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.
