Best of the Month: September 2025

And so begins the final quarter of 2025. September has cooled off though summer made a few late statements. The sun is going down before 7:00 p.m. and it is rising after 7:00 a.m. September is a sleepy month, a recovery of sorts from the rush of summer and an adjustment to the change of autumn. There is also less racing to keep us busy. 

A few series are wrapping up. Every series is in its final races. Everyone is in the single-digits. They will all be over soon. Some hardware is being claimed early. We have an idea how these seasons will end. We are counting down the final days.

IndyCar Tidbits

Yes, the season ended a month ago and there was not a single IndyCar race contested in September 2025, but we are closing this month with the final trove of tidbits from the 2025 season. We are going to touch upon penalties, the rookie class, ending the season making the wrong kind of history, as well as how American drivers did, but we must start with what was a historic championship and put it all into perspective.

The Champion

Last year I said it was hard to write about a driver when he has won his third championship. It should be no surprise that Álex Palou followed that up by making it easy to write about his fourth championship because the fourth was staggeringly good. It was a historic season in many different ways. 

Let's just start with the points because Palou hit a total we have never seen before with this points system. 

Palou scored 711 points. Since the Indy Racing League because awarding 50 points for a victory in 1998, this was the highest points total ever achieved. The previous highest was 678, which Scott Dixon achieved in 2018. 

But Palou scored 711 out of a possible 929 points. That is 76.533%, the highest percentage of points since Sébastien Bourdais scored 76.938% of the maximum points in the 2006 Champ Car season (387/503). 

There is something notable about the highest share of points since the CART/USAC split in 1979. See if you can notice it. 

A.J. Foyt - 85.128% (1979 USAC)

Johnny Rutherford - 78.71667% (1980 CART)

Buzz Calkins & Scott Sharp - 78.095% (1996 IRL)

Sébastien Bourdais - 76.938% (2006 Champ Car)

Álex Palou - 76.533% (2025)

Did you pick up on it? 

The other four occasions higher than Palou's share all occurred during a split. Whether it be USAC and CART or CART and the Indy Racing League, they all occurred when there was a fracture in American open-wheel racing, until Palou in 2025. 

Since 1979, this was the first season in which a driver scored at least 75% of the maximum points and there was a single IndyCar series. On only two other occasions has a driver scored at least 70% of the maximum points and there been one series. That would be Scott Dixon in 2008 (71.698%) and, you guessed it, Álex Palou in 2023 (70.613%). 

Yeah, so Palou made a bit of history. 

Let's go a bit further...

Eight victories, it was only the ninth time a driver has won eight races in a season since 1946.

Thirteen podium finishes, it was only the sixth time a driver has reached that total since 1946.

Fourteen top five finishes, it was only the ninth time a driver has reached that total since 1946.

The interesting thing is the juxtaposition of Palou's last two championships. 

In 2024, Palou won the title, but it wasn't the most impressive championship we ever saw. We wrote about a lot of lows. Palou only won twice in 2024. He only had five podium finishes. His share of the maximum points was the lowest in nine years, which was the 2015 season, a season that saw six drivers enter the finale with a chance at the championship and only one driver won at least three races. 

This season, Palou quadrupled his victory total from the year before, he nearly tripled his number of podium finishes, and as we mentioned before, he had one of the highest share of points in the last 45-plus years in IndyCar. 

Yet, despite the difference of these two seasons, both titles felt pretty secure halfway through the season. This year, it was pretty much locked up after race #2. Palou led the championship wire-to-wire! Scott Dixon just did that in 2020, but 2025 was only the second time a driver went wire-to-wire in the championship lead since reunification.

This was Palou's third consecutive title. Only three other drivers have done that (Hello, Ted Horn, Sébastien Bourdais and Dario Franchitti). It was Palou's fourth title. The only drivers with more have the last names Foyt and Dixon. Palou is level with Bourdais, Franchitti and someone named Mario Andretti. 

And this was only Palou's sixth season in IndyCar! He has still only made 98 starts in his career. He will not turn 30 years old for another two years! He is on 19 victories! Multiple that winning percentage over 350 starts and Palou is at 67.85 victories. That means we are pace for a new all-time leader in victories in about 15 years time, and that seems very possible considering Palou will only be 43 years old at that time and we have already seen the likes of Scott Dixon and Will Power remain highly success at that age. If the all-time victories record is at risk of falling, championships sets to be in the crosshairs as well. Palou is more than halfway to Foyt's record of seven, and he hasn't even been in IndyCar for a decade.

Last year, I asked if IndyCar is ready for a driver who could completely dominant a decade. I think we know the answer is no, but like it or not, it appears Palou is just getting started.

Americans

Unless Palou takes on new citizenship and openly embraces becoming an American, it will be tougher for the local drivers to triumph in IndyCar for the next ten years. Though one had a pretty good year, the American drivers did not shine in 2025. Even the best ended on a bit of a downer.

For the second consecutive season, American drivers combined to win only four races. There were only two American winners for the third consecutive season. However, there were only two American drivers in the top ten in the championship. That was the fewest since 2014. However, in 2014, there were two American drivers in the top ten of the championship and five regular drivers. This season, there were 11 full-time drivers, the most since 2020.

Kyle Kirkwood was the top American driver in the championship, and he did win three races, the second most to Palou, but Kirkwood ended the season with no top five finishes in the final eight races. This was after having five in the first nine events. 

Josef Newgarden swept in and saved this from being a year with only one American winner in the final race, but Newgarden wasn't the other American driver in the top ten of the championship. That was Colton Herta, who ended up winless but seventh in points.

Americans excelled in the next set of ten drivers in the championship. While Kirkwood and Herta were in the top ten, six American drivers took the next six spots in the championship. David Malukas was 11th and two points ahead of Josef Newgarden. Alexander Rossi was 15th on 297 points, four more than Santino Ferrucci, who lost 26 points for improper weight ballast at Detroit. Those 26 points would have put Ferrucci 11th in the championship. Conor Daly and Graham Rahal were 18th and 19th respectively.

This was the fifth consecutive year without an American champion, the longest drought since 2007 through 2011.

Every Race Álex Palou Did Not Lead Kyle Kirkwood Won

Pretty straightforward statement.

This season saw Palou lead at least one lap in 14 of 17 races. In the three races Palou did not lead a lap, Kyle Kirkwood won.

At Long Beach, Kirkwood led 46 of 90 laps form pole position while Palou finished second, just over 2.6 seconds back. At Detroit, Kirkwood led 48 of 100 laps after starting third. Palou had started fifth, but he was taken out after David Malukas hit Palou entering turn one. At Gateway, Kirkwood only led eight laps as the race came down to a late pit cycle while Palou spent most of the race running just inside the top ten and ended up finishing eighth after starting ninth.

I don't know what it means other than it is a strange coincidence of the season, and if anything happens to Álex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood is suspect #1. 

The Wrong Kind of History

The final three races of the season could not have been more memorable for the worst possible ways and the best possible ways for Christian Rasmussen.

Let's start with Portland where Rasmussen was ostracized for his driving after he forced Conor Daly off the road in turn seven, Daly made a lunge at contact at the chicane, and the spat soon ended with Daly spinning off the circuit after attempting an aggressive pass on Rasmussen in turn ten. 

Though never punished from race control, Rasmussen was labeled as the menace from the ruckus in Portland. 

What happened in the next race? 

Rasmussen took a stunning first career victory at Milwaukee after taking tires under a late caution and charging down Álex Palou, who had dominated the race. Rasmussen also won with one of the most aggressive drives we have seen as he was sawing on the wheel and remained on the limit despite pulling away from second-place. 

How did Rasmussen follow up his first career victory? 

The Dane couldn't even make it through two corners at Nashville and he was out on the first lap of the race, leaving him classified in 27th, last-place. 

Wait a minute? Haven't we been here before? Yes, and we have already done the research.

How many times has a driver won a race and then finished last in the next race?

Rasmussen was the 41st occasion of a driver winning a race only to follow it with a last place finish. He was the first since Will Power in 2019, who had his own bit of history as Power won at Pocono, was last at Gateway and then won at Portland. Power did a complete 360º in a three-race span over six years ago. 

But let's go a little further because Rasmussen wasn't just a driver who finished last. He finished last and Rasmussen did not complete a lap. How many times in the previous 40 occasions did that happen?

It happened four times prior, and the other four names will have your attention!

Dan Gurney won the first race of the July 27, 1969 doubleheader at the Indianapolis Raceway Park road course. In the second race, Gurney was out before lap one was completed due to a fuel filter issue.

It would not happen again until 2001, and this one is a little messy. Hélio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500. Seven days later, Castroneves was competing in the CART race at Milwaukee. What happened? Castroneves had an accident on the opening lap after contact with Kenny Bräck and Cristiano da Matta. Castroneves was first in a race in one series and then last in his next race in a different series. Ah... The Split. You got to love it!

