Best of the Month: January 2026

In a flash, one month of 2026 is complete. What was once silent is now humming along as the motorsports season has gotten underway. It is not singing at full voice, but it is loud enough to have your attention. Plenty of marquee events have taken place, and that is what makes January special. There are events you cannot ignore. 

January is a good starter to the year. You get enough to be satisfied but not gorge yourself on. There are still a few lulls to come as the season builds, but there have been a few big weekends to put you on edge. More is to come, and there is a good reason to be excited.

Another 24 Hours Behind Us

We end the month of January reviewing the 24 Hours of Daytona, which concluded last weekend. So much happens in a 24-hour race that you need a few days to sift through it all, especially when four classes finish as tightly as they did this year in Daytona. 

History was made, as seems to be a regular occurrence now at Daytona. There were plenty of popular winners. There was also some not-so-popular weather that took over more than a quarter of the race. This year's 24 Hours of Daytona at least has something memorable that we will carry with us for years, and that is before we even got to the checkered flag. 

A winner requires his own attention.

Flowers for Felipe Nasr

For the third consecutive year, Felipe Nasr has won the 24 Hours of Daytona. Nasr joined Peter Gregg and Hélio Castroneves as the only drivers to win Daytona's famed endurance  three consecutive times. Five years ago, only Gregg had done it. Now it has happened twice. It is an incredible achievement either way, what makes Nasr's streak more incredible is he has done it with seven different co-drivers, and none of them have won twice in this three-year period. 

This was not a case of a pairing or a trio carrying on for years. Nasr won in 2024 with co-driver Dane Cameron, endurance driver Matt Campbell, and then Josef Newgarden was also in that team. Ahead of the 2025 season, Porsche Penske Motorsport changed its lineups as Cameron was released, Nick Tandy moved over to the #7 Porsche with Nasr, and Laurens Vanthoor became the endurance driver. This year, Tandy was moved to GTD Pro with AO Racing, Julien Andlauer moved in as the full-time co-driver after spending a season in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche Penske, and Laurin Heinrich  was promoted to the endurance driver role after experiencing great success in GTD Pro with AO Racing.

I am not sure we can find another scenario of that in the major endurance races.

Castroneves won his first 24 Hours of Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing before moving to Meyer Shank Racing. In each of his years with MSR, Tom Blomqvist and Simon Pagenaud were two of his co-drivers. Gregg and Hurley Haywood each won in 1973 and 1975. No race was held in 1974 due to the energy crisis. Gregg then won with Brian Redman and John Fitzpatrick in 1976. 

Let's expand this to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ten drivers have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in three consecutive years. Nine drivers have done it three consecutive years and then Tom Kristensen won it six consecutive years. 

Woolf Barnato won in 1928-30. Barnato had a different co-driver all three years (Bernard Rubin, Henry Birkin and Glen Kidston).

Olivier Gendebien won the 1960 race with Paul Frère, but then Gendebien won in 1961 and 1962 with Phil Hill. 

Henri Pescarolo won the 1972 race with Graham Hill, but Pescarolo won the following two years with fellow Frenchman Gérard Larrousse.

Jacky Ickx won three consecutive years after Pescarolo's three-year streak. Ickx had a different co-driver every year. In 1975, it was Derek Bell. In 1976, it was Gijs van Lennep. In 1977, it was Jürgen Barth and Hurley Haywood. 

Then you get to the 2000s and in 2000, 2001 and 2002, Tom Kristensen, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won all three years with Audi. 

In 2005, another three-year winning streak began with Marco Werner. Werner won with Kristensen and JJ Lehto. In the next two years, Werner won with Biela and Pirro. 

Flash forward to 2018, and Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima started their three-year winning streaks. In the first two years, Fernando Alonso was their third driver. In 2020, Brendon Hartley was a part of the team. 

Focusing on Kristensen for a second, we know the first half of his record winning streak came with the same two co-drivers, Biela and Pirro. In 2003 and 2004, Kristensen had Rinaldo Capello with him. The other co-driver in 2003 was Guy Smith at Bentley. In 2004, Seiji Ara rounded out the Team Goh Audi R8 lineup. Then there was Lehto and Werner in 2005.

Nasr had the same total of different co-drivers in his three-year Daytona winning streak than Kristensen had in his six-year Le Mans winning streak (seven). 

Focusing on Nasr for a second, his ability has been no secret for a long-time now, but it feels like in the last three seasons he has drawn everyone's attention. He already had a championship from his time with Whelen Racing in 2021, but he won another championship in 2024. This was his third Daytona victory. He also has won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice, the 6 Hours of the Glen twice, and he has a Petit Le Mans victory. Let's not forget his brief stint in Formula One where he finished fifth on debut with Sauber.

He has been a special talent for a long time, but we do not celebrate that talent enough in sports car racing, and part of it could be that sports car racing is a multi-driver discipline. You do not know how much is one driver or the other, and you must appreciate both, but Nasr is on his third different co-driver in three years. He has won a championship elsewhere. We can no longer ignore how much comes down to Nasr alone. 

Later this year, Nasr will turn 34 years old. There is a long career ahead of him. It could continue in sports car racing. He is comfortably in IMSA, and with Porsche's exit from the world championship, it is unclear where else it could go. He could be in the world championship and leading a team there to championships and victories at Le Mans. He could also turn his career to IndyCar. He is in the Team Penske fold. He was on the doorstep of his debut at St. Petersburg in March 2020 with Carlin before the event was stopped in its tracks due to the pandemic. Penske brought Scott McLaughlin to IndyCar from a successful Supercars career. Josef Newgarden's contract is not secure beyond 2026. There could be an opening and Penske might already have its man in house. 

We are going to see more extraordinary things from Nasr. We are still at the start.

Foggy

I went to bed around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. I woke up a little after 5:15 a.m. on Sunday. At that point, the 24 Hours of Daytona had been under caution since 12:45 a.m. due to fog. The race would not restart until 7:19 a.m. 

It happens. I was a little surprised there was not a red flag at some point, especially since the 2004 race came to mind, but I remembered this race now has 24-hour broadcast coverage. It wasn't that long ago the race would go dark at midnight and coverage would resume at 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. There was no way to watch the race in the United States. 

With the race now being covered, caution laps are going to keep whatever few people that are awake watching. Not that anyone is trying to keep viewers engaged at 3:00 a.m. Eastern. This is a global race and I do wonder what the viewership is like in Europe when it is the middle of the morning. They must understand why there are so few cameras up. It is the same way here in the United States with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Around 7:00 p.m. Eastern, Le Mans becomes a lot of onboard shots and some cuts to stationary cameras, but if the cars are not moving, people are going to tune out. 

It is curious to me to decide to do one thing or the other. It is a lose-lose situation. This was just a parade with the occasional pit stop. It didn't do nothing to the race, and the running order was changing, but it was rather uneventful. No one is thrilled to see cars running at 60 miles per hour. 

Drive Times

As much fun as the 24 Hours of Daytona is, there are a few tweaks I would like to see. Drive time minimums is one of them. 

For starters, the minimum drive time should be higher in the professional classes. I think the minimum should be four or five hours for all the classes, and I think everyone should run an hour in the final quarter of the race. 

I don't like that in the pro-am categories everyone is trying to get the amateur out of the way. I think in the pro-am classes, the amateurs should get a say in the final quarter of the race. I think every driver should run at least an hour in the final quarter of the race. I don't think everyone should be rushing to get the amateurs done before the first quarter of the race is over. There should be more strategy in the driver shifts, and that goes for the professional classes as well.

It is not as big of an issue in the professional classes. For starters, some of those cars are only running three drivers. Almost all of them are doing at least six hours or so. Laurin Heinrich ran the least in the #7 Porsche, and he still did five hours and five minutes. 

To be fair, in GTP, the only driver not to clear four hours driving was Colin Braun (3:07:44). 

