Nolan Siegel vows to “stay calm and not press the radio button” in the wake of his IndyCar controversy

Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel recently spoke about his outburst on the team radio during the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. He spoke about staying calm and not pressing the radio button during frustrating situations.

The 20-year-old drives the #6 Arrow McLaren car powered by Chevrolet. During the race at the World Wide Technology Raceway held on June 15, his radio broadcast caught the attention of many as he spewed profanity at Team Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, and his team. The whole incident took place after Siegel was handed a drive through penalty for agressive defense.

While in conversation with Bob Pockrass, the the 20-year-old was asked about his outburst on the radio, to which he replied by saying, (via Bob Pockrass on X)

"Look, the reality is what we're doing is extremely high pressure. And there are moments that are extremely frustrating. And I think ultimately a big part of being a good race car driver is staying calm in those moments and so I think for me. You know, it's probably a mix of both but at the same time I think if you look at any professional athlete. They have their moments like that in moments of frustration and unfortunately, for me, it was caught on the broadcast," he said (0:08 onwards). "But yes, it's done something, and I cannot happen again. And I will continue in the future to stay more calm and not press the radio button but yeah, it was a combination of a lot of frustrating things. You know, really frustrating, kind of a couple months. So yeah, I need to not let that get to me," he added.

Soon after the race ended, the Arrow McLaren team put out a statement via their social media. This was followed by a post by Siegel himself, where he apologized to the fans, the team, and the sponsors for the rage filled radio.

So far, Nolan Siegel's first full season with the Arrow McLaren team has not gotten off to a great start, as he qualified in 11th place at the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg held on March 2. He could not finish the race as he was caught in a collision with Will Power and Louis Foster on lap 1. Then, during the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, he qualified in 27th place and finished the race in 19th place.

---

Nolan Siegel expresses his feelings about Detroit Grand Prix ahead of his IndyCar debut anniversary

Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel recently spoke about his debut in the IndyCar series as he approaches its anniversary. He entered the sport last year during the Detroit Grand Prix weekend.

The 20-year-old was brought in by the team as a replacement for Theo Pourchaire, who was let go one month after being signed. The youngster recently appeared on Speed Freaks, where he was asked if he felt a sense of comfort after almost completing a year with the team. Nolan Siegel replied by saying,

"Yes, definitely for me, you know, this is going to be the first weekend that I did last year in IndyCar, it's going to be so much easier, you know, going to a place like Detroit where everyone else has raced there in the IndyCar, I haven't, you get two practice sessions to figure it out, it's just hard, and it's hard especially when the goal is to compete with the people that you're racing against in IndyCar, like the series is so competitive that starting from a deficit is it, it just makes the whole weekend so so difficult so coming back to all of these tracks that I've been to before, it's just going to be a head start on the weekend," said Siegel (via Speed Freaks Podcast on YouTube, 3:52 onwards).

The 2025 season marks the 20-year-old's first full season with the Indianapolis based team as during the last season, he only raced the last 10 races. He is currently standing in 21st place in the drivers' championship with 104 points to his credit.

Edited by Pratham K Sharma