IndyCar: Being a rookie in the strangest of seasons

Dalton Kellett reflected on his rookie IndyCar season with A.J. Foyt Enterprises and what he was able to take away from it amid the turmoil of 2020.

The 14-race 2020 IndyCar season ended on Sunday, October 25 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, where Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was crowned champion.

But one rookie, the lone part-time driver of last year’s rookie class, had already completed his schedule before the season finale.

We recently spoke with Dalton Kellett, who competed part-time for A.J. Foyt Enterprises behind the wheel of the #14 Chevrolet (five races) and the #41 Chevrolet (three races) last season and made his eighth and final start of the year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in early October, about his rookie season.

“I think in terms of what we set out to do this year, especially once COVID[-19] kicked in and we knew we’d be really fighting an uphill battle with limited track time and basically no testing, the goal really was to get control of the car, get to know the team, develop the car from where we were starting. In that regard, I think we definitely achieved our goal,” Kellett said.

“I think some more consistency on the road course finishes would have been nice, but I was really happy with our performance at Indy, especially qualifying. I think we showed well, given where we were just in terms of overall pace, and then I think we developed a good race car and the car felt really good. That’s a really good takeaway for the year.”

Kellett ended up crashing out of the Indy 500 following a solid eighth row qualifying effort that saw him start alongside teammate and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan.

He gave credit to his three veteran teammates, including Kanaan, for helping him throughout his rookie season.

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“Having the veterans on board in Seb[astien Bourdais], Tony and Charlie [Kimball] was definitely a big help for a rookie,” he stated. “I think when, especially at Indy, you look at the one-car efforts like DragonSpeed and those guys, it can be really hard going into it solo without having any feedback.

“Especially Tony at Indy; he’s got a huge amount of experience. Obviously Seb didn’t get all of his races in so I wasn’t able to be around him as much, but still having him there…it was good to see how he works with the engineers and stuff that he focuses on.”

Kellett wrapped up his rookie season having recorded top finishes of 20th place, which he secured in the doubleheader at Road America in mid-July.

While the results weren’t quite what he wanted, he finished all seven of his non-Indy 500 races, all of which were road course races. Only 12 other drivers finished each of those seven races, including only one other rookie.

Kellett is set to return to A.J. Foyt Enterprises as a full-time driver in 2021 alongside Sebastien Bourdais. Kellett is set to pilot the #4 Chevrolet, with Bourdais behind the wheel of the #14 Chevrolet, and if the upcoming season resembles anything like what we’ve seen from the team as of late, the 2021 season should see them take some pretty big steps forward.

The 2021 season is scheduled to get underway this Sunday, April 18 at Barber Motorsports Park with the Honda Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst, which is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET.