An Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in the Long Beach paddock, April 2026. Photo: Alexis Doine / <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2026_Acura_Grand_Prix_of_Long_Beach_(Arrow_McLaren).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0</a>
For nine straight seasons, the most recognizable car in IndyCar has carried a bank on its sidepods. PNC Bank has been primary partner on Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 9 since 2018, and Scott Dixon won two championships in it. So there’s a certain symmetry in what happens when Dixon changes teams: a financial-services logo follows him across the paddock. It just isn’t the same one.
McLaren Racing announced Tuesday that Edward Jones, the St. Louis-based wealth management firm, has signed a multi-year deal as the “Official Private Wealth Management Partner” of both the McLaren Formula 1 team and the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team. The headline asset is the one that matters most: Edward Jones will be primary partner on the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet — Dixon’s new car — at the 111th Indianapolis 500 next May, plus “additional select races.”
The press release leans on words like preparation and resilience. The contract details say something more concrete about how McLaren is selling itself in North America.
What’s actually confirmed
- Term: multi-year; McLaren did not disclose length or value.
- Formula 1 (starts in 2026): Edward Jones branding on a driver’s helmet visor at one select race, plus a presence at “marquee events” during the season.
- IndyCar (starts in 2027): primary partner on the No. 6 Edward Jones Arrow McLaren Chevrolet at the Indianapolis 500 and at other unnamed races.
- Everything else: hospitality-style client experiences and co-branded content on McLaren’s digital and social channels.
Read the asset list, not the job title
The deal is billed as a two-series partnership, but the weight sits almost entirely on one side. In F1, Edward Jones gets a visor strip for a single weekend. That’s the thin band across the top of a helmet visor — visible in onboard shots and close-ups, invisible from the grandstand. McLaren hasn’t said which race. With eight rounds left on the 2026 calendar, the two remaining U.S. stops, Austin on Oct. 23–25 and Las Vegas on Nov. 19–21, would be the obvious fits for a firm whose business is in North America. That’s our read; McLaren hasn’t confirmed a venue.
In IndyCar, Edward Jones gets the whole car on the one day that routinely draws the biggest crowd and TV audience in American open-wheel racing. Primary sponsorship at Indianapolis typically means the sidepods, engine cover and nose, plus the driver’s suit and the pit crew. And with Dixon in the seat, it means a logo on a car that will be a genuine contender. An F1 visor plus an Indy 500 primary adds up to an IndyCar deal with some F1 tagging along.
The title is worth reading too. “Official Private Wealth Management Partner” is a narrowly sliced sponsor category, and that’s deliberate. McLaren’s F1 team already carries Mastercard in its name. Payments and wealth management don’t compete for exclusivity, so McLaren can sell two different financial brands without either one complaining. Modern team commercial departments carve categories this thin because every slice is another contract.
“Select races” is the phrase to watch
Arrow McLaren confirmed on Sept. 23 that Dixon will drive the No. 6 for the full 2027 season. That will be his first new car number in more than two decades, after running the No. 9 in all but one of the past 24 seasons (he carried No. 1 in 2004). Edward Jones, though, is committed only to Indy and a handful of other rounds. Everything else on the No. 6 schedule is still for sale, or at least unannounced.
That’s standard IndyCar economics. Plenty of cars in the paddock are funded by a rotating cast of brands, each buying specific weekends. The Indy 500 is the most expensive weekend to buy and the easiest one to sell, so it tends to get locked in first. We’ve seen the same race-by-race approach elsewhere, like when Acura bought Marcus Ericsson’s sidepods for four hand-picked races. The fact that McLaren announced Dixon’s biggest date nearly eight months early says that date was the anchor of the sale.
One detail makes the timing more interesting: PNC isn’t going anywhere. Ganassi confirmed this week that the bank stays on the No. 9 with Christian Lundgaard, the driver who lost his Arrow McLaren seat in the reshuffle that brought Dixon in. (We covered what Lundgaard’s 2026 numbers mean for that car.) So on the grid next May, Dixon’s former sponsor will be on a Honda driven by his replacement, and his new sponsor will be on a Chevrolet that Dixon drives himself. The two teams effectively swapped drivers, and each still has a financial-services brand on the car. Call it a balanced ledger.
Why a wealth manager wants the 500 in particular
Arrow McLaren’s May lineup is unusually easy to market. The team rebuilt its roster around Indianapolis experience, and it will field four cars at the Speedway: Pato O’Ward in the No. 5, 2008 winner Dixon in the No. 6, 2026 winner Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 7, and 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 31. That’s three former Indy winners and O’Ward, a two-time runner-up, all in one garage.
For a company whose pitch revolves around long-term planning, Dixon is an ideal spokesperson. He’s a six-time champion who stayed with one team for 24 years and won IndyCar races across three different decades — that’s about as close as motorsport comes to a compound-interest chart. Edward Jones marketing chief Hema Widhani described success as “thousands of decisions made over time,” and you don’t need to squint much to see the Dixon brief in that line.
The risk is the one every Indy primary sponsor accepts: 500 miles of exposure can vanish on a lap-one crash, and a race-day-only deal gives you no second chance until the next contracted weekend. Having Dixon — one of the most dependable finishers in the sport — in the car is the closest a sponsor gets to insurance against that.
What to watch next
- The F1 visor race. Once McLaren names it, you’ll know where Edward Jones sees its audience. A U.S. round would confirm this deal is about the American market first.
- The No. 6 livery. Arrow McLaren has said fans will wait a bit longer for 2027 designs, which will also debut the new number font that arrives with McLaren’s rebrand in January.
- The rest of the No. 6 calendar. Which other races Edward Jones takes, and who fills the remaining weekends, will show how close the car is to full funding. IndyCar’s 2027 season starts March 7 at St. Petersburg.
Dixon has driven a No. 9 for the better part of a quarter century. The first time most casual fans see him in a No. 6 will be on the biggest stage IndyCar has, and Edward Jones has paid to make sure its name sits right next to the new number.
About the Author
.jpg){kind=link}