Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist joining Arrow McLaren next year makes sense but also includes a great deal of “why?”
–Why would Scott Dixon leave Chip Ganassi Racing after 25 years, the place where he has won six INDYCAR titles and the 2008 Indianapolis 500, to go to Arrow McLaren?
–Why would Felix Rosenqvist go to a team that released him a few years ago?
Dixon was the guest on “SPEED with Harvick and Buxton” this week to talk about his decision and FOX Sports caught up with Felix Rosenqvist after Rosenqvist’s trip to The White House on Monday to get some of the answers.
“I thought a lot about the situation that I was in, what the future really holds — there were a lot of things that kind of kept me up at night, and a lot of it was actually, ‘Do I finish my career without trying anything else?’” Dixon told FOX Sports racing analysts Will Buxton and Kevin Harvick.
Dixon and Rosenqvist will replace Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel on the Arrow McLaren roster next season. Lundgaard has two wins this year, but Rosenqvist has had the biggest — a win in the 2026 Indianapolis 500. Dixon’s move is one of the biggest in INDYCAR history as he earned 58 of his 59 career victories at Ganassi.
“The one thing that kept kind of nagging at me was, ‘Should I try a different team, be with a different environment?’” Dixon said. “Don’t get me wrong. I love Chip. He’s one of my best friends.
“Trust me, it was an extremely tough conversation that we had a couple of times, just about the possibility and what it would look like and where and when it would kind of happen. … Ultimately, it came down to I need to try something different for right now.”
The hirings were at least in part spurred by McLaren’s goal to win the Indy 500. For Dixon, joining the organization founded by Bruce McLaren, was part of the decision.
“I’ve always been a Bruce McLaren fan, a fellow Kiwi, that whole situation, especially coming from New Zealand — event talking to my dad about Bruce and when he watched him, and for me straight up I’ve just been a big fan of Bruce McLaren and obviously his family,” Dixon said on the show.
“When you look at it just from the New Zealand historic value and what it means for people back home, that is an easy sell right there.”
Felix Rosenqvist called his move to McLaren the “hardest decision” of his career.
Rosenqvist was released from the team a few years ago when it thought it would be landing Alex Palou, who eventually remained at Chip Ganassi Racing. Rosenqvist went from McLaren to Meyer Shank Racing for the last three years.
“It wasn’t like we were terrible [when I raced for McLaren],” Rosenqvist instructed me Monday. “We really had a fairly good second and third 12 months collectively. What I mentioned once they made the choice, “OK, it is enterprise. I want you guys one of the best. I actually beloved working with you, and perhaps we’ll see one another sooner or later.’
“That is actually what I mentioned. Instances change, and right here we’re. So I haven’t got any animosity towards the previous or something. It’s sport. It’s simply enterprise. You possibly can’t drive anybody to maintain you as a driver. It modifications on a regular basis. The whole lot is fluid, and you have to carry out, and that is all you are able to do.”
Similar to for Dixon, it was a troublesome resolution for Rosenqvist to go away his present workforce.
“It was not a straightforward one,” Rosenqvist mentioned. “It was most likely as near a 50-50 [decision] as you will get. The long run was the deciding issue for me. It was mainly wanting three years sooner or later, making an attempt to make your finest guess the place you are going to be — which on this world, I suppose for any athlete, you are going to should make robust calls and you are going to should make your finest guess the place you are going to thrive your self and sooner or later.
“It was most likely the toughest resolution I made. However I am tremendous blissful to be coming again to a workforce that I do know — I do know the engineers, I do know the management.”
Scott Dixon admits he was prepared for a change in deciding to go away Chip Ganassi Racing.
Dixon, who’s ninth within the 2026 standings (Rosenqvist is seventh), is wanting ahead to only one thing completely different. He doesn’t know if will probably be higher, however it’s inspiring to race for one more group.
“There’s the joy of simply actually not understanding what the method is, how they do it, what’s completely different,” Dixon mentioned. “I am positively not going right into a state of affairs of considering that the grass is at all times greener on the opposite facet. That is most likely not the case. I am with probably the greatest groups within the historical past of INDYCAR racing.”
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