After landing a test date with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in mid-October, speculation began to heat up that Mick Schumacher could be making his way to the NTT IndyCar Series full-time in 2026.
That speculation heated up after the test, and Schumacher's decision to leave Alpine after two seasons competing for their Hypercar team in the World Endurance Championship all but confirmed that an announcement was inevitable.
Though the 26-year-old German is set to drive the No. 47 Honda rather than the No. 30 Honda, he is set to replace Devlin DeFrancesco.
DeFrancesco, who brought significant funding for the team, was dropped after just one season with the team, during which he placed 26th of 27 full-time drivers in the championship standings and did not finish a single race inside the top 10.
One IndyCar seat still open after Mick Schumacher news
With Schumacher, who competed for Haas in Formula 1 in 2021 and 2022, officially set to join veteran Graham Rahal and this year's Rookie of the Year Louis Foster in what might well be Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's best driver lineup in several years, there is just one seat still open in the 2026 IndyCar driver lineup.
And to the surprise of absolutely nobody who has followed their week-before-the-season driver announcement trend over the years, it's a seat at Dale Coyne Racing.
Rinus VeeKay, who was confirmed just before the 2025 season began, departed from the No. 18 Honda to join Juncos Hollinger Racing, and he has since been replaced by reigning Indy NXT champion Dennis Hauger through a partnership with Andretti Global. Hauger's car number hasn't yet been confirmed.
Jacob Abel drove the team's No. 51 Honda in 2025, but like DeFrancesco, the primary reason for him landing his ride was his funding. He too did not finish a single race inside the top 10, and he finished last in the championship standings.
Seeing as how the list of possibilities for the inevitable vacant Dale Coyne Racing seat seems to get longer and longer every offseason, you'd have to think that both Abel and DeFrancesco are both on it.
While Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing were able to get away from a pay driver model to sign Schumacher, Dale Coyne could still opt to continue that approach.
It is worth mentioning that, dating back to 2012, every year that Dale Coyne Racing have had at least one full-time driver, they have finished at least one race on the podium. In 2015 and 2024, they ran strictly part-time drivers, and they failed to finish on the podium.
In 2024, they didn't even finish a race inside the top 12, so VeeKay's success just goes to show that it's not necessarily the equipment holding the team back.
Pairing Hauger with another driver brought in due to talent, rather than funding, would give them a strong yet quiet chance to continue that extremely impressive under-the-radar streak, a streak which started with the late Justin Wilson's final victory at Texas Motor Speedway in June 2012.