The notable case this year is in GTD Pro, the minimum for bronze-rather drivers in the class was reduced to three-and-a-half-hours, one hour less than originally announced. This only affected two drivers, Kenny Habul in the #75 75 Express Mercedes-AMG and Scott Noble in the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG. Noble did 3:33:02. Habul did 3:33:36. 

It is kind of a moot point but I think the race would be better if more drivers were competing late in the race. Filipe Albuquerque didn't turn a lap after 6:23 a.m. Connor Zilisch was out of the car at 6:13 a.m. Kakunoshin Ohta was finished at 4:00 a.m.! Even A.J. Allmendinger was done before the final quarter of the race began (7:07 a.m.). I don't think that is a good thing. I think every driver should still be in play after sunrise on Sunday. 

Well... They Were There

For the third consecutive year, we are covering an overlooked aspect of the 24 Hours of Daytona. The drivers that raced... but technically never did race because they could not get into the car before the car retired, and you better believe this year's list is something special. 

With all the early incidents and retirements, a fair number of drivers, and a fair number of notable names never got to race in this year's 24 Hours of Daytona, even though their names will be listed in the record book forever as participating in the race. 

For starters, last year, only one car failed to complete 100 laps. Only seven out of 61 starters failed to complete 300 laps.

This year's race saw four cars fail to complete 100 laps. Now, 55 of 60 started completed over 500 laps. I think losing a quarter of the race to fog helped a lot of these teams reach that lap total. Only 11 cars were not running at the end of the race. That is rather impressive even if a quarter of the race was lost due to fog.

How about those drivers that did not complete a lap in this year's race?

Let's start with the first car out because the #28 RS1 Porsche only completed five laps, 12 minutes and 26 seconds of the race before Erik Zitza spun and hit the attenuator at the end of the pit wall in the middle of turn one. It will not surprise you to learn that Zitza was the only driver to have turned a lap in that entry. Who didn't get to race?

How about 2022 Daytona GTD class winner Jan Heylen? And 2025 GT World Challenge Endurance Cup champion Sven Müller? And 2017 Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge GS champion Dillon Machavern? 

That is a pretty good trio. Apparently, this was Machavern's first Daytona entry since the 2020 24 Hours of Daytona. He will have to wait another year to actually run in the race. Müller was making his first Daytona appearance since 2021, but this was not the first time Müller did not complete a lap during the race. It was actually the third! 

In 2016, Müller's Daytona debut, he did not make a lap in the #59 Manthey Racing Porsche as it retired after 61 laps due to a mechanical issue. Three years later, Müller was with NGT Motorsport, and the #99 Porsche's race was over after 47 laps, none of which saw Müller behind the wheel. In seven 24 Hours of Daytona starts, Müller has completed zero laps three times. Brutal!

We were just a little over two hours into the race when the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari spun and had damage after contact with the #033 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari. At that point, Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra had gotten into the car. Defending World Endurance Drivers' Champion Alessandro Pier Guidi had not gotten into the car, nor would Pier Guidi get the chance. 

Later in the race, the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche and the #83 AF Corse Oreca had an incident in turn five. Though the #83 Oreca would return to the track after nearly an hour-and-a-half being repaired, it would not last much longer. In the case of the #120 Porsche, Callum Ilott and Tom Sargent had yet to get into the car prior to the incident. For the #83 Oreca, Nicklas Nielsen took over the car after the repairs, but he was only the third of the four driver to turn a lap. Matthieu Vaxivière did not get such a chance. This was the second time in three years Vaxivière did not get to complete a lap at Daytona. He didn't complete a lap in 2024 either.

The #16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford had an eventful race even if it did not make it to 6:00 p.m. Saturday. The #16 Ford was black-flagged only 50 minutes into the race for tire operational requirements. About two-and-a-half hours into the race, the #16 Ford was black-flagged again for contact with the #123 Mühlner Motorsport Porsche. Then it had a mechanical issue and its race was over.

Sheena Monk and Romain Grosjean were the only two drivers to get into the car. Felipe Fraga did not get to turn a lap, and neither did Jenson Altzman, who was making his 24 Hours of Daytona debut! The record book will say Altzman raced and this was his first 24 Hours of Daytona, but he must wait until 2027 to actually run a lap in anger. 

Nine drivers this year did not get to complete a lap in the 24 Hours of Daytona, and yet will be classified as having participated in this race. 

For comparison, last year had five drivers not complete a lap. In 2024, it was nine drivers. I sense a pattern developing. 

What about the five from last year?

One of those was Grosjean, and we covered how he did get to run the #16 Ford, but Grosjean is connected to a pair of drivers that did not get to run this year. Grosjean was able to complete an hour and 32 minutes in the car.

Ben Hanley missed out on running a lap last year despite his entry completing over seven hours of last year's race. This year, Hanley was the third driver into the #2 United Autosports Oreca, and he ran nearly 49 minutes in his first stint. Hanley drove over 5:35:41 in this year's race.

After failing to complete a lap in last year's race, Nicki Thiim was in the tightest fight in this year's 24 Hours of Daytona as Thiim had the #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin fighting for the GTD class victory to the checkered flag. Thiim fell short by 1.367 seconds to the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, but after not running a lap in 2025, Thiim made up for it in his five hours and nearly 36 minutes driving in 2026.

As for the other two drivers, well, they were not entered in this year's race. Neither Edoardo Mortara nor Daniil Kvyat got to run in last year's race prior to their Lamborghini SC63 losing an engine in the first 34 laps. With no Lamborghini entered this year, neither Mortara nor Kvyat made the trip to Daytona. This means Mortara has still not ran a lap in the 24 Hours of Daytona since 2013 when he won the GT class with Alex Job Racing, and Kvyat still has more 24 Hours of Daytona starts (one) than he has laps run in the 24 Hours of Daytona (zero)!

The oddities of endurance racing! You got to love them! 

February Preview

We are going to change this up a bit because we are not going to preview a motorsports event here, but we are going to preview a motorsports tie to a different kind of racing event. 

IndyCar veteran Simona de Silvestro will be competing the 2026 Winter Olympics from Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy in bobsleigh, and de Silvestro will be representing the host nation of Italy. De Silvestro will be competing in the monobob and two-person disciplines. She has been working toward competing at the Olympics since November 2023, when she competed in her first event in Lillehammer, Norway. 

This was de Silvestro's first season competing in IBSF World Cup events. Her best finish in the monobob was 15th out of 25 competitors at St. Moritz, Switzerland. That same weekend saw her net her best two-woman result when she and Martina Favaretto were 17th out of 24. 

In all likelihood, de Silvestro will not be picking up a medal from these Olympics. To be frank, the Germans should clean house. 

Laura Nolte won the IBSF World Cups in both monobob and two-woman, though she faced tough competition in the monobob from Australian Breeana Walker. Walker won three of seven events while American Kaillie Humphires won the final event of the season from Altenberg, Germany. In the two-woman competition, Nolte and Humphries were first and second with Nolte winning five events and Humphries winning the other two. 

Four years ago in Beijing, Nolte took gold in the two-woman competition with Deborah Levi and fellow Germans Mariama Jamanka and Alexandra Burghardt were silver medalists while Humphries led an American 1-2 in the monobob with Elana Meyers Taylor taking the silver,

On the men's side, the top three teams in each the two-man and four-man IBSF World Cup competitions were Germans with Johannes Lochner taking both championships. At the last Winter Olympics, the Germans swept the podium in the two-man competition but it was Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis taking gold while Lochner and his partner Florian Bauer were silver medalist. Fredrich's team also took gold in the four-man while Lochner's team took silver.

Fredrich also took both golds at the 2018 Pyeongchang games. He was runner-up in the two-man and four-man championships this year to Lochner, but he only won one two-man event while Lochner won the other six. In the four-man, Lochner's team won three events while Friedrich's team won twice. Fellow German Adam Ammour led four-man teams that won the final two events.

