The 2022 NTT IndyCar Series was the 111th official championship season of American open-wheel racing and the 27th season under IndyCar Series sanction. The showcase event was the 2022 Indianapolis 500. It was the third year under Penske management after they took over in late 2019.
Will Power, driving for Team Penske, won his second championship, and first since 2014, while Christian Lundgaard, driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, became Rookie of the year. Chevrolet won the engine manufacturer's championship for the first time since 2017.
Background Álex Palou entered the season as the reigning 2021 IndyCar Series champion. Palou won three races in 2021. Hélio Castroneves was the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, beginning his first full-time season in IndyCar since 2017.
The 2022 season was planned to be the final season for the 2.2-litre V6 twin-turbocharged engine package that debuted in 2012. A new 2.4-liter V6 twin-turbocharged hybrid engine formula is set to debut in the series. It was originally scheduled for 2023, however, it has been delayed until 2024.
On April 22, 2022, Firestone announced the introduction of a new environmentally friendly tire for select events. The tire is manufactured from rubber harvested from guayule, a plant requiring less water resources than traditional natural rubber sources. The new tire debuted during the annual Pit Stop Challenge before the Indianapolis 500, and was later used as the softer compound "alternate" tire at the Music City Grand Prix.
Confirmed entries The following teams, entries, and drivers competed in the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season. All teams used a spec Dallara DW12 chassis with universal aero kit and Firestone tires.
TeamEngineNo.Driver(s)Round(s)A. J. Foyt EnterprisesChevrolet4 Dalton KellettAll11 Tatiana Calderón 1, 3–5, 7–9 J. R. Hildebrand2, 614 Kyle Kirkwood AllAndretti Autosport with Curb-AgajanianHonda26 Colton HertaAllAndretti Autosport27 Alexander RossiAll28 Romain GrosjeanAllAndretti Steinbrenner Autosport29AllAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco Andretti and Curb-Agajanian98 Marco Andretti6Arrow McLaren SPChevrolet5 Pato O'WardAll 6 Juan Pablo Montoya5–67 Felix RosenqvistAll Chip Ganassi Racing Honda1 Tony Kanaan 68 Marcus EricssonAll9 Scott DixonAll10 Álex PalouAll 48 Jimmie JohnsonAllHonda18 David Malukas AllDale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing51 Takuma SatoAllDragonSpeed / Cusick MotorsportsChevrolet 25 Stefan Wilson 6 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 23 Santino Ferrucci 6 24 Sage Karam 6 Ed Carpenter RacingChevrolet 20 Conor Daly All 21 Rinus VeeKay All 33 Ed Carpenter 2, 6, 11–12, 15Juncos Hollinger RacingChevrolet 77 Callum Ilott 1–6, 8–17 Santino Ferrucci7Meyer Shank RacingHonda06 Hélio CastronevesAll60 Simon PagenaudAll Paretta Autosport Chevrolet16 Simona de Silvestro8–9, 14, 17Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingHonda15 Graham RahalAll30 Christian Lundgaard All45 Jack HarveyAll Santino Ferrucci2Team PenskeChevrolet2 Josef NewgardenAll3 Scott McLaughlinAll12 Will PowerAll
Driver changes Preseason On July 22, 2021, Meyer Shank Racing announced that the defending and four-time overall Indianapolis 500 winner Hélio Castroneves would drive the No. 06 entry full-time and that Jack Harvey would not be returning to drive the No. 60 entry. On September 14, 2021, Andretti Autosport announced that Ryan Hunter-Reay would not return to the No. 28 entry after 12 seasons with the team. On September 24, 2021, Andretti Autosport announced that Romain Grosjean would drive the No. 28 entry full-time, leaving the Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing entry. On September 27, 2021, Meyer Shank Racing announced that Simon Pagenaud would drive the No. 60 entry full-time, parting ways with Team Penske after seven seasons. On October 5, 2021, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced that Takuma Sato would not return to the No. 30 entry, ending his second stint with the team after four seasons. On October 11, 2021, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced that Jack Harvey would drive the No. 45 entry. On October 19, 2021, Sébastien Bourdais announced that he would not be returning as a full-time driver for A. J. Foyt Enterprises after signing a deal to drive full-time with Chip Ganassi Racing's IMSA team. On October 20, 2021, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced that Christian Lundgaard would drive the No. 30 entry full-time in the 2022 season, having signed a multi-year agreement. On November 4, 2021, Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport announced that Devlin DeFrancesco would drive the No. 29 entry full-time. He replaced the outgoing James Hinchcliffe. On November 10, 2021, A. J. Foyt Enterprises announced that reigning Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood would join the team for the full season in the no. 14 car, replacing Sébastien Bourdais. For winning the 2021 Indy Lights title, Kirkwood received a scholarship to partake in at least three rounds of the championship, including the Indianapolis 500. On December 9, 2021, Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing announced that Takuma Sato would drive the No. 51 entry full-time. On December 14, 2021, James Hinchcliffe announced that he would step back from full-time competition in the IndyCar Series. On December 15, 2021, Jimmie Johnson announced that he would return to the #48 Chip Ganassi Racing entry for the full 2022 season. He had previously exclusively driven road and street course events. On January 14, 2022, Ed Carpenter Racing announced that Conor Daly would drive the No. 20 entry full-time after driving part-time for the team in the previous two seasons. On January 17, 2022, A. J. Foyt Enterprises announced that Tatiana Calderón would drive for the team on the road and street courses in the No. 11 entry. On March 11, 2022, the team announced that J. R. Hildebrand would drive for the entry in all oval events. On February 4, 2022, Max Chilton announced that he has ended his IndyCar career after six seasons.
