Nolan Siegel is a rising star in the NTT IndyCar Series. He’s raced and won in a variety of cars coming into the 2024 season and made his racing debut in the Indy car at the Thermal Club event in March where he put on a very competitive drive just missing out on a transfer spot to the final shootout. A California native only19 years of age, we caught up with him at the 2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach where he was making his first points-paying start in the series. In this interview he tells us about his racing background, preparing for this event and also how his first trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway went where he completed his rookie test. He went on from here to try to qualify for the 500 but unfortunately crashed out trying to go ‘flat-out’ during his qualifying run. At Long Beach, he went quicker in every practice and qualifying session and ultimately finished 20th after starting 27th. He got a late call-up to fill in for Augustin Canapino at Road America where he jumped out of his Indy NXT car and completed the weekend in the Indy car finishing 23rd. This driver is certainly one to watch in the future and has received positive reviews from his peers in the series which is always satisfying. Enjoy!
NOTE: Siegel put his sports car racing background to good effect this past weekend. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class!
Breaking News! It was announced today (June 18, 2024) that Siegel has been signed to a multi-year contract by Arrow McLaren and will finish off the season starting this weekend at his home race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
By Larry Mason
Copyright © 2024 Larry Mason
Photo credit: INDYCAR PHOTO Joe Skibinski
Nolan Siegel looks happy to have completed his first laps at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’s been on a wild ride since, racing all over the world in different types of cars.
Siegel with Honda Racing trackside engineer, Josh Pitts. Siegel is probably trying to communicate how to go faster. With Pitt’s help, along with the rest of his Dale Coyne team, Siegel went faster in every session he ran.
Nolan Siegel races the King Taco car in front of the King Taco sign around the fountain at Long Beach. His crew members were thrilled with this sponsorship arrangement!
Siegel steers in full steering lock to the right to make it around the tight Turn 11 hairpin. Here he’s shown leading another rookie, Kyffin Simpson.
Exiting the hairpin, Siegel unwinds the wheel to open up the radius of the corner. This allows him to be able to apply maximum throttle and rocket down Shoreline Drive.
Interview and photos Copyright © by Larry Mason (unless otherwise noted)