Bringing this back to motorsports and de Silvestro, it is incredible just to make an Olympics. Many spend years training to qualify and just get a chance to compete. It is a dream only few get to realize. It will be cool to see someone motorsports fans have watched for over a decade competing in IndyCar, Formula E and Supercars now compete in the Olympics. 

When it comes to drivers who have started the Indianapolis 500 and competed in an Olympics, I cannot find anybody, meaning de Silvestro is going to stand in a class of her own. Take that men!

However, if we expand it to IndyCar races across the board, there is one driver I have found that has competed in the Olympics. Frederik McEvoy competed in the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and he took the bronze medal in the four-man bobsleigh for Great Britain. Eight months later, McEvoy competed in the Vanderbilt Cup race in Westbury, New York, and he finished sixth driving a Maserati, about 25 minutes behind winner Tazio Nuvolari. Now, McEvoy did get relief from Italian Carlo Felice Trossi, and Trossi drove the final two-thirds of the race as McEvoy only completed 24 laps, but it was McEvoy's only start in the AAA National Championship.

If you get a chance, do read more on McEvoy and his life because there is a lot there.

To end on de Silvestro, I think we all wish her the best, and I hope after this Olympic experience we could see her competing in motorsports again as it has been nearly three years since her last race. She last competed in IndyCar four years ago, which simultaneously feels like yesterday and yet was a lifetime ago. I don't know if we will see her in IndyCar again, I doubt it, but I think she has a place as a professional driver in a GT lineup somewhere in the world, whether that be IMSA, European Le Mans Series, the FIA World Endurance Championship or another competition. 

Let's hope next month in Cortina d'Ampezzo is not the final time we see her driving, and the next time we see her it is on asphalt. 

There will be a minute until the bobsleigh events begin. Training runs do not start until Thursday February 12. The first medals to be awarded will be the monobob on Monday February 16. The two-man gold will be decided the next day, Tuesday February 17. The two-woman medals will be determined on Saturday February 21 with the four-man being decided on the final day of the Olympics, Sunday February 22.

Other events of note in February:

The Bathurst 12 Hour and the Daytona 500 are on the same weekend, February 14-15!

Rally Sweden is also that same weekend.

The Supercars season and the World Superbike season start on the same weekend in Australia, February 21-22. Supercars is at Sydney Motorsport Park while World Superbike will be at Phillip Island. 

The Asian Le Mans Series will conclude. This weekend there is a doubleheader from Dubai. Next week, there is a doubleheader from Yas Marina.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Ed Carpenter Racing

We move a day closer to the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season, and now 31 days, a month from the first race, we move to a team that ended 2025 with a surprise victory. Ed Carpenter Racing was hoping to find a spark with a new driver lineup, as the team focused on a pair of drivers while Ed Carpenter stepped back to only run the Indianapolis 500. 

Results did not come easy, but things did take a turn. The team made strides late in the season, and it ended with unexpected success in Milwaukee. It might have been more than the team could have hoped for, but it showed how high the team's potential is. Now it must continue on that run.

At A Glance... It must prove the end of last season wasn't a fluke

I don't think anyone believed Ed Carpenter Racing would win a race during the 2025 season. Not only did it, but its victory came at the hands of its sophomore driver. Over half the teams didn't win in IndyCar last season. Many notable names went winless as well. Ed Carpenter Racing was not one of them, and it ended up exceeding expectations. 

That only means the bar is higher for 2026. It is only going to get harder.

Ed Carpenter Racing ended on a strong note. Christian Rasmussen won. Alexander Rossi ended with three consecutive top ten finishes, two of which were top five finishes. Overall, the season left room for improvement, but ECR was moving in the right direction. It achieved more but it didn't really perform higher than where the team has been for the last few seasons. We need to see more.

Rasmussen won, but he did start the season with five consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Rossi had a good start to the season and a good finish, but he had a middle where he was struggled and he was not a factor in races. In turn, ECR remained solidly in the middle of the field. Not the worst team on the grid, but it was also not a threat for the championship top ten, and it wasn't a regular contender. The team was one fluke caution due to a sun shower away from not even being close to victory. While it was a great day, Milwaukee is misleading.

There are plenty of areas where this team can improve. For most of the season, it did not feel like Rossi could do better than seventh or eighth on his best days. Rasmussen had good oval races, but his road and street course form remains lacking. 

Results are going to need to come early, and they need to be more consistent. Neither driver can afford going five or six races without top ten finishes, something both drivers did last season. Rossi had a seven-race run without a top ten finish. ECR cannot afford that again. 

The 2025 season was encouraging. Both ECR drivers cracked the top fifteen in the championship. It has felt ECR has been stuck in 13th and could not get a second car into the discussion as well. It is there, and the next goal is the championship top ten. It is not unobtainable, but to get there ECR must make an actual step forward and not rely on a lucky combination of a caution, fresh tires and a few drivers not making a pit stop to make everyone believe ECR is a contender. 

The numbers will tells us if ECR is better or not.

2025 Ed Carpenter Racing Review

Wins: 1 (Milwaukee)

Poles: 0

Best Start: 6th (Thermal Club, Portland)

Championship Finishes: 13th (Christian Rasmussen), 15th (Alexander Rossi), 30th (Ed Carpenter)

Alexander Rossi - #20 Java House/Splenda Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

25: Race podium drought, the longest of his IndyCar career

13.764: Average finish in 2025, Rossi's worst in season

0: Top five starts in 2025, Rossi's fewest in a season since his rookie season in 2016

What is the best possible outcome?

Even if he is just regularly cracking top ten and not really in the conversation much for top five finishes, Rossi can be ninth or tenth in the championship, where was living for the previous five seasons before joining ECR. ECR has what it takes for Rossi to get seven or eight finishes between seventh and tenth and then get a few sneaky top five finishes, most likely on ovals. Those are plausible results, and if the pace is good enough Rossi could take another surprise victory for the team.

What is realistic?

It does feel like the ceiling for Rossi is 12th, where ECR has been stuck for the last decade. We have not seen the killer flawlessness from Rossi to think he can snag a bunch of top five finishes, and we know Rossi is not a special driver who can master the alternate tire compound to his advantage. He is a particular driver and if things do not line up for him, he struggles to be competitive. 

ECR isn't the team that can give Rossi that particular car. Andretti was the only team who could give Rossi what he wanted, and that only worked for two seasons. There are going to be days where Rossi hits his limit early and he will be fortunate to finish seventh or eighth. That is not going to be the norm, and in half the races he will be outside the top ten and in the other half they will go in his favor with a few brighter spots. If he can maximize those bright spots or ECR finds something special, he can crack the championship top ten.

Christian Rasmussen - #21 Splenda/Java House Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

21.2: Average finish in road and street course races in 2024

17.454: Average finish in road and street course races in 2025

2: Top ten starts in 31 career starts

What is the best possible outcome?

Matching his 2025 results. While Rasmussen didn't run all the races in 2024, he did run all the road and street courses. Now, he got to run them all a second time, and things were not much better. That doesn't mean they cannot improve in year three, but let's not kid ourselves to think if it wasn't working in the first two seasons with ECR, it isn't going to be that much different in year three. If it isn't going to be that much different, the results will be the same. 

The hope is he is even better on ovals, and maybe he doesn't snag a victory, but if he has three or four top five finishes it will lift his championship finish and possibly be enough to sneak him into the championship top ten, but likely it will keep him around 13th or 14th.

What is realistic?

Not everyone can get better, and Rasmussen's best two results in 2025 were a third at Gateway when a late pit cycle jumbled up the order, and Rasmussen overcame a botched pit stop and botched strategy to steal that result, and the aforementioned Milwaukee victory where a freak rain shower on a sunny day set up the dominoes for Rasmussen to take fresh tires and somehow pull off crazy passes on a restart before being able to take advantage of Álex Palou on worn tires to win the race. 

