Ed Carpenter wants to make clear this is not a retirement announcement, but Ed Carpenter Racing's eponymous owner and driver felt the No. 20 Chevy needed a change. And so, heading into a closing trio of IndyCar races that was meant to see the 43-year-old take over the No. 20 that Christian Rasmussen has run on road and street courses this year, Carpenter has instead handed the over the reins to the 24-year-old in hopes of seeing better results.

The move comes at a crucial time. Coming out of Rasmussen's 26th-place finish at Portland, largely due to no fault of his own after he was crashed into by Romain Grosjean during the Frenchman's attempt to spin around and get back running during a Turn 1 misadventure, the No. 20 Chevy sits tied for the final spot in the series' Leaders Circle standings for next season.

The top 22 eligible entries, of which the ECR car is one, in points this season will be awarded more than $1 million in automatic prize money for 2025. Presently, the No. 20 Chevy is tied with the No. 78 Chevy of Juncos Hollinger Racing for that final spot at 141 points apiece. Heading into the doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile, the No. 20 holds the tiebreaker by virtue of its best finish of the year (9th at Mid-Ohio) vs. that of the No. 78 (12th at Detroit).

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Before the switch, the matchup was set to pitch Carpenter against his former teammate and driver Conor Daly, the driver of the No. 78 to finish the season, who was fired midseason a year ago from the No. 20.

"First off, this was a very difficult decision for me to make. I want to make it clear that this is not a retirement announcement," Carpenter said in a team release. "However, the reality is, I have not performed to the level that I expect of myself for the team. Christian tested at (World Wide Technology Raceway) prior to the race, and he showed me that he deserves this expanded opportunity.

"He also had such a strong performance during the Month of May and has earned the change to continue his development. I am excited to watch him finish the season out strong for the No. 20 crew and the entire ECR team."

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Having spent the last 11 seasons as an oval-only driver since stepping away from full-time IndyCar racing at the end of his 2014 campaign, Carpenter's most recent three seasons have been particularly tough from a results standpoint. He lacks a single top-10 finish over his last 15 starts -- his last coming in the 2021 Indianapolis 500, where he finished 5th. He only has two such finishes over his last 24 starts, dating back to the start of the 2020 campaign that included a 5th-place finish at the season-opener at Texas Motor Speedway. During those five seasons, Carpenter has registered six DNFs and 12 finishes outside the top-20.

Through four oval races in 2024, his best finishes have been a pair of 17th-place runs in the 500 and the most recent oval at WWTR. During the Iowa doubleheader weekend earlier this year, Carpenter finished 19th and 22nd.

For 2024, ECR slimmed down to just two full-time entries -- the No. 21 being run across the full-season by veteran Rinus VeeKay. The previous two seasons, ECR ran a third oval-only entry for Carpenter, so as to allow the team's driver-owner to stay as active as possible while providing full-season opportunities for Daly and VeeKay. This year, Carpenter opted to split the slate with Rasmussen, while giving the latter a ride for the 500 as well, in hopes that fewer races to run in total for ECR would improve the team's results with a team-wide narrower focus, as well as ensuring Carpenter wouldn't be qualifying in the least desirable conditions during his non-500 oval starts by virtue of being last in entrant points while only running part of the schedule.

In his lone oval start this year in May, Rasmussen ran up towards the front for the bulk of the day and finished a respectable 12th as the highest-finishing rookie.

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With Rasmussen unsigned beyond the end of this season, and with him having left Portland believing his rookie IndyCar campaign was finished, the move breathes new life into an initial campaign for the 2023 Indy NXT champ that has included mixed results, as he hopes to prove his worth to extend his stay at ECR or find a new home elsewhere.

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"First and foremost, I am incredible thankful to Ed for providing me this opportunity," Rasmussen said in a team release. "I an excited to drive the No. 20 in the remaining three races, and I am fully committed to giving the team my absolute best.

"While I haven't raced at Milwaukee or Nashville before, my past performances on ovals have been strong, and I'm eager to add these tracks to the list."

Despite reports otherwise, Carpenter told IndyStar last month that he had not yet decided whether he'd run the full oval slate in 2025 -- likely via again splitting the No. 20 with another driver -- or whether he'd solely stick to the 500. Regardless, he said he would certainly be back racing an Indy car next season.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Ed Carpenter steps aside for Christian Rasmussen for ovals