Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards believes the team's British Indy NXT driver Louis Foster is "100% deserving" of a call-up to IndyCar next season.
He also believes Jamie Chadwick could make the step up, though suggested a mirroring of Foster's decision to add another year of NXT experience could prove worthwhile for her career.
Foster leads the race for the title by 41 points over Jacob Able having won four of the last six races, with just five rounds of the season remaining.
The victories were backed up by two second places - one of which was behind Chadwick, who took a start-to-finish win at Road America to become only the third woman to win in the series, the first since 2010.
Judging Foster's future prospects with the end of the season approaching, Edwards told Autosport: “I think Louis was torn very much between doing another year of Indy NXT or jumping to IndyCar; trying to find the right opportunity in IndyCar for 2024.
“Not just because he’s winning a lot of races for us, but I think having worked with him now for the last year-and-a-half, he’s a much more complete driver and a lot better prepared to be successful in IndyCar than he would have been after one year in Indy NXT. For me, he is 100% deserving of getting an opportunity next year.”
Chadwick sits sixth in the standings with the Road America performance her only victory, though was preceded by a podium on the Indianapolis Road Course in May.
“On Jamie, huge progress this year,” Edwards said of the three-time W Series champion. “We have always tried to position that programme as we hired her because we believe in her as a driver. Period.
“If you look at the gains she made from last year to this year, she’s made fantastic gains.”
While Chadwick’s win at Road America was a standout performance, Edwards pointed to the racecraft and passing ability displayed at Laguna Seca - particularly in the second race when she drove from 14th to sixth, as an equally strong effort.
“Obviously, the win at Road America got a lot of attention, as it should have, but I looked at her drive Sunday at Laguna Seca and for me that was every bit as strong and mature, worthy of recognition as the win at Road America,” he explained.
“To battle up from where she qualified to where she finished, passing cars at a track that is tough to pass, and her decision-making and everything else was really impressive. In her case, there is a lot of momentum there. I’m sure there’ll be a push and opportunities to do IndyCar next year.
“I also think that if she needed to do Indy NXT again for another year and then find the right opportunity in IndyCar, then I think that would be a good thing as well. We’re hugely invested in her being successful in that arena and I think it has shown over what we’ve been doing over the last year and a half.
“We are supportive of whatever her and her group decide to do. But I think that it is important that, whatever she does, if she’s in IndyCar in 2025, then it’s with the right team and the right group that could make sure it’s a success.
“I would hate to see her in IndyCar in an environment or in a situation where it isn’t set up for her to be successful. She does herself so proud with what she does in and out of the car and she obviously gets a lot of recognition for what she’s doing. Motor racing is a fickle business and it’s all about perception and what have you done recently.
“It’s very important to Michael [Andretti, Andretti Global CEO], J-F [Thormann, Andretti Global President] and all of us that she keeps moving forward. If that’s in IndyCar in 2025, great, but if it’s in 2026 when there is a better opportunity for her, then that’ll be great as well.”
Should either driver step into IndyCar next term, it is unlikely Andretti Global would expand its three-car entry to accommodate.
The team downsized its full-time IndyCar operation from four cars for the current campaign, with improved consistency shown as a result.
“We’re running three cars because we believe that’s the right model,” Edwards said. “If you look at ourselves, McLaren, Penske, that seems to be a model and, certainly for us this year, we’ve been stronger being three cars.
“The ongoing conversations about the charters and so on, it may be that three becomes a natural cap.
“What we’ve tried to do with Indy NXT drivers is if we had a home for them, like Kyle or Colton, then that’s great and proof of the system working, but if we don’t have a home for them then we think it’s part of someone being an Indy NXT driver for our team to help them find the right opportunity, be part of the process and guide them with no self-motivation, if you will, is generally just try and make sure that they end up in situation that they can.
“Be that Louis, Jamie, those that have come before or those that will come after. I think that’s how we’ll continue to work with our NXT drivers in terms of helping them find opportunities.”
