Kyffin Simpson finally breaking through in sophomore IndyCar season
The #8 Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) car is seldom the one fighting at the front of the NTT IndyCar Series field, but progress is starting to show for its young occupant. 20-year-old IndyCar sophomore Kyffin Simpson is enjoying a strong start to the 2025 season – particularly in qualifying – and the future looks bright…
When IndyCar finally adopted a charter system in time for the 2025 season, CGR had to cut back from its five-car lineup in 2024 to just three for this season. A new technical partnership with fellow Honda customer Meyer Shank Racing saw one of those five – Marcus Armstrong – jump ship to the smaller outfit but that still left one driver from 2024 out in the cold.
CGR had moved quickly to secure Linus Lundqvist for a full-time drive in 2024 after his impressive debut performances in 2023, but Simpson was able to bring much more sponsorship backing than the Swedish ace could ever dream of. With Lundqvist on the sidelines despite being more impressive last year than Simpson and (arguably) Armstrong, the driver of the #8 car has been susceptible to criticism over being an underserving ‘pay driver.’
It was not as if Simpson came out of nowhere when he secured a full-time drive as a rookie with CGR last year. Hehas actually been a CGR development driver since 2022.
His 2024 campaign began strongly with a 12th place and fastest lap in the season opener at St. Petersburg but that was his best result of the year. The Indianapolis 500 was arguably his most promising event, qualifying a very respectable 18thand finishing 21st.
Now in 2025 continuing alongside two of the best IndyCar drivers of all time in Alex Palou and Scott Dixon, Simpson has enjoyed a noticeable upturn in performance, particularly in qualifying. 15th place in St. Petersburg translated to 18th at the flag, but at the Thermal Club he moved forward five spots from 20th on the grid to 15th.
Then came Long Beach, where the Caymanian scored his best result yet with 10th place, seven higher than where he started. CGR ran Simpson on a different strategy that required some serious tyre management in a race without any yellow flagsbut he made it work for his best result yet in IndyCar.
As evidence of the progress Simpson has been making in 2025, he has qualified 10th in both of the last two rounds at Barber and the IMS road course. He fell down the order during the race at Barber Motorsports Park and then never even started last Saturday’s race in Indianapolis thanks to a mechanical issue that forced him into the pits before the green flag.
Perhaps most impressively of all though, Simpson was well ahead of his six-time champion teammate Dixon in qualifying at both of the last two events. Although Palou might be in a league of his own right now in the #10 car, Simpson is clearly starting to progress but the next step is to match the consistency of his teammate Dixon.
It is not uncommon to see the experienced New Zealander qualify in the mid-pack, but Dixon and his #9 crew arerenowned for their ability to clinically move up the order during races. This will be the next step for Simpson in his efforts to quash any ‘pay driver’ accusations and keep his coveted seat at one of IndyCar’s most successful teams in the long term, and there will hopefully be much more to come from the 20-year-old in the future.
written by Sol Ahmed / Media Credit: Penske Entertainment