Those things are not going to happen again. He probably should have been in the top ten at Gateway, but not third. He definitely should have been in the top ten at Milwaukee, but maybe even the top five. Take 40 points away from Rasmussen and he drops to 17th in the championship. It will likely be a greater fight just to remain in the top fifteen for Rasmussen than for him to push the championship top ten.

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Arrow McLaren

There still might be 32 days until the first race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season, but Arrow McLaren already picked up an early victory. This was in the form of a favorable court decision in the case relating to Álex Palou reneging on his McLaren contract. In a form of universal comedy, this preview was always planned for this date. It just so happened that the court decision came just a few days before. 

Perhaps the legal victory can spur on more success on the racetrack, something McLaren had a fair amount of in 2025. The team made great strides as it made another driver change, but this one seemed to work as McLaren had two bonafide challengers after being stuck with one. McLaren may have made progress, but there is still one thing it has yet to achieve, and it is within its grasp. 

At A Glance... McLaren has what it takes to win the championship

Year one with Christian Lundgaard saw McLaren's best results since it took over the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports program ahead of the 2020 season. Two McLaren drivers cracked the top five in the championship, a first for the organization. Patricio O'Ward was second in the championship, a new best. The team won twice. All the pieces are there for McLaren to come out as champion. 

It will not be an easy task. Álex Palou will remain the top driver to beat, and Palou is not going to slow down. Winning the championship will require finding ways to beat Palou and not making any missteps along the way. It will need to be near perfection. Chip Ganassi Racing is not going to slip up, and others are lurking as a challenge.

Team Penske is not going to remain down after a tough 2025 campaign. For the first half of 2025, Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti Global was Palou's main championship rival. Throw in Will Power at Andretti, and it is another challenger that is looking to muddle up McLaren's title hopes. It doesn't matter if you beat Palou if others are beating you both. 

The organization must find another level if it wants to claim the ultimate prize. O'Ward is there, but he must make another step. It is not going to be good enough to only win twice. Races cannot slip from his grasp when he is in control. He must be cutthroat and make the bold moves stick. Too many races have been lost because someone outmaneuvered the Mexican. That must change in 2026 if he hopes to be champion. 

O'Ward responded greatly in 2025 when Lundgaard entered and was the best McLaren driver through the first quarter of the season. What could have been a domino falling in favor of the new driver and casting O'Ward into the secondary role flipped and O'Ward increased his grip on the team. He showed he was the best McLaren driver and was keeping the flickering hopes of a championship alive deep into the season. He is McLaren's #1 bullet, but he must hit the target. The #2 option is pretty damn sharp as well. 

Lundgaard did not win a race in 2025, but when he was a threat he got everyone's attention. Six podium finishes is just as many as O'Ward pulled last season. What cost Lundgaard were a few mistakes, and he is still finding comfort on ovals. Plenty of drivers have overcome oval shortcomings. It means being near lights out on the road and street course, a difficult level to reach but not improbable for the Dane. 

McLaren has two drivers it can rest its championship hopes on. That is something the team has not had in the previous six seasons. Two is all it needs. The team has already expressed how little faith it has in Nolan Siegel, a driver racing for his job with a Herculean task of cracking the championship top ten to assure he continues for another season. Two cars are serious seats and the other is a sideshow. McLaren is hoping soon enough it will become a three-headed monster. We will likely know that answer come the middle of July. 

The pieces are in place for McLaren to come out as the best in IndyCar. It now must show it can put everything together. This is year seven of McLaren's involvement in IndyCar. It likely thought it would have won a championship by now. At some point, we will hear a clock ticking. There is one surefire way to silence it. 

2025 Arrow McLaren Review

Wins: 2 (Iowa I, Toronto)

Poles: 3 (Thermal Club, Portland, Nashville)

Championship Finishes: 2nd (Patricio O'Ward), 5th (Christian Lundgaard), 22nd (Nolan Siegel), 33rd (Kyle Larson)

Patricio O'Ward - #5 Arrow Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

10: Top five finishes in 2025, O'Ward's most in a season

3: Consecutive seasons with at least six podium finishes

196: Points behind Álex Palou in the championship last season

What is the best possible outcome?

It is the championship, but that would likely come with at least five or six victories. That would mean that losing a race after leading 80% of it. It would mean success on all three track disciplines. It could include an Indianapolis 500 victory, or it could be a top five finish in that race with a pair of oval victories or even a trio of oval victories. It would mean nearly eliminating all the mistakes and mechanical issues that cost him good results, and he would need probably a dozen top five finishes with 14 or 15 top ten finishes. 

It would also mean Palou isn't as flawless as we saw in 2025. It is a double-edged sword. O'Ward would need to improve combined with Palou taking a dip in form, something that is easier said than done. O'Ward needs to combine his best season ever with Palou being slightly less great than we have seen for the last three years.

What is realistic?

A championship is realistic, but at worst, O'Ward is middle of the championship top ten. He should be a lock for the championship top five. The biggest concern is the team around him. Will it still have strategy snafus cost it potential victories? Will there still be races where McLaren cannot break into the top ten and is fighting just to finish 12th? In an attempt to make up for a deficiency, does O'Ward go over the line and cost himself? 

If this team starts behind, it could be a long season chasing, and chasing only makes it prone to mistakes. No one can afford a slow start against Palou, but O'Ward especially. He is going to pick up his handful of victories and podium finishes. That likely will not be enough for the championship. He must avoid those occasional poor races, and some of those are out of his control. 

Nolan Siegel - #6 Arrow Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

3: Longest streak of top fifteen finishes in his IndyCar career (9th at Barber Motorsports Park, 13th at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and 13th at the Indianapolis 500 last year)

2: Times as the best finish McLaren driver, and on both occasions did his both his teammate finish outside the top fifteen

6: Starts in the top 12 last season

17.833: Average finish in those races starting in the top 12

16.9: Average finish in Siegel's other ten races starting 13th or worse

What is the best possible outcome?

Siegel is able to harness a fraction of the McLaren speed that we see in the other two cars. He is consistently completing laps and finding pace on each race weekend, which turns into more top ten finishes though he is still the third best McLaren in the field. A race or two break his way thanks to a timely pit stop or caution and those lead to a podium result or top five result. The middle of the field is a complete mess and it means there are not as many challengers for the championship top ten. 

Basically, the best possible outcome is if Siegel mirrors Santino Ferrucci's 2024 season with about ten or 11 top ten finishes, but most of those are finishes between seventh and tenth, but it is good enough to be ninth or tenth in the championship and at least fulfill the ultimatum McLaren team president Tony Kanaan set, securing Siegel another season at the organization.

What is realistic?

I am not sure Siegel can crack the top fifteen in the championship. The car can. The other two McLarens were in the championship top five. What is Siegel's excuse? He was 22nd in the championship in 2025 with two top ten finishes. He started outside the top fifteen in nine of 16 starts. In five races, he retired due to accidents. That can all improve, but still not look remarkably competitive. 

Siegel was 69 points behind Kyffin Simpson, and Simpson was moderately competitive. Siegel's best day never came close to Simpson's, and Simpson only had six top ten finishes. Maybe something swings and Siegel is able to pick up five or six top ten finishes, but that is the best outcome, and even if he does that, he isn't going to finish better than 17th or 18th in the championship. Alexander Rossi was 15th last year and Rossi had seven top ten finishes, two of which were top five results. Is Siegel going to match that output? I don't think so.

Christian Lundgaard - #7 Arrow Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

3: Times as the best finishing McLaren driver in the first four races of the 2025 season

3: Times as the best finishing McLaren driver in the final 13 races of the 2025 season

3: Top ten finishes on ovals in 2025

2: Top ten finishes in 16 oval starts with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing from 2022 to 2024

What is the best possible outcome?

