NTT INDYCAR SERIES NEWS CONFERENCE

January 27, 2026

Nolan Siegel

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Great to be joined by Nolan Siegel. Welcome. Your thoughts about getting started here in 2026.

NOLAN SIEGEL: Yeah, I'm excited. I think we have some clear goals for 2025, clear things to improve on. I think we've made good steps towards that in the off-season.

We know kind of what we need to do. It's about executing that now in 2026. I'm really excited to get started. It's been a long off-season. It's been nice to be doing some endurance racing and still be in a race car, but I certainly miss INDYCAR. Very excited to be back into it in Sebring.

THE MODERATOR: Have you been to the new shop yet?

NOLAN SIEGEL: No, I haven't.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Speaking of knowing what you have to do this season, is it good to know up front where you stand, that you've got to meet these markers? Tony was pretty frank in his assessment during the off-season of what he wants to see you do this year.

NOLAN SIEGEL: Yeah, he was quite frank about that in the media, for sure.

I think to me it doesn't really change anything. The goal for me is always to finish as far up the grid as I possibly can and perform at my best all the time. So I show up every weekend, I'm pushing myself as far as I can and trying to perform the best that I possibly can.

It's not like if the goal is to finish in the top five, I'm like, Oh, okay, I'll push a little harder to get there, I don't want to finish seventh, I want to finish fifth. I want to finish as far up as I possibly can every weekend. That doesn't change for 2026.

Whatever the expectation is, I'm still going to be doing the same thing.

Q. Does it also show that the competition level is so fierce that when a new guy such as yourself is trying to break in, it's tough? Almost like you have such a narrow window of opportunity to be able to excel in this series.

NOLAN SIEGEL: Yeah, it's extremely difficult. It's super competitive. It really is the best drivers and teams in the world. It's an honor to get to compete here and get to compete against them. But it's certainly not easy.

You do have to be almost perfect every weekend. Being new, especially with such a long off-season, so little testing, so little time in the car, it takes time. It takes time to learn. There's no real way to accelerate that process.

That's part of the reason I'm so excited for 2026. I feel like I learned a huge amount in 2025. I'm lucky to have T.K. and great teammates around me that are teaching me so much. I feel like I'm in a much better spot going into 2026 than I was in 2025 with all those people around me.

Q. You said last week when Tony made those statements that you hadn't actually heard that from him directly. Have you gotten to speak with him since?

NOLAN SIEGEL: I haven't really. He's been super busy. It's been a really busy off-season with the new shop opening. We've got a lot of new people. I'm sure it's been very chaotic for him. I've been kind of on the sports car side, trying to stay in a race car, put myself in the best possible position from a driving standpoint.

I haven't really talked to him about that. As I said, I don't think it changes a whole lot for him. Him having been a driver, I think he knows exactly how it feels, right? He knows we're pushing as hard as we can and are doing our best every weekend. I think he sees it from that side, as well.

I have not talked to him directly about it. I'm sure we'll have a chat. I'm not really super concerned about that. I think he knows me well enough to know where we're at on that front.

There's not a whole lot to talk through. There's no issue. I'm excited to continue working with T.K. I hope he's excited to continue working with me. I hope we have a good season together.

Q. What does testing change for you going into your second year here, getting your testing?

NOLAN SIEGEL: I think other than being in the sim, I haven't really driven the INDYCAR at all. But just being in the endurance racing is helpful for me. Personally I feel like if I don't drive a race car for a long time... Last off-season was the first time I really hadn't. I thought I would spend a bunch of time with the team, go to the sim, spend time in the shop. That was great to get to know everyone.

Now I know everyone. We gel well, right? I think for me, from a driving standpoint, the best thing was to be in a race car even though it's not an INDYCAR.

I think going into Sebring being fresh off the Daytona, Asian Le Mans, all these LMP3 races is a nice refresher than rather than going in cold and being rusty.

Q. Knowing this is such an important year for your future, does that add any additional pressure for you? Is pressure something you embrace?

NOLAN SIEGEL: Again, I think there's always pressure when you're competing at this level. For me, I think the pressure comes more internally. Again, I want to perform at my best. That's why I'm here. I'm here to challenge myself to compete at the highest level. Ultimately if I do perform, there will be a future. If I don't, there won't.

That's always how it's going to be in motorsport. That's how it is for everyone in motorsport. That's how it is even if you're established. That's kind of the nature of being a professional athlete. If you perform, you have a job. If you don't, you don't.

I'm here to push myself to perform at my absolute best. That doesn't change based on other people's expectations.

Q. In order to keep that ride, where do you need to push and change?

NOLAN SIEGEL: Sorry? What changes need to be made?

Q. Where do you feel you need to make gains after your first full year in the series?

NOLAN SIEGEL: I think for me, we had a lot of weekends where the pace was actually really good. Just the execution wasn't quite there in a lot of different ways. For me, it's been a learning experience being a part of such a big team and being a leader in that team.

I think I've kind of grown in that role and gotten better in that role. That's been a challenge, but something I've kind of embraced and really tried to learn from, again, my more experienced teammates, Tony. T.K. is really good at that, a good leader and someone that people want to work hard for. I think seeing that mindset from him has been helpful for me.

I think from an actual driving standpoint, in INDYCAR I feel like there are very critical phases of the races. Some phases where you can kind of chill and save fuel, save tires, save yourself, then portions of the race during pit sequences where you really have to push. That's where you really make a difference.

For me, kind of understanding when those critical phases are I think is important and something that I learned in 2025. There were a couple races where we lost some ground just from me kind of not reading the race properly from in the car.

I've reviewed all of that and I think that I can make big gains there for '26.

Q. None of us questioned the talent. I think the biggest thing is like you just pointed out, looking at how to complete the races. A lot of this seems to be confidence, mental for you. I don't know if you agree with that. If that is the case, what have you done to reset that confidence?

NOLAN SIEGEL: Yeah, it's interesting. It's certainly a challenge in every way, including mental, right? It is a challenging series.

On my end, I don't necessarily think it's a confidence issue. I've raced a lot of different things, been successful in a lot of different things. I don't think there's any reason that can't be the case in INDYCAR. Certainly have great people around me to help me make that happen.

I'm very optimistic for 2026 and confident about 2026. Again, there's absolutely no reason that we can't be successful together.

From my end, I think it's knowing what I need to fix and having very clear goals I think helps me mentally. I think the hardest thing and the most stressful thing is not performing and not knowing why. But I think that we've analyzed a lot and actually do know and have things that need to be fixed. Those are attainable goals. We have very, very achievable things to fix from 2025 that will immediately increase the performance. That increases my confidence and makes me really excited for 2026.

Q. How did you hit the reset button to make sure things didn't from last year trickle over into this year?

NOLAN SIEGEL: Yeah, I see what you're saying.

A lot's changed last year from people to what we've been doing in the off-season. I got a big break. With the season being so compressed, it is definitely easy to kind of have a bad weekend and spiral and just get worse and worse. Stopping that can be really difficult.

I think for me just getting away and taking some time away from racing in general was a really good thing. Again on the sports car side, I think I didn't really do any racing other than INDYCAR last year, which I think was a good thing in some senses to just focus on it. In other ways I think doing the endurance racing and going to LMP2, doing it with old friends I grew up racing with, really kind of racing -- it's still obviously serious and we want to win, but it's more for fun in a way. It's kind of reminded me of why I fell in love with the sport. Has really made me take a step back and realize how cool it is to be in the position I'm in and when I was doing that full-time and not racing in INDYCAR, I would have done anything to be in the position I'm in now.

I think that's been kind of the mental reset. Sometimes you get so focused on what's going wrong that you don't really appreciate the situation you're in, how special it is to be here. Going back to the endurance racing, taking a step away from INDYCAR, has made me very grateful for the position I'm in. Definitely reminded me how much I want to succeed here.