Note: This continues a series of 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES team previews on INDYCAR.com. The season starts Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.

Starting Lineup: Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda), Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Chili’s Honda), Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Bryant Heating & Cooling Honda).

2024 in Review: Herta delivered his best season yet with a pair of race wins, three poles and finishing a career-high second in the standings, 31 points behind Alex Palou. He opened the season with four consecutive top-eight finishes and was atop the standings after the third race. One of his disappointing moments came in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge when his car wiggled in Turn 1 on Lap 86, causing a spin into the outside wall. The damage was limited to the front wing, but getting out of the car cost him time. Herta returned to the action and completed 170 laps and finished 23rd. He earned his first pole of the season in Detroit, then effectively led the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto from start to finish with Kirkwood following him to the checkered flag. Herta scored his first career oval victory in the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. He scored multiple wins for the third time in his career, pushing his total to nine. This was the first season to have a lower averaging finish position (7.4) than average starting position (8.6), and he ended the season with eight top-five finishes in the final 10 races, with six of those in the final seven races. Kirkwood’s second season with the organization produced a career-best seventh-place finish in the standings. He started the season with 10 consecutive top-11 finishes and finished the year with top-10 finishes in 13 of the 17 races. The second-place finish in Toronto was his best result, but he scored a pole for the second consecutive year, this one in Nashville. Kirkwood enjoyed his best Month of May, finishing seventh in the “500.” Ericsson didn’t have the season he hoped for in his first bid with the organization. His year included an accident exiting Turn 4 during “500” practice that included contact with the pit road attenuator. The incident set the team back to the point Ericsson had to escape the Last Chance Qualifying session to earn a spot in the race. Trouble found him in the first corner of the race when his car was collected by the spin of rookie Tom Blomqvist. Ericsson scored a second-place finish in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear but had only four other top-five finishes. He finished fifth in the standings, his lowest result since his rookie year in 2019.

New for ’25: The driver lineup is the same year over year; the ownership dynamics are different. Dan Towriss, the CEO of Group 1001, is leading the organization.

Keep an Eye on This: With Michael Andretti taking a reduced role with the organization he acquired in 2003 from Barry Green, it will be interesting to see how often he attends events and what he does when he is on site. In the past, he was a primary strategist, keeping tabs on several cars at once. There was never a doubt he was at the top of the organizational chart – on the track and off of it – but times are different now. To what degree is the question.

Little-Known Fact: Bryan and Colton Herta are one of only a handful of father-son duos in INDYCAR SERIES history where both members won series races. Mario and Michael Andretti top the list with 94 combined wins, with Al Unser and Al Unser Jr. second with 73. Michael and Marco Andretti combined for 44 wins with Bobby and Graham Rahal standing next at 30. Tony and Gary Bettenhausen had 28 wins. Colton (nine) and Bryan (four) Herta have 13.