INDIANAPOLIS — Louis Foster earned the NTT IndyCar Series Rookie Of The Year title by a mere two points.
Foster persevered through a roller-coaster season finale that saw him have contact with another driver, serve a drive-through penalty and finish 20th Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.
Still, it was enough for the 22-year-old Englishman to edge Robert Shwartzman by two points.
Driving the No. 45 Honda entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Foster joined a prestigious list rookie honorees that includes his RLL team owner Bobby Rahal (1982), Arie Luyendyk (1985), Nigel Mansell (1993), Gil De Ferran (1995), Alex Zanardi (1996), Dan Wheldon (2003), Danica Patrick (2005), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007), Simon Pagenaud (2012), Alexander Rossi (2016) and Scott McLaughlin (2021).
“Obviously I’m super pleased to be rookie of they,” said Foster. “I think one of the main
goals we had this year was to win this title. A lot of bad luck at the start of the year meant it was probably closer than I would have wanted it to be, honestly. I kind of had to hang on at the end. I think the RLL team have been absolutely incredible all year. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think we’ve been able to bounce back from those downs pretty damn well. Yeah, obviously all credit goes to them.”
Foster won the Indy NXT championship in 2024.
“Coming into IndyCar is a tricky business. The qualifying performances this year have been
pretty stellar, especially on road and street courses. The races are double the length (compared
to Indy NXT), I’d never done a pit stop before or fuel saving. There’s a lot to learn in the race
that we definitely missed out for sure. I’m looking forward to coming back in 2026 with a reset, a lot more experience and knowledge behind the wheel in the races to try to move up the
championship standings with the No. 45 RLL Desnuda Tequila/Droplight Honda.”
