One of the wildest IndyCar seasons in recent memory added another chapter on Tuesday as Arrow McLaren racing suddenly released Théo Pourchaire and subsequently signed Nolan Siegel to a multiyear agreement to drive the No. 6.
Effective immediately.
This is all a domino effect of Alex Palou reneging on the multi-year agreement he signed with McLaren in October 2022 to return to Chip Ganassi Racing and a string on lawsuits in its wake. Siegel is the fourth driver McLaren has signed since Palou decided to remain with Ganassi.
Pourchaire was assigned the car in April following the Indianapolis 500 and Callum Ilott drove the car in the Indianapolis 500 following David Malukas was signed in September to drive the car but broke his wrist in a mountain bike incident in February, resulting him missing races and breaching his contract, as a result.
Malukas has since joined Meyer Shank Racing at the expense of rookie Tom Blomqvist, who had struggled to keep the car above the lucrative Leader’s Circle program cutline. Ilott would have been a candidate to finish the season but he was locked into a full World Endurance Championship ride, which is what led to Pourchaire, who was racing in Super Formula at the time.
Meanwhile, Siegel was racing full-time in Indy NXT but has also made starts in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing and then in a fill-in role with Juncos Hollinger Racing when Agustin Canapino took a leave of absence at Road America following the fallout from the social media incident with Pourchaire.
Siegel has impressed to such a degree, including winning over the weekend in the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with United Autosport, that McLaren boss Zak Brown really started to accelerate his interest.
Brown co-owns United Autosport with Richard Dean.
After the weekend in Road America, there was an option that Siegel could remain in the Juncos Hollinger car and Brown had to move quickly to sign his guy. That meant calling Pourchaire on Monday to let him know of the decision, just hours after the driver expressed excitement on social media over racing at Laguna Seca this weekend.
“Stability and sustained growth are key to our long-term game plan here, and this is a significant step in that mission,” said team principal Gavin Ward in press release.
“First, I want to thank Theo for his time filling in on the No. 6 car with us in recent weeks. We’ve been working through musical chairs all season, and ultimately, making this change to Nolan now that he’s available gives us the chance to build a foundation for the future. He is a young, talented driver with an immense amount of experience at this stage of his career and we’re excited to continue on the upward journey together.”
Siegel also would have used up his IndyCar rookie eligibility with his fill-in starts, so McLaren now just made the full-time decision immediately, so that he could use the extra practice tires to prepare for a championship run in 2025.
“I’m looking forward to jumping right in with the Arrow McLaren team this week and confirming my place in the NTT IndyCar Series in papaya moving forward,” Siegel said. “This is an unexpected jump, but I’m thrilled to be in this position after a rewarding run in the Indy NXT by Firestone series with HMD Motorsports. I am looking forward to this new journey and learning alongside the entire team starting this weekend in my home state.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.