The following season saw Dario Franchitti win the first CART race in Montreal. In the next race at Denver, Franchitti was out on the opening lap due to the accident after Team Green teammate Paul Tracy slammed into Franchitti attempting a wishful pass up the inside. 

This is where Franchitti gets his own bit of history that Rasmussen could match at the 2026 St. Petersburg season opener. Franchitti then won the next race at Rockingham. So Franchitti went win, out without completing a lap and win in a three-race span. 

The most recent time prior to Rasmussen was in 2013. James Hinchcliffe won at Iowa. At the next race at Pocono, Hinchcliffe had an accident in turn one spinning all on his own after getting a little high after starting third. 

Here is another coincidental trend that Rasmussen is a part of after his Nashville result. 

Of the last five occasions where a driver has won a race and then finished last in the next race, four of those have been drivers coming off their first career victory. 

You have Rasmussen, and we have already covered the most recent occasion prior to Rasmussen was Power in 2019, but before Power was Colton Herta, who won his first career race at Austin earlier in that 2019 season and then Herta followed that with a last-place finish at Barber Motorsports Park.

Prior to Herta, Carlos Muñoz won the first race of the 2015 Belle Isle doubleheader only for his engine to fail five laps into the second race. Then you have Carlos Huertas, who infamously won the first Houston race in 2014, which was rain-shortened and Huertas had a fuel cell that was larger than regulations allowed, but in the second race at Houston, Huertas retired after two laps due to a mechanical issue.

If you go beyond Huertas, you have Hinchcliffe's Iowa/Pocono combo that we just mentioned but prior to Hinchcliffe, you also have James Hinchcliffe, who scored his first career victory at St. Petersburg to open the 2013 season only to finish last in the second race at Barber due to a loose wheel. So it has actually been the case that in five of the last seven occasions where a driver has gone from first to last in race results that the driver was coming off their first career victory.

This might be a trend to keep in mind moving forward.

Multiple Winners Outside the Championship Top Ten

Speaking of Rasmussen, he won the penultimate race, but he was 13th in the championship. Josef Newgarden was 12th in the championship, and Newgarden won the season finale.

It is not often we see multiple drivers win races and not finish in the top ten of the championship. When was the last time it happened? 

Well, it happened not that long ago in 2021. Rinus VeeKay won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, but VeeKay ended up finishing 12th in the championship. Hélio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500, but Castroneves was not full time in 2021. He only ran six races and he was 22nd in the championship.

So when was the last time two full-time drivers won a race and both finished outside the top ten in the championship? 

It still likely happened a little more recent than you would imagine. 

It was 2016. Alexander Rossi won the Indianapolis 500 and he ended up 11th in the championship, only two points outside the championship top ten. Sébastien Bourdais won the next race at Belle Isle, and Bourdais wound up 14th in the championship. Bourdais was 28 points outside the championship top ten.

This year, Newgarden was 40 points outside the championship top ten, and Rasmussen was 43 points off.

An Odd Rookie Class

For all the bright spots we can take from two of the three rookies this season, it was one of the most unproductive rookie classes in recent IndyCar history. It is difficult to call it the worst rookie class, but it has an argument.

For starters, this was the first time a rookie did not finish in the top 20 of the championship since 1986. Louis Foster was the top rookie in 23rd on 213 points, two points more than Robert Shwartzman in 24th. Jacob Abel scored 123 points over 16 starts, and Abel was 27th in the championship, 48 points behind the next closest driver. 

Despite all of that, two of these drivers won a pole position. Robert Shwartzman took pole position at the Indianapolis 500 and Louis Foster took pole position at Road America. We actually had multiple rookies score pole positions in 2019 with Felix Rosenqvist and Colton Herta, so it wasn't that long ago but it still rarely happens.

How about this? We had a rookie of the year with zero top ten finishes and he beat another driver who had multiple top ten finishes. 

When was the last time either occurred?

The answer is, of course, 1986. 

Dominic Dobson is credited as rookie of the year for the 1986 CART season. Dobson's best finish over nine starts was 11th at the Meadowlands. That earned him two points, combined with a point for 12th at Long Beach and Dobson finished 31st in the championship on three points. However, Dobson was not the top finishing rookie in points. In fact, he wasn't even second best.

Sports car driver Chip Robinson made two starts in the 1986 season with Dick Simon Racing. Robinson was 14th at the Meadowlands, but he finished the season with a seventh-place result in the 1986 finale at the Tamiani Park circuit in Miami. This earned Robinson six points. However, Mike Nish also made three start in the 1986 season, nearly two years removed from his first career start at Phoenix in October 1984. Nish was tenth in his first start at Portland, earning him three points. 

Robinson and Nish were 26th and 30th respectively in the championship. Nish was a spot better than Dobson on tiebreaker as Nish's best finish was tenth to Dobson's 11th. Robinson made three starts in the 1987 season and never raced in IndyCar again. Nish failed to qualify for the first two races of the 1987 season and never attempted another race after that.

Dobson would go on to attempt a race in each of the next eight seasons. He would not get a top ten finish until he was seventh at Detroit in 1989, his 19th career start. His best finish was third in the 1994 Michigan 500 driving for PacWest Racing. Dobson was tenth in his final career start, the 1994 finale at Laguna Seca.

Only time will tell how we will look back on the class of 2025. I am sure all three drivers hope to do more than what they achieved this year. 

No Repeat Finishes

When we last checked in on this in June, only two drivers were remaining after nine races, Scott Dixon and David Malukas. How far would they go?

Well, in the very next race, the tenth race of the season from Mid-Ohio, Malukas would finish 17th, his first repeat finish as he was 17th at Long Beach. Cross off Maluakas.

Dixon won Mid-Ohio, his first and only victory of the 2025 season. Dixon remained alive for another race.

At the first Iowa race, Dixon was tenth, and he finished tenth at Thermal Club in the second race of the season. Within two races, no drivers were left standing. Everyone had a repeat finish by the 11th race. 

Dixon's streak of ten consecutive different finishes to start a season was the fewest since Marcus Ericsson was the last one standing with a nine-race streak to start the 2019 season. The previous five seasons had all seen at least one driver make it 12 races repeat finish. This was the first season where Dixon was the last driver standing before a repeat finish.

Penalties

We do not talk about penalties much in IndyCar. We acknowledge them when warranted. This season saw a fair number of penalties we could not ignore, but there are plenty of penalties we brush off because Nolan Siegel running in 17th serving a penalty for running over the air hose on a pit stop doesn't really matter. 

There was something I noticed early on. In three of the first four races, there were no penalties. No drive-through penalties for speeding, no blocking penalties, no jumped restarts, nothing, nada occurred at St. Petersburg, Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park. That would not stand, and every subsequent race would see at least one penalty occur. 

Based on IndyCar's box scores, the races with the most penalties were the Indianapolis 500 and Road America, as each had nine penalties. Indianapolis includes the three post-race penalties that saw Marcus Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood and Callum Ilott effectively disqualified and moved to the final three spots in the classifications. 

In the first five races, three had no penalties, Thermal Club had four penalties and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis had three penalties. In the next four races, every race had at least seven penalties. Along with the post-race penalties after the Indianapolis 500, Detroit saw Santino Ferrucci penalized post-race 26 points for improper weight ballast instillation. 

There were 25 unique penalties this season in IndyCar and 66 penalties occurred over the 17 races.

The most common penalty was avoidable contact, which there were 11 of each violation over the 17 races. The most avoidable contact penalties came at Road America, which saw three. Only one driver had multiple avoidable contact penalties this season. That dubious honor belongs to David Malukas. Malukas was penalized for the contact with Palou at Detroit and then he picked up the second avoidable contact penalty on lap 38 at Road America.

Pit lane speeding violations and blocking were tied for the second most offenses in 2025. Each happened nine times. Almost half of the pit lane speeding penalties occurred at the Indianapolis 500. There were four during that race. 

Six of the nine blocking penalties came in two races. There was one block at Gateway (Nolan Siegel) and then three at Road America before we saw two at Portland and three in the Nashville season finale. 

The only other penalties that occurred more than five times this season was emergency service in a closed pit lane, which happened seven times. 

The most penalized driver was Devlin DeFrancesco, who took seven penalties this season. DeFrancesco's first infraction was avoidable contact at Thermal Club, which technical came before the race even began as the Canadian got into the side of Scott McLaughlin going through the final corners on the final pace laps.

Then at Detroit, DeFrancesco took two penalties, emergency service in a closed pit lane and causing an avoidable yellow flag. He had a block at Road America, another emergency service penalty at Mid-Ohio and then two blocking penalties at Portland. DeFrancesco was responsible for a third of the blocking penalties this season, and he was the only driver to receive multiple blocking penalties!

