James Roe on Racing Indy NXT with Andretti and his Driver Mindset

Introduction [0:00]

James: I moved to the US in 2018. I moved over here for a racing career and the rest is kind of history - been here ever since. That's my personality in every walk of life.

I told the surgeon it cannot be in a cast. I have to race in 10 days time. If it falls off, it falls off. Sink or swim. That's one of my favorite sayings - that you just gotta get in and go.

There was no plan B.

‍

Catching up after the Rolex 24 [0:26]

Greg: I'm Greg. Welcome back to another episode of FanAmp Insider.

This time I'm here at St. Petersburg for the IndyCar opener with none other than James Roe. James, how are you feeling?

James: Good. All good. Here in sunny Florida and ready to get the Indy NXT season started.

Greg: There we go. Last time I saw you, we were in Daytona, and it was not sunny.

James: No, it was cool.

Greg: How are you feeling now going into this weekend?

James: Daytona was awesome. Obviously, we had an unfortunate incident there at 9 o'clock at night for our bronze, Chris, but that's how it goes in that race.

Daytona Commentator: Pratt Miller, LMP2, another car.

James: Yeah, for me it was just great to get back and be in the car to go get some laps. Now, here we are ready to kick off this season.

‍

Who is James Roe? [1:05]

Greg: Before we get into the here and now, let's go back.

I want to start - just for those who don't know you or even those who do know you, but don't know as much about you - who is James Roe as a person and as a driver?

James: James Roe is Irish. 26 years of age. I grew up 20 minutes out Dublin in a town called Naas, in County Kildare.

I started racing quite late at 15 years of age. I didn't do any go-karting, which is unconventional to a lot of the guys you'll see around the paddock this weekend, or even in Daytona.

I just started it off. Saved up the money. Purchased my first race car. Small family repair shop that we ran it out of. And there's one race track on the whole island of Ireland, which I think I said to you before.

Yeah, we started there - just grassroots.

‍Greg: After that, you continued with schooling. You were racing... you were going to go to school for mechanical engineering at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

But then you decided to come here (America) and keep going. What was that mindset especially being so young and having never lived in America?

James: It was just like.... you get to that point of the road which is the same for every driver - at some point as you're at a crossroads.

It's, "okay, do we make this jump and really go after Motorsport? OR hey, do I go and get a degree and a job and get serious in that avenue?"

The way I looked at it is - you have an opportunity to go this way, so let's just go and do it now. I looked at the two paths. Obviously in Europe, you have Formula 4, 3, 2, 1, which is usually the conventional route of the ladder system.

In North America it's USF, USF Pro 2000, Indy NXT, and IndyCar. The difference being that on the American side, there's prize money for poles wins, fastest laps, championships, so on and so forth.

In Europe, the reality is if you perform in Formula 4, Formula 3, you just essentially just get a clap in the back, like "Hey, job well done buddy." And you're back to ground zero.

So for me, having to raise all the dollars to go racing and put everything together myself, that commercial avenue was really what I had to go after. And then there's 4 million people in Ireland - there's 44 million Irish Americans here in America - so that whole thing also skewed me to North America.

I packed up my bags and moved over in 2018. I had never stepped foot here prior - vacation or anything along those lines. I moved over here for a racing career and got it going and the rest is kinda history. I've been here ever since.

‍

Applying a ‘sink or swim’ attitude to his racing career [3:19]

Greg: You're obviously very young when you're going through that.

I don't even know if I can think about that concept around the commercial side of it: how you raise the money but also focus on the racing. What was your guiding light, or who was your person that helped you or people that were on your bench saying, "Hey, you need to do these things"? Who helped you understand it, and then helped you go out and raise the funds?

James: Honestly, a lot of it was just reality.

It wasn't like there was a certain person that said "you have to do X, Y, Z to race". It was just the reality of the matter that we had a scenario where we needed to go and get dollars. I had great people around me - business leaders in Ireland, and they'd give me advice.

Don't get me wrong, there were people assisting me at times, but it was just always a lot of good people with a lot of honest advice. Just kept clawing at it. I think that's the biggest thing as well.

Someone used an expression before, "it's like throwing darts, you're not gonna get a bullseye every time."

That mentality from the early age and it being my only option - there was no plan B. So soon enough you just decide that this is our plan. We have to make it work, and you just make it happen.

