When it was revealed that Scott Dixon was free to negotiate with NTT IndyCar Series teams other than Chip Ganassi Racing for next season, not much was initially thought of it.
Chip Ganassi Racing had historically had a period during which Dixon was only allowed to negotiate with them, and year after year, he stuck around on one-year contract extensions.
So they didn't get a deal done within that window this year. Big deal, right?
The 2026 season is his 25th with the team dating back to his CART days, and it's his 24th full campaign with the organization. In the current IndyCar Series, Dixon has only ever driven for Chip Ganassi's team. His lone win for another team came in his third career CART start at Nazareth Speedway for PacWest Racing in 2001.
The Ganassi-Dixon pairing had always felt like one that would end with the latter's retirement. There was never any reason to think otherwise.
Dixon's 59 wins are second on the all-time wins list, but his 58 are easily the most for any driver with any single IndyCar team. The same is true for his six championships; second all-time, but an all-time record with a single team.
But in 2027, he will no longer be with that team, and he will no longer be behind the wheel of the No. 9 Honda, a car that, quite literally, is Scott Dixon – the driver who, for the better part of the past 25 seasons, has been the face of the sport.
Scott Dixon out, and his CGR replacement is obvious
Dixon's impending departure was confirmed earlier this week, and while his next destination hasn't yet been finalized, it's a foregone conclusion that he plans to drive for Arrow McLaren next year.
Zak Brown's team tried to sign him in 2018, before they even entered IndyCar full-time. They tried again in 2022. But this time, the mutual interest has actually led to a deal, a deal once thought to be nothing more than a wild rumor meant to garner up clicks and impressions during the early days of silly season.
Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist has also confirmed his departure from Meyer Shank Racing after 2026, and after having initially been linked to Andretti Global, it appears that he is in line to return to Arrow McLaren, where he spent three years from 2021 to 2023.
Given Nolan Siegel's lack of performance since taking over what was once Rosenqvist's ride in the middle of the 2024 season, it was always believed that he would not be back in 2027.
But with both Dixon and Rosenqvist now in line to join Pato O'Ward at the papaya outfit, that leaves another top driver as the odd man out.
And that top driver is the only driver Ganassi should even consider placing in the PNC Bank car.
Christian Lundgaard has CGR written all over him
Christian Lundgaard had an impressive first season with McLaren in 2025, placing fifth in the championship standings despite not winning a race. This year, he's responsible for both of their victories and all four of their podium finishes, in addition to becoming the first driver since Danica Patrick in 2008 to win an IndyCar race in a No. 7 car.
It's been a pretty good effort from a driver whom many simply assumed would play second fiddle to O'Ward, the same driver who continues to voice his frustration with the very same cars in which the Danish driver is excelling.
Lundgaard, who sits fourth in the standings with victories at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Road America, along with a runner-up finish at Barber Motorsports Park behind Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou following a late (and totally predictable) pit stop issue, could give Chip Ganassi Racing a formidable 1a-1b punch for years to come if he is indeed the driver who gets the call to replace Dixon.
We're not saying Lundgaard can beat Palou over a full season. But what's been obvious over the past few years is that, under the current conditions, nobody can.
Something needed to change. Now change is imminent.
For as legendary as Dixon is, Palou has won four out of five championships since becoming Dixon's teammate, and he's 163 points ahead after 10 of 18 races this year. Dixon's sixth title came during Palou's rookie year at Dale Coyne Racing, and his current championship drought is the longest of his career.
Bringing in the 24-year-old, notably 21 years younger than Dixon, whose track record, after a year full of "almost", includes leading this year's road course standings with multiple victories, could shake up the pecking order to the extent where, at the very least, Palou having a massive points lead at some point during a season is no longer a foregone conclusion.
Lundgaard has struggled on ovals, but that's what everyone said about Palou until he won the Indy 500 a year ago, and then the series oval title, too. There are also only half as many oval races on the schedule as there are road and street course races, and seeing as how Josef Newgarden has won more nearly half the oval races since August 2021, there really haven't been many opportunities for other drivers to shine.
If the only criticism is "he can't win on ovals", that's basically code for "there's nothing really to criticize".
There would perhaps be no better opportunity to shine for Lundgaard than with Chip Ganassi Racing, and the fact that he is even available at this point is mind-boggling.
One of IndyCar's all-time most successful teams, and certainly the most successful team of this era, has a chance to replace an all-time legend with a young driver who has legendary upside, and to pair that newcomer with a driver whose own legendary status continues to grow in spades.
There really shouldn't even be a Dixon replacement short list. Only one name makes sense.
Add us as a preferred source on Google