Felipe Nasr took the U.S. by storm off the race track in April with the release of 2DIE4 in IMAX, and now he’s looking to do it once more – this time on the track – in North America’s premier open-wheel racing series.
The Brazilian, 33, has been on standby for Team Penske, with star Josef Newgarden nursing a lingering foot injury he suffered in May’s Indianapolis 500.
Nasr was in Detroit during open practice and remained on active standby at Road America and then again this past weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Felipe Nasr is on site at Road America on standby for Josef Newgarden. pic.twitter.com/ozhRvfqMVN
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 19, 2026
Nasr’s American racing profile got a big boost thanks to 2DIE4, winner of the best documentary feature award at the 2025 Motor Sports Film Awards. It shattered the boundaries of nonfiction storytelling, fusing feature-film with unscripted reality.
Shot in real time, under the high-speed conditions of the world’s toughest race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, every frame captures life-altering stakes as they happen. At its core, 2DIE4 is a racing film told from an unprecedented vantage point: the driver’s own mind. Through exclusive and intimate access to Nasr, audiences experience his ambitions, fears, triumphs, and missteps as he chases the crown at the 24.
Now Nasr is chasing an opportunity in IndyCar.
It's an opportunity that has remained as elusive as a 24 Hours of Le Mans victory for the talented driver.
Penske leaned on Nasr for last week's multi-team test. He navigated the 13-turn, 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio natural terrain road course and ended up 11th out of 16 drivers but finished an impressive 0.0554 seconds behind David Malukas and just over a tenth of a second back from Scott McLaughlin.
“That test came along after seeing what's going to be the situation for Josef, what's best for him," Nasr told Motorsport.com.
Nasr added that it’s “always fantastic when I can have more mileage in that car. It’s not something that I drive every day.”
Nasr is accomplished in motorsport. He competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Porsche Penske Motorsport and competed in Formula 1 from 2015 to 2016. In endurance racing, he has won three IMSA SportsCar Championship titles. Among his notable career wins are the 12 Hours of Sebring (2019, 2025, and 2026) and the 24 Hours of Daytona (2022).
Tired of Hollywood racing movies where every upshift increases the rate of acceleration? We hear you.
— Hagerty (@Hagerty) January 27, 2026
The antidote? "2Die4," a nonfiction featuring Porsche driver Felipe Nasr and filmed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 🏁
Click the pic for more info ⬇️ https://t.co/Ui3F3nn01A
Since joining Porsche Penske Motorsport in 2023, Nasr has posted eight wins, but for a driver who has won virtually everything there is to win in sports cars, this was his first time in a single seater in IndyCar since October.
Could Roger Penske give him a permanent seat?
“Oh, ask him,” Nasr told Motorsport.com when pressed on the topic. “You should ask him.”
We could add Nasr to the front end of “silly season”, as IndyCar has already made its fair share of headlines this past week.
It was announced that 2026 Indy 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist would be leaving Meyer Shank Racing after three years and Scott Dixon would be leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after 25 years, opening the door for the pair of Indy 500 champs to replace Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel at Arrow McLaren.
Arrow McLaren also plan to bring back another former series champion and Indy 500 winner in Ryan Hunter-Reay to drive their fourth entry in the Indy 500 for the second straight year.
But how about adding a movie star to the series for 2027?
Nasr has come close before.
In November 2024, he tested at Thermal Club with Team Penske, where he worked closely with Indy 500-winning engineer Luke Mason. In October 2025, he participated in a private Mid-Ohio test for Team Penske, where he again led the session, outperforming other rookies and evaluation drivers such as fellow Brazilian Caio Collet.
Testing has become the norm for Nasr in IndyCar after the COVID-19 pandemic squashed his IndyCar aspirations in March 2020. He was all set to debut for Carlin Motorsport in St. Petersburg, but the race was postponed until October, putting his debut on hold. He ultimately did not compete during the 2020 season, and he's still yet to run an IndyCar race.
However, these prior tests highlight Nasr’s adaptability, and his previous experience in F1 and IMSA translates effectively to IndyCar.
In the meantime, Newgarden, a two-time series champion (2017, 2019) and a two-time Indy 500 winner (2023, 2024), continues to recover from his left foot injury. He has raced through the injury, finishing 10th in Detroit and winning at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway before finishing 22nd at Road America after a post-race penalty dropped him from ninth. He was also ninth at Mid-Ohio over the weekend.
In short, there’s been no shortage of drama in the IndyCar Series on the silly season front. So perhaps nothing is far-fetched after all. Maybe “The Captain” will take a seat in the director’s chair at Nashville Superspeedway on July 19 for IndyCar's next round, and tell Nasr “ACTION!”, the way only Roger Penske could.
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