When James Roe arrived in North America from Ireland at age 18 some eight years ago, he possessed little more than a relentless work ethic. The early days were spent living out of a suitcase that clung to the shop floor of Wisconsin-based outfit ArmsUp Motorsports while running – and winning – in the entry-level junior formula ranks.
Now, that same kid from Naas, County Kildare is closing in on realizing an IndyCar Series dream.
“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, 27, told Motorsport.com.
“Those attributes, I know, are going to pay off, and we’re going to make what we want to make happen, because I know nothing else but hard work. The grit and the work ethic, the grind, anytime it gets tough, I think about living out of a workshop floor in Wisconsin, that certainly keeps the fire in the belly burning pretty strong, and I think that day when you get in the big cars, and you say, ‘I came from that to now,’ will be pretty unique.”
The Ganassi Gamble
James Roe
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
Currently in the midst of his fourth season in Indy NXT, Roe spent the last three years with Andretti Global before making the 2026 switch to Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), where he stands as a pivotal veteran asset for its second-year program.
“To take it back a step, we did Indy NXT with Andretti, did the IndyCar test in the fall (with Juncos Hollinger Racing) and that went well,” said Roe, a two-time runner-up in IndyCar’s top development category. “I wanted to go to IndyCar, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on there in the offseason, one or two opportunities.”
And that’s where Roe put a priority in remaining in the IndyCar paddock by extending his time with a new challenge in Indy NXT, while also linking up with a team in CGR that has won all but one IndyCar title since 2020 with Alex Palou (four) and Scott Dixon (one).
“I looked at it as an opportunity to go over there with my experience that I have in the series, bring something to the table to that team to assist them growing,” Roe said, “whilst also immersing myself in the IndyCar team over there that dominates and learn some things from that environment that hopefully one day when I do get an IndyCar opportunity, I’ll be that bit more educated about Indy cars and the IndyCar environment and what makes them so successful over there or their driver group and be able to take that with me.
“So, there’s a bit of a strategic play in that regard.”
As for the CGR’s Indy NXT program, Roe is quick to acknowledge the number of intelligent and quality personnel in the shop, but also noted the uphill climb as the powerhouse teams – Abel Motorsports, Andretti Global, and HMD Motorsports – have a significant head start.
“The reality is right now when you go up against Andretti, HMD, even Abel, they all have an engineer who’s been in the series for eight years or more that has pure product knowledge and that’s all they know,” Roe said.
“We have everything we need to succeed at Ganassi, it’s just that we’re learning and trying to learn fast to close that eight-year deficit of product knowledge and that’s really, really what’s going on. And I want to emphasize is that the people are remarkably smart there, so there’s no question in my mind that they will get there. It’s just a matter of doing it with very, very limited testing and especially this year, so many of the races in which you show up to, there’s one practice session and then you’re into qualifying, so it’s a different animal. What you unload with is what you got and you got two or three runs on that package and then it’s time to qualify; that’s what you’re dealing with.”
Bolstering Experience with IMSA
#80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Scott Andrews, Lin Hodenius, James Roe
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
Roe has simultaneously anchored a dual-series campaign, also tackling the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance rounds with Lone Star Racing behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT3, building on the endurance experience he gained with Pratt Miller Motorsports in LMP2 machinery a year ago.
A big reason for adding IMSA to Roe’s experience still comes with an IndyCar focus, with sports car racing providing many things he doesn’t get in Indy NXT.
“In IMSA, I’m in the car for up to three hours at a time,” he said. “The Rolex 24 At Daytona, I did a three-and-a-half-hour stint at one point. You’re fuel saving, you’re double stinting, you’re doing in- and out-laps on cold tires, pushing out of the box, holding position – everything you see in IndyCar that you don’t actually get in Indy NXT from a training perspective.”
By learning those elements now, Roe will be better prepared for whenever the IndyCar opportunity arrives.
“If you go from Indy NXT to IndyCar, you don’t want to have your first time doing a hot stop in the middle of a race, or hitting a fuel number,” he said. “So much of that is important to the outcome of an IndyCar race. We’re building up that bank there in IMSA, and that’s going really, really well.”
Proving Ground: The IndyCar Test
James Roe, Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
The opportunity to participate in an IndyCar test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Juncos Hollinger Racing last October only furthered Roe’s desire to keep pushing.
Despite no prior simulator time or the ability to deploy the hybrid, he demonstrated strong pace around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. He shared the track with the ECR duo of Christian Rasmussen and 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi, along with current series rookies Caio Collet, Dennis Hauger, and Caio Collet, and former teammate-turned-Indy NXT title rival Lochie Hughes.
“They [Juncos] were quite impressed,” Roe said. “I got through a lot. The performance is strong there. There was no hybrid deployment that day. There was a second run on black (primary tires). And then with the engine stuff going well from a pace perspective, we know what’s there. I’m not losing focus of that. And that’s really important.
“That IndyCar day was good for me to get that done and for people to see that.”
The B2B Hustle
James Roe, Andretti Global
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
Modern motorsport demands that a driver be as sharp in the boardroom as they are past the apex. Over his years in America, Roe has cultivated a powerful business-to-business (B2B) ecosystem around his racing exploits. High-profile partnerships with industrial and tech giants like Topcon, Ring Power, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Vortex, and Merlo America, among others, are not merely logos stitched onto a firesuit – they are active corporate assets.
“It’s turned into essentially a huge B2B machine off-track,” Roe explains. “All our partners are engaging in a lot of business opportunities with each other through our motorsport program that we’ve built up. That’s a full-time job in its own right.”
To manage this complex corporate web, Roe relies on a trusted, high-efficiency management core.
“I have an amazing team around me of a few badass girls, as I like to call them, that just get shit done, really,” he said. “They make it all happen for me day in, day out. We’re really proud of what we’ve built off-track to bring so much value to our partners and continue to bring value, and that’s really important for us. For us, it’s a matter of continuing to grow on that, continue to drive B2B through motorsport, and not to forget about the branding side of things for them all as well, where they get a lot of value, customer hosting and so on and so forth.
“We really pride ourselves on that and look to only grow that and go to the next steps together.”
The Next Step
James Roe, Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
Looking ahead to 2027, the puzzle pieces are already moving as Roe is in active discussions over a potential IndyCar opportunity, along with continuing to expand his experience in IMSA.
“For me, there’s one or two opportunities in IndyCar next year that we’re talking about currently with teams, and that’s exciting,” Roe said. “With that being said, there’s also opportunities in IMSA. I’m really enjoying my time in the Mercedes. The Mercedes factory has been awesome from an AMG perspective. There’s a lot of good conversations going on there. I love IMSA, too.”
The “dream scenario” for Roe would be to have a dual program with IndyCar and IMSA, but that’s unlikely to be full-time for both given the March date clash with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and the Grand Prix of Arlington. Even with that, though, everything is progressing in the right direction.
“There’s a lot of small details around them both that complement each other,” Roe said. “At the end of the day, I just want to be competitive and run in the most competitive program I can run in. IndyCar has always been the goal, and certainly the 500, but also the Mercedes stuff is going really, really well, and I can’t thank the AMG guys enough for what they’ve been able to give me this year, because it’s really lifted my year up, the fact that I have that program as well.”
“All I know is hard work”
Roe has come a long way from the teenager sleeping out of a suitcase in a cold Wisconsin race shop. Yet the underlying philosophy that brought him across the Atlantic, away from a small family motor repair shop that has six mechanics, remains completely intact.
“All I know is hard work,” Roe said. “That’s all I know. We’re going to make it. We’re going to make it right and it’s going to be good. It’s going to be hard work, baby. That’s the aim of the game.”
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