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How would you react if your bosses told you to finish the year in the top 10 in your industry, or look for a new job? Many may buckle under pressure, but that’s the kind of expectation racing legend Tony Kanaan, Zak Brown and Arrow McLaren outlined for relative INDYCAR newcomer Nolan Siegel.
And make no mistake: the pressure to win in INDYCAR – and win for one of the most successful and recognizable teams in motorsports – is enormous. But Siegel doesn’t have to chase that goal alone.
A deep dive into Arrow McLaren’s INDYCAR team, the latest episode of “All In” — a real-time docuseries from FOX Sports, INDYCAR and Shadow Lion — explores the team’s high expectations for drivers Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Siegel in the fastest series in the world.
“When you put together a three-car lineup, you really want to be P1, P2, P3,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said on the latest “All In” episode. “So anything less than that is frustrating.”
In the fourth episode, entitled “The Third Seat”, the series Arrow McLaren’s three-car team examines how Kanaan and Brown lead execution and how the organization found Siegel, after years of messy contract lawsuits about Alex Palou potentially joining the team.
Currently the clear INDYCAR driver to beat, Palou almost switched from Chip Ganassi Racing to Arrow McLaren after the 2022 season. Depending on who you ask.
“You can see the tremendous talent that he is, so you can see why his team fought so hard to keep him and you can see why we fought so hard to get him,” Brown explains in “All In.”
“The way it landed, I felt it was very important to protect our reputation. It was a difficult, expensive experience for everyone. We’re moving on.”
After ending up in court, Palou was ultimately ordered in January to pay McLaren $12 million for breach of contract after he backed out of a deal to switch teams. In place of Palou, McLaren’s third INDYCAR seat went to Siegel, who is now in his second full season in the series.
“For Zak, after losing the best there is in the sport, he’s now looking for the guy who can be the next Palou,” explains INDYCAR on FOX broadcaster Will Buxton on “All In.”
“Does he already have it in Pato? Does he think he’s found it in Christian?”
Or maybe it’s Siegel. And Kanaan — the 2004 INDYCAR champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner — is pushing hard.
“Last year, Nolan had some good runs, had some bad runs,” INDYCAR on FOX analyst James Hinchcliffe says on the latest episode. “But McLaren show up to win. And when Tony Kanaan says, ‘Top 10 or you’re out,’ you either go up and perform or you don’t.”
The latest “All In” episode is set against the backdrop of INDYCAR’s Long Beach race weekend earlier this month, focusing on McLaren’s three drivers.
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“I didn’t expect to be a team leader,” Kanaan says in “All In.”
“It wasn’t my intention. I was an INDYCAR driver for 26 years. … Zak put a challenge in front of me to come in as a consultant just to help the drivers on the race weekends, and it evolved into coming full time.”
Christian Lundgaard during the 2026 Acura Grand Prix Of Long Beach. (Photo by Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images)
Long Beach is a uniquely challenging track — technically, it’s a street course — as Hinchcliffe recently explained. And unfortunately for McLaren, Palou ended up on top of the podium.
Now INDYCAR looks forward to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, followed by the iconic Indy 500, a victory that many in the sport would argue is long overdue for O’Ward.
“He’s going to win the Indy 500 and win a championship — or two,” Brown says in “All In.”
Featuring INDYCAR drivers and insiders – along with INDYCAR on FOX’s Hinchcliffe, Buxton and Townsend Bell – “All In” examines the biggest challenges, pressure points and high-speed competition in racing in the series. But each episode has its own focus on a driver, team or series story.
Watch “All In” on the INDYCAR On FOX YouTube page, FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports App, FOX One, as well as INDYCAR and INDYCAR on FOX social channels.
