Every 2022 Indianapolis 500 Livery, Ranked

A. J. Foyt Racing gets no style points from me thanks to its stunningly bland all-black livery. I’m sure there are some people out there who will see the flashy colors of other cars and enjoy this simpler design, but I am not one of them. Save your black-and-white for formal tuxedos and penguin costumes — this is the biggest race of the year!

When Arrow McLaren SP announced its Indy 500 liveries, I was dumbfounded. How could one team with so many beautiful cars create such a Frankenstein’s monster? If it was just two of those colors — if Arrow McLaren had gone for, say, orange and green, or orange and blue, or blue and green — then maybe the whole thing would have been redeemed. Arrow McLaren did not do that. Arrow McLaren gave us this instead.

Out of all three Arrow cars starting the Indy 500, Felix Rosenqvist was given the worst of the bunch. It looks like someone cobbled together bodywork from multiple different cars without looking at the finished product. It’s a mad-lib. It’s terrible. Rosenqvist, I’m so sorry.

Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP suffers from the same Frankenstein affliction as his teammate Rosenqvist’s, but the No. 5 is slightly redeemed thanks to the fact that a large portion of the car is black. It helps partially offset the sheer eyesore that is the blue-green-orange combo on the rest of the car.

Team Penske claims that Will Power’s one-off livery is designed to support Riley Children’s Health, an Indianapolis-based hospital specializing in pediatric care, which is honorable and good and above criticism. Coincidentally, it also happens to be the exact colors of sponsor Verizon’s new 5G Wideband promotions. That’s what makes this car ugly as sin.

Race teams, please, I beg you: We do not need every single color of the rainbow on these cars.

There’s nothing wrong with Marcus Ericsson’s Huski Chocolate-sponsored Honda. I really like the mountains on the sides of the nose and cockpit. That’s the best part of this livery, but most of it is hidden behind wings and tires, making for a frankly boring red-and-white scheme.

I can’t blame the DragonSpeed/Cusick crew for a “meh” livery, since the No. 25 was an extremely last-minute entry. I appreciate the pops of blue, highlighter yellow, and red, and that help give the otherwise black-and-white car a little definition, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be clamoring for diecasts of this livery any time soon.

There’s a strange plight haunting a good number of cars on the Indy 500 starting grid. For some reason, blue-and-white has been the color scheme of choice for no fewer than six of the 33 starters, and only one car has really nailed the look. Sage Karam’s No. 24 is not that car. The straight contours of the nose and cockpit paired with the curves of the bodywork do look fine — but just fine.

Tony Kanaan’s No. 1 is trying to be patriotic without being too patriotic. It’s an okay-looking car, saved in large part by the touches of red that peek out of a mostly-white body.

Graham Rahal’s blue-and-white No. 15 is saved by the splitting of the white and blue in two distinct parts of the car — especially where it carves out the rear wheel well. Otherwise, it looks a lot like Kanaan’s livery, and I’ve already been getting them confused.

Thankfully, Andretti Autosport decided to riff on the blue-and-white scheme by working with a royal blue and teal instead of a single shade — and it works out well. I’m personally not a massive fan of darker-colored cars that are only offset by white, so the teal touches are what gives the No. 98 a higher ranking.

Another Arrow McLaren disaster, saved in large part by the fact that there is very little green on Juan Pablo Montoya’s car. You can kind of forget that one wheel well exists and instead pretend you’re looking at a fresh take on the Gulf Oil livery. I don’t like Gulf Oil liveries, so Juan Pablo’s No. 6 will not be ranking high for me.

Christian Lungaard’s People Ready livery gives me flashbacks to 2021, when I spent 11 whole entire months trying — and regularly failing — to buy a house. I can’t tell you how many homes I toured that had this white-orange-navy color scheme somewhere in the house, and seeing those three colors in one room was a sure sign to me that someone was going to place a ridiculous bid on that home.

I can appreciate the effort made here to blend the pink-and-white of the AutoNation colors with the blue-and-yellow of the NAPA logo, but it absolutely looks like Andretti Autosport was considering two different liveries and then just... sandwiched them together. It makes me sad, because I want to love every car that includes pink, but this one... whew.

I can’t fault Takuma Sato’s No. 51 for looking like a walking medicine advertisement, because that’s exactly what it is, but I do not want to be reminded of my migraine afflictions while I’m trying to enjoy race car. I do love the purple, teal, and white scheme with just a touch of yellow, though. I’m very conflicted.

Is there anything more reliable in the modern IndyCar era than Scott Dixon’s blue-and-orange PNC Bank livery? If you can name something, I’m all ears.

