NASHVILLE — It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it this far without any recent movement on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES silly season front, but here we are into the Month of August in a period to where most upcoming free agents are now allowed to talk to other teams.

Wildly enough, just 2 of the top 11 in points don’t have contracts for 2024. You’d think it would be higher profile than that, but when looking at who they are, they really are as big as they come.

Points leader Alex Palou doesn’t know his plans yet and he’s okay with that. The 2021 series champion was almost a foregone conclusion that he’d be heading over to the Arrow McLaren Racing camp in 2024. However, it sounds like Chip Ganassi Racing has made him an offer to stay too. He’s also on the radar for some F1 rides as well.

Which direction does he go?

McLaren may not have a seat available any time soon in F1 which no longer could be attractive to the Spaniard. At the age of 26, he doesn’t have much time to wait before reaching an expiration date that is no longer desirable.

If he’s going to race for McLaren, it would like be here stateside and if he’s doing that, why leave Ganassi in the first place if they can pay him handsomely to now stay?

That could in theory be why Marcus Ericsson isn’t signed…yet. He wants to be a pay driver but Ganassi may have Palou staying in that paid seat. The other 2 rides are pay rides and Ericsson no longer wants to be in that role.

Which is why we’re at the point where he could be leaving and entertaining outside offers.

“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 said back in May. “Yeah, we just need to finalize some sponsorship, and away we go.”

Translation, Ganassi could have been seeking out sponsorship for a fully paid 3rd car but that takes time. Which means if Palou does stay and doesn’t head to McLaren, does this open the door for Ericsson?

Zak Brown said on Carb Day this past May 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.”

Maybe he now doesn’t have to run a fourth car to make it happen? Maybe Ericsson, who once raced for the team when it was Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, comes back to join Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi.

Maybe in a similar instance, Andretti Autosport is waiting too. DHL wanted an international driver which is why they helped get Romain Grosjean to Andretti in favor of Ryan Hunter-Reay. Maybe instead of signing Grosjean to an extension, they’re waiting on Ericsson now.

Ericsson isn’t an internationally recognized as Grosjean, but he is a former F1 driver and not only an annual championship contender, but won the 2022 Indianapolis 500 too.

That would be a massive splash for Andretti to land Ericsson and team him with Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood. It’s a paid ride too.

That could in theory keep Felix Rosenqvist right where he is now. That is so long as he’s not down the road talking with other teams either.

RLL was keen on him last year. Andretti could be in play too. So could Meyer Shank Racing. Could McLaren miss out on him due to him already talking with other teams or does Rosenqvist now stay so long as Palou does with Ganassi?

The fourth Andretti ride would be an interesting fit for Rosenqvist. So could someone like Simon Pagenaud if he ends up shedding the concussion like symptoms. We know that 29 ride is open and Devlin DeFrancesco won’t be back.

He makes a ton of sense to bring his funding to Dale Coyne Racing who’s set to lose at least David Malukas and could quite possibly be set for a reset with a new driver in the 51 as well. DeFrancesco brings them funding.

Malukas makes sense for Ganassi in the sense that he too could bring HMD and DeFrancesco replaces HMD’s funding with his. Ganassi and HMD have ties in Indy NXT and I don’t think their driver, Kyffin Simpson is ready yet. Simpson’s family has Ridgeline ties, big ones at that, and you may have noticed Ridgeline branding on Ganassi cars the last two seasons.

It also helps with the searching for funding for Ganassi’s 2 pay to play rides and gets them a strong driver for it.

Marcus Armstrong wants to stay and if he has enough budget, will. Ganassi could throw out a four driver lineup of Scott Dixon, Palou, Malukas and Armstrong.

What about Takuma Sato? The only Honda teams left could be MSR or even a return to RLL or Andretti.

RLL seems to be done with Jack Harvey and Sato and even Rosenqvist could land there as a result. So could Juri Vips who was already on their radar last offseason.

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 too and a proven fast driver.

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?

MSR has been tied to Tom Blomqvist, Rosenqvist, Pagenaud returning, Daly now, Linus Lundqvist and a few others. One name not mentioned is Helio Castroneves who could be swapping seats with Blomqvist and coming back on an Indy only opportunity again with a full season IMSA drive.

Penske will stay status quo while Foyt may too. Benjamin Pedersen is on a multi-year deal while Santino Ferrucci is said to be a free agent, but I don’t know where he goes if he leaves Foyt unless it’s RLL.

Robert Swartzman is another name to watch that had Ganassi ties last offseason.