Lundgaard turns about half of those podium results from 2025 into victories in 2026. He isn't throwing away results, and he is taking cars that don't belong better than eighth into the top five. He is constantly the quickest McLaren driver and he is able to keep O'Ward in his mirrors. Ovals click for Lundgaard, and he is not only finishing in the top ten but in the top five and maybe sneaking onto a podium or two. 

With three or four victories, about nine podium finishes and 13 top five finishes with his worst result all season being 13th, Lundgaard is able to take advantage of others not being as consistent as him, including Palou, who has a little bit of Josef Newgarden's luck rub off on him and about four races are much worse than they should have been due to things out of Palou's control. This opens the door and Lundgaard takes a slightly surprising championship though one that is not entirely implausible.

What is realistic?

Lundgaard is probably ranked somewhere between sixth and ninth in terms of championship favorites. It isn't crazy to think he could pull it off, but it is tough to imagine this will be the year he bests Palou, O'Ward, Scott Dixon, and all three Team Penske drivers. It is better than most, but for it to occur we would need to see a special start from Lundgaard and his oval results would need to be impressively better. Finishing ninth on the ovals is not going to be good enough. 

Though he was fifth in the championship in 2025, Lundgaard can still approve. Though he finished 84 points behind O'Ward in the championship, on Lundgaard's best day he was carrying McLaren with ease. There were a few slip ups and some of that was down to rough days on ovals, but if he is the best McLaren driver at every road and street course, Lundgaard will end the season best in the team. 

A victory feels highly likely. He was too close last year for none to occur again. A victory or two with another half-dozen podium finishes is basically what O'Ward did to finish second in the championship in 2025. Lundgaard can match that.

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.

Musings From the Weekend: The Price of Being Álex Palou

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Porsche Penske Motorsport made history with its third consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona victory thanks to the #7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. Formula One teams have started revealing their 2026 cars. Mercedes' livery looks like it is honoring New Zealand. Williams has announced it will miss the Barcelona test. A number of Daytona 500 one-offs have been announced. Hailie Deegan's career has literally gone full circle. The World Rally Championship season opened from Monaco. The F1 movie was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Ed Carpenter Racing has promoted Matt Barnes to vice president of competition with Quentin Montigaud the new lead engineer for Alexander Rossi. Raul Prados will be Scott McLaughlin's engineer. However, IndyCar's biggest news of the week came from a London courtroom, and it involved the series champion.

The Price of Being Álex Palou

$12 million. Plus potential legal expenses. 

At the moment, that is the price of being Álex Palou after a London court awarded just over $12 million in damages to McLaren from Palou over a break of contract dating back to Palou's agreement to join the team after the 2023 season. 

Palou does have the right to appeal. 

So ends the three-and-a-half-year saga that started on July 12, 2022 when Palou publicly dismissed an announcement earlier that day from Chip Ganassi Racing that the team and Palou had agreed upon a contract extension. Palou had his sights on McLaren and was hoping to leave the team where he won the 2021 championship for an organization with a Formula One program, and that is where Palou thought he was ultimately heading. Palou could not get out of his Ganassi deal that went through the 2023 season, but all indication pointed to him heading to McLaren once 2024 rolled around.

While on his way to his second championship in August 2023, Palou announced he would not be joining McLaren but rather stay at Chip Ganassi Racing, setting in motion the legal dispute that was decided this past Friday.

Actions have consequences and the contractual gymnastics Palou pulled for a three-year period are going to cost him dearly. Indecisiveness and dishonesty put Palou in this position. Each step was a downfall because he was not clear with the parties he was working him, from the first conflict with Ganassi to the ultimate decision to turn his back on the McLaren he had previously wanted. What led to McLaren's pay day was also foolishness, because Palou thought he could get away with it twice. While he had to honor his final year at Ganassi, he did get what he wanted in the McLaren contract, but when he found himself wishing to stay with Ganassi, he thought he could break a deal for a second time without it harming him. 

Think again. 

Yet, there is empathy for Palou. 

During this trial, Palou has said he felt he had been misled with the McLaren when it would lead to a Formula One opportunity, only for McLaren to hear Oscar Piastri to join the Formula One program at the same time. He even said, "The only attraction to me in the approach from McLaren was the chance to go to F1." 

Palou was never going to end up driving for McLaren's F1 program, especially after Piastri was signed. A year as a Formula One reserve driver while still competing in IndyCar before a full-time switch was off the table. It didn't matter how dominated Palou was, it was a career move down a col-du-sac. He was going to become a McLaren IndyCar driver and a permanent Formula One reserve if he was lucky to even get that.

But we will never know if that was the case, the same way we never will know if Palou would have been successful driving for McLaren's IndyCar program, unless you are Judge Simon Picken, who ruled in McLaren's favor and determined the payment in relation to performance-based prize money it would have earned had Palou driven for McLaren. 

It is a stretch to believe Palou would have won no matter which team he was driving for, and if he had been with McLaren for the past two seasons, he would have won both championships and an Indianapolis 500. We all know it is not that simply, and motorsports is more than just the driver. A number of those victories came down to strategy calls from Barry Wanser and setups from engineer Julian Robertson. 

Would McLaren have been able to match what Ganassi had?

Need one be reminded of the number of strategy flubs McLaren had over the last two seasons, from Alexander Rossi needing to save fuel at the end of races when other didn't (see the 2024 Indianapolis 500 and the second Iowa race), or the wrong tire strategy for last year's Thermal Club race? Let's also not forget McLaren went winless in 2023 despite having O'Ward, Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist on the team, three past IndyCar race winners. 

McLaren likely would have done well, but that doesn't mean Palou would have achieved the exact same success. Seeing how McLaren performed, it is difficult to imagine Palou would have done better than he did competing for Ganassi, the team that is tied for most championships in IndyCar history. 

However, Palou's hemming and hawing over which team he would drive for did hurt McLaren. Sponsors signed with McLaren under the guise that Palou would be driving for the team. That cannot be ignored, and as we are seeing with NTT, McLaren had to renegotiate a deal that sees the sponsorship ending at the conclusion of this season, two years earlier than the original deal. McLaren is likely going to be fine, but it now has to do more work to generate the sponsorship for the 2027 and 2028 seasons that it previously had arranged. 

Were the damages really worth $12 million? 

Probably not, and while Palou can appeal, he is going to be paying back something in all likelihood. Some type of agreement will be reached. There is a chance Palou will be paying McLaren back for the rest of his career, especially if he has to cover the legal costs. At worst, he is paying about $1.5 million a year from his salary for the next ten to 15 years. He is only 28 years old. He will be around that long and, if he keeps winning at the rate he is, Palou isn't going to be struggling with money. 

It is still going to sting.

The strange thought about all this is based on his on-track success, if Palou was asked if he could go back and do anything different about the contract situation, there is a probably chance he wouldn't. He has won the last three championships. He won an Indianapolis 500. He has had some of the best seasons in IndyCar history and must already be considered one of the all-time greats. It could all be worth it in his eyes. Even if he is able to pay it, you must think it is an eye-opener for him. He might be doing well, but few feel comfortable losing $12 million. 

Not many make a fortune in IndyCar, but many lose it. Palou might have found a new way. Add that to his legacy.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Porsche, but did you know...

The #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca of George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery won the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper and Max Hesse won in GTD Pro. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward, Lucas Auer and Indy Dontje won in GTD.

Oliver Solberg won the 94th Rallye Monte-Carlo.

Chase Sexton won the Supercross race from Anaheim. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race, his second consecutive victory.

Coming Up This Weekend

NASCAR hold the Clash at Bowman-Gray Stadium.

The Asian Le Mans Series runs two races at Dubai.

Supercross makes it way to Houston, and it is a Triple Crown round.

Formula E will race at the Miami International Autrodrome.

2026 IMSA Season Preview

The one thing to look forward toward in the cold of January is the 24 Hours of Daytona, and with a winter storm brewing that could swarm most of the Eastern part of the United States, the sunshine and palm trees of the Atlantic Coast could be a nice distract. A 24-hour race will keep plenty busy inside as the weather turns inhospitable outside. 

