Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi is driving the No. 20 Chevrolet for his 11th IndyCar season. In his first campaign with ECR, Rossi dropped down to 15th in the standings. After his lowest finish in the Drivers’ Championship, Rossi is motivated to improve the team’s performance this 2026 IndyCar season.
Milwaukee Momentum into 2026 IndyCar season
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets, the ECR driver says he is looking to keep the momentum flowing into this 2026 IndyCar season. He remembers that his fellow teammate Christian Rasmussen’s win in Milwaukee was a huge boost of moral for the team last year.
After years without an ECR race win, the Dane’s victory showed the team that their efforts weren’t wasted. Rossi calls it a ‘reminder for everyone’ that there is a lot of good work going on behind the scenes. He hopes they can channel this energy into good results this 2026 IndyCar season.
“I think, a huge amount of momentum the last third of the season. Obviously Christian’s win in Milwaukee was huge for the team. It had been five years since they had a car in Victory Lane [with Rinus VeeKay]. Just a good reminder for everyone, top to bottom, that you can do this. The effort is not in vain, that sort of thing.“
New leadership takes time to change
The former Arrow McLaren driver mentions late team changes that brought co-owner Ted Gelov to ECR. The restructuring played a role in rebranding and organisational direction which takes time to affect the entirety of a team. Rossi says the positive effects didn’t emerge immediately, but is looking forward to reaping some benefits this 2026 IndyCar season.
“I think the change the team had going into 2025 came pretty late in that off-season, so you’re not going to see all of the effects, the positive effects, of that immediately. This stuff takes a lot of time.“
Rossi circles back to the 2025 Milwaukee Mile, saying that improvements became apparent near the end of last season. He says that the off-season brought ECR some good as the reshuffling of resources and workers have brought a well-structured team that moves more efficiently. He is hopeful that these changes will continue to move ECR upward this 2026 IndyCar season.
“The back end of last year was trending in the right direction. I think this off-season we’ve been able to deploy a lot of the resources and capital that the team now has and hired quite a few people, changed the structure a little bit.“
There’s a limit to what you can do off track
Eager to get behind the wheel, the eight-time race winner highlights that there’s a limit to what you can be off the track. He needs to get some laps in to confidently say the car is moving in the right direction this 2026 IndyCar season.
“Everything is moving in a really great direction, which is all great and fine, but you need to prove that out on track. There’s only so much you can do at the shop without driving.“
Rossi affirms that he is excited for a great 2026 IndyCar season with ECR. He is looking forward to capitalising on the momentum and using this window of opportunity to get ahead early this season.
“That being said, we’re really excited about the opportunity that we have. We feel that 2026 can be a really great year for ECR.”
Highs and lows in his first year with ECR
Rossi spent two years at Arrow McLaren before moving to Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2025 season. Though he previously felt that ECR’s performance exceeded his expectations, he remains frank when execution falls short. The 34-year-old continues to see both sides as he enters the 2026 IndyCar season.
“Yes and no. I think we were pleasantly surprised with some aspects of the year, and felt we came up short in some others, which is probably the same for every team, right?“
Rossi continues, stating that the highs and lows throughout a season are normal for every team. While he generally earned strong qualifying positions last season [he averaged three spots higher than his teammate], he struggled to convert them into good results on race day. The American hopes to change his luck in 2026.
“I think what was generally quite good was qualifying performances, and then – at least on the 20 car side. And then a little bit of a disappointment on race day, just not quite turning the decent starting spots into big results.“
Ticking off all the boxes ahead of the 2026 IndyCar season
Rossi says that the team has focused on how to manage a race so as to prevent similar results this 2026 IndyCar season. He got down to specifics of inspecting their approach to every little detail, even from a pit crew standpoint.
“There’s been a lot of focus on that and our approach to how you manage a race. There’s been a lot of investment and time put into what we’re doing from a pit crew standpoint and the training that goes into that.“
The winner of the 2016 Indy 500 maintains that ECR is working towards improvements. The team is doing a deep clean in anticipation for the 2026 season, working hard to correct their previous mistakes. This pressure to improve is coming from the top, as Ted Gelov brings his approach to the team.
“The whole organisation is just really looking at all of the boxes and making sure we’re ticking as many of them as humanly possible. Ted has given a very clear direction and expectation of what he wants from the whole team, drivers included.“
‘The best kind’ of pressure coming from Gelov
Having one season with ECR under his belt, Gelov looks to push the team to new heights with his own style of leadership. Rossi emphasises Gelov’s high standards and is enjoying the added ‘pressure’ to succeed. He is behind the new approach to the team, saying that it is ‘the best kind’ of pressure ahead of the 2026 IndyCar season.
