2026 IndyCar Series

Driver changes

Team changes

• On September 23, 2025, with the confirmation of Hauger, Dale Coyne Racing announced that it had formed a technical alliance with Andretti Global for the 2026 season.^[24]
• On January 29, 2026, Team Penske revealed that Tim Cindric is returning to the team as the strategist for Scott McLaughlin, having been released from his role as the team's IndyCar president in May 2025, following penalties during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.^[49]
• During the off-season, Ed Carpenter Racing shifted away from its former denomination and started to be publicly known by the acronym ECR, in light of further changes in its ownership structure involving Ted Gelov, who had become a co-owner in 2025.^[27][50]
• On February 25, 2026, it was confirmed via IndyCar's entry list and grid space allocations that PREMA Racing would miss at least the opening round at St. Petersburg, amidst reports of the founding Rosin family departing the organization and other financial challenges.^[51]
• On April 20, 2026, Abel Motorsports confirmed that they would return to the series with an entry in the Indianapolis 500. The team had last competed in the IndyCar Series in 2023. Jacob Abel will be the driver for the team.^[9]

Schedule changes

• IndyCar returned to Phoenix Raceway after an eight-year absence, marking the championship's first race in Arizona since 2018.^[55][56]
• The Grand Prix of Arlington debuted in March, held at a new street circuit around the Streets of Arlington. This marked the championship's return to Texas for the first time since 2023.^[57]
• The Grand Prix of Alabama moves from early May to late March.^[58]
• After having hosted the season finale since 2024, the Music City Grand Prix moves to July 19 and becomes round twelve of the season. The event will also become a night race and have its race length extended from 225 laps to 300 laps.^[52]
• The race at World Wide Technology Raceway will also be a night race.^[52]
• The Ontario Honda Dealers Indy race will move from Exhibition Place, where it has been held ever since 1986, except for 2008, 2020, and 2021, to a temporary street circuit in Markham, Ontario, under a five-year deal.^[59]
• The Milwaukee Mile race weekend becomes a double-header event, as it had been when it returned to the schedule in 2024.^[52]
• The Grand Prix of Monterey returns as the season finale, as it had been in 2019, 2022, and 2023. The race moves from late July to September 6.^[52]
• The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix did not return in 2026 after two years on the calendar.^[60]
• Iowa Speedway was also dropped from the calendar after four years on the IndyCar schedule.^[52]
• The Freedom 250 will debut in August, a race held on the streets of Washington, D.C., following its addition to the IndyCar schedule in January.^[61]

Sponsorship changes

• On November 20, Java House was announced as the title sponsor for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.^[62]
• On December 3, Good Ranchers was unveiled as the title sponsor for IndyCar's return to Phoenix Raceway.^[63]

Opening rounds

The 2026 IndyCar season started like the year before, with a pole position for Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.^[64] He led Andretti's Marcus Ericsson throughout the first stint of the race, handling an early restart after a three-car collision caused by Juncos Hollinger Racing's Sting Ray Robb on the opening lap. McLaughlin pitted on lap 35, with Ericsson following a lap later. Chip Ganassi Racing's defending champion Álex Palou crucially elected to stay out two laps longer to attempt an overcut. That strategy worked and it led to Palou taking the net race lead after his stop on lap 38, before cycling back to the front on lap 42. The only threat to his victory from that point on came through the final stint, where Palou ran hard tires while the others behind ran the quicker soft tires, but Palou consistently pulled away throughout the final part to win the race by almost 13 seconds. Andretti's Kyle Kirkwood looked set to take second before both McLaughlin and McLaren's Christian Lundgaard overtook him on lap 94.^[65][66]

The Good Ranchers 250 marked IndyCar's return to Phoenix for the first time since 2018. Team Penske's David Malukas earned his first career pole position after beating teammate Josef Newgarden in qualifying.^[67] He controlled the opening part of the race, which saw an early caution on lap ten. On the restart, JHR's Rinus VeeKay made contact with Palou while attempting to pass him, sending the points leader into the wall and out of the race. Malukas held first place until the first pit cycle, where McLaren's Pato O'Ward took over in front. ECR's Christian Rasmussen rose up the order during the next stint, and a timely second caution allowed him to dispatch then-leader Kirkwood with fresher tires. Andretti's Will Power attacked Rasmussen for the lead and the pair made contact, causing a puncture for Power and a third caution. Newgarden was among the drivers electing to pit and quickly moved from tenth to the lead. He took the win and the points lead ahead of Kirkwood and Malukas, while Rasmussen dropped to fourteenth with a damaged car.^[68][69]