The only other drivers to have at least five penalties this season were Christian Rasmussen (two speeding penalties, two emergency service penalties and a failure to follow directions penalty), and Robert Shwartzman, but one of those wasn't really on Shwartzman because his penalty at Thermal Club was an unapproved modification to the fire suppression system. That is more on the team, and it only cost the team entrant points, not driver points. Shwartzman did fail to pack up in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, hit personnel in the pit lane in the Indianapolis 500, sped on pit lane in the second Iowa race and threw a block at the Nashville finale.

On two separate occasions this season did a driver get three penalties in a single race. At Gateway, Felix Rosenqvist received an unsafe release penalty on the pit lane. The punishment was a drive-through, but Rosenqvist decided to drop to the rear of the field thinking that would satisfy the demand. Since the Swede did not properly serve his penalty, he was handed a stop-and-go penalty for failing to follow directions. About 143 laps later, Rosenqvist had to take emergency service in a closed pit lane. 

Despite all of that, Rosenqvist was still leading with less than ten laps to go and one caution could have won him the race.

The other occasion involved Rinus VeeKay in the next race at Road America. VeeKay was handed a penalty for jumping the restart on lap seven. Two laps later, VeeKay got a penalty for receiving service in the pit lane before green flag conditions, and he got an avoidable contact penalty on lap 28 and was forced to drop three positions. I remember none of that from VeeKay's Road America race and he finished tenth despite those penalties!

Six of the full-time drivers did not receive a penalty throughout the 17 races. They would be Álex Palou, Patricio O'Ward, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal and Sting Ray Robb. 

October Preview

There are a few European championships that will be decided shortly. One will be decided this weekend.

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season ends at Hockenheim this weekend, and one of nine drivers could leave as champion. Lucas Auer leads on 171 points, seven points ahead of Jordan Pepper, 11 points ahead of René Rast, 16 points ahead of Maro Engel and 17 points ahead of Ayhancan Güven. 

Then you have Jack Aitken and Marco Wittmann tied and 21 points behind Auer. Thomas Peining is 25 points back and Jules Gounon is 29 points behind Auer with 56 points remaining on the table. 

Auer won two of the first three races and he has only finished on the podium twice since then. Pepper has one victory. Rast has won three times but he has also finished outside the top ten in as many races. Rast has the most podium finishes this season with five. Güven has the most victories this season with four, but he has five finishes outside the top ten and his victories are his only podium results. 

Reigning DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti is 15th in the championship and his best finish is sixth. 

The European Le Mans Series will go to its finale from Portimão on October 18 with the top three in the LMP2 championship separated by seven points. VDS Panis Racing has won twice with the #48 Oreca of Oliver Gray, Esteban Masson and Charles Milesi. IDEC Sport has won the other three races with Jamie Chadwick, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella in the #18 Oreca. VDS Panis Racing has 81 points, six more IDEC Sport. The you have Inter Europol Competition, which has finished second in each of the last four races and it has #43 Oreca of Tom Dillman, Jakub Śmiechowski and Nick Yelloly six points back entering the finale. 

In LMGT3, seven teams could win the championship. AF Corse leads with Riccardo Agostini, Custodio Toledo and Lilou Wadoux on 66 points in the #50 Ferrari, 12 points clear of the #59 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin of Erwan Bastard, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Clément Mateu. 

The other title hopefuls are the #82 TF Sport Corvette (52 points), the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari (47 points), the #85 Iron Dames Porsche (46 points), the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari (44 points) and the #86 GR Racing Ferrari (43 points).

The #50 Ferrari is the only team with multiple victories in the class. 

Other events of note in October

IMSA will also have its season close and a number of championships decided at Petit Le Mans.

The Bathurst 1000 takes place in two weeks. 

MotoGP has some dead-rubbers to run in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu will likely claim another World Superbike championship.

Formula One has a night race in Singapore before coming to the United States and Mexico.

NASCAR has some races to run.

There will also be the Indianapolis 8 Hour to close out the Intercontinental GT Challenge season.

Musings From the Weekend: Contract Reform

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

All Marc Márquez needed was a pair of runner-up finishes in Motegi to clinch his seventh MotoGP championship and ninth world championship overall. Max Verstappen won on the Nürburgring Nordschleife on GT3 debut in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie with co-driver Chris Lulham. Elsewhere, Fuji provided a rather compelling endurance race. NASCAR is having a bit of an existential crisis. Mick Schumacher will test an IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on October, which we should talk about at some point, but an IndyCar contractual situation has my attention.

Contract Reform

We know most of IndyCar silly season is over. All the big seats have been filled. All that is remaining is the third seat at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the second Dale Coyne Racing season and the second Juncos Hollinger Racing seat. The big dominoes have fallen. The ones that towered the most over the 2025 season are taken care of, but while "t's" are crossed, "i's" are dotted and ink has dried on the paper, the drama isn't necessarily over. 

We know Will Power is leaving Team Penske, and Power has joined the Andretti Global organization for the 2026 season. With Power leaving Penske, this has opened the door for David Malukas to join Team Penske. That is pretty straightforward, but what we have learned is while Will Power not returning to Team Penske, he is not out of contract with the team. Power's contract runs through December 31, 2025, and Team Penske is making Power honor every day of it. 

It isn't that Team Penske is keeping Power busy and having him test dampers or run the simulator. Power isn't running Petit Le Mans as a third driver in the Porsche program. He isn't running the NASCAR race from the Charlotte roval next week as well as Homestead, Martinsville and Phoenix. Power isn't going to be doing anything for Team Penske. Team Penske has decided it will not led Power do anything, which means not letting him get a head start on 2026 with his new team.

In terms of the contract, Team Penske is not doing anything wrong, but it is neglecting some of the sportsmanship decisions made within IndyCar when it comes to offseason driver changes. It is not uncommon for a driver to be released early from his contract if the team and driver are not remaining together for the next season. The season is over, no more races will be run, and it makes sense for two parties to move on. Why make a driver wait through the rest of the calendar year if both parties have already agreed to part? That driver is then free to go and begin the next chapter. The team is free to do the same. 

In this case, Penske is choosing to exercise its right and enforce the contract to the last second of the agreement, but it does paint a very one-sided picture in terms of power within the paddock. 

While Team Penske is keeping Will Power sidelined for three-plus months, we will likely see David Malukas on track in a Team Penske car during testing over the final months of 2025. Whether or not Malukas' contract ran through December 31, 2025 or not is unknown, but Penske could be benefitting from A.J. Foyt Racing choosing to do what Penske has not done for Power.

It should also be pointed out that Team Penske very well could be taking advantage of a situation it orchestrated and made sure David Malukas' contract would not prevent him from experiencing any delays when it came to joining the Penske program. Penske made sure it could win out in both scenarios. 

This is a bit of a problem, especially where a few big teams can take advantage of the smaller competition. If drivers are signing contracts that are part technical alliances, you could see teams dictating the future for drivers who are not even racing for them and manipulate it so the teams have the most favorable terms. The Malukas/Penske scenario is no different from what we will see with Dennis Hauger joining Dale Coyne Racing with the Andretti Global partnership or what we see with Marcus Armstrong racing for Meyer Shank Racing under its Chip Ganassi Racing partnership. 

Andretti is going to decide what is best for Hauger, not Coyne even though the Norwegian will be driving for Coyne. The day Andretti wants Hauger, it will get Hauger.

You can argue that has long been the way driver contracts have been handled, and if those were the terms agreed upon from all sides than there is nothing wrong with them, but IndyCar can decide to have a more balanced landscape for drivers and teams. 

It doesn't look good when one set of drivers are held to one standard and others are held to another, especially when it appears one team is pulling the strings for multiple organizations. The tough thing about motorsports is uniformity is difficult to agree upon, hence the landscape we have today. However, IndyCar can set a standard that would be better for everyone in the series, drivers and teams.

IndyCar should step in set a standard where all drivers are free of their contracts at the same time. We see it in other sports. Free agency begins at a set time. Teams and players may start negotiating at a different time. It isn't a case where one player becomes a free agent the second after the season ends and another player has to wait three months to sign a contract. It is fair for everyone.

You may say that is harder for a series like IndyCar to enforce, but I would argue IndyCar has never been better set for it and that is due to the charter system. With IndyCar having 25 charter entries that award teams a certain cut of the prize money, a chance at the Leader Circle program, while also guaranteeing these cars will start every race with the cap at 27 starters at all races outside the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar has a mechanism it can use to create a uniform date for the end of a contract. 

A term of the charter agreement between the teams and the series can be that any driver contract for a charter entry will end 30 days after the final race of the season. Everyone would be playing to the same rules. It would eliminate the possibility that one driver could sign at midnight, just hours after the season finale has ended, and then be in a car for his new team testing the next day while another driver might be able to sign but cannot do anything with his new team for three-to-four months. 

This would be better for everyone. A driver will know when he or she can start working with their new team. A team will known when it will have its desired driver first available. It could also be good for the teams to talk to drivers and not rush into a decision, and it could be good for the drivers as they could go through a negotiating period knowing no one can start any earlier than them. For that first month of the offseason, testing could be paused to make sure no team is gaining an advantage nor would contracted drivers be able to get extra seat time.