Daytona is more than just an endurance race, but the opening round to the IMSA season, which will see 11 rounds contested through the first weekend in October. 

Schedule

In terms of venues, there are no changes to the 2026 season, but race lengths are changing at a pair of events.

With the 24 Hours of Daytona opening the season this weekend, the 12 Hours of Sebring will follow as the second round on March 21. One month later, the GTP and GTD classes will run at Long Beach on April 18. GTD Pro will join those two classes on May 3 at Laguna Seca. GTP and GTD Pro will race at Detroit on May 30. 

The 6 Hours of the Glen marks the halfway point of the season on June 28. In July 12, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD will race at Mosport. Road America will host a six-hour race on August 2, the first time it has hosted an endurance race since IMSA's reunification. 

The only GT-only race will be on August 23 at Virginia International Raceway. All four classes will run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 20, the only regular distance race with every class competing in this season. Petit Le Mans closes the season from Road America on October 3.

What is Different?

GTP

The defending GTP champions are not defending. Porsche Penske Motorsport has three new full-time drivers. Mathieu Jaminet has left the program to race for the Genesis Magma Racing program in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Matt Campbell will be an Endurance Cup-only driver this season in the #6 Porsche. Laurens Vanthoor and Kévin Estre will be back as the full-time drivers. 

Felipe Nasr is the one returning Porsche Penske driver with Julian Andlauer being his full-time co-driver. Laurin Heinrich will be the #7 Porsche's Endurance Cup driver after running for AO Racing in GTD Pro.

Team WRT has taken over the BMW M Hybrid V8 program from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. The full-time drivers are the same but Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor will be in the #24 BMW with Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann taking over the #25 BMW.

JDC-Miller Motosports is back, but it has Nico Pino joining Tijman van der Helm full-time.

LMP2

TDS Racing has an entirely new lineup with Tobias Lütke and David Heinemeier Hansson move over from Era Motorsport, and they will have Mathias Beche joining the program. 

Era Motorsport has set an endurance lineup of Ferdinand Habsburg, Naveen Rao and Jacob Abel. Logan Sargeant will run at the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Intersport Racing is back running with HMD Motorsports. Oliver Jarvis and Jon Field will be the full-time drivers. Seth Lucas will run the endurance races. 

Bryan Herta Autosport and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports have partnered with Misha Goikhberg moving back after six season in GTD. Harry Tincknell will be his co-driver.

GTD Pro

With Heinrich moving to the Porsche Penske Motorsport GTP program in an endurance role, AO Racing has taken in Nick Tandy for the #77 Porsche, and Harry King will be the second co-driver after King spent 2025 in GT World Challenge Europe and racing a GT300 entry in Super GT.

Klaus Bachler moves from AO Racing to Manthey Racing to drive the #911 Porsche in an Endurance Cup entry with Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining. Ayhancan Güven will complete the lineup at Daytona.

Pfaff Motorsports will have Sandy Mitchell partner Andrea Caldarelli in the #9 Lamborghini.

VasserSullivan is reuniting Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat in the #14 Lexus.

Ford Multimatic Motorsports has shaken up the #64 Mustang entry with Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker both expanding from Endurance Cup drivers to full-time drivers. The 2025 full-time drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx will run the endurance races in the #64 Ford and #65 Ford respectively. 

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing remain in IMSA, but RLLR will now run the McLaren program in GTD Pro. Max Esterson and Nikita Johnson will be the full-time drivers.

GTD

With Barnicoat back in GTD Pro, Aaron Telitz drops to GTD and he will share the #12 Lexus with Benjamin Pedersen, and Frankie Montecalvo will be the Endurance Cup driver.

Riley Motorsports will run a Ford Mustang in the class, and its full-time drivers will be Felipe Fraga and Sheena Monk. Jenson Altzman will join the #16 Ford lineup for the endurance races.

Heart of Racing Team will have Eduardo Barrichello as one of its full-time drivers in the #27 Aston Martin. Barrichello will have Tom Gamble, Zachary Robichon and Mattia Drudi join him at Daytona. 

Manny Franco has a new co-driver at Conquest Racing. Albert Costa will join him in the #34 Ferrari.

Mason Filippi will be full-time for DXDT Racing in the #36 Corvette. Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç will run the endurance races. 

Gradient Racing has Joey Hand and Jake Walker together in the #66 Ford Mustang. 

DragonSpeed is back in the category with the #81 Corvette for Giacomo Altoè and Henrik Hedman. 

Callum Ilott has added full-time IMSA driver to his IndyCar responsibilities. Ilott will be in the #120 Porsche for Wright Motorsports with Adam Adelson. 

What is the Same?

GTP

None of the three Cadillac teams changed its drivers. Whelen Racing will have Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber in the #31 Cadillac while Wayne Taylor Racing has kept Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque together in the #10 Cadillac. Jordan Taylor and Louis Delétraz remain a pair in the #40 Cadillac. 

Meyer Shank Racing has kept Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun together in the #60 Acura, and unchanged is the #93 Acura of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly.

Aston Martin THOR Team will run Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin.

LMP2

The champions are back with Dane Cameron and P.J. Hyett together in the #99 Oreca for AO Racing.

Dan Goldburg will be in the #22 United Autosport Oreca with a co-driver for the full season still undecided. 

Sébastien Bourdais and John Farano remain together in the #8 Oreca for Tower Motorsport.

CrowdStrike Racing by APR continues with George Kurtz driving alongside Malthe Jakobsen, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery.

Inter Europol Competition has Jermey Clarke and Bijoy Garg together in the #43 Oreca.

Pratt Miller Motorsports will continue with Pietro Fittipaldi and Chris Cumming in the #73 Oreca.

GTD Pro

Corvette is unchanged. Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims will defend the class championship in the #3 Corvette. Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg will drive the #4 Corvette.

Paul Miller Racing has kept the #1 BMW with Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, but the #48 BMW is gone. However, Max Hesse remains as an endurance driver. Dan Harper will run Daytona only. 

Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch remain together in the #65 Ford Mustang. 

GTD

Winward Racing is keeping the band together. Russell Ward and Philip Ellis attempt to win a third consecutive GTD championship in the #57 Mercedes-AMG.

Turner Motorsport keeps Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher together in the #96 BMW.

Wayne Taylor Racing will continue to run the #45 Lamborghini for Danny Formal and Trent Hindman.

What is fun about Daytona?

Every year the first round of the IMSA season brings out top drivers from around the world of motorsports to compete in the first major endurance race of the season. 

Álex Palou and Scott Dixon are back with Meyer Shank Racing with Palou in the #93 Acura and Dixon in the #60. Palou has Kakunoshin Ohta also joining the #93 Acura for Daytona while A.J. Allmendinger is back in the 24 Hours of Daytona for the first time since 2021 as the fourth driver in the #60 entry.

Colton Herta will still run the endurance races in the #40 Cadillac despite his new Formula Two endeavor. 

BMW has Robin Frijns and René Rast rounding out the #24 BMW's lineup while Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello will be in the #25 BMW.

Connor Zilisch joins the #31 Whelen Racing Cadillac team alongside Aitken, Bamber and endurance driver Frederik Vesti.

In LMP2, Inter Europol Competition has entered a one-off for Nick Cassidy, Nolan Siegel, Jakub Śiechowski and Georgios Kolovos. AF Corse is back with François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxivière, Nicklas Nielsen and Dylan Murry. Enzo Fittipaldi will join his brother Pietro in the Pratt Miller entry. Christian Rasmussen and Jonny Edgar round out the AO Racing #99 Oreca lineup.

