2025 IndyCar season outlook: A.J. Foyt Racing

Yesterday at 04:23 PM

With the first practice session of the new IndyCar Season due to begin at St. Petersburg on Friday, February 28, it's time to start ramping up for the launch with a look inside each of the 11 teams.

What's new, what's different, and what has stayed the same? We'll find out from each team, starting with A.J. Foyt Racing.

2024 ACHIEVEMENTS

To understand the Foyt team's starting line in 2025, let's begin with where it ended 2024.

• Drivers' Championship: Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevy, ninth place. Zero wins, one pole position (Portland), zero top threes, two top fives, 11 top 10s, three races led for 21 laps, running at the finish of 15 out of 17 races. Average starting position of 14.8, average finish of 10.9.

• Drivers' Championship: Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 Chevy, 20th place. Zero wins/poles/top threes/top fives, one top 10s, two races led for 31 laps, running at the finish of 12 out of 17 races. Average starting position of 23.9, average finish of 19.4.

• Entrants' Championship: No. 14, 10th (earned a Leaders Circle contract), No. 41, 23rd (did not earn a Leaders Circle contract).

2025 DRIVERS

• No. 4 Chevy: David Malukas. New to the team, signed a multi-year contract in August. Completed partial season with Meyer Shank Racing in 2024. Zero wins/poles/top threes/top fives, two top 10s, two races led for 19 laps, running at the finish of seven out of 10 races. Average starting position of 8.7, average finish of 16.0.

• No. 14 Chevy: Santino Ferrucci. Entering his third season with Foyt, signed a new multi-year deal in September.

2025 KEY POSITIONS

• Team Owner: A.J. Foyt
• Team President: Larry Foyt
• Team Manager: Craig Brooks
• Technical Director: n/a
• No. 4 Race Engineer: James Schnabel
• No. 4 Race Strategist: James Schnabel
• No. 4 Chief Mechanic: Nick Cooper
• No. 14 Race Engineer: Michael Armbrester
• No. 14 Race Strategist: Larry Foyt
• No. 14 Chief Mechanic: Steve McKenzie

MAJOR CHANGES

• Moved the No. 14 car from its traditional home in greater Houston, Texas, to consolidate its running alongside the second car at its shop in Speedway, Indiana. The removal of the split Texas-Indy operation to house the entire team under one roof led to many of the Texas-based crew leaving the program and a need to hire a mostly new group of mechanics and pit crew to field Ferrucci's car.
• Parted with Sting Ray Robb, who joined Juncos Hollinger Racing.
• Welcomed David Malukas in place of Robb.
• Technical Director Michael Cannon left over a contractual/financial dispute during the offseason. The team has not backfilled the position, but Armbrester is fulfilling many of the TD duties.
• Team Penske race engineer James Schnabel, assigned to Ferrucci as part of the technical alliance with Foyt in 2024, has been moved across to engineer Penske-affiliated David Malukas. Armbrester, who engineered Robb last season, has been assigned to Ferrucci.
• With the move to Indy looming, veteran chief mechanic Didier Francesia departed the No. 14 car to take a new shop-based managerial role with Arrow McLaren.
• Taking Francesia's place as chief mechanic on the No. 14 is Steve McKenzie, who joined Foyt from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
• Changed the No. 41 entry to No. 4 (formerly used by Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyffin Simpson in 2024, who's changed to the No. 8).
• Expanded its marketing and business development team with new hires.

MISSION AHEAD

It has been many years since the Foyt team fielded two competitive drivers. The pairing of Ferrucci and Malukas has the potential to be its best combo in decades, and with Ferrucci cracking the top 10 in the first complete season of the Penske-Foyt alliance, there's an expectation for more of the same — another top 10 run — but the change in engineers from Schnabel to Armbrester will be the first order of business to follow.

Chemistry between Ferrucci and Schnabel was found in an instant last year, and while change is rarely preferred when a driver and engineer have achieved big things in their first season, Ferrucci and Armbrester have great familiarity from their time together at Rahal Letterman Lanigan in 2021 when Ferrucci contested five races, and through 2024 when they spent countless hours in shared engineering debriefs. While 2025 marks their first time working together directly, the two should be able to bypass most of the new-duo learning curve.

If there's one significant improvement to be made with Ferrucci and the No. 14 effort, it's in qualifying. The Connecticut native earned the distinction of being IndyCar's 'Pass Master' for the 2024 season, having overtaken more cars than any other driver, and a big reason for that award came with the necessity to pass many cars on race days after unflattering starting positions as most events.