Midseason changes On March 19, 2022, Jack Harvey suffered an accident during practice for round 2 at Texas Motor Speedway, and was not cleared by IndyCar's medical staff to continue in the event. Santino Ferrucci was signed as an injury substitute for Harvey. On June 1, 2022, Juncos Hollinger Racing announced that Callum Ilott was not cleared to compete in the Detroit Grand Prix due to a hand injury from an accident during the Indianapolis 500. Santino Ferrucci was signed to replace Ilott.
Team changes Preseason Meyer Shank Racing expanded to two full-time entries. Juncos Hollinger Racing campaigned the No. 77 entry full-time after running the final three rounds of 2021 and on September 24, 2021, announced that they would retain Callum Ilott as driver. On August 8, 2021, Arrow McLaren SP announced that McLaren Racing had purchased a 75% majority ownership stake in the team, effective after the 2021 season. Since 2020, McLaren and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports had operated a joint entry with the former having no stake in the team. As part of this announcement, McLaren CEO Zak Brown also confirmed that the team would retain drivers Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. With the addition of Jack Harvey, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing expanded to three full-time entries in the 2022 season. On October 26, 2021, Team Penske confirmed that they would downsize to three full-time entries for the 2022 season. On November 4, 2021, Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed it would field a fifth car at the Indianapolis 500. On January 17, 2022, it was confirmed that Tony Kanaan would drive this car. On December 9, 2021, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced that they would expand to field two entries in the 2022 Indianapolis 500 with Santino Ferrucci and Sage Karam. On December 10, 2021, Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan announced that they had ended their partnership after five seasons together. On December 15, 2021, Dale Coyne Racing announced that they had formed a partnership with HMD Motorsports, naming 2021 Indy Lights runner-up David Malukas as their driver. Ed Carpenter Racing stated that it would add a third part-time entry for owner/driver Ed Carpenter while announcing Conor Daly as the full-time driver of the No. 20 entry. Initially only confirmed for the Indianapolis 500, on March 3, 2022, the team announced that Carpenter would compete in all oval events during the season. On February 2, 2022, Marshall Pruett of RACER.com reported that Carlin had ended their IndyCar program and entered into a technical alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Midseason On April 19, 2022, Paretta Autosport announced that they had formed a technical alliance with Ed Carpenter Racing and committed to run at least three races in 2022 with Simona de Silvestro. The team elected to run the rounds at Road America, Mid-Ohio, and the Nashville street circuit as their initial three race entries. On May 5, 2022, DragonSpeed announced that they would enter the 2022 Indianapolis 500, returning to the series for the first time since 2020. DragonSpeed entered a partnership with Cusick Motorsports and Stefan Wilson drove their No. 25 entry. On July 11, 2022, A. J. Foyt Racing confirmed that its No. 11 entry would not compete at Toronto due to outstanding payments from the entry's primary sponsor. According to The Indianapolis Star, the entry returning to the grid was dependent on the sponsor making financial amends, which did not happen during the rest of the season.
Schedule This table shows 2022 IndyCar season schedule.Official IndyCar schedule document
Icon Legend Oval/Speedway Road course Street circuit
Rd. Date Race name Track Location 1 February 27 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Streets of St. Petersburg St. Petersburg, Florida 2 March 20 XPEL 375 Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas3 April 10 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Streets of Long Beach Long Beach, California 4 May 1 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama Barber Motorsports Park Birmingham, Alabama 5 May 14 GMR Grand Prix Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana 6 May 29 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Indianapolis Motor Speedway 7 June 5 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Belle Isle Street Circuit Detroit, Michigan 8 June 12 Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin 9 July 3 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio 10 July 17Honda Indy Toronto Exhibition Place Toronto, Ontario 11 July 23 Hy-VeeDeals.com 250 presented by DoorDash Iowa Speedway Newton, Iowa 12 July 24 Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google 13 July 30 Gallagher Grand Prix Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course Speedway, Indiana 14 August 7 Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Nashville Street Circuit Nashville, Tennessee 15 August 20 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 World Wide Technology Raceway Madison, Illinois 16 September 4 Grand Prix of Portland Portland International Raceway Portland, Oregon 17 September 11 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California
Schedule changes On August 19, 2021, it was confirmed that Iowa Speedway would return to the schedule. On September 19, 2021, the full schedule was released. The changes included Texas and Detroit becoming single races, rather than doubleheaders, and a return to Toronto, having been removed from both the 2020 and the 2021 schedules due to travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. St Petersburg was returned to the opening race of the season and was run in February, marking the earliest season start since 2000. Texas was moved to the 2nd race of the season and was held on March 20. Long Beach returned to its traditional date in April, having been moved to September the previous season. On November 3, 2021, the Detroit City Council and Penske Entertainment reached an agreement to move the Detroit Grand Prix back to the downtown streets around The Renaissance Center, making the 2022 event the final time IndyCar raced at Belle Isle.
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