The 2025 Indy NXT season starts on Friday, and Ireland’s Jonathan Browne has made the move across from HMD Motorsports to Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) over the long break — and he outlined the part Stefan Johansson had in it.
The 24-year-old finished P13 in the championship last year, with a best result of P6 at St. Pete.
How the move to Chip Ganassi Racing materialised
RACER revealed in early September last year that Chip Ganassi Racing would be returning to the feeder series of IndyCar, 18 years on from their last campaign in the category.
Jonathan Browne is managed by Stefan Johansson. The former Swedish F1, Champ Car driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner is also a manager for CGR IndyCar driver and six-time champion Scott Dixon.
The Irishman revealed he asked Johansson to go and see if the rumour about CGR’s return to the category was true. From there, negotiations took place and a deal was agreed.
“I mean, there was kind of interest. I kind of got to the end of last year and wanted to assess all my options, and [I am] managed by Stefan Johansson. And obviously he has a long relationship with Scott [Dixon] and Chip Ganassi as well.
“Once we kind of heard that this was starting up, kind of asked him to go and ask a few questions and see was it real or what the story was, basically.
“And yeah, both managed to work something out, signed at the end of last year.”
How testing has gone and settling into the team
Although Browne is heading into his second season in Indy NXT, it’s very much new beginnings for him and the team. Chip Ganassi Racing will be taking to the grid in St. Pete for the first time since 2007.
Plenty of work was done at the Sebring and Laguna Seca tests to be in a good spot heading into the race in Florida this weekend.
“Yeah, pretty well. We showed good improvement from Sebring to Laguna. Sebring was our first real test.
“There was just a lot of stuff for us to figure out on the car, communication, how to run one of these things. But I feel like we learned a lot through those two days.
“Then in between the two tests, did a lot of research, a lot of development.
“And then came out Laguna and was pretty quick, all four sessions, which was really good to see. Just kept getting better and better. And yeah, just excited to start the season now.”
Browne looking to make qualifying gains
In 2024, Browne regularly found himself starting outside the top 10. Passing in the series is difficult, leaving the Irish driver with a mountain to climb on race days.
As CGR makes its comeback, it could take them a little while to be fully up to speed and learn these cars.
However, Browne is hopeful that’s not the case. Regarding his own qualifying performances, he did a lot of self-reflection over the winter break.
The Irishman also explained the level of competitiveness in the series makes it so hard. He also faced extra challenges last season as he did not do qualifying runs in some tests in 2024.
“Yeah, look, I hope not.
“But it’s just like, qualifying so hard, we don’t get that many new tyre runs. You have to make the most out of it when you get it.
“A couple of tests last year, I didn’t get to do that, and you just miss it, that last little tenth or two, and that shoves you down two or three rows, which is unfortunate.
“But that’s the high level of competition in Indy NXT right now, it’s really good at one point, but it also sucks when you’re on the bad end of it.
“But yeah, I’m confident that I’ve learned a lot over the winter and then [done] a lot of self-reflection. There’s always going to be bad ones and always going to be good ones. I’m just trying to make sure the bad ones aren’t as bad as some of the ones last year we had.”
Will CGR be able to run at the front quite quickly?
Andretti Global, ABEL Motorsports and HMD Motorsports have all got far more experience in the category and with the current cars.
Nonethless, Jonathan Browne is targeting wins in 2025 as the hugely successful Chip Ganassi Racing team looks to return to Indy NXT with a bang.
“I mean, it’s obviously very new to all of us, and you’re up against teams who’ve been in here for many, many years. It’s hard to catch up with only four days on track time.
“So expectation, I still want to win races. I still want to fight at the front. I still believe I can do that here.
“But yeah, the expectation in Ganassi is very much a winning culture. That translates to Indy NXT. So they’ll be doing whatever they can to fight at the sharp end, and so will I. And hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.”
Getting advice from Palou, Dixon and Franchitti?
The record Chip Ganassi Racing has in IndyCar is extraordinary. Since the turn of the century, they have won 12 championships. Scott Dixon (6), Dario Franchitti (3), and Alex Palou (3). The Spaniard is the two-time defending champion heading into 2025.
Between IndyCar and Indy NXT races, Jonathan Browne is hoping to pick up advice from the drivers, looking for those fine margins to make a big difference in a series that is so close.
As well as that, he would like to spend some time around the team during IndyCar race weekends to learn about communication and other things if the chance to ever compete in the main category arises.
“Yeah, look, I mean, I’ll take all the advice I can get, especially from those guys that got multiple titles and a lot of years of success over the decades. So I’ll pick up whatever I can from them.
“Obviously, we both have our own race weekends to figure out. So I don’t know how much time I’ll actually get to sit down and talk.
“But hopefully in between the races, talk about a few things, ask about ‘was this normal? Have you ever felt this? What did you do to help that’? Loads of little stuff like that.
“And yeah, hoping to be around the team at the IndyCar races and try to learn what I can from there, just from a communication standpoint from Scott, Kyffin and Alex, how the team operate, how the drivers communicate, all that type of stuff, just so I can be, if I ever got that chance, I’d be as best prepared as I could be.”
