After a season-long battle with two other rookies in the NTT IndyCar Series, Louis Foster has secured the Rookie of the Year title for 2025.
Foster was the reigning IndyNXT champion, and advanced up to the top level this year driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The Briton scored one pole in Road America, but was not quite able to break into the top 10 across the 17 races this season.
He showed more than a few flashes of talent, however, and secured the honors in the final race of the year.
“Obviously I’m super pleased,” said Foster after the race. “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 to be honestly.
“Kind of had to hang on at the end and really hope that Robert [Shwartzman] messed up, which he did, because we didn’t have the car today.
“I think besides that, 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.”
Nail-biting finish
It was not until the very end of the race in Nashville that Foster secured the Rookie of the Year title over PREMA’s Robert Shwartzman.
In fact, Shwartzman was set to take the title for himself after working his way inside the top 10 in the closing laps of the season finale race.
Unfortunately, Shwartzman earned himself a drive through penalty for blocking Santino Ferrucci with just five laps remaining.
After he served his penalty, he had dropped down to 14th and gave Foster a two-point advantage in the overall standings: 213 to 211.
Despite finishing in 20th on Sunday, Foster secured just enough points throughout the season to claim the title.
“Coming into IndyCar is a tricky business,” Foster continued. “The qualifying performances this year have been pretty stellar, especially on road and street courses.
“That’s the part that you do as a driver all the way up to IndyCar, right? You do qualifying all the time. You’re used to that.
“The races, double the length, never done a pit stop before, 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.”
Foster remains with RLL next season and will look to finish higher up the championship order than 23rd he finished this year.
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