Start the baby watch.

For Felix Rosenqvist, the first official day of fatherhood is projected to be May 14. You know what that means: The Swede will be in the midst of practicing for his eighth Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, a race of significance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Fast Thursday,” Rosenqvist said Jan. 27 of that spot in the hectic May schedule as he discussed impending fatherhood during the first of two NTT INDYCAR SERIES Content Days in Indianapolis. “I may or may not be there. At least we’re at home, which is nice. I (won’t be) in Portland.”

Rosenqvist and his wife, Emille, who live in Indianapolis, are having a girl.

Alexander Rossi and his wife, Kelly, gave birth on May 11 last year. His juggling advice to Rosenqvist, who happens to be a new neighbor: “Good luck,” he said, laughing.

As Juan Pablo Montoya once said, drivers can expect to lose a couple tenths of a second in performance when their family priorities shift. Rosenquist isn’t concerned about that, pointing to the success of Alex Palou, who has won two of his four NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships since his daughter, Lucia, was born in December 2023.

“Alex seems to be nailing it, though, I have to say,” the driver of Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda said. “Everyone thought he was going to get slower … ‘How do we beat Alex?’ Pop out the kid, and there you go.”

Rosenqvist is joining a large list of INDYCAR SERIES drivers who are fathers. Including Palou, Scott Dixon (three children), Graham Rahal (three), Josef Newgarden (two), Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Rossi. Additional fathers who are expected in this year’s “500” include Ed Carpenter (three children), Ryan Hunter-Reay (three), Takuma Sato (two) and Helio Castroneves.

Siegel Understands Kanaan’s Expectations

Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan has set the bar high for Nolan Siegel’s second full season in the No. 6 Chevrolet: Finish in the top 10 in this year’s standings after finishing 22nd last year or he “doesn’t think I can keep him.” Siegel is optimistic he can reach that objective in the final year of his contract.

“To me, it doesn't really change anything,” Siegel said. “The goal for me is always to finish as far up the grid as I possibly can and perform at my best all the time. So, I show up every weekend, I'm pushing myself as far as I can and trying to perform the best that I possibly can. …

“Whatever the expectation is, I'm still going to be doing the same thing.”

Kanaan raised eyebrows, including those of Siegel, when he made those comments last month to Motorsport.com. Siegel said he still hasn’t met with his boss, but he doesn’t think there’s a need to either. He figures they will “chat” when the opportunity presents itself.

Meanwhile, Siegel, who is still only 21 years old, understands the challenges of competing in the most competitive series in motorsports.

“You do have to be almost perfect every weekend,” he said. “Being new, especially with such a long offseason, so little testing, so little time in the car, it takes time. It takes time to learn. There's no real way to accelerate that process.

“That's part of the reason I'm so excited for 2026. I feel like I learned a huge amount in 2025. I'm lucky to have TK and great teammates around me that are teaching me so much. I feel like I'm in a much better spot going into 2026 than I was in 2025 with all those people around me.”

Pato O'Ward Graham Rahal

Odds and Ends

  • Rahal (photo, above, right) told new Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Mick Schumacher that Mick’s father, Michael, was likely more of a motivation for him to pursue a career in motorsports than his own father, Bobby.
  • Pato O’Ward (photo, above, left) was clearly pleased with his new FOX commercial, which debuted this week with him speeding through a neighborhood in a trash truck. “It was one of the coolest shoots I’ve ever been part of,” he said. “It involved me doing something that I’m more familiar with. It was just enough funny, lighthearted (and) on brand, so to speak. As soon as I heard the idea, I was all for it.”
  • O’Ward on the new Arrow McLaren facility in northwest Indianapolis, which previously was Andretti Global’s HQ. “It feels like we’re going from a studio apartment to the penthouse considering where we were.” Arrow McLaren will officially debut the facility next month.
  • Newgarden said his team’s plan for improvement this season is simple to explain. “If we don’t want to finish 12th again (in the standings), we’ve got to finish more races,” he said. The finish was his lowest in the series since 2014.
  • Newgarden said INDYCAR’s recent tire test at Phoenix Raceway was “weird” given that Power wasn’t his Team Penske teammate and Ron Ruzewski, the former Penske general manager who like Power has moved to Andretti Global, wasn’t available to him to talk tire selection. “It was so silly,” Newgarden said. “It’s going to take some time to get used to we’re not on the same squad.”
  • Rossi said he and podcast co-host James Hinchcliffe have new athletic adventures coming. Rossi must run 13.1 miles – the distance of a half-marathon – and Hinchcliffe must ride 100 miles on a bike. “(Hinchcliffe) was talking aggressively, thinking I’d never say yes to this,” Rossi said. “He hasn’t ridden a bike in the better part of a decade, so I jumped on that opportunity.”
  • Louis Foster arrived at Content Days with a mustache that has become his look. But there will be a change. Last year he agreed to shave it for someone’s charitable donation of $1,000. (He did win his first series pole that weekend at Road America.) If asked to participate this year, his minimum price will be $10,000. “Dario (Franchitti) threw that in like it was a blink of an eye,” Foster said. “We’re upping the financial requirement.”
  • Christian Lundgaard’s family had a recent bet that anyone scoring a hole-in-one in golf would have to get a cat. Lundgaard lost a different competition, but he still had to get a cat. “Three days ago, my girlfriend goes and makes a hole-in-one,” he said. “Now we have to get another cat. Who is left (to care for) the cat? I am.”
  • Sometimes the signing of contracts isn’t as glamorous as it might seem. Jack Harvey said he signed to return to Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s “500” program “at the season finale in the parking lot (at Nashville Superspeedway).”