Greg: It seems like you jumped towards the fire! You're just like, "whatever, we'll figure it out."

James: Yeah. "Sink or swim," that's one of my favorite sayings. You just have to get in and go. You can ponder so much about different things or whatever about this or whatever about that.

We've just always taken the mindset, "let's just go and figure it out."

Greg: There's a very specific mindset that we see with drivers of this caliber. Each is nuanced based on their upbringing and the opportunities before them, but all of them are laser-focused on using every opportunity to learn and progress, no matter the obstacles or uncertainty on the road ahead.

Take James and his sink or swim attitude. He fell in love with racing, and he never let that late start stop him. He wanted to race, so he raised funds for his first car. He saw potential in the US market, so he moved sight unseen. At 19 years old, he had an opportunity in the Indy Pro series, and he converted that into an Indy NXT debut and an eventual full-time Indy NXT contract with Andretti.

‍

Signing a contract with Andretti [5:20]

Greg: What was it like for you as someone who is working your way through your your driver career, to get that call from Andretti saying, "Hey, let's go"?

James: Yeah, it was everything. I'll never forget that. It was from J.F. Thormann, who was the team's president at the time.

He and I had built a great relationship and dialogue. He called me and said, "Hey, you have to come and do a test before we can sign anything. We have this test. We do a day in Indy and a day at Barber. And then we'll see if we'll give you a seat." It wasn't even a guarantee. So I did the Barber test.

I remember, I think it was two days after the Barber test that I sat down with him and he said, "yeah, no, look, we're happy to sign you with what we saw and different things". We signed a deal, and that's really when things gassed up a lot. Because when you're with a team such as Andretti, this team, this name, there's so much history.

There's so much passion around the team, and the brand itself is known globally, for that matter. So everything that I had going on to get me in the seat, when you put Andretti alongside it, just 10-folded.

Greg: What does that mean? What, how did it change things for you?

James: It's very simple. You go to a partner meeting. You sit down and they say "who you drive for?"

Well, I drive for Andretti. Even if you only watch one race in your life, there's a very good likelihood they'll say, "oh yeah, we've heard of those guys. We know them. That's Mario or Michael, or whatever".

That link, it's prestigious and has a lot of credibility. That's been great. Just over the course of that year this team has became like family and still is today. So, we love it here.

Greg: The Andretti name in the motorsports world can't be understated - both for the family's racing legacy and for the team bearing their name.

News reporter: Mario Andretti, racing icon.

Greg: Launched when Michael Andretti took a majority stake in Team Green in 2002, Andretti Global has since grown to field teams in multiple series. Legends like Tony Kanaan and Dan Weldon have helped them amass over 280 wins. And this includes 4 IndyCar championships, 6 Indy NXT Championships, and 1 Formula E Driver World Championship. Say that three times fast.

‍

The feeling of his first Indy NXT podium while at Andretti [7:24]

Greg: Your first season, you ended up on the podium. Now, you've had this backing of this iconic team. What is that for you?

James: That was cool. It was in Indy. I forgot about that. That was actually very cool because Hunter McElrea and I are very, verygood friends. We locked out the front row that day, so he was on pole.

I was second - finished one, two. I probably should have won the race, looking back on it many times over with how it panned out and different things. Just to get your first podium with Andretti, in Indianapolis - one of the greatest racetracks in the world - home of Andretti Global - your best friend on the podium with you.

Actually that night, there was an event at Michael's house for the team. So it was perfect timing. We did the podium. We 1-2'd. We were going to Michael's house. It was just like, "this couldn't be better this day. This is good."

Greg: What did he say to you when you got to the party?

James: He just said, "good job, let's keep it going". So yeah, that was that, but we some fun that night.

‍

Fighting through a wrist injury [8:30]

Greg: Your second year - last year - you hurt your wrist. Thankfully it turned out to be minor. I know you had a bit of surgery, but it wasn't anything that kept you out of the car.

That can be something that derails a lot of people. When that happened, what was going through your mind?

James: Yeah, that was like a whole spiral effect. It happened in Detroit. I didn't know it was broken. I went to Road America and was in agony that weekend - still didn't know it was broken. I had a tough weekend.

Then we went to Laguna for a doubleheader, which is one of the most physical tracks on the schedule. Every time we went to new tires, I was just like, "man, I can't drive this. I physically don't have the strength, which came out of nowhere". I just knew, "okay, there's something deep down, not right here".