The Java House Grand Prix of Arlington brought a new track as well as a new top-six single-lap shootout qualifying format, in which Ericsson took his first career pole position.^[70] Palou qualified second, with the pair leading the field until they both pitted on lap 16. An error by Ericsson's pit crew saw him fall behind Palou, with O'Ward and Kirkwood slotting in behind. Lap 27 saw both Andretti cars make their second stops, with Palou and O'Ward following a lap later before Kirkwood got past Ericsson for a net second place. The pit stops promoted Power to the front, albeit on a less favorable two-stop strategy that saw him extend his second soft-tire stint until lap 45. By that point, Palou had nullified the gap to him and took over at the front. The top two took their final pit stop on lap 49, and Kirkwood, the fastest man on track at that point, reeled in Palou to claim first place with 16 laps to go. The race ended under caution after a multi-car collision, handing Kirkwood the win and with it the championship lead as Power rounded out the podium.^[71][72]

Round four, the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix, saw Palou take pole position in qualifying ahead of Malukas and RLL's Graham Rahal.^[73] The top three remained static after the start until Rahal took second place on lap 17. Malukas pitted two laps later, with Rahal following suit and Palou holding out on hard tires on until lap 27. Lundgaard, who also started on hard tires, rose from tenth to third in his first stint. Palou took his second pitstop on lap 45, seven seconds ahead of Rahal, who stopped one lap later. Lundgaard pitted on lap 50, overcutting Rahal to move into second place. Lundgaard cut Palou's advantage to 3.4 seconds during the penultimate stint, until the Spaniard stopped for the final time on lap 64. Lundgaard stayed out longer again and looked set to challenge Palou through an overcut, but a slow 17-second stop saw him rejoin behind Rahal. Palou, now leading comfortably, took victory to cut the championship gap to two points. Lundgaard was able to repass Rahal, who held on to third to take his first podium since August 2023.^[74][75]

MSR's Felix Rosenqvist secured pole position in qualifying for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, besting O'Ward by just 0.04 seconds.^[76] Palou started third and immediately passed O'Ward for second place on lap 2. Rosenqvist controlled the pace for the first 31 laps until the leaders made their first tandem pit stops. Rosenqvist maintained his lead over Palou as they both transitioned to the alternate tires. He managed to build a three-second lead during this second stint, before a piece of debris triggered the event's only caution period on lap 57. The field pitted on lap 59, leading to a direct duel between the top two drivers' pit crews. Palou's stop took 7.3 seconds, while Rosenqvist was stationary for 8.4 seconds, leading to him losing the lead as CGR's Scott Dixon took third place. After the lap 61 restart, Palou quickly began gapping the field, while Dixon had to work hard defending from Kirkwood. Palou claimed his maiden victory at Long Beach to also move back into the championship lead, 17 points ahead of fourth-place finisher Kirkwood.^[77][78]

Palou earned his third consecutive pole position for the Sonsio Grand Prix after leading every session of the event.^[79] The race began with a multi-car collision in turn 1 that collected Dixon, O'Ward, Rosenqvist and A. J. Foyt's Caio Collet. Palou and Kirkwood formed the top two during the early stages, until lap 21, when ECR's Alexander Rossi stopped on the front straight with a mechanical failure. Only a local yellow was initially thrown to allow most of the field to pit, a decision that led to criticism and a change in procedures post-race.^[80] Palou and Kirkwood stayed out and therefore dropped back when they pitted under the belated full-course yellow. Malukas inherited the lead and held it until lap 68, when Lundgaard made a decisive pass through turns 5 and 6 to claim first place. He maintained the lead to claim his second career victory and end a 47-race winless drought as Malukas took a career-best second place and Rahal completed the podium in third. Palou recovered to fifth to extend his championship lead over Kirkwood to 27 points.^[81]

Driver standings

• At all races except the Indy 500, the pole position qualifier earns 1 point (unless qualifying is not held).^[83] The twelve Indy 500 qualifiers who qualify for the fast 12 session receive points based on the results of that session, descending from 12 points for first place.^[84]
• Drivers who lead at least one race lap are awarded 1 point.^[85] The driver who leads the most laps during a race scores an additional 2 points.^[85]
• Each entrant-initiated engine change-out performed, prior to the engine having reached its distance mandate, results in a loss of 10 championship points.^[86]

More information Pos, Driver ...