This could actually create a free agency period of sorts. We kind of saw it this entire month where every week of September had another bit of driver news come out as a few spots on the grid were determined. It kept things busy though there were no races. I don't think it would be a bad thing for IndyCar if there was a month where drivers were talking to teams and we had a consistent news cycle in the month after a season has concluded. 

It would be different for IndyCar, and frankly motorsports in general, but I think it would benefit everyone. There are grey areas. How would this work for Prema since neither of its cars have charters? What about Indianapolis 500-only entries? What about any new team that wishes to join the series? What about charters that change hands? There are obviously things that would need ironing out. 

There is also the legal aspect of what this means for the drivers. The drivers are not unionized. They do not have the same protections. Is there a way this uniformed end date for a contract could hurt them and would the drivers even want it? It is not as simple as a snap of the fingers and everything is perfect, but it would at least be better than what we have now.

The teams should not have this much power where it can force one driver to honor a contract while also benefitting from another driver being granted an early release. The standards should be the same for all, and it would benefit everyone if that was the case. IndyCar has a chance to set a standard using the apparatus that already exists. It would be wise to do so...

But we must remember this is a series that is owned by Roger Penske, and despite everything that is said when it comes to avoiding conflict of interests, do we really think Penske would go this far to implement an agreement that would hurt his own team? Even if it was for the better of everyone and better in term of fairness? 

Let's be honest, do we really expect the series, which is run by a team owner, to do something that is best for the drivers? There is that conflict of interests again. 

Damn! We could have had something good.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Marc Márquez, Max Verstappen and Chris Lulham, but did you know...

Francesco Bagnaia won MotoGP's Japanese Grand Prix, his second victory of the season. Bagnaia also won the sprint race. Daniel Holgado won in Moto2, his second victory in three races. David Muñoz won in Moto3, his third victory of the season.

The #35 Alpine of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi won the 6 Hours of Fuji. The #81 TF Sport Corvette of Rui Andrade, Charlies Eastwood and Tom van Rompuy won in LMGT3.

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Kansas, his second career victory. Brandon Jones won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (race one) and Nicolò Bulega (SuperPole race and race two) split the World Superbike races from Aragón. Valentin Debise and Can Öncü split the World Supersport races.

Coming Up This Weekend

MotoGP travels down to Mandilika.

Formula One will be a few islands over in Singapore.

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season will end at Hockenheim.

NASCAR ends the second round of the playoffs on the Charlotte roval.

This Week in IndyCar Silly Season: Hauger to Coyne, Coyne Partners with Andretti, Harvey Returning to Indianapolis

There have been no IndyCar races during the month of September, but each week has kept us busy, as we are now 156 days until the 2026 season opener from St. Petersburg. It has never been boring, and right when there has been a lull, the next domino falls to catch your attention. That was the case this week, and we are ending the month of September with likely only three full-time rides left unclaimed for the 2026 season. We even started getting Indianapolis 500 entries confirmed this week.

Hauger to Coyne, Coyne Partners with Andretti

On Tuesday, Dale Coyne Racing announced it would have the 2025 Indy Lights champion Dennis Hauger join the team as one of its drivers for the 2026 season. Hauger joins Coyne as the team enters in a technical partnership with the Andretti Global organization. 

Hauger won six of 14 races this season in Indy Lights, and he stood on the podium 11 times as he took the championship by 72 points over Caio Collet. Hauger had previous won the 2019 Italian Formula 4 championship and the 2021 Formula 3 championship.

This is not first technical partnership between Andretti Global and another team. From 2017 through 2024, the Andretti organization had a partnership with Meyer Shank Racing. 

Ruzewski Hired as Andretti Global Team Principal

While forming a partnership with Dale Coyne Racing, Andretti Global has hired Ron Ruzewski as team principal.

Ruzewski had worked Team Penske for 21 seasons before he was dismissed from the team during the season after the team's penalties for illegal modifying the rear attenuator were found during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500.

At the time of his dismissal, Ruzewski was the managing director for Team Penske's IndyCar program while also working as race strategist for Will Power. There was no word made on whether or not Ruzewski would have a role on a timing stand for one of Andretti Global's entries in the 2026 season.

Harvey Returning to Indianapolis

We have our first confirmed Indianapolis 500-only entry of the 2026 season. On Thursday, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing announced Jack Harvey would be back to drive the #24 INVST Chevrolet. Harvey, D&R and INVST partnered to compete in this year's Indianapolis 500. 

Harvey qualified 26th, and he was classified in 19th, two laps down after he sped on pit lane during his final pit stop. This was Harvey's eighth Indianapolis 500 start. He has only one finish inside the top fifteen. That was a ninth-place finish in 2020. His best starting spot is 20th, which came in 2020 and 2021.

Outside of the Indianapolis 500, Harvey did not compete in another race this season. He spent the rest of the year as a pit reporter for Fox's IndyCar coverage.

Indy Lights Calendar Released

Eight days after IndyCar announced its 2026 schedule, Indy Lights made public its 2026 calendar. The schedule is increasing to 17 races with three more rounds expanding to doubleheader weekends.

The season will begin on March 1 at St. Petersburg and Indy Lights will compete during the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington weekend on March 15. Five of the six permanent road courses on the 2026 calendar will be a doubleheader weekend, starting with Barber Motorsports Park on March 28-29. 

The series will take the next six weeks off before returning for a doubleheader from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 8-9. Detroit will follow on May 31 with the first oval race being Gateway Motorsports Park on June 7.

The series reaches the midway mark at the first of two Road America races on June 20 before starting the second half of the season on June 21. Mid-Ohio will host a doubleheader on July 4-5. Nashville will be run on July 19. Portland has a round on August 9 with Milwaukee taking place on August 30. 

The 2026 season ends with a doubleheader at Laguna Seca on September 5-6.

How Do We Feel About This Week?

It was mostly expected Hauger would be racing at Dale Coyne Racing in 2026, and Andretti Global would have some involvement. For Hauger, he will be in good hands to learn though not necessarily in the same quality equipment as the actual Andretti Global team. We did see Coyne run competitively with Rinus VeeKay in 2025. Good results are not out of the question for Hauger.

Dale Coyne Racing should believe it is the big winner come the month of May. For the last two years, the only car to miss the Indianapolis 500 has been a Dale Coyne Racing entry. In each of the last three years, it has had at least one car competing in the last chance qualifying session. DCR should feel better about getting out of the mess that is just making the race, but it should be noted one of the other last chance qualifying participants this year was Andretti Global's Marco Andretti.

Andretti, however, made the race with a four-lap average at 229.741 mph. Both VeeKay and Jacob Abel ran slower than 227 mph over four laps in the last chance qualifying session. 

With the Hauger news, we have 24 of 27 entries confirmed for 2026. The remaining cars are the other Dale Coyne Racing entry, the #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry, and the #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing entry. This is purely coincidentally, but the remaining three entries come from teams that occupied the bottom three spots in the entrants' championship. 

We have filled all the good rides. We are not waiting for anymore splashy signings. What remains are the spots that a driver must really want if he or she wants to compete in IndyCar next year. We know these are not spots that are regularly at the front of the grid. It will require patiences and lots of struggle to get through an entire season. These are also seats no one is rushing to fill. No stunning driver is going to walk through the door and be the obvious hire. It will come down to some planning and discussing what each team wants out of these seats.

We have been seeing seats confirmed on a weekly basis. Do not expect that to continue next week. We might have a breather until the next full-time driver is announced.

Ruzewski was low-hanging fruit for whatever team wanted him in IndyCar. Penalties aside, Ruzewski is a championship strategist, and he was one of the brightest minds available in the paddock prior to this news. He only makes the Andretti Global program stronger. Partner him with Power and we know what havoc they can cause. This has been a notable offseason for the Andretti Global program. After a good year in 2025, the team clearly has its sights on big improvements in 2026.

It does feel odd that we are into Indianapolis 500-only entries in September. It is not unheard of. We knew all 34 entires for this year's race on March 11. In all likelihood, we will know at least 30 entries before the calendar year ends. It is the way the business works in the 21st century. There is no waiting for April to secure funding. No team is going to throw something at the wall in mid-May or roll out a car late in practice week to give someone an opportunity. The best chance to succeed is to have it all buttoned up sooner rather than later. 

Harvey has not been the most electrifying driver at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but he is a known entity. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is not rolling on one of its Indianapolis 500 entries. It shows up to run one race a year. It will make sure the cars are in capable hands to at least get in the race. 

There is a limited number of people who are trusted to race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Harvey is one of them, and as long as he can run competitive speeds and not get into accidents, someone will call his name for the month of May.

