Alexander Rossi is set to embark on a new journey with Ed Carpenter Racing in his 10th year competing in the NTT IndyCar Series.
He joins the team just as it has brought on an additional ownership partner and is rebranding itself top to bottom ahead of the 2025 season.
The newest owner in the group is Ted Gelov, who owns Heartland Food Products Group which produces Splenda and Java House Coffee. Both brands will hold major sponsorship positions on ECR’s cars this year.
During a preseason media session, Rossi described how the additional financial support will help the team, but more than anything he is impressed with the loyalty and dedication of the employees that keep the operation running.
“I think that what we’ve seen in this sport and we’ve seen in other championships, funding and money isn’t the solution to everyone’s problems,” explained Rossi.
“It certainly gives you the capability to have a better rate of development. It gives you the opportunity to maybe entice people into your organization and that sort of thing.
“But it’s still about the people, and I do think that a lot of the main people that are at ECR currently have been there for a very long time.
“There’s a lot of loyalty in the organization, and there’s a very close-knit group of individuals that, in their own right and together, are very, very good at what they do.
“They’ve maybe just not had all of the tools, resources and people to help them deliver the results that they are capable of. I think number one is people; number two is growing the good people and creating that environment; then number three is having the available funds to go do the projects and build the things that you need to do.”
A long-term commitment
Rossi comes to ECR after spending seven years racing for Andretti Global and the two most recent seasons with Arrow McLaren.
His most recent win came on the Indianapolis road course in 2022, and he was never quite able to achieve the results he hoped for in his time wearing papaya colors.
As much as ECR is a smaller organization than his previous teams, Rossi feels the group is dedicated to success in a way that will pay dividends over the next couple years.
He gets along well with Ed Carpenter on a personal as well as a professional level, and has already integrated smoothly into the new race shop.
The 33-year-old has plans to stay with the team long into the future and will work with his young team-mate Christian Rasmussen to help make ECR’s new approach a success.
“This is a long-term thing that I’m a part of and something that’s very exciting to be a part of and to contribute to,” said Rossi.
“And to do it alongside someone that I have a very good working and personal relationship with Ed [Carpenter], something that I feel like we as a group, Ed, myself, Christian, Ted Gelov from Heartland, we can all do as this kind of foursome and push things forward and get the results that we want.”