That average starting spot of 14.8 is what kept the No. 14 from placing higher in the standings, and more than any other improvements that might be made, getting Ferrucci a few positions closer to an average start of 10.0 or 11.0 would reward his supreme passing capabilities by rocketing the No. 14 forward in the championship.

Ferrucci's main task: Become a regular presence inside the Firestone Fast 12 qualifying rounds on road and street courses, and take a decent step up in oval qualifying, and podiums will become a routine possibility. Everything about Ferrucci's life and career improves if he and the team make strides in time trials.

For Malukas, 2025 is the season he was meant to have with Arrow McLaren in 2024 that was derailed by a cycling accident and injury prior to the first race that led to being his dropped after sitting idle for four events. He showed immense promise during his rookie and sophomore seasons with Dale Coyne Racing, and continued to impress, at times, in his 10 races to close last year with Meyer Shank.

In those 10 outings with MSR, Malukas starred on Saturdays by qualifying inside the top 10 seven times. And while he wasn't at fault in every instance, he went backwards in eight of the 10 races, earning two top 10 finishes from those eight top 10 starts. The average start of 8.7 and average finish of 16.0 tell that tale.

It's also worth overstating the obvious in how 2025 marks the first time Malukas will have a full season in a top-tier car that's engineered by Penske, and he'll also have his first real experience working inside a top team, thanks to the heavy Penske affiliation and support with his No. 4 car. Malukas got a taste of such things while at Arrow McLaren, but did not benefit from what the team had to offer on the driver development side due to being unable to race for the team.

At Penske-supported Foyt, Malukas is entering a major university where all aspects of his professional capabilities will be under scrutiny and subject to improvement. There's no guarantee he'll replace Team Penske's Will Power whenever Power moves on from the program, but there's also no question as to whether Malukas is at Foyt to be developed and readied if Penske makes that change. If everything goes according to plan, Malukas will be a different driver altogether when the 2026 season arrives. Having Schnabel at his side is another big benefit for the Illinois native.

In the short term, the possibility for Malukas to complement Ferrucci near the front of the field is clear, and to do so, a change of tactics will be required.

Malukas's main task: Converting his raw speed into steady results. At Coyne, he finished 74 percent of his races. At MSR, it dipped to 70 percent, and in both cases, he wasn't responsible for all of the failures to finish. But for the sake of comparison, Ferrucci's finishing rate last year was 88 percent, and for all of his IndyCar races from 2018-2023, it's 95 percent. Reigning three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou has a career finishing rate of 91 percent, which has proven to be his most powerful weapon across those three titles. It's a skill as much as it is a choice by the perennial championship contenders, and it's a skill and choice Malukas needs to onboard.

Being 15-20-percent shy in this category has dire implications in the Driver's championship, which speaks to the overarching need for Malukas to embrace reaching the finish line, on the lead lap, as the key to realizing his full potential.

He can't control mechanical failures or being hit by some drivers, but knowing who to avoid and being able to better recognize trouble when it's brewing ahead would move him closer to that higher finishing percentile the title rivals use to remain in the championship fight.

GOALS

Foyt has an interesting dynamic with Ferrucci, whose best work is on Sundays, and Malukas, whose best work is on Saturdays, and together, they both need to find the half of the puzzle they're missing.

If Malukas can take on some of his teammate's ability to race through the pack and finish, he'll have a stellar season. If Ferrucci can take on some of his teammate's ability to thrill in qualifying and use better starting positions to improve his average race finishes, he'll also have a stellar season.

There's an added need specific to the No. 4, and that's placing inside the top 22 in the Entrants' championship to earn the Leaders Circle contract it lost last season. There's no reasonable scenario where it won't happen with Malukas at the controls.

THOUGHTS FROM TEAM PRESIDENT LARRY FOYT:

"Santino, a lot of things happened for him last year and he’s always improving his craft," Foyt told RACER. "But everyone knew he could. He's a great racer, and even he would always bring up, 'I've got to work on my qualifying.' And I think we just saw him gain confidence there which translated to the pole in Portland.

"Just him getting that confidence and getting that mindset away from, 'I struggle to qualify, and maybe it’s me,' is important. He’s ready to take the next step. I do like the confidence of some of the things I’ve heard him say, and I do think he is a great teammate for anybody. He’s very open. He’s not one who tries to hide anything or play games with teammates and that’s really good, because that’s how we like to operate as a team.

"David’s the new young guy, and no doubt he’s going to be quick and I think it could be a big breakout season for him as well. So it’s exciting days. You’re always optimistic that the things you’ve done in the offseason are in the right direction.

"Just getting a win nowadays in IndyCar is not an easy thing, so that's what we're aiming for; getting back to victory lane. It would be huge for us if we can get that done."