Pos Driver STP PHX ARL BAR LBH IGP INDY DET GTW ROA MOH NSS POR MRK D.C. MIL LAG Pts 1 Álex Palou 1L* 24 2L 1L* 1L 5L 71L*1 273 2 David Malukas 13 3L* 6 4 7 2L* 23L 236 3 Kyle Kirkwood 4 2L 1L* 5 4 9 16 224 4 Christian Lundgaard 3L 13L 7 2L 20 1L 17 195 5 Pato O'Ward 5 4L 5 17 5 18 46L 188 6 Scott McLaughlin 2L 8 11 16 6 16 39L 181 7 Felix Rosenqvist 12 12 19L 13 2L* 23 14L 176 8 Josef Newgarden 7L 1L 15 10 14L 4 28 167 9 Scott Dixon 23L 7L 8 7 3 6 1510L 167 10 Marcus Armstrong 11 5L 10 6 24 11 5L 154 11 Graham Rahal 18 9 18 3L 8 3 20 151 12 Marcus Ericsson 6L 17L 4L 9 25 22 13 129 13 Alexander Rossi 16 6 9 11 9 25 302L 127 14 Rinus VeeKay 9 22 14 14 13 15 611L 125 15 Santino Ferrucci 24 11 17 8 18 14 85 122 16 Kyffin Simpson 15 10 20 20 10 12 147L 116 17 Will Power 22 16L 3L 12 19L 13L 29 112 18 Dennis Hauger  R  10 15L 16 23 11 8 19 111 19 Louis Foster 14L 23 13 25 16 7 21 95 20 Nolan Siegel 20 20 24 18 12 10 11 95 21 Romain Grosjean 8 25 23 15 21 21 9L 92 22 Caio Collet  R  17 19 12 21 22 19 26L 76 23 Christian Rasmussen 19 14L 25 19 15 24 27L 71 24 Mick Schumacher  R  25 18 22 24 17 20 18 66 25 Sting Ray Robb 21 21 21 22 23 17 23 62 26 Conor Daly 128L 24 27 Takuma Sato 10 20 28 Jack Harvey 22 8 29 Jacob Abel 24 6 30 Hélio Castroneves 25 5 31 Ed Carpenter 31 5 32 Ryan Hunter-Reay 32 5 33 Katherine Legge 33 5 Pos Driver STP PHX ARL BAR LBH IGP INDY DET GTW ROA MOH NSS POR MRK D.C. MIL LAG Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd-place finish Bronze 3rd-place finish Green Top 5 finish Light Blue Top 10 finish Dark Blue Other flagged position Purple Did not finish (DNF) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrew (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did Not Start (DNS) Race abandoned (C) Blank Did not participate In-line notation Bold Pole position (1 point; except Indy) Italics Ran fastest race lap L Led race lap (1 point) * Led most race laps (2 points) 1–12 Indy 500 "Fast Twelve" bonus points c Qualifying canceled (no bonus point)  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

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• ¹ Álex Palou was penalized five points at the Indianapolis 500 after his car failed post-race technical inspection in regard to front wing height.^[87]

Entrant standings

• ¹ The #10 Chip Ganassi Racing entry was penalized five entrant points at the Indianapolis 500 after failing post-race technical inspection.^[87]

Engine manufacturer standings

The top-two finishing full-season eligible entrants for a manufacturer in each race score points toward the engine manufacturer's championship. Points scored are the same as the driver's championship except for bonus points – a race win is worth five bonus points for a manufacturer, while a pole position is worth one bonus point (except at the Indianapolis 500). A full-season entry is eligible to score manufacturer points until it exceeds the maximum number of allowed engines per entry.

For Indianapolis 500 qualifying, the manufacturer that runs the fastest speed on Saturday receives one bonus point; while the manufacturer that qualifies on pole position receives two bonus points.

More information Pos, Manufacturer ...

Pos Manufacturer STP PHX ARL BAR LBH IGP INDY DET GTW ROA MOH NSS POR MRK D.C. MIL LAG Pts 1 Honda 1 2 1 1 1 440 4 5 2 3 2 87W 70 96PW 91PW 96PW 2 Chevrolet 2 1 5 2 5 355 3 3 6 4 6 76P 91PW 58 72 58

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^P–Pole position winner, ^W–Race winner