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How would you respond if your bosses told you to finish the year in the top 10 in your industry or to look for a new job? Many might buckle under pressure, but that’s the kind of expectations 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 pursue that goal alone.
A deep dive into Arrow McLaren’s INDYCAR team, the latest episode of “All In,” a streaming documentary series from FOX Sports, INDYCAR and Shadow Lion, explores the team’s lofty expectations for drivers Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Siegel in the world’s fastest series.
“When you’re putting together a three-car lineup, you really want to be P1, P2, P3,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said on the latest episode of “All In.” “So anything other than that is frustrating.”
In the fourth episode, titled “The Third Seat,” the series examines Arrow McLaren’s three-car team, how Kanaan and Brown lead the execution, and how the organization found Siegel, after years of complicated contract litigation over Alex Palou’s potential addition to the team.
Palou, currently INDYCAR’s clear driver to beat, almost switched from Chip Ganassi Racing to Arrow McLaren after the 2022 season. Well, depending on who you ask.
“You can see the immense talent he has, 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 and costly experience for everyone. We moved on.”
After ending up in court, Palou was ordered in January to pay McLaren $12 million for breach of contract after he backed out of a deal to switch teams. Instead of Palou, McLaren’s third INDYCAR seat went to Siegel, who is now in his second full season in the series.
“Zak, having lost the best there is in the sport, is now looking for the guy who can be the next Palou,” explains INDYCAR on FOX announcer Will Buxton on “All In.”
“You already have that in Pato? Do you think you’ve found it in Christian?”
Or maybe it’s Siegel. And Kanaan, the 2004 INDYCAR champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, is trying hard.
“Last year, Nolan had some good races and some bad races,” says INDYCAR on FOX analyst James Hinchcliffe in the latest episode. “But McLaren shows up to win. And when Tony Kanaan says, ‘Top 10 or you’re out,’ you either rise to the occasion and perform or you don’t.”
The latest episode of “All In” takes place against the backdrop of the INDYCAR race weekend in Long Beach earlier this month, and focuses on the three McLaren drivers.
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“I didn’t expect to be the team manager,” Kanaan says in “All In.”
“It wasn’t my intention. I was an INDYCAR driver for 26 years… Zak challenged me to come as a consultant just to help the drivers on race weekends, and that turned into coming full time.”
Christian Lundgaard during the 2026 Acura Long Beach Grand Prix. (Photo by Brandon Badraoui/Lumen via Getty Images)
Long Beach is a uniquely challenging track (technically, it’s a street circuit), as Hinchcliffe recently explained. And unfortunately for McLaren, Palou finished on top of the podium.
Now, INDYCAR looks ahead to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed by the iconic Indy 500, a race that many in the sport would say O’Ward should have accomplished a long time ago.
“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 in Hinchcliffe, Buxton and FOX’s Townsend Bell, “All In” examines the biggest challenges, pressure points and high-speed competition of racing in the series. But each episode presents its own take on the story of a pilot, team or series.
Watch “All In” on INDYCAR’s YouTube page on FOX, FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app, FOX One, as well as INDYCAR and INDYCAR on FOX social channels.