“He wants a certain standard upheld, and that’s cool to be a part of ’cause there’s an expectation. There’s some pressure that goes along with that, but in the best kind of way.“
The No. 20 driver continues, expressing his excitement for the opportunity they have with ECR this season. He emphasises that most of the work has been done in board rooms and off-track. Rossi is looking forward to seeing it all in motion as the 2026 IndyCar season gets started.
“We’re all excited for the opportunity. Like I said, it’s hard to really talk about it too much because this is all just in conference rooms and meetings you’ve had. It’s not until you get to the track where you can really all put it into action.”
Cautiously optimistic ahead of the 2026 IndyCar season
Rossi heads into his second season with ECR in 2026. He states it’s an underrated asset, knowing who you’re working with and how a team runs.
“Yeah, 100%. I think it’s an often underrated thing in motorsports to have the same groups of people working together from one year to the next.“
Rossi feels that he can hit the ground running this year. He recounts a lot of newness last year that required much adjustment for both him and the team. The American is staying cautiously optimistic this 2026 IndyCar season.
“We certainly feel like we can hit the ground running in a much stronger fashion than we did at this point last year. It was still a lot of newness trying to come together. So yeah, we’re cautiously very optimistic about next year.”
The ‘pieces starting to come together’ slowly but surely
Towards the end of the 2025 season, he mentioned that there was ‘low hanging fruit’ to attack next season. Rossi remained tight lipped on what exactly were those areas of improvement this 2026 IndyCar season.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to get into the details of what those are just ’cause it doesn’t matter.‘”
Rossi focused his attention on Gelov’s entrance late 2024 and clarifies that not all of the Chairman’s vision came to fruition last year. Given that ECR has had a year with the rebrand, some of those results will be seen in the 2026 IndyCar season.
“What I will say is when Ted came in in 2024, that was fairly late October, November-ish time. It doesn’t really matter what you deploy from a resource standpoint, you’re not going to be able to hire everyone you want to hire; you’re not going to be able to start all the projects you want before you’re on track March 1st. Some of the lead time on this stuff is a year, a year plus.“
Rossi affirms that ECR’s success towards the end of last year is what the team wanted to see. He is confident that the 2026 IndyCar season will show more of these results.
“What you started to see at the end of last year was some of these things kind of trickle down the pipeline and get applied to either the cars or the pre-event work going into race weekends. So all of that was in small pieces starting to come together.“
No longer just keeping their head above water
The experienced campaigner attributes the slow progress of last year to the tight schedule and struggle amidst back-to-back races. He explains that it’s hard for teams to develop during the season. After the off-season, Rossi is taking a deep breath before plunging into the 2026 IndyCar season.
“Now you add six months of an off-season where it’s so hard in the year, especially with the calendar that we have, it being so condensed, it’s hard to develop when you’re going from race to race to race to race, right? At some point you’re just trying to keep your head above water, get to the next event, do the best you can.“
Rossi’s approach is taking all the lessons and improvements of the car and piecing it together slowly during off-season. The eight-time race winner knows how to build his ‘tool chest’ ahead of the 2026 IndyCar season.
“You take all of those lessons, you take all of the new toys, if you will, the new tools and software and everything, you start applying that piece by piece through an off-season and start building your tool chest, if you will, going into a new year.“
The ECR driver is looking back at the progress made during the off-season and sees how far they’ve come since 2025. He is certain their progress on the car will lead to performance on the track in the 2026 IndyCar season.
“You’re all of a sudden way further ahead than you ever were at any point in 2025. That’s the things that we’re looking forward to. It will certainly lead to performance on track.”
‘A big step forward’ this 2026 IndyCar season
Rossi is aware that expectations are higher this season, given he is no longer new to the team. He credits Gelov for his involvement and competitiveness, putting good pressure on the team for 2026.
“Expectations are much higher. I kind of talked about that before in terms of Ted has made it very clear that he’s involved in this, yes, because he loves the sport and yes, because he uses it as a good marketing arm for his products, but also because he’s a competitor and he’s here to win.“
The American is elated by the high spirits of the team. He feels that everything is starting to work out for ECR after many years without a race win.
“I think the atmosphere within the organisation, everyone is excited. Everyone believes that after a long time that we are now starting to get the pieces together to go out and compete with the best.“
Not to get ahead of himself, Rossi reminds himself that it will not happen overnight. He is confident the 2026 IndyCar season will be a big step in the right direction for him and ECR.
“Now, does that happen overnight? Absolutely not. Are we all of a sudden going to be a CGR? No. Are we going to take a big step forward over where we have been? Yes.”
