Here's the thing about a brutal racing season: sometimes the finishing order tells you absolutely nothing. Alexander Rossi, who turned 34 on Sept. 25, finished 15th in the NTT IndyCar SERIES standings this year. It was the exact same position he managed in 2025, his first season driving the No. 20 ECR Chevrolet. But dig into the numbers and the experience, and the reality is wildly different. In 2025, he logged two top-five finishes and seven top-10s. This time around? Just one top-five and five top-10 results.
“It's no secret that this has been a pretty terrible year for myself and the whole ECR team with the litany of issues, some out of our control, some in our control,” Rossi said. And boy, did everything that could go wrong actually find a way. The team battled crashes, mechanical failures across gearboxes, hybrids, and engines, pit lane fires, and outright lack of speed at various rounds.
Yet, right when the machine worked, the speed was undeniable. The absolute high point came at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Rossi qualified second for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. Then came disaster: a practice crash the very next day left him with a finger injury on his left hand and a leg issue requiring an outpatient procedure. He spent over a month locked in a walking boot. But he also crossed a major career milestone, collecting his 100th career top-10 finish and ending the year with 102 to his name. The final punctuation mark came at the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he started fourth and stormed home to finish third.
“That was a great result to kind of reward that effort, just rebuild the confidence in everyone that we're capable of doing this,” Rossi said.
That Laguna Seca podium was the tangible proof of a shift that started around midseason. A June test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course finally pointed ECR in the right direction. The results didn't immediately look pretty—the five races right before that test yielded finishes of 25th, 30th, 17th, 18th, and sixth, a stark contrast to his four top-11 finishes in the opening five rounds—but the underlying pace was finally there to be unlocked.
Now, the winter is about dissecting the wreckage of a chaotic year. Rossi and the team started their review in Indianapolis right after Laguna Seca, and the plan isn't to burn the workshop down and start over. Rossi points out that ECR actually improved in many internal metrics from 2025 to 2026, even if the results sheet didn't show it. There is no magic bullet; it is simply about refining every little detail.
With investment partner and co-owner Ted Gelov—who joined ahead of the 2025 season and brought brands like Splenda and Java House through Heartland Food Products Group—ECR finally has the financial muscle to acquire what it needs. But Rossi is realistic about the mountain they are climbing. The established front-running teams have enjoyed a decade-long advantage, and closing that gap takes more than just writing checks because the opposition refuses to stand still.
“It will come. It's a process,” Rossi said.