As for the Indy Lights schedule, it draws the same reaction as the IndyCar schedule. Yeah, that is what it is. It wasn't going to be much different from any other Indy Lights schedule we have seen. I do wish the series decided to run a doubleheader at Gateway, Nashville or Milwaukee. I think those oval weekends could benefit from a race on Saturday and Sunday rather than just one race being held three hours before the IndyCar race. Road America didn't need two races, neither did Mid-Ohio nor Laguna Seca. There are still only three oval races on the schedule. A doubleheader on an oval would benefit the drivers more than two at Mid-Ohio. 

I do wish Indy Lights would adopt an inversion for one of the races on the doubleheader weekend. Either do it like GP2 where the results from Saturday set the grid for Sunday and the top eight are inverse or use qualifying and reverse the top eight or ten from qualifying for the Saturday race before the Sunday race is set by the actual qualifying time.

It is a little ridiculous Indy Lights never had inverse grids when it previously had an abundance of doubleheader weekends. We had many weekends where over two races there were no passes for the lead and very little passing in the top four or five spots. I don't think there is anything wrong with mixing up the grids and getting the best drivers in traffic. Maybe Indy Lights should go all out and inverse the entire grid for the first race of each weekend. It would at least get everyone's attention and be something to watch. 

What is to Come?

How long until Dale Coyne announces his second driver?

When will Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing make some news?

What rush is Juncos Hollinger Racing in?

When will the other Road to Indy series announce their 2026 calendars? 

Will someone call Tim Cindric now that Ron Ruzewski has been hired?

IndyCar Wrap-Up: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's 2025 Season

For our third IndyCar Wrap-Up, we come upon our first three-car team. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had two of its seats change ahead of the 2025 season. Speed remained difficult to find, but in RLLR fashion, it had its handful of competitive races, and it had a victory slip through its grasp. The team also won a pole position with a rookie driver. For all the bright spots from this season, it is difficult to see how it can be so far off for 75% of the races.

Graham Rahal

The last few seasons were particular taxing on Rahal. He has been through his share of rough patches and low moments. A few bright spots stood out, but they were always few. This season matched some elements of the last few seasons, but the RLLR organization as a whole has plenty of positives to draw from 2025 along with the negatives. Rahal led the way for the team, battling through some hardships. At least he didn't have to worry about the last row shootout this season at the Indianapolis 500.

What objectively was his best race?

Rahal took a fourth at Portland despite starting 22nd. An early pit stop allowed him to jump ahead of the field, but Rahal kept up the pace and remained in the top five the entire race.

What subjectively was his best race?

It is Portland. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had flashes of speed throughout the season, and the team pulled off some good results. Rahal made something out of nothing at Portland. He could have finished outside the top ten, but he was on a strategy that got the most out of his car and he kept cars we likely thought were better from jumping back ahead as we got through the later stages of the race.

What objectively was his worst race?

It was 24th at Mid-Ohio. Josef Newgarden spun at the start of the race and Rahal was collateral damage. Rahal never got a chance to really compete. He was starting 20th and was off the lead lap immediately. All he could do was count the laps off and finish a race while going mostly unnoticed.

What subjectively was his worst race?

It is hard to look at a race where you led over half the laps as your worst race, but the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is likely the one race Rahal wants back the most. From second on the grid, Rahal got the jump on Palou and led with some comfort from the start. The race started going sideways on tire strategy as this was the one race where all teams had to use two sets of each tire compound. The #15 Honda team decided to end on the primary tire. This cost them.

Rahal lost the lead to Palou on the track when his alternate tire was gone. He lost more time on the primary tire in the final stint. It was always going to be difficult to beat Palou, but Rahal was at least the second-best driver on this day, and a victory was within reach. Instead, he dropped to sixth at the checkered flag.

Graham Rahal's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 19th (260 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 3
Laps Led: 59
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 4
Fast Twelves: 5
Average Start: 14.941
Average Finish: 15.705

Louis Foster

The 2024 Indy Lights champion stepped into IndyCar and had great moments of speed. For a rookie, Foster got a hang of an IndyCar, and we saw that in qualifying. The tough part was translating that into race pace. A few races saw him tripped up due to things out of his control. A few races got away from him due to his own mistakes. Foster was generally another bright spot, and he is at a good point for more growth to come in 2026.

What objectively was his best race?

Foster had two 11th-place finishes this season. The first came at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis after starting third. The second came at Road America after Foster started on pole position. Both have some disappointment considering where Foster started.

What subjectively was his best race?

In his first Indianapolis 500, Foster ran all 500 miles, and after all the post-race penalties settled, he was classified in 12th, the best finishing rookie on the road. That is all you can ask for your first time out at Indianapolis. Foster was not particularly competitive. He benefitted from the number of cars that fell out of the race due to accidents and mechanical issues. He still avoided trouble and did all he could to get the car to the finish.

What objectively was his worst race?

At the St. Petersburg season opener, Foster had nowhere to go when Will Power spun in turn three, and Foster was collected with Nolan Siegel. Foster's debut ended before he could compete a lap, and his IndyCar career began with a last-place finish.

What subjectively was his worst race?

It is tough to end on a bad note, but Foster's most memorable moment from his rookie season will likely be what happened at the season finale at Nashville. While a lap down and with the leaders passing, Foster made contact with David Malukas entering turn one while Malukas was running second. Foster had made a sudden move up the racetrack approaching the turn. When entering it, Foster was on the bottom and Malukas and he collided.

Foster was handed a penalty though the contact was not 100% on the Brit. The entire sequence did not look good for Foster. He had a chance to back out early or at least hold his line down the straightaway and not make it appear he was making it difficult for Malukas. Foster ended up finishing 20th and did enough to claim Rookie of the Year, but he was not ending 2025 on a high note.

Detroit should also be mentioned because Foster suffered a suspension failure entering the hairpin. Foster collided with Felix Rosenqvist after he hit the barrier. Foster ended up 22nd, but he was likely going to finish somewhere just outside the top ten without this incident, and it had been somewhat of a good day for him.

Louis Foster's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 23rd (213 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 5
Poles: 1
Fast Sixes: 3
Fast Twelves: 7
Average Start: 13.529
Average Finish: 17.941

Devlin DeFrancesco

After a season on the sidelines, DeFrancesco returned to IndyCar in RLLR's third entry. The third RLLR car has been the toughest to get results from ever since the team added the program full-time in 2022. That remained the case for DeFrancesco, but some of that might be down to the driver. The Canadian had good moments, but more times than not, he was in the back of the field.

What objectively was his best race?

DeFrancesco did not make a mistake in the Indianapolis 500 and he finished 11th, and on the lead lap.

What subjectively was his best race?

It is Indianapolis. Like Foster, DeFrancesco wasn't particularly brilliant. He stayed out of harm's way and he ran every lap on a day when many stumbled. 

What objectively was his worst race?

DeFrancesco spun on the opening lap in the second Iowa race and collected Scott McLaughlin. DeFrancesco was classified in 25th after the accident. 

What subjectively was his worst race?

A few could be listed here. DeFrancesco has a knack for qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the problem is his finishes rarely come close. He qualified fifth for this race, but the team decided to use both sets of alternate tires on the first two stint. He ended with two stints on the primary tire, and it didn't help that he stalled in the pit lane on his second pit stop. Any chance at a positive result was gone, and he was 17th at the finish. 

DeFrancesco also made a bonehead decision in Detroit to pull back on the course despite knowing he had a loose wheel nut after he drove into the runoff area. His tire came off and this brought out a caution. It was unnecessary. He was 23rd.

Devlin DeFrancesco's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 26th (171 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 0
Laps Led: 18

Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 19.882
Average Finish: 20.058

An Early Look Ahead

Does anyone have any clue where RLLR is going? 

None of its three drivers finished better than 19th in the championship. Graham Rahal was still the best driver on the team. Louis Foster looked promising, though the record doesn't look that great for Foster's rookie season. Devlin DeFrancesco showed what we saw in his first two seasons in IndyCar. 

Rahal will remain as will Foster, but is there anyone who can help the team in the third car? The best driver this year for RLLR might have been Takuma Sato, who qualified second for the Indianapolis 500, led 51 laps, the most in the race, and Sato finished ninth. If that is the case, what does it say that the best driver for RLLR is a 49-year-old who was last full-time in 2022?

It is either the status quo will remain, which is not promising, or RLLR will make a change and it will likely not be a splash signing. How many drivers are lining up to race at RLLR at this moment? 

The strange thing is when RLLR is on, it looks really good. Sato showed there is some speed in those cars at Indianapolis. DeFrancesco and Foster were classified 11th and 12th when the race was over. Rahal should have at least been on the podium at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis if not won the race. Then there was Portland where Rahal looked really good. 

Then there was the qualifying form, which was RLLR’s best in a number of seasons. Rahal made the Fast Six in four different races. That was as many times as Kyle Kirkwood, Patricio O'Ward, Felix Rosenqvist and Will Power, and it was more than David Malukas, Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi.

Foster made it out of the first round of qualifying seven times, as many as Kirkwood, Ericsson, Dixon, Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin.

