INDIANAPOLIS — Word leaked that the noise of Takuma Sato ran his last race for Chip Ganassi Racing ended up being all for not. Sato will run out his contract with CGR for the remaining two oval race weekends at Iowa next month and World Wide Technology Raceway in August in the No. 11 Dallara-Honda.

Marcus Armstrong will run the road/street course section still which leaves the 11 ride 100% full for the 2023 season. But, what about 2024?

Chip Ganassi Racing has some interesting scenarios ahead. Right now, they have three of the top five in points including 1-2. Among their four-car effort, 3 of the 4 seats have openings for next season.

We know that Scott Dixon isn’t going anywhere. But what do they do with Armstrong who’s been stellar as a rookie this season? I think that they have to wait to see what happens with Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson first.

It was pretty much a done deal that Palou is gone at seasons end. However, noise started growing more recently that he may end up back with Ganassi after all. How true is that?

Word is Palou wants to be an F1 driver. McLaren has an INDYCAR team as well as one in F1. It made sense in Palou’s case to end up in Papaya. However, I even wondered last year, with two young drivers in multi-year deals for McLaren’s pair of F1 seats, where does that leave Palou for his F1 future with them?

He’s a star right now where he currently is. McLaren has two wins in the last 34 INDYCAR races. What if he leaves Ganassi for McLaren’s INDYCAR team for a season or two and looks worse than Pato O’Ward does in a direct comparison and also his Ganassi replacement does just as well as he did in the 10 car?

That could hurt Palou’s stock of moving over to F1.

Palou is also 26 and you don’t get many opportunities in F1 as an older rookie these day, if any. Leaving a championship level ride with Ganassi and going to McLaren in INDYCAR is a massive risk. However, the damage was already done and I feel like the initial reports that I’ve heard of him being in the McLaren camp for 2024 was a foregone conclusion is too strong to be wrong.

What does that mean for Ericsson? He wants to be a pay driver and told Kevin Lee at Road America that he’s frustrated that a deal has yet been done to stay with Ganassi. He feels like he’s done enough to merit being a pay driver over there, not one paying for the seat. As days go by, the more time that also goes by and an offer to make him a pay driver isn’t offered, the more grumbling Ericsson is going to have.

Ganassi is actively searching for funding to make it happen. Ericsson feels like that’s somewhat disrespectful to be put in this position. For someone second in points, do you want to go through this again like they did a year ago with Palou? Do you risk a potential championship run due to contractural issues?

I mean if Palou bolts, you have sponsorship on the 10 car that you could slide Ericsson over into. However, what if those reports of Palou staying are true….

It would cost Ganassi a large sum to keep Palou and could in theory be the primary reason as to why he’s looking for funding to help keep Ericsson.

“I’m not a big guy to be talking about our deals or our contracts or anything, but Marcus has a big future in the sport, and I want it to be on this team, sure, “Ganassi says. “Yeah, we just need to finalize some sponsorship, and away we go.”

Still, if you’re Chip Ganassi, you can’t let literally the top two drivers in points walk out that door at seasons end. But there’s also a possibility that they can jump ship too.

Deadlines are fast approaching and if you don’t have at least one of these drivers locked up in the next 2-4 weeks, then this could get very interesting.

Ericsson has offers but he can’t do anything with them until later this summer. I know he wants to stay put, but he can’t just devalue himself by doing so. As far as where he could wind up, Zak Brown said that they’d be interested in him if they expand to a four-car operation. That’s a tall ask though to expand that much and to do so twice in the last two years.

“I think he’s probably the top free agent, so I’m a little surprised, given how strong things are commercially that, reading the quotes, that his current team doesn’t have the commercial confidence that they can sell the Indy 500 winner and championship contender and sign him up,” Brown said on Carb Day. “I understand they probably have a little bit of time so I’m sure they’re working at it, but I wouldn’t let him go if he was driving for me, and I would have the commercial confidence that I could get the sponsorship. But that’s not my issue. So, if he does become a free agent and we run a fourth car, he would definitely be heavily under consideration.”

Andretti Autosport would make a ton of sense too and I wonder what the status is for Romain Grosjean next season. The 28 car has funding from DHL. Grosjean and Andretti expected a deal done during the Month of May. That deadline came and went with no news.

Are they waiting on Ericsson?

Devlin DeFrancesco brings a ton of money and has improved drastically this season. While it was once a foregone conclusion that he was going to be out of the 29 car, maybe that tide has turned to him possibly coming back.

Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood we know will be there, but the jury is still out on who joins them. A Swedish combination of Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist make a ton of sense to land there in 1 of both of those seats.

The Swedish duo also have to both be on the shortlist for RLL as it seems like Jack Harvey won’t be renewed for 2024. Christian Lundgaard is operating on a multi-year deal and while Graham Rahal wanted to get through the Month of May before figuring out his future. I don’t see him leaving RLL. They do have a seat that likely is opening and Juri Vips could play into that equation if they don’t go after Rosenqvist and/or Ericsson.

Honda has both Meyer Shank Racing cars open right now as well. Tom Blomqvist is rumored to be possibly making a switch. Rosenqvist makes sense to head there too and so does keeping Simon Pagenaud.

Then you have Callum Ilott who’s got options to get out of his multi-year deal with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Ganassi would make a ton of sense there as long as Ilott has a budget. Or does Ganassi elect for Ilott to take over the funded 10 ride and pay him less than Ericsson would command for it?

Ilott is an interesting one to watch.

What about Ed Carpenter Racing. Rinus VeeKay is on a multi-year deal but what do they do with the No. 20 entry? Does BitNile come back or reunite with Conor Daly somewhere?

We do know that both Foyt cars should remain the same and all three Penske drivers are back. The rest is up in the air.

Confirmed

Chevrolet (8):

Team Penske (3): Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Will Power

Arrow McLaren Racing (2): Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi

AJ Foyt Racing (2): Santino Ferrucci, Benjamin Pedersen

Ed Carpenter Racing (1): Rinus VeeKay

Honda (4):

Andretti Autosport (2): Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood

Chip Ganassi Racing (1): Scott Dixon

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1): Christian Lundgaard

Open Rides

Chip Ganassi Racing (3): No. 8, No. 10, No. 11

Arrow McLaren Racing (1): No. 6

Andretti Autosport (2): No. 28, No. 29

Meyer Shank Racing (2): No. 06, No. 69

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (2): No. 15, No. 30

Ed Carpenter Racing (1): No. 20

Dale Coyne Racing (2): No. 18, No. 51

Juncos Hollinger Racing (2): No. 77, No. 78

Free Agents

Alex Palou

Marcus Ericsson

Felix Rosenqvist

Callum Ilott

Graham Rahal

Marcus Armstrong

Simon Pagenaud

Romain Grosjean

Takuma Sato

Helio Castroneves

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Conor Daly

David Malukas

Jack Harvey

Devlin DeFrancesco

Sting Ray Robb

Agustin Canapino