'I like to have a nice-looking car': What makes an IndyCar livery special to drivers

INDIANAPOLIS – Sitting behind a long, black table on the fourth floor of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway media center earlier this month, Álex Palou, Scott Dixon, Will Power, Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist chuckled. Despite not practicing that day, the five men had put in hours of physical and mental preparation for the Sonsio Grand Prix.

Diverging from topics such as Power’s strategy for his upcoming races amidst the recent controversy within Team Penske, Herta’s slim hold of the No. 1 spot in the NTT IndyCar Series standings and more, a few of the drivers took time to talk about the importance of a car’s livery.

“The ones I win in are my favorites,” Palou said. “Whenever you win and you're successful with a car or livery, you appreciate it more. It just goes to another level; it's not only physical, I think it's more emotional.”

A livery, or the colorway, sponsorships and all factors that make up what a car looks like, essentially serves as the car’s uniform. Think of the New York Yankees’ white with navy pinstripes or the Pittsburgh Steelers’ iconic helmets with the team logo on just one side.

Becoming synonymous with a livery

Dixon has had two iconic liveries, first becoming inseparable from Target’s red and white colorway from 2003-2016 before moving to the now iconic PNC Bank blue and yellow in 2018.

Although his tenure with Target saw some novelty liveries such as partnerships with Jurassic World and Energizer, his PNC livery has remained the same during the entire six-year span, with some members of the PNC and Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) team vetoing potential changes.

“It’s nice when people immediately see it and they know exactly what it is,” Dixon said. “That’s huge for our brands.”

While the look of his livery changes from time to time, Power, who has driven with a Verizon Wireless livery since 2009, considers himself lucky to stay consistent with his sponsorships.

“It’s very unusual,” Power said. “To have that on my car for this long, it’s great. … You’re lucky to have that in racing, and if you’ve done a good job, you can keep that.”

Dixon said a consistent look, whether it’s a livery or even a part of a driver’s uniform, can become an extension of the driver’s personality.

“Like driver helmets, I'm old school, so I've always had the same design,” Dixon said. “A lot of other people change it each week.”

Liveries can have an extra meaning

Marcus Armstrong, Dixon’s teammate and the driver of CGR’s No. 11 car, sported a less iconic livery for the grand prix, but he said it carries more meaning than representing a well-known sponsor would. Armstrong’s car is red and white, the signature colors for the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, the main sponsor of the car.

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The livery was made specifically to honor Jeff Schwarz, co-founder of Schwarz Partners, who lost a year-long battle with cancer in late 2023. Armstrong said the opportunity to race a car with this much of a personal connection is an honor.

“It makes me feel more motivated to go out there and win a race, honestly, because everyone deserves it,” Armstrong said.

CGR’s most recent partnership isn’t the first time the team has sported liveries with a more humanized appeal. Dixon thought back to 2021 when his PNC Bank car showcased the company’s “Grow Up Great” logo as part of PNC’s campaign to educate children ages 0-5 before they enter organized schooling as an example.

“You get more of a personal touch and more of a personal acquaintance to that (livery),” Dixon said. “When it's something like cancer research, that's next-level stuff.”

Visibility matters stylistically and personally

Not only is a personal connection to a livery important for the drivers, but visibility can also make a huge difference. Although modern technology makes it possible to know who is behind a driver’s car without checking the rear-view mirror, Power remembered his former teammate’s bright yellow livery, referencing Simon Pagenaud’s iconic Menard’s car.

“You would see him so far back, I actually reckon it made people more aware that he was there,” Power said. “I think that matters.”

While Power’s partnership with Verizon Wireless has been standing for more than a decade, his main colorways have rotated between black, red, white and silver. One of his favorite liveries during the 15-year partnership was his first full-season car in 2010, showcasing a sleek, black base with streaks of red to signify the Verizon sponsorship.

“I like to have a nice-looking car, I do,” Power said. “It does matter; when you look at it, you want to like it.”

Similarly to Power, Palou said the most important aspect of a livery is its visibility on television. Not for the fame, but so those watching in his home country of Spain can easily point him out while watching overseas.

By happenstance, his current livery sports the same red and yellow colors as the Spanish flag. But Palou wants to take it a step further; he is hoping for IndyCar to introduce a race where each driver represents their home country on their car’s livery.

“Everybody in Spain loves it,” Palou said. “I think people would be surprised about how many different countries there are in IndyCar. I think a lot of people, especially in America, think it's an American series, and it is, but it's a very international series when it comes down to teams, personnel and the drivers.”

While separate from the IndyCar Series, Power has been able to represent his home country in past races, most notably driving for Team Australia for the 2006 Race of Champions (or Nations’ Cup).

“That has been done, but I think the throwback thing would be cool,” Power said.

A generational livery

On that note, Herta said the livery he cherishes most was in 2023 when he sported the same look as his father, Bryan Herta, did in 1998. Rocking a black, white and yellow Gainbridge car at Laguna Seca, this livery looked nearly identical to Bryan’s classic Shell-sponsored livery with the same colorway.

Colton thought back to his emotions when the Andretti Global team unveiled the livery to him, knowing his father had won multiple races sporting the same look.

“I hope I can run it again at some point, but I'm not sure if that'll ever come,” Colton said. “I'd love if IndyCar did a throwback weekend.”

Colton said his livery for the grand prix was very ideal, saying his “dream” livery would look as plain as possible, sporting a black or white base color, minimal stickers and streaks of color to add a bit of flair. In his fourth season racing under the Gainbridge banner with fairly similar colorways each race, Herta hopes to become as inseparable with a livery as colleagues like Power or Dixon.

“It is probably slowly happening,” Herta said. “I’ve been in the car quite a long time, and for the foreseeable future of my contract, I will be in that car. It would be cool to someday be synonymous with it.”

Contact Kyle Smedley with comments via email at kyle.smedley@bsu.edu or on X @KyleSmedley_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What makes an IndyCar livery special to drivers