The pieces are there, but it just requires more.

The team hired Jay Frye after Frye was dismissed from IndyCar's front office. I don't think Frye's inclusion alone means the team will take a leap forward. It cannot get much lower, but in terms of seeing a team back in the mix for the championship top ten, it will require more than one executive. This is also a team going through significant transition as RLLR will no longer run the BMW program in IMSA. Some of IMSA crew will be moved to IndyCar, and maybe it will improve the IndyCar program, but that is not a guarantee either. 

It feels like the team will remain in the back half of the championship at least for another season. We know what we will get with Rahal. Foster should make a step forward in year two. That third seat is not going to be a game-changer. It will either be DeFrancesco, who has made 51 starts in his IndyCar career and has never finished in the top ten once, or someone else we aren’t confident can bag consistently good results. Any young driver that comes in could be better, but this was a team where no one finished better than 19th. The ceiling is not very high. 

The qualifying pace is the most encouraging for RLLR. Foster made it out of round one on a regular basis, and when Rahal qualified well, he qualified very well. That pace rarely translated into race results. If it can find a way to turn promise on Saturday into success on Sunday, this team could solidly move up the grid, but we have been talking about speed issues with RLLR for the last three or four years. What will make 2026 any different?

Musings From the Weekend: This Was a Bad Time for an Endurance Race

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

Oscar Piastri had the weekend from hell in Baku and couldn't complete a lap, but fortunately for Piastri his McLaren teammate Lando Norris did not have a great weekend, and Norris finished seventh, scoring six points and meaning Piastri lost fewer points to Norris this weekend than had Norris won and Piastri finished second. Unfortunately, for both McLaren drivers Max Verstappen won and he is only 69 points with seven races to go. Elsewhere, there was teammate-on-teammate violence in NASCAR. Loudon is giving out much smaller lobsters, which feels like it should be the sign something is not right. A great young driver matched a record but no one has signed him long-term. There was an endurance race at Indianapolis, and that is what I guess I am writing about.

This Was a Bad Time for an Endurance Race

Look, I didn't have anything great on my mind. It was a pretty dull week, we covered the big stuff, and nothing else stood out, but something crossed my mind on Sunday. Why was IMSA running an endurance race this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway? 

Besides having an opening in the schedule, there is no great reason to justify running an endurance race this weekend.

For starters, IMSA didn't really need a fifth endurance race added to its calendar when Indianapolis returned two years ago, but that is not how money works. If Roger Penske wants a six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the middle of September, Roger Penske is going to get a six-hour endurance race in the middle of September! This is despite years of push back from IMSA to lengthen races at other circuits due to concerns about number of hours raced in a given season and trying to keep budgets now.

Mmhmm.

Either way, IMSA was at Indianapolis for another race at the Speedway, but why now? 

Indianapolis is quite busy all spring and summer. There is the Indianapolis 500 and all the additional IndyCar stuff in May, historics are in June, NASCAR runs in July. Then there is the dirt track that has its few events. It is tough to fit anything during the summer. Besides, IMSA has the space in September before it ends the season with Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta in October, but let's be honest, there is not a worse time of year to run an endurance on a Sunday. 

For starters, an endurance race this time of year on a Sunday is a poor reminder of all the daylight we are losing. The sun is setting closer to 7:00 p.m. now. It is terrible. Who wants to be out at 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday? It is going to be dark before you get home. That's a bummer. 

Second, what type of attention do you think this race is going to get? The NFL is on all day. IMSA started the race at noon and the first three hours were shown on Peacock. The final three hours were on NBC. It is still network television, but I don't know who is going to sit down and pick up a race that is already half over and stick with it to the end. 

That is also the nature of endurance racing. It is a six-hour event! Few networks give six hours to any event. IMSA's fifth endurance race is not getting full network television treatment. It didn't even get a sniff of cable, and I know the viewership world is changing, but there is still an audience there that is otherwise not watching it via a streaming platform. 

Strangely enough, there was also a disconnect between the IMSA race and the NASCAR race. I know only about 90 minutes of the IMSA race was complete by the time NASCAR coverage began, but this was a chance to have one lead into the other and no cross-pollination happened whatsoever. It is a layup, and it wasn't taken on the broadcast front. 

Third, don't endurance races feel like a summer thing or at least a Saturday thing? I know autumn only technically begins this afternoon, but most of our summers have been over for the last three weeks.

Yes, the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring are winter events, with Sebring sometimes falling in spring, but those races are held in Florida where the weather might not be the most hospitable from April through October. A summer date feels right for the endurance race. Turn it into an extended weekend. There will plenty of daylight when the race is over. It is great. 

Doing it now and a Sunday is not a great combination. 

Petit Le Mans does it right. It is a Saturday event. It takes up all of Saturday, and you can use Sunday to recuperate and get ready for the week ahead. It makes sense. 

I know this will not be an issue next year, as Indianapolis will no longer be an endurance race, but it will run the regular two-hour-and-45-minute distance while Road America will become a six-hour race, and it will be run in August. Indianapolis will remain in mid-September. 

The sprint distance will likely be better for Indianapolis, especially if it has a network television window. Everyone will get to see a race from start to finish rather than jumping in half-through. People have been clamoring for a longer Road America race since Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series merged over a decade ago. People just wanted a four-hour race at Road  America. Six hours will be satisfactory. 

I would still make the argument a race this time of year would be better on a Saturday. There is competition no matter when you run. IMSA likely could not get a Saturday afternoon network television spot with all the college football that is on. It is really a lose-lose situation, but IMSA isn't IndyCar. It isn't packing it all up before the leaves change colors. IMSA runs a successful event in October, but hoping to somehow win the counter-programming battle against the NFL is not as great a moral victory as you can twist it to be. 

IMSA was up against NASCAR yesterday for crying out loud, a playoff NASCAR race at that. If we are talking about not splitting racing fans, don't put IMSA directly against NASCAR. If anything, run Indianapolis on the Sunday following the Bristol night race on Saturday, which is actually what will happen next year. It doesn't force people to choose, and the NASCAR race can be used to promote the IMSA race. 

For all the good that IMSA does, it does have an odd way it ends it season. The GTP class had not run in six weeks, and Indianapolis was only the second time it has completed since the start of July. It will be another three weeks until it is on track again. 

With the length of IMSA's races, the schedule will not be as robust as some of the other motorsports disciplines out there, but I do think IMSA does a terrible job with summer. The schedule is so front loaded that it is out of sight for most of the summer, and with 11 total weekends, only nine of which features the top class, it feels likes IMSA is too underexposed to be properly noticed. 

The schedule is not going to expand to 16 or 17 total race weekends with at least a dozen featuring GTP anytime soon, but for as much as we nag on IndyCar for its scheduling woes, IMSA has not seen much evolution over the last 12 years. There are parts of the country and circuits that never have IMSA come to town. You know where you need to go if you want to see IMSA, but it does feel like the series could be more present than it actually is. 

Champions From the Weekend

The #32 Team WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts clinched the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup championship with a victory in the second race of the final round form Valencia. The #63 GRT - Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper won the first race of the weekend.

Jett Lawrence clinched the SuperMotocross world championship with finishes of first and second from Las Vegas. Jett's brother Hunter won the second race of the weekend. 

Jo Shimoda won the 250cc SuperMotocross world championships with finishes of first and third from Las Vegas. Seth Hammaker won the second race of the weekend.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know...

The #31 Whelen Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti won the IMSA race from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The #11 TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan of Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea and Steven Thomas won in LMP2. The #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford of Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx won in GTD Pro. The #70 Inception Racing Ferrari of Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy won in GTD.

Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Loudon, his third victory of the season. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his ninth victory, and Heim matched Greg Biffle's record for most victories in a season in the Truck series history.

Dino Beganovic (sprint) and Jak Crawford (feature) split the Formula Two races from Baku.

The #24 Kondo Racing Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda and Teppei Natori won the Super GT race from Sportsland SUGO. The #60 LM Corsa Lexus of Hiroki Yoshimoto and Shunsuke Kohno won in GT300.

Coming Up This Weekend

MotoGP could see the championship clinched at Motegi. 

The FIA World Endurance Championship is racing at Fuji because of course it is the same weekend MotoGP is in Japan.

World Superbike will be at Aragón.

NASCAR will race at Kansas.

This Week in IndyCar Silly Season… Malukas Confirmed, VeeKay Unknown

It took 18 days for the news we all knew was happening to be confirmed. The biggest open seat in IndyCar has been filled, and all that is left remaining are a few less successful seats on the grid. While the expected occurred, what was once a clear tumbling of the dominoes now appears not to be falling as we anticipated. 

During a week where the 2026 schedule was released, silly season effectively came to a close.

David Malukas Confirmed at Team Penske

On Thursday morning, Team Penske announced David Malukas would take over the #12 Chevrolet for the organization. 

