
3. Scott Dixon 521 pts (2 wins)
4. Scott McLaughlin 510 pts (3 wins)
5. Alex Palou 510 pts (1 win)
6. Marcus Ericsson 506 pts (1 win)
7. Pato O'Ward 480 pts (2 wins)
8. Felix Rosenqvist 393 pts (0 wins)
9. Alexander Rossi 381 pts (1 win)
10. Colton Herta 381 pts (1 win)
11. Graham Rahal 345 pts (0 wins)
12. Rinus VeeKay 331 pts (0 wins)

2023 Rookies

#11 Marcus Armstrong [R] (Ganassi / Honda) - Last year competed in F2 with 3 wins.
#51 Sting Ray Robb [R] (Coyne / Honda) - Last year competed in Indy Lights with 1 win and P2 in the championship.
#55 Benjamin Pedersen [R] (Foyt / Chevy) - Last year competed in Indy Lights with 1 win and P5 in the championship.
#78 Agustín Canapino [R] (Juncos Hollinger / Chevy) - Canapino is a very strange signing. He's 33 years old with a long record of success in Argentinian touring car series, with multiple championships. This is not how drivers typically prepare to race IndyCar. So what's the connection? He signed with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Ricardo Juncos is an Argentinian former driver and current owner of teams in IndyCar, Indy Lights (now Indy NXT), and Indy Pro 2000. That explains the connection but not why Juncos would make such a strange decision.

Driver Shuffle

Despite success on the ovals, Jimmie Johnson never got fully up-to-speed on the road and street courses. Many expected him to do an oval-only schedule this year, but Johnson is completely out of IndyCar.

Alexander Rossi developed a somewhat toxic relationship with his Andretti Autosport team, so a change in scenery was the best way forward. Rossi signed with McLaren for a third full-time entry.

Kyle Kirkwood had a very rough season with AJ Foyt last year, but he remained highly regarded, and signed with Andretti this year to replace the departed Rossi.

AJ Foyt had to replace two drivers this year. Kyle Kirkwood moved to Andretti, and Dalton Kellett retired from racing. Foyt signed veteran Santino Ferrucci to the #14 car, and rookie Benjamin Pedersen to the #55 entry.

Takuma Sato wanted to run a full schedule this year but reduced personal sponsorship killed that plan. He did however have the budget to do just the five oval races this year, and that it looks like that melded perfectly with Chip Ganassi's intention to hire F2 driver Marcus Armstrong. Apparently these wussy European-bred racers prefer to ease their transition to American open-wheel racing by running on just road and street course their first year. With Sato's availability, Ganassi was happy to let rookie Armstrong focus on the familiar, and improve the team's oval outlook with two-time Indy 500 champion Sato.

With Sato having inadequate sponsorship, Dale Coyne's #51 Rick Ware Racing entry was available, so he they signed rookie Sting Ray Robb to replace Sato.

Juncos Hollinger ran just Callum Ilott last year. This year they have expanded to two full-time entries, signing rookie Agustín Canapino for the new seat.

Driver Almost Shuffle

Alex Palou ended up embarrassing himself last year by declaring that he was going to race for McLaren this year. Chip Ganassi begged to differ and he either sued Palou or maybe just threatened to sue, but apparently Palou got wise and realized that Ganassi had the better legal position.