We've reached the point in IndyCar silly season where some of the drivers and seats who aren't talked about as much could be just as much as risk as some that are. Everybody knows "under contract" means hardly anything in racing, and that seems to become evident more and more as the years go on.
Based strictly on performance, which teams could (and should) decide to look elsewhere for 2026, whether their drivers are "under contract" or not?
Here are four drivers who have given their teams more than enough reason to move on if performance means as much as it should.
Devlin DeFrancesco, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
On every single IndyCar race weekend, 10 drivers score a top 10 finish. That means that in every single one of Devlin DeFrancesco's 51 career starts, there have been 10 drivers, per race, who have exceeded his career top 10 total in that single race.
Look; I think he's a good guy. But if we're talking about performance-based objectivity, being a good guy means absolutely nothing in IndyCar. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing hired him because of his funding. Period. And random stat of the day: he had twice as many opening-lap wrecks this year taking out Scott McLaughlin as he has career finishes higher than 12th.
And even that's only true because three drivers were basically disqualified from the Indy 500. It would be 2-0.
With a championship-winning Indy Lights team in Andretti Global, he finished sixth of nine full-time drivers with just two podium finishes in 20 starts. After two disappointing seasons with Andretti at the IndyCar level, he was unsurprisingly cut. Was anybody really expecting a career resurgence two years later?
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in that Rahal has been probably the worst team on the grid this year, but he was beaten handily by rookie teammate Louis Foster, an Indy NXT champion.
Jacob Abel, Dale Coyne Racing
I literally said it all of last year, because in the DW12 era, nothing else has ever been true: Dale Coyne Racing's problem is not the cars; it's the drivers.
Every single year they've run at least one full-time driver since 2012, they've finished on the podium at least once. In 2015 and 2024, they ran only part-time drivers, and they did not finish on the podium. Last year, they didn't even score a single top 10 result.
Lo and behold, Rinus VeeKay, signed two weeks before the season began, kept that streak alive with a runner-up finish in Toronto, and he finished the season 14th in the championship standings.
Meanwhile, rookie Jacob Abel did not finish a single race inside the top 10 this year. He also didn't qualify inside the top 20 and only twice finished there. He was also the lone driver who failed to qualify for the Indy 500.
It took Abel eight years in the Road to Indy to win a race. This move was all about funding, and the lack of on-track payoff shows it.
Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing
Sting Ray Robb is a well-known pay driver, but he did build up a little bit of momentum in my eyes last year by leading so many laps of the Indy 500 and then securing his first top 10 finish with a ninth place effort at Gateway.
But that momentum is gone, as he finds himself ahead of only DeFrancesco and Abel in the championship standings, having yet to score anything higher than ninth once again in what is his third season with his third different team.
Another angle here is that, as we've seen across literally every single IndyCar team other than Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing, Conor Daly is a solid but not spectacular journeyman who is capable of delivering so-so results and bringing the car home in one piece.
Yet compared to Robb's, Daly's results this year somehow do look spectacular.
Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren
Nolan Siegel is probably the most frustrating driver on this list because of how good his seat actually is. He should not be tied for 22nd in points for a McLaren team that have Pato O'Ward up in second place and Christian Lundgaard, who is actually much newer to the program than Siegel, in fifth.
Siegel was brought in during the middle of last season as a highly touted prospect whom Tony Kanaan personally vouched for, and he has done absolutely nothing to prove the critics and doubters wrong.
Three top 10 finishes in 26 starts, including none since being paired up with former Team Penske executive Kyle Moyer, is enough evidence of that in a "what have you done for me lately?" sport. In this case, it's more "what have you done for me at all?"
Right now, he's probably best known for his profanity-laced rant against the entire Penske organization at Gateway when he's the one who messed up (and pretty blatantly) in the first place.
McLaren insist he's not a pay driver, but if that's true, I think that only leads to more questions. The first of those, of course, is why they fired David Malukas, who appears poised to absolutely burn them next year and beyond if he indeed signs with Team Penske. Let's also not forget about the raw deal they gave Theo Pourchaire last summer.
Give them credit, though. They've had an incredible level of patience with Siegel that they've not shown literally anybody else, including those who have performed at much higher levels. But in this case, I'm not sure it's a virtue.
SAFE: Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing
I can't include Kyffin Simpson here amid the breakout season he's had. Yes, he was only 17th in points for a team that has now won three straight and four of the five most recent championships, but there are two sides to that. Has he underperformed his equipment? Probably. Is comparing him to two of the greatest IndyCar drivers of all-time fair? Absolutely not.
Simpson made marked improvements in year two as a teammate to Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, and that's what puts him in an entirely different tier compared to these other four. Last year, he placed no higher than 12th. This year, he had six top 10 finishes, including a fifth, fourth, and a podium, as well as two fastest laps.
And yes, I believe he'd have been in the mix for the top 10 in points if not for the mechanical issue at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the slow pit stop at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He had podium pace at both tracks. That's the type of progression you love to see from a driver who's still only 20. He is taking full advantage of a rare opportunity to learn from the best.
I would also consider Marcus Ericsson safe, or at the very least not deserving to be sacked, at Andretti Global, but that was already covered at length here.