When Nolan Siegel crashed while laying it all on the line in an attempt to qualify his Dale Coyne Racing Honda into the 2024 Indy 500, which would have knocked Graham Rahal out of the field of 33 for the second consecutive season, he garnered praise from the series veteran, who noted that IndyCar fans should remember the name and that he would be around for years to come.
Skip ahead not even two years later, and Rahal is publicly (even if indirectly) labeling Siegel a "nut".
There's a saying in racing that "when you run back with the squirrels, you're gonna find a nut", and it's hard to imagine that Rahal meant anything other than that when he posted a squirrel emoji after Siegel nearly caused a massive accident involving the driver of the No. 15 Honda on the streets of Arlington, Texas two weekends ago.
— Graham Rahal (@GrahamRahal) March 16, 2026
Even aside from consistently blatant disrespect and hazardous driving, Siegel has had a disastrous start to his IndyCar stint with Arrow McLaren, after team principal Tony Kanaan allegedly risked his own job to get him in a car as soon as possible toward the middle of the 2024 season.
Siegel was supposedly not brought in by McLaren because of his funding, but that was later revealed to be false in documents that emerged during McLaren's court case against Alex Palou over the offseason. He is, quite literally, a pay driver.
In 30 races with the team, Siegel has just three top 10 finishes, eight DNFs, and another DNS due to a crash the day before. He finished 22nd in his first full season in the championship standings a year ago, while teammates Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard, who was actually more of a newcomer than Siegel, finished second and fifth, respectively.
Kanaan said over the offseason that Siegel needed to finish in the top 10 in the championship standings this season for him to justify keeping him on board for 2027. At this point, it's hard to imagine that Siegel will even remain on board for the rest of 2026. He's 24th out of 25 drivers in the standings, and he's just one point out of last place.
The Arlington race ended with Siegel crashing into the back of Dale Coyne Racing's Romain Grosjean on the final restart, even before the restart actually happened, and it was yet another error to add to Siegel's long list of mishaps since taking over behind the wheel of the No. 6 Chevrolet in June 2024.
There is already speculation about who could replace Siegel in 2027, assuming he isn't dropped by the team before then. And let's be frank: McLaren have certainly cut ties with other drivers for a lot less.
Yet even though they weren't able to sign Alex Palou like they initially wanted to for 2024, McLaren still had other options instead of Siegel. Here are five who quite literally slipped through their fingertips.
David Malukas
McLaren signed David Malukas to drive the No. 6 Chevrolet after the Alex Palou situation didn't work out. Yet after Malukas missed the season's first three races due to a wrist injury he suffered in an offseason mountain biking accident, they dropped him as they allegedly sought stability.
It took until the season's eighth race at Laguna Seca for McLaren to find Nolan Siegel as Malukas' full-time replacement. Yet by that point, Malukas was literally back in the series already, competing full-time for Meyer Shank Racing. After an impressive 2025 season with A.J. Foyt Enterprises, he now finds himself competing for Team Penske, and he's already begun to make McLaren pay.
Felix Rosenqvist
Felix Rosenqvist was the driver whom Palou would have replaced in 2023, had McLaren won their initial battle against Chip Ganassi Racing for Palou's services after Palou stated his intention to leave the No. 10 Honda following the 2022 season. When that didn't work out, Rosenqvist remained with the team.
He was shifted over from the No. 7 Chevrolet to the new No. 6 Chevrolet to make way for Alexander Rossi, indicating that he was still on the chopping block. He ended up being dropped for Malukas, who never ended up competing for Arrow McLaren anyway. Quite frankly, this has worked out for Rosenqvist, who has had more success at Meyer Shank Racing over the past few years than he ever had at Arrow McLaren.
Alexander Rossi
This one would have been more difficult, since Alexander Rossi was already driving for Arrow McLaren in 2024. But instead of dumping him for Christian Lundgaard for 2025, Lundgaard simply could have been confirmed by the team, and the Rossi decision could have waited.
Yes, Rossi wanted to shore up his own future, but he didn't end up signing with Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2025 season until after the 2024 season ended anyway.
At that point, McLaren could have seen that Siegel wasn't the answer, and they could have rolled with Rossi, O'Ward, and Lundgaard for 2025 and beyond. We emphasize "beyond", because the team reportedly didn't want to give him a two-year deal. Would that really have been such a bad idea, given how badly Siegel is still struggling in what would have been year number two of that Rossi extension?
Callum Ilott
Callum Ilott was one of the two drivers who stepped in for Malukas early in the 2024 season, and after a solid two-year stint with Juncos Hollinger Racing to open up his IndyCar career, he did a respectable job in the No. 6 car, finishing 11th in both of his starts.
One such finish came in the Indy 500, which saw him battle back from a pre-race mechanical issue. He ended up competing full-time for Prema Racing in 2025, and he finished the season with four top nine finishes in the final five races, only to be left without a seat for 2026 as Prema Racing continue to deal with financial uncertainty.
Theo Pourchaire
The other driver who initially replaced Malukas was Theo Pourchaire, who was later confirmed as the full-time driver of the No. 6 Chevrolet for the remainder of the 2024 season.
Yet just two races after that confirmation happened, following respectable finishes of 10th and 13th place, he was replaced by Siegel, as McLaren supposedly felt that Siegel would have been snatched up by another team if they didn't sign him right then and there.
The fact that Pourchaire was tied to the Sauber Formula 1 team and technically could have been called upon at any time likely contributed to the decision, as McLaren made clear following the move to cut Malukas that they were seeking stability. But that never happened, and again, why confirm him full-time in the first place? All things considered, the whole "stability" theme seemed a bit counterintuitive.