Malukas takes over the seat left vacant after the departure of Will Power, who spend 17 seasons at Team Penske. Malukas had spent the 2024 season with A.J. Foyt Racing, and he was classified as second in the Indianapolis 500 after the disqualification of Marcus Ericsson. While Malukas would finish fourth in the second Iowa race, he had only five top ten finishes from 17 races, but he did finish a career-best 11th in the championship.

Rinus VeeKay’s Best Laid Plans Cometh Undone

Two weeks ago, Rinus VeeKay announced he would not return to Dale Coyne Racing for the 2026 season, and it was believed VeeKay had his seat decided for next season. It was rumored VeeKay would move to A.J. Foyt Racing to fill the void with David Malukas moving to Team Penske.

However, it sounds like that might not be the case, and VeeKay will be running somewhere else. The new rumor is VeeKay could be set to join Juncos Hollinger Racing to team with Sting Ray Robb. Juncos Hollinger Racing has Robb under contract for the 2026 season. 

VeeKay spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons competing for the Juncos organization. He won the 2018 Pro Mazda championship, and he was second in the 2019 Indy Lights season to Oliver Askew. 

How Do We Feel About This Week?

I think we should be satisfied because all the big stuff is over. We know the schedule. We know who will be driving for Team Penske. Silly season is over, let’s just head to St. Petersburg for the first race!

IndyCar’s biggest two bench-racing topics are solved before summer has even ended. These will not drag into October or possibly even later.

For Malukas, we knew this was coming. The pressure is on to succeed, and probably succeed fast. 

Team Penske does not hire many drivers with zero career wins to their name. The most recent was Scott McLaughlin, who transitioned from Team Penske’s Supercars program in Australia to Team Penske’s IndyCar IndyCar based in the United States. Prior to that, Penske had not a winless drive since Hélio Castroneves. 

Those are two mighty acts to follow for Malukas, Good luck!

The more intriguing thing is where does VeeKay go. Moving to A.J. Foyt Racing would have been a clear upgrade. In each of the last two seasons, Foyt has had at least one driver battling for a championship top ten finish. Last year, both drivers were on the cusp, and the team has been closer to winning a racer than at almost any point since Takuma Sato won the team’s most recent race at Long Beach in 2013. Juncos Hollinger Racing is at best a lateral move from Dale Coyne Racing. 

VeeKay was just 14th in the championship. The best championship finish for a JHR driver was 16th with Callum Ilott in 2023. JHR has had some strong days with Conor Daly on ovals, but there is an overall lack of speed. VeeKay did a lot with a little at Coyne. JHR is a little more, but we have yet to see that team string together consistent results take makes it feel like it has made a step forward. 

Of course, there is one other team that could have an open seat, but I don’t think Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is the direction VeeKay is heading. 

What is to Come?

Where does VeeKay land?

Who goes to A.J. Foyt Racing?

Does Devlin DeFrancesco’s money continue to satisfy Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing?

Is Dale Coyne Racing going to confirm Dennis Hauger and could we see the return of Romain Grosjean in what would be a pretty respectable pairing?

If VeeKay does go to JHR, where does that leave Conor Daly?

If Coyne has two new drivers, where does that leave Jacob Abel?

If RLLR moves on from DeFrancesco, who will fill that third seat?

Silly season has moved rather quickly. It isn’t that it will be over soon, but it certainly will not be as hectic as the last few weeks.  

IndyCar Wrap-Up: Juncos Hollinger Racing's 2025 Season

Moving onto our second IndyCar Wrap-Up of the 2025 season, and Juncos Hollinger Racing had a slight change from its 2024 lineup. Conor Daly became a full-time driver for JHR after closing the 2024 with the team. Sting Ray Robb joined the organization for his third year in IndyCar. The team remained intact for the entire year. While there were a few bright spots for this group, most races did not see JHR as a factor.

Conor Daly

After spending 2024 mostly on the sidelines, Daly passed the audition when he got the second Juncos Hollinger Racing entry into a Leaders' Circle position and earned his first full-time ride since 2022. Ovals were expected to be where Daly would excel, and that was the case. However, we never saw a spark on a road or street course where the team got to shine.

What objectively was his best race?
Daly's season could not end on a much higher note. Though he had a poor qualifying run at Nashville, starting 24th, Daly ended up climbing up into the top ten in quick fashion, and that is where he spent most of the race. His car continued to improve and chipped away as the race ran on. When the checkered flag waved, Daly was fifth, his best finish of the season.

What subjectively was his best race?

Nashville and Gateway are neck-and-neck. Nashville was pretty good and Daly had to overcome a disappointing start to the weekend. It is hard to overlook Gateway because he had a good claim at a possible victory.

Daly looked set to win at Gateway. He was leading and keeping the race at arm's length as the laps ticked down. The only problem is the field beat Daly in the pit lane. After one cycle, Daly was out of the lead. On the next cycle, he fell back again and was out of the top five when the checkered flag waved. Gateway was his strongest race, though it slipped away from him.

What objectively was his worst race?
After contact with Christian Rasmussen in turn ten at Portland, Daly spun off circuit and he was out of the race classified in 26th.

What subjectively was his worst race?

There were a few races where Daly didn't have the pace and struggled to finish much better than his teammate, a driver everyone believed Daly is significantly better than. However, his worst race is Portland, and not because of the accident and the result, but how Daly conducted himself before and after the incident. 

Rightfully upset after being forced off track, Daly attempted to take matters into his own hands and lunged at Rasmussen, looking for contact in the chicane. The contact in turn ten was much more shared than as simple as Rasmussen turned into Daly, though Daly immediately stepped out of the car and cried foul, failing to acknowledge the role he played in his own bad day.

Conor Daly's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 18th (268 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 4
Laps Led: 51
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 17.294
Average Finish: 15.294

Sting Ray Robb

Moving to his third team in three seasons, Robb looked to improve on his results at A.J. Foyt Racing. His finishes did improve in his sophomore season, and he did score his first career top ten finish. Robb had a shock of encouragement early in the season, but Robb settled into where we have seen him run over his first two seasons in IndyCar.

What objectively was his best race?

Good strategy saw Robb finish ninth despite starting 19th on the grid at Long Beach. It was Robb's second top ten finish of his career and his first on a street course.

What subjectively was his best race?

At Long Beach, Robb chose to take on the alternate tire late in the race, which put him in a difficult spot to lose ground while others had already shed the less desirable tire. However, Robb did 12 laps and when he got off the alternate tire, he had managed to hold onto a top ten spot. This race could have evolved into Robb spending a chunk of it in the top ten and one bad stint leading him to drop to 16th or 17th and be completely forgotten. Instead, he held ground and got a top ten.

What objectively was his worst race?

Robb spun under braking at Road America and hit the barrier. He was classified in 26th with only nine laps completed.

What subjectively was his worst race?

No race stands out as particularly poor for Robb. The races where he wasn't quick, he was anonymous, but didn't get in the way. Road America was bad. He had two other retirements. He was collateral damage when Kyle Larson spun in the Indianapolis 500, and then he spun on his own early in the second Iowa race. 

Iowa was a little disappointing because Daly was competing in the top ten, and we have seen Robb have good runs on ovals, but in this case, Robb started outside the top twenty in both races and never performed above expectation. I think the Iowa weekend was a missed opportunity.

Sting Ray Robb's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 25th (181 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 1
Laps Led: 12
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 0
Average Start: 22.176
Average Finish: 19.529

An Early Look Ahead

We know Robb will be returning for 2026, as for the second driver, there are questions. 

Daly lives on one-year deals, and though he can have a handful of competitive oval races each season, he is still a driver that is finishing 18th in the championship and whose ceiling is 17th in the championship. Not once did JHR make it out of the first round of qualifying. Daly didn't have a top ten finish on a road or street course.

It is a team too small to draw a notable name that could take it to the next level. It lives within its means, but that means one of its cars will have Robb occupying the seat and perhaps sneaking into the top ten on a flukey day but for the most part it will be a car fighting just to crack the top twenty. Sure, it might get lucky a few more times and make the top fifteen, but it is a car we will hardly speak about over the entire season. 

JHR would neither benefit nor suffer from retaining Daly. Maybe one of these oval races do go his way and he is on the right side of a caution during the final pit cycle and he pits with 25 cars trapped a lap down. Maybe it works out that his pit stops are just adequate enough to keep him in the fight and not cost him four positions. That is the one positive to Daly. He is there. Can the team support him? 

A good number of drivers are not getting to that level. Daly has you on the door step, but can he and JHR combine to close the deal? 

Of course, close is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades. Close doesn't pay the bills. For as close as Daly gets, the team still needs to pay the electric bill. If someone else comes along and makes that easier, they will trade close for the lights staying on. 