Triarsi Competizione will have the #033 Ferrari entered in GTD Pro for James Calado, Miguel Molina, Riccardo Agostini and Alessio Rovera. Winward Racing will give GTD Pro a crack with the #48 Mercedes-AMG for Maxime Martin, Jason Hart, Luca Stolz and Scott Noble. Risi Competizione is back after a year away from Daytona. Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra will drive the #62 Ferrari. 

Kenny Habul's 75 Express Mercedes-AMG has brought together Will Power for his Daytona debut along with Chaz Mostert. Maro Engel is the lone non-Australian in the #75 Mercedes-AMG lineup. Bartone Bros with GetSpeed is running the #69 Mercedes-AMG for Maximilian Götz, Jules Gounon, Fabian Schiller and Anthony Bartone. 

James Hinchcliffe and Mirko Bortolotti will round up the #9 Pfaff Lamborghini entry. Kyle Kirkwood is back as the #14 Lexus' third driver.

GTD will see Romain Grosjean (#16 Myers Riley Ford), Scott McLaughlin (#36 DXDT Racing Corvette) and Marcus Ericsson (#45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini) all compete in the class as additional drivers. 

AF Corse has Antonio Fuoco heading up the #21 Ferrari along with Lilou Wadoux, Simon Mann and Tommaso Mosca. Triarsi Competizione will run the #023 Ferrari for Kenton Koch, Robert Megennis, Onofrio Triarsi and Yifei Ye.

Manthey Racing will bring out the #912 Porsche for Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera, Ryan Hardwick and Morris Schuring. 

What is at stake at Daytona?

Porsche has won the last two years with the #7 entry and six different drivers. The only consistent participant has been Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian will attempt to become the third driver with with three consecutive Daytona victories joining Peter Gregg and Hélio Castroneves. Porsche has not won at Daytona in three consecutive years since an 11-year run from 1977 though 1987. 

Prior to this two-year run for Porsche Penske Motorsport, Wayne Taylor Racing won three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021 and Meyer Shank Racing won consecutive years in 2022 and 2023.

Whelen Racing ended the 2025 season with a pair of victories at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta. However, Whelen Racing has never won the 24 Hours of Daytona. Action Express Racing, which operates the program, won the race three times, most recently in 2018 with the Mustang Sampling Racing program. 

BMW's only win as a constructor was in 1976 when Peter Gregg, Brian Redman and John Fitzpatrick won in a Brumos Racing BMW 3.0 CSL. BMW won twice more as an engine manufacturer during the Daytona Prototype era. Both those victories came powering Riley chassis for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2011 and 2013.

There has not been an all-European driver lineup to win at Daytona since 2002 when Doran Lista Racing won with Belgian Didier Theys, Swiss Fredy Lienhard, and Italians Max Papis and Mauro Baldi. That does not bode well for the #25 BMW group, which hosts four Europeans.

Wayne Taylor Racing is one victory away from tying Brumos Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing for most 24 Hours of Daytona victories at six. 

Scott Dixon could become the seventh driver to win the 24 Hours of Daytona on four occasions. Dixon won in 2006, 2015 and 2020. This will be Dixon's 23rd consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona start, tying with him Hurley Haywood and Andy Lally for second all-time. Boris Said holds the record with 25.

Twenty-three of the 226 drivers will be making their IMSA debut.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: A.J. Foyt Racing

And then we were 39 days away from the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. There have still be 143 days since the most recent race. Another month and change does not feel like that much time. The final pieces are falling into place though A.J. Foyt Racing had its driver lineup set 76 days ago. 

The 2025 season was not as great as the 2024 season for the Foyt group, but it was still far stronger than where the organization has been in recent seasons. On a few occasions, a victory was within reach even on days when it felt like a stretch. It nearly pulled off a stunner in Detroit. This year will see another driver change and the team is getting younger, which historically has not been good for the Foyt organization.

At A Glance... This is where we learn where this team stands

Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. 

The technical alliance with Team Penske has proven to be a success for A.J. Foyt Racing. It went from a team that had one top ten finish in 2023 and zero drivers finishing in the top fifteen of the championship over eight seasons to a top the championship team in 2024 and it fell just short of getting back in there in 2025. Its three podium finishes in 2025 is as many as the Foyt team had in the previous ten seasons. 

Foyt has moved up to a higher level, even if it is only in the middle of the field, but we will find out this year where the organization stands. Another season with a driver pushing for the top ten in the championship confirms the team is a solid mid-pack team after being constantly in the cellar. However, a slip will cause questions if the alliance has maxed out and if Penske is still giving Foyt enough to remain a challenger. 

The rest of the IndyCar grid is improving. Meyer Shank Racing leapfrogged Foyt in its first year partnered with Chip Ganassi Racing, and MSR put both cars in the top eight of the championship. Dale Coyne Racing made a big jump with Rinus VeeKay, and now it will have Andretti Global partnering on a car with Dennis Hauger. Ed Carpenter Racing won a race last year while Foyt has had a few close calls but did not come out on top. Then there is the strengthened Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing group. The middle of the pack is only getting tougher, and it will be easy to slip behind if an organization is not on point. 

For Foyt, it must show growth this year to believe it has cemented itself as a competitive group. We have many years as an example of how A.J. Foyt Racing is run and operated to know it is a fish out of a water at the moment. Podium finishes, top five finishes on street courses, top ten in the championship, it is all a fluke until it becomes regular. One more season can at least lead you to believe the team has turned a corner, but there are plenty of teams that will be looking to push Foyt down the order, and they just might find themselves squeezed out. 

Until otherwise seen, it must be believed this group will remain competitive on ovals, and that will lift their season. Santino Ferrucci has the pace to be a race winner on ovals. His road and street course form is still not enough to be trusted. Ferrucci did well in 2024, but his best finishes in 2025 came after timely cautions lifted him up the order. Banking on luck is not a winning strategy. There is a step he must take but he has been competing regularly in IndyCar since 2019. This could be his ceiling.

Adding Caio Collet brings in a respectable Indy Lights talent who progressed between year one and two in the junior series. Collet is preparing for IndyCar in terms of the circuits and there will be no surprises. However, Foyt does not have a great track record with young drivers. See Benjamin Pedersen, Dalton Kellett and Matheus Leist. 

If there is any encouragement, Foyt had both cars running competitively. David Malukas was the top driver in the team's second entry. If it wasn't for the 26 points Ferrucci lost for a penalty due to improper ballast installation at Detroit, the two drivers would have finished a point apart in favor of Ferrucci. The team was on the doorstep of the championship top ten with both cars. That is a good spot to be in. Now comes maintaining that form with another change to the driver lineup.

2025 A.J. Foyt Racing Review

Wins: 0

Best Finish: 2nd (Detroit, Road America)

Poles: 0

Best Start: 2nd (Detroit, Milwaukee, Nashville)

Championship Finishes: 11th (David Malukas), 16th (Santino Ferrucci)

Caio Collet - #4 Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

3: Rookies that completed a full season for A.J. Foyt Racing in the last eight seasons

23: Average championship finish for those three rookie drivers

15: Podium finishes in 28 Indy Lights starts for Collet

21: Top five finishes in 28 Indy Lights starts

What is the best possible outcome?

Foyt remains on the level we saw in 2025, Collet acclimates quickly to the car and has good speed from the start, he picks up a handful of top ten finishes and he is somewhere between 11th and 15th in the championship, like where both Foyt cars were last season. 

What is realistic?

We haven't seen Collet in the car in a session that matters. We have no idea how he is going to figure into the running order. A realistic season is Collet has a few top ten finishes, he is the top rookie, and he cracks the top fifteen in the championship, but what feels more likely is Collet is somewhere around 17th or 18th in the championship. 

Last year, none of the three rookies finished in the top twenty in the championship. The year before that, the best rookie was 16th and no others finished in the top twenty. In 2023, Marcus Armstrong was rookie of the year in 20th after not running any of the ovals. The rest was outside the top twenty. You must go back to 2022 to find a rookie that finished in the top fifteen of the championship, and Christian Lundgaard was 14th. David Malukas was also 16th that year. The last rookies to finish in the top ten of the championship was in 2019 when Felix Rosenqvist was sixth and Colton Herta was seventh. 

