Ed Carpenter holds the unique position in IndyCar of owning his own team, Ed Carpenter Racing, and driving at some events in the championship.
The American was initially scheduled to compete at all oval events this season, including the 108th Running of the Indy 500, but stepped back towards the end of the year in IndyCar.
Carpenter chose to give Christian Rasmussen a chance to gather experience on ovals at the Milwaukee Mile and the Nashville Superspeedway.
The Danish driver will step into the No. 21 car full-time in 2025 at ECR; Rasmussen failed to win a race for the first time in a decade, while Carpenter will race in a third car at the Indy 500.
Carpenter explained when speaking on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi YouTube channel that he hasn’t been overly impressed with the season his team had in IndyCar.
Ed Carpenter feels the IndyCar season was ‘disappointing’ for ECR
The Ed Carpenter Racing team had moments of brilliance throughout this season in IndyCar, particularly with Rinus VeeKay, who scored fifth place in the first race of the weekend at Iowa.
The Dutchman performed well over the season, but he was the only driver at Ed Carpenter Racing who competed at every round.
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Carpenter raced at most of the oval events this season, while Rasmussen raced on the road and street courses. This created a lack of predictability among the team as the driver lineup consistently changed.
The team owner explained that IndyCar season was ‘disappointing’ as the No. 20 car stumbled into the Leaders’ Circle.
He said: “I would say it was disappointing on a whole. We want to win 500s or a 500 to start with, so we didn’t accomplish that. We had strong cars again, so it wasn’t like a total disaster.
“But it was an interesting year. I felt like comparing 2023 to 2024, that we did take a step forward. I thought our performance and potential was better, but we didn’t get the results that we expected of ourselves.
“In the ’20 car, we found ourselves needing the final race in Nashville to secure a leader circle spot with that car. Not a position I want to be in.”
ECR are welcoming Alexander Rossi to the team for the 2025 season in IndyCar
The 2025 season will be different for the Ed Carpenter Racing team, as the outfit will run two cars driven by Rasmussen and Alexander Rossi at every round.
This move will allow stability among the team as they can solely focus on two cars apart from the Indy 500 where Carpenter will run a third car.
Rossi will be a very experienced driver in the team and should be able to lean on his time at Andretti and Arrow McLaren.
However, the American driver suffered at McLaren, scoring just two podiums in a couple of seasons with the team, which is a lacklustre return.