Intro To Indy - Chip Ganassi Racing - Pt 4 - Kyffin Simpson
The final piece in our Chip Ganassi Racing puzzle is the youngest driver in the CGR lineup - Caymanian Kyffin Simpson.
This is profile from the IndyCar website.
Kyffin Simpson is CGR's youngest and greenest driver; 2025 is his second full season there and his first in the #8 car. The Caymanian driver is twenty years old, only a few weeks older than IndyCar's youngest entrant, McLaren's Nolan Siegel.
Kyffin was born in Barbados, but holds Caymanian (Cayman Island) citizenship, as his father is a businessman based out of the Cayman Islands.
Like so many of his fellow drivers, Kyffin karted. He debuted in the junior Formulas in 2020 in both US Formula 4 and US Formula Regional Americas Championship. Unlike the previous drivers I've covered, because he was North American based, he ended up in those feeder series. He's also so young he's missed the consolidation of previous junior series, into what's now the neater Formula and then number competition.
In 2021 Simpson dominated Formula Regional Americas, absolutely reigning supreme in that competition.
In 2022 he stepped into IndyLights (now IndyNXT), the traditional final feeder series for IndyCar. He finished ninth his first year.
In 2023 he got a bit more serious. Seeing the variety that 2021 winner Álex Palou had, he competed in not only what was now IndyNXT, but in LMP2 competitions in IMSA, Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series. He came in third in Asian Le Mans and first in European Le Mans.
By diversifying his portfolio, 2024 saw him debut in IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing. 2024 allowed CGR five entries, where Simpson drove against his two current teammates, but also IndyLights 2022 winner Linus Lundqvist and Marcus Armstrong.
Lundqvist won Rookie of the Year.
However, in the implementation of the charter system, CGR decided to retain Simpson over Lundqvist. The charter system, new for 2025, has limited the amount of entries per team to at maximum three, barring the 500.
You may be curious as to why Simpson was retained as opposed to the Rookie of the Year, and the answer is money. Money makes every motorsport go 'round, and there is a lot more competition for a lot less money in IndyCar. Therefore, if you can fund your own ride, you're a lot more likely to get a seat. If you struggle with funding, unfortunately, you're less likely to get a seat.
As we get further down the line, we'll see more and more people that are able to fund themselves in this sport, which gives them the ability to compete. This is not the only currency in motorsports, but it's the dominant one, and especially in IndyCar.
Time will tell whether or not this will blow up in CGR's face; you rarely want to see an athlete fail and I hope Simpson does better than his rookie year at least.
Our next up as a team wrap up is Andretti Global!