Based on recent IndyCar history, Collet will have a battle to crack the top fifteen and we should not be expecting that. 

Santino Ferrucci - #14 Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

9: Top ten finishes in Ferrucci's first 41 road/street course starts from 2019 through 2024

9: Top ten finishes in Ferrucci's 20 road/street course starts in the last two seasons

9: Ferrucci's only top ten start in the 2025 season was ninth in the first Iowa race

What is the best possible outcome?

Ferrucci's oval form is spectacular, and that carries his season. Six top five finishes with a victory or two elevates his championship finish and respectable road and street course results has him in the picture for the top five in the championship. He could be fifth, but he more likely misses out and ends up sixth or seventh in the championship in a standout season for the Foyt team.

What is realistic?

Somewhere between his 2024 season and his 2025 season is where we see Ferrucci fall in 2026. It would be no surprise if he wins an oval race. It will not be easy considering the level of competition, but even if he does not win, we know Ferrucci is going to be quick and he will get some results. He is going to get a few top tens and a few of those will likely be top five finishes. At that point, it will come down to his road and street course form. 

The last few seasons have been better for Ferrucci and the Foyt team, but it does feel like the team is at the limit. It can run well, but a championship is a little much when Álex Palou, Scott Dixon, Patricio O'Ward and three Team Penske entries are on the grid. It will take a lot to crack the top five. Ferrucci was ninth in the championship two years ago. He can replicate that form and surprise no one in 2026. However, someone is going to improve and jump forward in 2026. It could be Foyt, but Foyt could also be the team that loses ground because another organization is flat out better, and slipping down to 14th or 15th in the championship is just part of the cycle of competition. 

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.

Musings From the Weekend: The Chase Resumes

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Nasser Al-Attiyah won the Dakar Rally for the sixth time. Luciano Benavides overcame a three-minute and 20-second deficit in the final stage to win the bike class by two seconds over Ricky Brabec. Paul Navarro won in the Challenger class. American Brock Heger led an American 1-2 in the SSV class with Kyle Chaney in second. Vaidotas Žala was on top in the truck class. Meanwhile, Dario Franchitti returned to competition. IndyCar aired a commercial. IMSA ran the Roar before the 24 at Daytona. However, the news of the week happened on Monday, even though we all saw it coming. 

The Chase Resumes

One week after NASCAR announced a return to a "Chase format," a ten-race aggregate that will determine the champion instead of a multi-round, elimination format, the feeling remains the same. This was as good as it was going to get. 

The level of dissatisfaction with the championship format throughout the 2025 season was too much to ignore, and it tipped over at the end of the season. Something was going to change. The exact change was the mystery entering the offseason, knowing the answer would not be revealed until January.

It was not a change to a multi-race final round. It was not a return to a 36-race aggregate. It was in the middle. 

The first 26 races will determine the championship eligible drivers. It will be the top 16 on points. No more win-and-in. No more playoff points. No drivers clinching playoff spots at the Daytona 500. No fluke winners getting in thanks to a rain-shortened race and despite having only five top ten finishes and being 27th in points. Once the field is set, it will be whoever has the most points after the final ten races. 

A few tweaks were made to the points system. A race winner will now get 55 points, which theoretically makes it impossible for any other finisher to score more points than the race winner, but I think NASCAR forgot it started awarding a point for fastest lap last season, and second-place can still score a maximum 56 points. Either way, it incentivized winning more than the previous season. All these things have been done to encouraging winning and fighting for first rather than settling for second or third or so on. 

It is different, and it is getting away from the flawed system that NASCAR used for 12 seasons. There is some satisfaction. "Compromise" was said a lot. It isn't a full season aggregate, but it isn't boiling down to the result of the final race. Not that the ten-race aggregate was without blemishes. The first 26 races do not carry the same weight. They matter, but they do not decide the champion. They decide who could be champion. Regular season championship finish will determine how many points a driver starts with, and carry some weight, but 26 races are reduced to five points between positions. If you are lucky, you start first and with a 25-point cushion. 

Again, compromise. It could be worse. 

NASCAR was never going to do anything that ambitious. It was never going to flip the system upside down, adopt the FIA points system where only the top ten finishers would earn points, and despite the drumbeat, a full season aggregate felt just out of reach. It was too large of a swing in the other direction. It was going to stick with its comfort zone. 

It might be a comfort zone, but it is a shock to the system. Rarely do you hear NASCAR admit it made a mistake. The phrase "we screwed up" was never uttered, but the format change and the admission the previous system was flawed, confusing and acknowledging it didn't attract any casual viewers is as close as we were going to get. However, this is a return to a NASCAR that had been long abandoned. 

Those on stage were not praising "game seven" moments. They were not talking about aggressive, go-for-broke racing. It was almost a return to sanity, a recognization that having the battle for ninth being the most important thing at the end of the race was not for the better of the series. "Consistency" did not become a taboo word to say. 

For over a decade, the dominoes fell as NASCAR chased (mind the pun) attention through drama and it altered its appearance. Will this change lead to further changes? 

Does Daytona need to be the regular season finale? Shouldn't that use move back to July? Does Bristol need to be in the playoffs? Does Martinsville need to be the penultimate race? What about playoff race rotation? For the first half of the 2020s, NASCAR set itself on being open to schedule changes and rotating races to keep it fresh, especially with the elimination format. With that gone, is it necessary and what push will there be?

One of the flaws with the original Chase format was how the final ten races didn't change, and many attribute that to as to why Jimmie Johnson was so successful, but if the final ten races all count, do they have to rotate? I would make an argument they should, but is that urge still going to be there? 

We are going to see how NASCAR continues to adjust in 2027 and onward. If there is one thing NSACAR does best, it is continue to make tweaks to its system. We are starting 2026 with it being the top 16 drives on points, but if Shane van Gisbergen wins four times in the regular season in points and ends up 21st in points, does that lead to "wild cards" returning for two or three or four races winners? Will it become the top 14 plus two or the top 12 plus four? 

The system we have today likely will not be identical when 2030 rolls around. History shouts that clearly.

I don't think the format change will drive away van Gisbergen. I think he will embrace the challenge of trying to be in the top 16. With more points for winning a race, if he wins enough, he could crack the top 16. After all, Juan Pablo Montoya qualified for a 12-drive Chase. It isn't impossible. It will require work, and it is clear van Gisbergen isn't going to be scared off but rather work to reach that mark.

For 2026, we know what it will take to make the Chase, and that will be in the top 16. Drivers are still going to clinch playoff spots early, but they aren't going to clinch in February. It will still likely come down to the final race to decide the final spots in the top 16. There will still be a cutline to watch, even if it is only after one race. Everyone will have the same bar to shoot for. A victory will be nice, but it will not entirely cover for a poor season. A victory isn't going to lift a driver from 29th to 16th. It can be a nice boost to a season, but not elevated to an unnecessarily high level.

Until we see how this system plays out, we will not know how it will work, and one year is not enough of a sample size. This year will be an adjustment, but mostly to the tone. How NASCAR talks about itself during a race and week-to-week will change, and it will be tough to change. This system will feel foreign at times because this has been forgotten territory. The paths are still there, they just need a weed-whacker to be cleared. 

The funnest thing that occurred to me in the immediate aftermath of this format is the continued use of stage points actually makes it more likely that a championship could be clinched early. What if that were to happen in year one of the Chase's return? Keep that in mind over this season. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about the Dakar Rally winners but did you know...

The #669 Team WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde, Jordan Pepper, Fran Rueda, Ben Tuck and Anthony McIntosh won the Dubai 24 Hour

Emerson Axsom won the Chili Bowl

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from San Diego. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

It is time for the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Rallye Monte-Carlo opens the 2026 World Rally Championship season.