DeFrancesco joins RLL for the 2025 IndyCar season after series sabbatical

Devlin DeFrancesco will return to the IndyCar Series on a multi-year deal with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) in 2025, the team announced on Monday.

The 24-year-old will join a line-up of six-time race winner Graham Rahal and incoming rookie Louis Foster, who won this year’s Indy NXT championship and is the son of former British touring car racer Nick Foster.

It comes after a sabbatical for DeFrancesco, who is set for his third year in IndyCar having competed with Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport (now Andretti Global) in 2022 and 2023, where 22nd was his best championship finish.

“I’m very excited to be back in the IndyCar Series,” said the Canadian, who has 34 IndyCar starts. “Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has an amazing history and is also on an impressive trajectory.

“Seeing all the work that is going on from the men and women behind the scenes, it is easy to see that this team and myself are very hungry for results. I look forward to getting started with all the great people here.”

In his year away from the series, DeFrancesco partially fought the GTD class of the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship in a Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

His best result was second in class at the season-ending Petit Le Mans and DeFrancesco now joins an IndyCar team whose last victory came via Christian Lundgaard in Toronto in 2023.

Bobby Rahal, co-owner of RLL which scored one podium in 2024, said: “I’m very pleased that we are able to welcome Devlin to the team.

“We had the chance to witness his ability while he was at Andretti and there were clearly times when he was quite competitive so I’m confident that we can have a lot of good races together.

“We’re looking forward to his contribution to the team.”

DeFrancesco will drive RLL’s #30 Honda-powered entry, with sponsorship details to be announced at a later date.