WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Romain Grosjean has no poles, no podiums and no laps led but a full sense of accomplishment nearing the end of his first season at Juncos Hollinger Racing.
That’s the odd mix of frustration and satisfaction that Grosjean feels about his third full year in the NTT IndyCar Series.
“I generally think it’s one of my most consistent seasons and great seasons,” he said Thursday at a media event to preview this weekend’s race doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile. “But when we look at the paper, it’s (expletive) horrendous because everything that could go wrong went wrong this year.”
The No. 77 Dallara-Chevrolet driver has four top 10s with a best finish of fourth in 14 starts for JHR, and he can point to misfortune in nearly all of his poor results this year — whether getting caught in other drivers’ mishaps (at Iowa, Gateway, Detroit), pit stop woes (Toronto) and hybrid glitches (Mid-Ohio).
It’s resulted in an average finish of 15.4 that is his worst since entering IndyCar in 2021 on a partial schedule with Dale Coyne Racing. Grosjean delivered three podiums, a pole position and 53 laps led as a rookie and then followed with three podiums, two poles and 99 laps led during the 2022-23 seasons at Andretti Global.
But since kicking off 2024 by qualifying fifth at St. Petersburg (a season best that he matched at Toronto), the Formula One veteran also has been encouraged by signs that Juncos Hollinger Racing has the potential as a team on the rise in IndyCar this season.
“Everything that could go against us kind of went against us, but you know we put JHR on the map,” Grosjean said. “Now people are looking at what we do and our performance. I think we have a lot of room for improvement and to keep growing.”
Grosjean would like to remain at JHR but is working through the financials with team co-owner Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger while also having discussions with other teams. His 2025 plans aren’t set, but he would like to remain full time in IndyCar while continuing to race a part-time schedule with a Lamborghini GTP in the IMSA and WEC series.
Juncos recently told Motorsport.com that the team hopes Grosjean will pick JHR over other offers.
“Ricardo made it clear he would like to have me in the team, and I would like stay,” Grosjean said. “We’re all trying to make it work with Brad, with Ricardo, with myself to develop the team technically and on the sporting side and commercially, so we can also be a bit more relaxed on the financial side.”
“I think when you’re an IndyCar driver, you take quite a bit of risk. You’re normally pretty good at what you do, so you also deserve reward for your work and it’s just finding that sweet spot where we’re all happy and we all feel comfortable, but I’m sure we’re going to be OK.
“We re all grown-ups, we’re all intelligent, and we’re all trying to make it work the best way we can. ... I think it’s a nice team to be in the future. I see what we’ve been doing, and where we’re heading, and I see the potential. And I like to be that important piece in the puzzle.”
Grosjean said he feels at home with JHR the same way he did with Dale Coyne, whose organization also has been known for punching above its weight class in IndyCar.
JHR has extracted the experience and knowledge that Grosjean gleaned from Andretti without trying to chase the setups that bigger teams (with bigger budgets) are using.
“I got to Juncos and I knew no one, so it was kind of a bit of an unknown going there,” Grosjean said. “I must say that I was impressed with where they were and what was their thinking.
“When I came in, they were telling me what they had and what they knew other people had, and I think the key was they know we have to use what we have. We don’t try to reinvent stuff because we’ve seen it somewhere else.
"(Last week at Portland), 85-90 percent of the cars were running something else, and we didn’t run it. We possibly could have put it on, but we also have done our own work and testing, and the car has been working well that way. Why would we just copy out of copying rather than sticking with what we know?”
Grosjean qualified sixth at Portland — the third time this season he had reached final round on a street or road course. He was on track for a top five until he spun in Turn 1 and then was given a drive-through penalty for unsportsmanlike/unsafe behavior after nearly colliding with Christian Rasmussen upon rejoining the track.
Though he believes the incident raised questions about how IndyCar officials issue local yellow flags (there was no full-course caution, and Grosjean said his visibility was limited because it’s a blind corner), Grosjean conceded the blunder was all his.
“Yes, I (screwed) up in Portland, and I’m really, really pissed at myself for spinning like a rookie, but a spin cannot take away a full season,” he said. “I feel good in my shoes with the work and the effort that I’ve been put in, and the team recognized that. If you do the job that people expect you to do and do everything right, there’s no reason things wouldn’t work out.”