I’m torn on Josef Newgarden’s Indy 500 livery. I like its sharp lines. I like that it’s shiny. But for some reason, I look at it and feel nothing. I want to love you, Team Penske No. 2 livery! Why can’t I love you?

Here it is: The only blue-and-white livery I’ve enjoyed this year. The secret here lies somewhere in the combination of a lighter blue, a touch of orange, and a tasteful bit of asymmetry. It actually looks like there was a strong effort made to put together a good-looking car rather than just putting some colors on bodywork and hoping for the best.

There’s just something about a nice black, red, and white livery that, when done right (and when not making up the liveries of an entire field of race cars), really speaks to me. Maybe it’s because My Chemical Romance’s reunion has revived my preteen obsession with these three colors exclusively, but I do enjoy David Malukas’ look this year.

I’m going to admit that Jimmie Johnson’s place on this list is kind of cheating because a big reason I’m ranking the livery so high is that I also love the fact that Johnson’s helmet matches the gold-and-blue look of his car. This, too, is another example of a light blue livery with darker blue accents doing the Lord’s work in terms of looking good.

Devlin DeFrancesco’s livery looks a lot like the current draft of a novel I’ve been working on for far too long: drenched in highlighter yellow and covered in red ink notes. Not only does it stand out, but the pointy red accents on the sidepods look fantastically sharp. Good looks all around.

I will admit entire bias here: I used to be a Zach Veach fan, so the black-and-yellow Gainbridge livery brings back warm, fuzzy memories. The chevrons are my favorite part.

It is with grudging acceptance that I admit Santino Ferrucci’s livery looks very cool this year. Its sharp lines give it the impression of speed even when it’s standing still, and the tiny touches of neon green do wonders.

I’m torn on the darkened aeroscreen, though. It looks kind of cool, especially on a largely-black car, but is Ferrucci even able to see well out of it on overcast days? I’m concerned.

I always feel bad saying this, but part of the reason Callum Ilott’s car looks so nice is that it’s... blank. There’s the Juncos black-white-green scheme, which looks especially sleek without any gaudy sponsors marring the sidepods. I like it — but sorry about your lack of sponsors, Juncos.

In this house, we love and support Meyer Shank Racing exclusively because the AutoNation sponsorship has provided us with the most beautiful black and pink cars in the world. Am I biased? Yes; when I actually get dressed and leave the house, these are the exact colors I’m wearing.

Like Castroneves’ car, the black and pink of the No. 60 is immaculate, though I prefer Simon Pagenaud’s inverted color scheme to his teammate’s. The more pink, the better.

In 2016, someone told me that K-Line was the name of Dalton Kellett’s fan club, and I believed that with literally no evidence until this year, when I learned that is not in fact what K-Line is. Nevertheless, the livery is great, with swooping lines of teal and a touch of black at the rear for definition.

Scott McLaughlin’s Pennzoil livery is a throwback to Rick Mears, and I really love the way such a classic and simple scheme has translated onto a modern Indy car. It’s also nice to see Scott McLaughlin, a relative newcomer to IndyCar but a legend in Australian Supercars, running a throwback to Indy history.

I do not wish to give Bitnile any positive publicity, but Conor Daly’s car looks so good that I am forced to do so. I hate it. I hate that royal blue looks so good with the gold and sky blue accents. I hate that this is a crypto car. I hate that I love it so much.

The “oh God crypto sucks” part of me really wanted to rank the Bitcoin car lower on this list, but Rinus VeeKay is a very nice boy, and I appreciate his commitment to his Dutch heritage with the bright orange car and flags on the tips of the wings. I also underestimated how good a single-color car would look on track until I saw this bad boy in action and could immediately pick it out from the crowd.

The No. 28 DHL livery is always “meh” for me, but the addition of the Pride flag on the sidepods has taken this car to a whole new level. I didn’t know if I’d like seeing so many colors slapped onto an Indy car, but it looks fantastic in action, so I am quite pleased.

Jack Harvey’s No. 45 is my sole exception to the “all-black cars are boring” rule. The matte black paint paired with red text and that splash of green from the Mountain Dew logo just works. It’s the perfect balance of understated and in your face.

What an obnoxious car. It’s perfect. No notes. No changes.

At the risk of sounding like the exact kind of overly patriotic race car fan that drives me crazy: I love a good American flag livery, and few teams do it better than A. J. Foyt Racing. This year, J. R. Hildebrand’s car is an American flag from tip to toe thanks to the sponsorship from Homes for Troops, and it looks good. It’s kind of tacky, but it also somehow doesn’t look like an eagle vomited the stars and stripes onto a fast-moving vehicle — and it looks very good on track.