It costs to compete. JHR has spent a significant amount of money just to be on the grid and running for 15th. Stepping up to the next level will require more, and it seems JHR is a team that is at its limit. The organization is not building a new shop like Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing all have in recent years. It doesn't have fancy programs to develop the dampers. It cannot hire a special pit crew dedicated to the craft. This is where it lives. It can either sustain running for 15th or wither away and disappear from our sights. 

The 2026 IndyCar Calendar is... Good. It's Good. That's Fine

The 2026 IndyCar schedule came out yesterday morning, and it is about as we all expected it. 

There were no real surprises. The changes we had known about for a few days if not a few weeks, or in the case of Arlington, a few years. The less exciting stuff turned out to be real, and if there were any surprises, they were not that staggering.

However, it is a good schedule. It isn't that different from what we have seen for the better part of the last decade. There are six road course races, somehow six oval races and five street course races. The usual places are at their usual dates. A race or two have moved for seemingly no reason and so begins the cycle of how a race falls off the IndyCar calendar. 

There are 16 races weekends, and it ends Labor Day weekend. 

The good is good. The bad is not that bad, but it continues to remain and not be taken care of. It is an IndyCar calendar. You know the flaws and you can live with it. 

The Entire First Quarter Takes Place in March

If the story of the last few seasons has been the slow start to the season, IndyCar addressed that and crammed four race weekends into the five weekends that make up March 2026.

St. Petersburg opens the season on Sunday March 1. The following weekend, IndyCar joins the NASCAR weekend at Phoenix and the race will be held on Saturday March 7. The inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington will be run on Sunday March 15. After a week off, Barber Motorsports Park will hold the fourth round on March 29, and a quarter of the season will be over.

The Lengthy Gap has Been Addressed but not Entirely Eliminated

While the first quarter of the IndyCar season will be taken care of in 29 days, that means there will be some downtime, and that is in the form of one race taking place over the next 40 days. 

There will be two weeks off between Barber and the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday April 19. After Long Beach, there will be another two weeks off before the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on Saturday May 9.

IndyCar has hidden a problem more than it has solved it. Sometimes hiding is a solution.

But it Picks Up From There

Once we get to May, action ratchets up, as we have seen in any previous IndyCar season. 

There will be five consecutive weekends at the racetrack.

Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 qualifying, Indianapolis 500 on May 24, Detroit on May 31 and Gateway will host another Sunday night race on June 7. 

After That, There is Rhythm

Once IndyCar is pass Gateway, the second half of the season is essentially running every other weekend.

Road America is two weeks after Gateway (June 21). Mid-Ohio is two weeks after Road America (July 5). Nashville is two weeks after Mid-Ohio (July 19). The exception is the two weeks between Nashville and Portland leading into August. Then the IndyCar season ends as it begins with four race weekends in a five-week span. 

Portland and Markham, Ontario will be held over consecutive on August 9 and August 16 respectively. Then there will be one final off-week before Milwaukee uses a doubleheader over August 29-30 and the season finale returns to Laguna Seca to be held on September 6.

The Good

There are early races. IndyCar doesn't disappear after it gets started. It gets started and then it keeps going. There is at least a chance for some momentum.

There is rhythm. There is the one race in 40-day period, but once you get into May, there is pretty much a race every other weekend. 

Nashville will be held after the FIFA World Cup final, and it will be a 400-mile race. Over 25 million people will likely watch the World Cup final in the United States. Nashville has a chance to be the most-watched non-Indianapolis 500 ever. 

Milwaukee returns to a doubleheader weekend. After the last two years, why wouldn't you want two of those races in a season?

The Bad

Again, IndyCar hid the lengthy gap. If Easter was on April 19, Long Beach would have been April 12 and we would be looking at a three-week gap between Long Beach and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The three-week gap would have shifted from March to April/May. What is better? One three-week break or two two-week breaks with one race between them? It is essentially the same thing. IndyCar can still afford to add another race in the spring. 

It is odd how IndyCar didn't take advantage of open weekends. There are two Sundays during the World Cup that do not feature matches, and IndyCar is not racing on either of those. I am curious to see how June 21 goes with Road America. Is it sandwiched between matches? Is it first thing in the afternoon? The same goes with Mid-Ohio. That is a quarterfinal weekend. I would guess Mid-Ohio will be early and lead into the World Cup games that afternoon, but if it is a lead-in, that means if it goes long the broadcast will end immediately, and if it goes stupid long, it will end on FS1. You have been warned. 

Worst of all, there is no NASCAR race nor Formula One race scheduled for August 2. So what is IndyCar doing? Not racing on August 2 as well. But it will race on August 9 at Portland, which will likely be head-to-head with the NASCAR Cup race at Iowa. No one has said it yet, but there is a chance Nashville will go head-to-head after the World Cup final with North Wilkesboro. I don’t believe NASCAR will race head-to-head against an event that will have 25 million viewers and when it 95° F. North Wilkesboro does have lights after all. 

Also, IndyCar was attempting to race in the biggest city in North America in Mexico City, and it ended up getting Markham, Ontario instead. Is there any bigger encapsulation of where IndyCar stands in 2026 than this? 

Honesty

This is basically the same IndyCar schedule we have been looking at for the last decade. It is essentially equal over the three track disciplines, there is a doubleheader somewhere, the end will sneak up on us. It is nothing new. 

I am at the point in my life where I don't care where IndyCar races as long as they are successful events. That is what IndyCar needs. IndyCar needs events that are filling the grandstands and people are enthusiastic about attending. It doesn't matter if it is an oval, road course or street course.

What we need to see is IndyCar have actual notable growth at the track and viewership. It doesn't matter where IndyCar is racing if most of the races cannot attract more than 800,000 viewers. Until we start seeing those numbers inch upward and at least match what we saw two years and three years ago, there is no reason to feel all that excited either way. 

There must be a realization that IndyCar is making a calendar work with a lack of excitement or belief in the series. 

IndyCar isn't returning to Phoenix because there is a fervor for people to see an IndyCar race and there are 45,000 people ready to purchase tickets. It is returning because NASCAR is doing Roger Penske a favor, and maybe 20,000 people stick around on Saturday afternoon to watch. 

It is nice that IndyCar gets that race, and this is how IndyCar should use a combination weekend with NASCAR, but let's recognize if NASCAR didn't run at Phoenix in March, neither would IndyCar. That is the problem the series must address.

While it hid its lengthy gap for 2026, IndyCar is still geographically locked into the Midwest. Yes, it is going back to Phoenix and it is returning to Texas with the Arlington race, but its eastern-most race is going to be Markham, and the second-most east race is St. Petersburg. There is a lot of East Coast between those places, and we are looking at seven years with nothing in the most populous part of the United States. There was the rumor of a street race in Washington, D.C., but IndyCar needs an event that has a shelf life beyond three years. 

IndyCar must have some sort of initiative to spread itself across the country. Whether that is running a race at Richmond, Pocono, Watkins Glen, Loudon or even Virginia International Raceway, it has more to gain from staging a race and seeking to accommodate race fans on the East Coast than remaining absent for another year. If it is willing to put on a doubleheader in front of barely 6,000 people each day at Iowa, it should have no problem putting on a race in front of 20,000 people at any of the five facilities listed above. 

There should be some applause that it is lengthening Nashville to a 400-mile distance. There is an argument that every oval weekend outside of the Indianapolis 500 should be a doubleheader. There is no value in an oval weekend ticket, especially if there is one race and it is only going to last an hour and 45 minutes. If it isn't going to be a 500-miler, or in the case of Nashville a 400-miler, then race on Saturday and Sunday. It makes the weekend more valuable for spectators, it makes the weekend an event rather than something that is a little longer than a church gathering. Another race is another chance for IndyCar to be on television, which wouldn't hurt the series, and have you see the Milwaukee races? Yes, there should be two of those on a weekend. There should be two Gateway races as well. 

As for Nashville moving from the season finale spot to after the World Cup final, it is understandable to put on one of your better races in such a valuable spot. Is it robbing Peter to pay Paul? Yes. IndyCar is moving a rather successful (in IndyCar term's) finale venue from that spot to a venue everyone was lambasting for lacking energy just three years ago. It isn't quite a lose-lose, but it will be stretch to call it a win-lose scenario either.

Could Gateway have slid back a month and taken the post-World Cup final window while Nashville remained the final and Laguna Seca took place at another time? Maybe. The Laguna Seca finale shows where IndyCar is still lacking. It reverted to a lackluster option because it is all IndyCar believes it has, but IndyCar does have better options. 

As nice as it is for Milwaukee to be a doubleheader, is there a venue better suited to host the season finale? The grandstands were full, it would probably sell more tickets if it was the finale, and the racing was pretty incredible. It would at least be an event worth showcasing and celebrating as IndyCar's big send off before next season. It is actually a pretty obvious place to end the season when you consider what IndyCar has been lacking in a finale for the last 20 years or so. 

As for 2026, it is familiar. Even the new stuff is familiar. It is what IndyCar has been for the last decade or so. It is fine. There is plenty to enjoy, but we know it isn't perfect.