So flew back. I got the red eye back after the Laguna race and was told it was broken, that Tuesday. Then you're in the middle of a season - now you're eight or nine days away from your next race. I got surgery right away, but for me mentally, it was just like, "we are where we are".

I told the surgeon before the operation that I could not wake up in a cast. It was general anesthetics, screws; you're knocked out and all that stuff. He says "I have to put you in the cast". I said, "no, you don't understand. I cannot be in a cast. I have a race in 10 days time."

So I had to sign some things. We went to Mid Ohio, eight days later. It's obviously still broken with a screw, and I got through it. It was just one of those, times I had no option. You just have to keep going. I always say that's been my personality in every walk of life - this won't stop us. We have to keep going. If it falls off. We just kept going.

So, we went to Iowa and we set the pole and the lap record there and different things and that kind of re-sparked the energy of, "okay, we can do this".

Nonetheless, it was a very tough end because it never healed.

I had to have surgery postseason again on it. So challenging, but you know you really learn a lot about yourself and how far you can push and how high your pain tolerance can be when you need it to be.

‍

Two years with Andretti and what year 3 - and St. Pete - will be [10:27]

Greg: You're now in your third year, as we said before. How would you frame what Year 1 was meant to be and is versus year 2, versus year 3 for you as you think about your career trajectory?

James: Year 1 was all learning. It was all just, "we have to just figure this out". It was grand zero. Then last year - year 2 - was to go and run up front and get after a championship here. I think, looking back on it, we finished 6th in the points with basically 4 DNFs. Two of which I caused myself. Two, we were unfortunate with some mechanical things that happened.

If we just simply finished where we were running when those incidents happened, we would've been top three in the championship. With pole, lap records, and two or three podiums which was decent, but you always want more.

It's just one of those things where you're never satisfied until you're just flat out dominating. So that's what we hope to do this year: just go on a run and get podiums and hopefully more poles. And come next August be fighting for a championship.

Greg: There's 14 races within the season. We're at the first one. Or about to have the first one. So what does this one need to feel like for you? What do you need to get out of it, both from yourself - whether the confidence in the car - and from the team - how you work with them?

James: We know what we need to do. We know we have a quick street course package. We know we have quick cars around here. For us, truly it's about finishing this race. We've never finished the Grand Prix of St. Pete the last 2 years for some unfortunate circumstances. For now it's like you come out of here the past two years with no points and you're climbing the rest of the year to try and get back.

So for us this weekend it's big points weekend finish and fingers crossed we can achieve that. Then we're already off to a much better start than the past two years.

‍

Recapping an unfortunate Grand Prix of St. Petersburg [12:29]

Commentator: It's time to go in 2025 from St. Pete. And we've got contact and at least two or three impacted further in the pack. James Roe was one of them.

Greg: James said that his St. Pete races had been marred by unfortunate circumstances, and this year was no exception.

After starting P14, a collision before the first turn on the opening lap sent him into the pits for repairs, and a subsequent crash put him out of contention entirely.

I caught up with James virtually after the session to continue our interview.

You were so focused on getting through St. Pete and unfortunately just wasn't in the cards. Talk us through what was going through your mind that day.

James: Unfortunately, I had a very tough weekend. You wait all off season for St. Pete. It's the only thing that's on your mind, and then that happens.

You're like, "damn, okay, here we go again". I'm really no worse off. I've never finished St. Pete, so It's nothing new here.

I had contact at the start of lap one and then again, so we were three laps down after that with right side damage. Again, the race was over before it started.

Truly, regardless of what happened after - it's going three laps down in a 55 minute race because of turn one. You know your day's done. There's no getting these laps back. In IMSA, for instance, you can get laps back. Every time there's a safety car, you get the pass around.

In IndyCar, Indy NXT it's the cards you're dealt. So yeah, just frustration and not really a whole lot to say. We were annoyed and we, we move forward.

‍

How James and Andretti are approaching the rest of the 2025 season [13:57]

Greg: You said after your first podium with the team that Michael Andretti told you, "Good job today. Let's keep going". I know you share that similar mindset: always improving, always finding opportunities. With that and the start of the season that you've had, what do you need to be doing to get it to where you want everything to be?

James: Just perform. Go out and be strong at tracks. We know where we can be strong at, have been strong at, and execute.

