INDYCAR: Early shunt leaves Robert Shwartzman beached – and last – at Road America
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: IndyCar.com
Robert Shwartzman finished last for the 1st time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Xpel Grand Prix at Road America when his #83 Prema Racing Chevrolet crashed after completing 3 of the race’s 55 laps.
The finish came in Shwartzman’s ninth series start. Across IndyCar Series history, it was the fourth for the #83, the 122nd for Chevrolet, and the 239th for damage-related reasons.
While the name Robert Shwartzman is a new one on the IndyCar grid this year, it’s not his first brush with the series. He placed himself squarely on the radar of many racing fans by winning the Formula 3 championship in 2019. After placing second in the 2021 Formula 2 season, he transitioned to a new role as a test/reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari. Shwartzman also contested sports cars during that time, running GT World Challenge in 2023 and the World Endurance Championship in 2024.
Tucked away in that timeframe, however, was a test at Sebring for Chip Ganassi Racing in January 2023. Of those four cars, Shwartzman led the test, outpacing Sting Ray Robb, Kyffin Simpson, and Dane Cameron. While nothing came of the opportunity at the time, that prior experience was certainly a plus when European junior formula team Prema decided to enter IndyCar. While Callum Ilott was the slam-dunk free agent with previous IndyCar experience, the team’s second seat was more up in the air. Shwartzman’s second-place finish in F2 came with Prema, and in November 2024, he was named the team’s second driver for 2025.
The results have been fairly typical for a rookie driver and team. Finishes of 20th, 22nd, 18th, 25th, and 18th opened the season, although Shwartzman finished all of those races. That all changed, however, during the month of May. Shwartzman’s car was pretty pedestrian across most of the opening week of practice, but peaked at 13th on Fast Friday. The surprises began on Saturday, when Shwartzman put his car sixth while teammate Ilott was 23rd. Sunday was a storybook moment, as Shwartzman was predicted for pole by a disqualified Josef Newgarden and then proceeded to do so, beating Takuma Sato by two-tenths of a second over four laps to take the top spot.
The other shoe dropped on race day. Shwartzman and his team focused heavily on a qualifying setup and struggled to get the car into contending shape over the course of the week. He led only one green-flag lap during the race, and was mired in the late teens by the second full run. However, a pit lane crash made matters worse, cutting Shwartzman’s race short before halfway. A regular 16th-place finish at Detroit followed, but a wild Gateway race was another rise on the rollercoaster of a rookie season. Shwartzman placed 10th, delivering Prema its first top-ten finish as an IndyCar team. Heading into Road America - the true midpoint of the season as the ninth of 17 races - Shwartzman had seen enough for an entire rookie season.
As Road America is a sweeping track that’s heavy on speed and mechanical grip, the haves and the have-nots were separated pretty well throughout race weekend. The four bottom cars in opening practice were all cars from smaller teams – Sting Ray Robb of Juncos Hollinger Racing in 27th, Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing in 26th, Shwartzman in 25th, and Jacob Abel of Dale Coyne Racing in 24th. Colton Herta of Andretti Global in 23rd was the slowest of cars from bigger teams.
Second practice was a similar story. Robb was slowest again, and both Juncos and Prema put two cars in the bottom six of the time charts. Shwartzman was 24th, two spots behind teammate Ilott. However, his luck turned in qualifying. Shwartzman drew a spot in Group 1 and placed ninth in group, beating cars from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing. Group 2 was the group with 14 cars; of those, Abel was slowest, securing the 27th starting spot.
Road America’s long front straightaway lends itself to chaos at the start, and this race was no different. Before things could really get sorted out, David Malukas lost the back end of his car heading into Turn 3 and was stranded in the gravel trap, immediately drawing a full-course yellow.
Due to the four-mile length of the track, the caution for Malukas’ opening-lap spin only lasted the rest of Lap 1, as well as Lap 2 and Lap 3. When the green flag flew on Lap 4, Malukas was still multiple seconds behind the tail of the field. While he was probably quick enough to catch and pass the tail-end cars, it wouldn’t happen the first lap after the restart.
Shwartzman picked up a spot by passing the stranded Malukas and restarted in 16th on Lap 4, only to lose the position almost immediately to Rasmussen. He was under attack from Rinus Veekay going through Kettle Bottoms, the low backstretch of the track. Heading into Turn 12, a sharp right-hander, Shwartzman lost control of the rear of the car. The machine snapped to be perpendicular to the track and skidded through the gravel trap in driver’s left, eventually impacting the tire barriers and coming to a rest. The damage was too much to overcome, and Shwartzman’s day was done.
Robb was another crash victim, losing control while trying to pass Marcus Armstrong into the high-speed approach to Turn 5. The 25th-place finisher was Josef Newgarden, whose nightmare year continued with a race riddled with mistakes at Road America. The terminal mistake was trying to squeeze too much speed out of the final turn, instead spinning into the inside wall and damaging the rear suspension beyond repair. Christian Lundgaard was the last car running; he spun in the grass near where Shwartzman spun but kept it off the wall and was able to refire. Rounding out the Bottom Five was Abel, who dealt with engine issues in the later portions of the race.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Shwartzman is the first driver racing under the Israel flag to finish last in the IndyCar Series.
*Shwartzman is the second driver to finish last in the #83; its other three last-places finishes came with Charlie Kimball as the driver.
*This is the second straight year Road America has yielded a debut last-place finisher. In 2024, Kyffin Simpson picked up his first last-place finish at the track.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #83-Robert Shwartzman / 3 laps / crash
26) #77-Sting Ray Robb / 9 laps / crash
25) #2-Josef Newgarden / 30 laps / crash
24) #7-Christian Lundgaard / 55 laps / running
23) #51-Jacob Abel / 55 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Team Penske (3)
2nd) Dale Coyne Racing, Prema Racing (2)
3rd) Chip Ganassi Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet (5)
2nd) Honda (4)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
