Lando Norris has a hand on the world championship after victories in the grand prix and sprint race in Interlagos while Oscar Piastri retired from the sprint due to a puddle, and he was fifth in the grand prix after a ten-second penalty. People are still getting over last week in Phoenix. Connor Zilisch lost an opportunity to test a Cadillac Hypercar due to finishing second in the championship in NASCAR's second division. Shane van Gisbergen is returning to the number he always should have had. A pair of championships were awarded in Bahrain. MotoGP went through the motions in Portugal. A.J. Foyt Racing hired Caio Collet to drive its #4 Chevrolet in the 2026 season. Collet moves up from Indy Lights, and as Collet leaves, Foyt enters the junior series, a new trend for next year.
Supporting the Ladder System
This offseason has been about expansion for IndyCar teams, not in IndyCar but in the Road to Indy and Indy Lights in particular.
In this offseason alone, three IndyCar teams announced Indy Lights programs for the 2026 season.
For Juncos Hollinger Racing, it is a return to the series after a year away. It is also a return for A.J. Foyt Racing, which will field two cars in partnership with HMD Motorsports. Foyt won the 2002 Indy Pro Series championship with A.J. Foyt IV, and Ed Carpenter won the inaugural Freedom 100 in 2003 driving for Foyt. Speaking of Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing formed a partnership with Cape Motorsports to field two cars in Indy Lights while ECR has partnered with Jay Howard Driver Development in the lower two rungs of the Road to Indy.
These three teams join Andretti Global and Chip Ganassi Racing as IndyCar teams participating in the series. Ganassi returned to Indy Lights in 2025 with two cars, and it will expand to a four-car operation in 2026. It wasn't long ago Indy Lights was starting eight or nine cars per race. Now the grid appears set to hit 24 cars and nearly half the IndyCar teams have an interest in the grid, but these teams must be more than just seats to fill.
It is one thing to be on the grid and it is another to be actually identifying and developing talent.
All these teams can find someone with $1.5 million to pay for the seat and make a little money in the process, but when it comes to sticking with a driver and believing he or she can be developed over a three or four-year run, that takes patience and a willingness to go through rough patches.
There are plenty of good drivers in the Road to Indy, but they do not always get enough of an opportunity or even that chance at the next level despite respectable results. If IndyCar teams getting involved means talents will shine and be given a proper chance due to investment down the ladder, then wonderful, but if talent is going to be overlooked and less successful drivers are filling grid spots, then it is really meaningless.
Take Mac Clark as an example. Clark has spent the last three years in the Road to Indy system. After a season in U.S. F2000, he has spent the last two seasons in USF Pro 2000, and he was third in the championship this past season. Clark has been scraping to continue racing. Clark was a spot ahead of Alessandro de Tullio, who was announced as one of Foyt's Indy Lights drivers for 2026.
Jacob Douglas was fifth in USF Pro 2000 last year, behind de Tullio. Douglas sat out most of the 2024 season after being sixth in U.S. F2000 with a pair of victories.
IndyCar teams participating in Indy Lights means these drivers should continue to get opportunities. They have run well in the Road to Indy and should continue their development. They should be getting that next crack. Looking beyond makes you question why the system exists to begin with.
It isn't just Clark and Douglas.
Michael d'Orlando was the 2022 U.S. F2000 champion, and at 23 years old all d'Orlando could put together in 2025 was the final three races of the Indy Lights season, and he drove respectively well for a driver who had been sidelined for a year. Yuven Sundaramoorthy had one season in Indy Lights before he had to end his career after 2024. Reece Gold won a race in Indy Lights in 2023, and he was done after 2024. Christian Brooks' career will be mystery to me with good results but constantly stepping away from driving.
We have seen the likes of Rasmus Lindh lose the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 championship to Kyle Kirkwood by two points, and yet Lindh struggled to get a serious shot at Indy Lights. Kiko Porto won the U.S. F2000 title in 2021 and was second in USF Pro 2000 in 2023, and Porto only made four starts in Indy Lights. Braden Eves and Simon Sikes also won championships at the first rung on the Road to Indy ladder, and yet both had careers stall out despite finishing in the top five of the championship at the next level.
No series is going to be perfect and there will be drivers who cannot find a ride or decide to go elsewhere, but it is too regular to see drivers do well in the Road to Indy and it really lead to no further opportunities down that road. There will also be competition from outside the Road to Indy and the junior series around the world, but if there are going to be two-dozen cars on the Indy Lights grid, there are plenty of drivers developing domestically to take care of many of those new opportunities.
A ladder system exists, but we do not see many IndyCar development drivers. IndyCar teams take a very passive role in developing drivers. They will wait until a driver has developed without contributing much to the effort and then take a shot when they are about to hit the top level. It is a much more cost-effective method, but without that investment, we don't see drivers get a long leash. IndyCar teams really do not get involved until Indy Lights, but it is sporadic.
Andretti Global has been the only team that has made an effort at developing drivers in recent years. It has paid off with Kyle Kirkwood, and Dennis Hauger is getting his chance to move up with Andretti's support in 2026. Before that, Sam Schmidt Motorsports was highly successful in Indy Lights, but those drivers weren't moving up to drive for Schmidt in IndyCar.
With this increased participation, the hope is we see teams committing to a young driver and being there for a four-to-five year period as they work their way up the ladder system and spending two or three years in Indy Lights if necessary. That is what the Road to Indy needs more than having two-dozen cars in Indy Lights. The number doesn't matter if the teams are not committed to the drivers and believe they can be their future.
Champions From the Weekend
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi clinched the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with a fourth-place finish in Bahrain..
The #92 Manthey Racing Porsche of Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera clinched the Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 Drivers with a fourth-place finish in Bahrain.
Alessandro Zaccone clinched the MotoE championship with finishes of first and fourth from Portimão. Óscar Guitérrez won the final race of the season.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lando Norris, but did you know...
Marco Bezzecchi won MotoGP's Portuguese Grand Prix, his second victory of the season. Álex Márquez won the sprint race. Diogo Moreira won in Moto2, his fourth victory of the season. Máximo Quiles won in Moto3, his third victory of the season.
The #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries won the 8 Hours of Bahrain. The #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus of José María López, Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu won in LMGT3.
Sébastien Ogier won Rally Japan, his sixth victory of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
The MotoGP season concludes in Valencia.
Supercars are at Sandown for the penultimate weekend of the season.