Simple as that. And of course finish races because, to finish first, first you have to finish. So that's really it.

With the podium last year at Barber and having been on the front two rows at Indy in three races, now, so we know we have a strong package. So we have to just go and execute, and then chat you after those races.

Greg: Given that this has all happened before, what are you gonna be doing differently this time?

James: You learn from every race. You learn from every moment, everything. Good races, bad races. Pole laps. There's always, in this game, there's never a time that you don't learn. A day like that or when we were on pole in Iowa last year with the lap record... we even said, "oh damn, we left time there".

You're always - that's maybe not answering your question - just learning from every circumstance, in every scenario, good or bad.

‍

Making the most of a two-month break: IMSA, partner meetings, and more [15:10]

Greg: Does having this two month break help or hurt you? I know you were out driving at Sebring. Does it also mean more time in the sims or in the gym?

James: Yeah, in some ways, I would've loved if we were just racing the next day after St. Pete.

It's a good time to to analyze. Obviously, I'm very busy with the IMSA stuff, 2 days testing with Indy NXT coming up, and then trips to Europe and different things for partners. So, it never really stops for me. It's not like I'm sitting around on the couch here for two months thinking about everything.

It's just looking forward to the next time out.

‍

Leveraging Andretti’s playbook [15:44]

Greg: You mentioned when you joined Andretti, that it came with perks. There was prestige and experience. It also means having teammates you can learn from - Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood. In this moment, as you think about the rest of the season, what is the Andretti Playbook saying and how are you applying it?

James: When you say playbook - I think my crew, as I said, the crew engineer, team manager, crew chief. These are all guys that have worked with all of those names that you just mentioned when they were coming up.

So they know what it feels like, what they see, what you can do better. Andretti's so experienced in the sense of just the number of drivers through the doors of the Indy NXT Program over the years. They've worked with Kyle. They've worked with Colton. They've worked with Pato. They've worked with Askew.

They pick things up off of everyone, and they can apply certain things, and that's obviously huge benefit. So, it's what we're used to. It's just another event you learn from and scenario you have. If a race is coming up, you're always just going down the same path in alignment.

Greg: So if I'm hearing it correctly, it's really - St. Pete happened. We learned from it. We applied those learnings. And now it's a blip on the radar.

James: Yeah. This is not even... it was forgotten about weeks ago.

‍

How to find success in difficult situations [16:55]

Greg: You're a trailblazer for Irish drivers, a role model for young drivers, and I'd argue that your mindset of always pressing on is an inspiration for any of the people watching no matter their walk of life.

Two things: How have you found success in working your way through difficult situations, and what is your advice to the people listening to do it for themselves?

James: I think it's just really comes down to always learning and every day is the a school. Whether it's in the car, out of the car, business, driving, or whatever. It's when you have that mentality of always learning good or bad.

You apply that to whatever, and when you learn then you want more and you reapply what you learn and it just keeps evolving. That's what really keeps you in the game. I guess the biggest thing is just that constant pursuit for more, whether it's in the car driving or out of the car with partners or teams or relationships or whatever.

Greg: To play off of that, if every day is a school day and an opportunity to learn, then what are you most excited about for the school year ahead?

James: I think just that busy part of the season, which is awesome when you get going. You have Barber, Indy and then you have two weeks off, well the 500s going on. Then you start going Detroit, St. Louis, Road America, Laguna.

That busy part of the year is what it's all about and what we live for. Just being in the groove and going from track to track in the height of a season. There's just nothing like it.

‍

Reflecting on James’ driver mindset [18:19]

Greg: Sink or swim. No choice. Never satisfied. Always in school. However you spin it, that hunger to jump into the deep end, learn and move forward, regardless of the outcome was immediately apparent in every one of our conversations with James. As I said earlier in the episode, it's a mindset he shares with many of the experienced drivers we've interviewed.

They've all found success in their careers, so we're eager to see where it continues to take James and the Andretti team this season and beyond.

Thank you again for the time. We'll see you at the track very soon. In the meantime, good luck with all the races.

James: Absolutely. We'll see you at some races.

‍

Want more exclusive Insiders?

Then you're in the right place! Head to our YouTube playlist for more, and be sure to subscribe to be the first to see new episodes. Or you can check out some of our recent episodes below:

No items found.