Four stars of the IndyCar season (that aren’t Alex Palou)

Alex Palou wrapped up his third title in a row, and his fourth IndyCar honour in total in 2025 and was the undoubted star of the season, capped by winning the Indy 500. Including Indy 500 entries, 34 drivers figured in the season, but who were the stars working hard in the background?

Louis Foster(Rookie)

Following a dominant Indy NXT title in 2024, Louis Foster was snapped up by Rahal Letterman Lanigan and the team will certainly be proud of their decision to sign the Englishman.

A pole position, the first rookie to do so on a road course since Romain Grosjean in 2021, multiple strong qualifyings and Fast 6 appearances, and a stunning top 12 finish in the Indy 500 show just how good the 22 year old is and how bright his future is.

To improve, he just needs some luck on his side after a handful of less than desirable results as an outcome of other teams’ strategies and couple of accidents that saw him DNF. This guy has a huge future.

Rinus VeeKay

VeeKay almost missed out on a seat on this season’s grid, but signed with Dale Coyne and hasn’t looked back.

The popular Dutchman hustled his Dale Coyne #18 car to multiple strong finishes inside the top 10, and capped his season with a second place finish at Toronto, a great reward for hard work.

Christian Lundgaard

Christian Lundgaard, in his first season with McLaren has been an undoubted star of the season so far, winless but with five podiums to his name.

He’s been a worthy challenger to many in the grid, including teammate Pato O’Ward and has comfortably beaten his other teammate, Nolan Siegel.

Strong qualifyings and podiums have been key to his season and he’s a very valuable asset to McLaren going into 2026 and could easily challenge for Palou’s crown.

Christian Rasmussen

From one Christian to another. Lundgaard’s fellow Dane Christian Rasmussen had a stellar junior career, winning races everywhere he went and is now bringing to the fore the skills that took him to IndyCar in the first place.

He took his maiden podium with a third for Ed Carpenter Racing at the Bommarito 500 at Gateway and took an incredible top six finish in just his second Indy 500, proving he’s a force to reckoned with on ovals.

These results show exactly why he could return on the 2026 grid, but this is a cutthroat, results and money driven business. I hope to see him back for more.

Honourable mention - PREMA Racing

Largely a back marker team for this season, the rookie Italian outfit have slowly shown signs of improving with top 10 finishes for each of their drivers, Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott. The highlight for the team? Shwartzman’s shock rookie pole at the Indy 500. What a moment.

📸 Image credits: NTT IndyCar Series, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Arrow McLaren, Ed Carpenter Racing, PREMA Racing.