For James Roe, the pursuit of an IndyCar career has never been built on shortcuts or privilege. Instead, it has been forged through sacrifice, relentless determination and an unwavering belief that hard work will eventually create opportunity.
Eight years after leaving his native Ireland for North America with little more than ambition and a suitcase, the 27-year-old from Naas, County Kildare has transformed himself into one of the most experienced drivers in Indy NXT while simultaneously building an increasingly impressive résumé in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The road has been anything but straightforward, yet Roe believes every hardship has prepared him for the moment when an IndyCar opportunity finally arrives.
“Where I’ve come from and what I have since I came to North America and have built, that’s just through hard work and pure grind. I know nothing else,” Roe told Motorsport.com.
“Those attributes are going to pay off. Anytime it gets tough, I think about living out of a workshop floor in Wisconsin. That keeps the fire in the belly burning pretty strong. The day you get into the big cars and you can say, ‘I came from that to now,’ will be pretty unique.”
From workshop floor to racing prospect
When Roe first arrived in the United States as an 18-year-old, life revolved almost entirely around racing.
Competing in the junior formulae with Wisconsin-based ArmsUp Motorsports, he lived out of a suitcase on the workshop floor while chasing victories and trying to establish himself in American open-wheel racing. Those early experiences, he says, continue to shape his mentality today.
Unlike many aspiring professional drivers, Roe has had to build his career piece by piece, balancing racing ambitions with the commercial realities of funding a professional motorsport programme.
Career snapshot
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish |
| Hometown | Naas, County Kildare |
| Age | 27 |
| Current programmes | Indy NXT and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship |
| Indy NXT experience | Fourth full season (2026) |
| Previous Indy NXT team | Andretti Global |
| Current Indy NXT team | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| IMSA team | Lone Star Racing |
| GT car | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
A calculated move to Ganassi
Rather than remain with Andretti Global for a fourth consecutive season in Indy NXT, Roe opted to join Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of the 2026 campaign.
The move was motivated by far more than race results.
After completing a successful IndyCar test with Juncos Hollinger Racing last autumn, Roe recognised that opportunities in the premier series would be limited during the winter. Remaining within the IndyCar paddock while embedding himself inside one of North America’s most successful organisations became a strategic priority.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s recent record speaks for itself, having won five of the previous six IndyCar championships through Alex Palou and Scott Dixon.
“I wanted to go to IndyCar, but there wasn’t a whole lot happening during the off-season,” Roe explained.
“I looked at Ganassi as an opportunity to bring my experience to help grow the Indy NXT programme, while also immersing myself in the IndyCar environment that has been so successful.
“When I eventually get an IndyCar opportunity, I’ll already have a much better understanding of what makes that organisation so successful. There was definitely a strategic element to the decision.”
Building a new programme
Although Ganassi is one of IndyCar’s benchmark organisations, its Indy NXT programme remains relatively young compared with established rivals.
Roe acknowledges that teams such as Andretti Global, HMD Motorsports and Abel Motorsports benefit from years of accumulated engineering knowledge.
“The reality is that those teams have engineers who’ve worked with these cars for eight years or more,” he said.
“We have everything we need to succeed at Ganassi. The people are remarkably smart. It’s simply a case of learning quickly and closing that product knowledge gap with very limited testing.
“You often arrive at a circuit with one practice session before qualifying. What you unload with is largely what you’ve got.”
Why IMSA matters
Alongside his Indy NXT commitments, Roe has expanded his racing portfolio through endurance competition.
Driving for Lone Star Racing in selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events aboard a Mercedes-AMG GT3 has given him valuable experience that simply cannot be replicated in Indy NXT.
Long stints, fuel-saving, tyre management, strategy adjustments and driver changes all mirror many of the demands encountered in IndyCar.
“In IMSA I’m in the car for up to three hours,” Roe explained.
“At Daytona I completed a three-and-a-half-hour stint. You’re fuel saving, double-stinting tyres, doing out-laps on cold tyres and managing strategy.
“Those are all things you see every weekend in IndyCar but don’t really experience in Indy NXT.”
He believes learning those skills now will ease any future transition.
“You don’t want your first fuel-saving race or your first hot pit stop to happen in an IndyCar race. We’re building that experience now.”
Impressing in an IndyCar test
Roe’s biggest opportunity to date came during an IndyCar evaluation with Juncos Hollinger Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Despite having no previous simulator preparation and limited experience with the series’ hybrid systems, he immediately demonstrated competitive pace.
“They were quite impressed,” Roe recalled.
“The performance was strong. We worked through a lot during the day and proved the pace was there.
“That test was important because people got to see what I could do in an IndyCar.”
Building partnerships off the circuit
Modern racing careers are increasingly determined away from the track as much as on it.
Roe has developed an extensive business-to-business network involving major corporate partners including Topcon, Ring Power, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Vortex and Merlo America.
Rather than relying solely on sponsorship exposure, Roe’s programme actively creates commercial opportunities between partners.
“It’s essentially become a huge B2B machine,” he explained.
“Our partners are doing business with each other through the motorsport platform we’ve created. That’s a full-time job in itself.”
Managing those relationships requires a dedicated team.
“I’ve got an amazing group around me—what I call a few badass girls—who make everything happen every single day. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built.”
Eyes firmly on 2027
Looking ahead, Roe confirms discussions are already taking place regarding potential IndyCar opportunities for 2027.
At the same time, Mercedes-AMG has opened further possibilities within sports car racing, giving him two competitive avenues for the future.
His ideal scenario would be combining both disciplines, although calendar clashes between IndyCar and IMSA make a full-time dual campaign unlikely.
“There are one or two IndyCar opportunities we’re discussing at the moment,” Roe revealed.
“I’m also really enjoying working with Mercedes-AMG. They’ve been fantastic.
“IndyCar has always been the goal, especially the Indianapolis 500, but the IMSA programme has really strengthened my year.”
Despite the growing opportunities, Roe insists the philosophy that carried him from a workshop floor in Wisconsin to professional motorsport remains unchanged.
“All I know is hard work,” he said.
“We’re going to make it. We’re going to do it properly. It’s going to take hard work—that’s the name of the game.”
