The 16th and 17th races of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season takes place from the Milwaukee Mile, the only doubleheader weekend in the season. It is the penultimate race weekend of the season with the Laguna Seca finale only seven days away from the checkered flag this Sunday. Through the first four oval races, we have had three different winners. Over the past two seasons, there have been three different winners in the three Milwaukee races, but all three were victories for Chevrolet drivers, and no Honda driver has won at Milwaukee since engine competition returned to IndyCar in 2012.
Coverage
Time: Race one coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday August 29 with green flag scheduled for 2:50 p.m. ET. Race two coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Saturday:
Practice: 6:00 p.m. ET (90 minutes)
Saturday:
Qualifying: 11:00 a.m. ET
Race: 2:50 p.m. ET (250 laps)
Sunday:
Race: 1:20 p.m. ET (250 laps)
Race: 1:20 p.m. ET (250 laps)
Take Two For Palou
It was a stretch for Álex Palou to lock up the championship in Washington, D.C., and unfortunately for the Catalan driver he went in the wrong direction. Instead of getting closer to the championship, Palou lost some ground. A 20th-place finish combined with Kyle Kirkwood's dominant victory with 128 of 147 laps led saw Palou's lead shrink to 91 points with three races remaining.
Despite the decreased advantage, Palou is still in control and has a firm hand on the Astor Cup. There is a chance Palou could lock it up on Saturday.
To clinch it with two races to spare, Palou would need a 108-point championship lead. It could be done with a race victory. A victory for Palou combined with Kirkwood finishing fourth or worse with fewer than three bonus points scored would clinch the championship for Palou. If Palou were to score the maximum 54 points, he could take the championship if Kirkwood finishes third.
If Palou were to finish second with no bonus points scored, Kirkwood would need to finish ninth or worse with no bonus points and Christian Lundgaard to finish second or worse with no more than two bonus points scored.
Last year, Palou started on pole position at Milwaukee and led 199 laps before being passed with 16 laps to go and ultimately settling for second. In the 2024 Milwaukee doubleheader, Palou was fifth in the first race, but an electrical issue before the start of the second race saw Palou unable to take the green flag on time. He would join the race but he ended up finishing 21 laps down in 19th.
Kirkwood's Washington, D.C. victory was a lifeline to his championship hopes. With 53 points scored, he was able to pick up 42 points on Palou. It was Kirkwood's second victory of the season and his ninth top five finish. Kirkwood has finished in the top ten in three of four oval races this season.
Christian Lundgaard begins the Milwaukee weekend needing some work to remain alive for the title. Entering 110 points behind Palou, Lundgaard will need to make up at least two points on Palou in the first race to remain alive, but he will need to make up more than that to have any legitimate hope. Lundgaard's best oval finish this season was tenth at Gateway.
With three consecutive finishes outside the top ten, David Malukas has dropped to fourth in the championship, 142 points behind Palou. Malukas has finished on the podium in three of four oval races this season with his worst oval result being seventh. He has finished ahead of Palou in three of the four oval races as well.
Patricio O'Ward is still alive for the championship by the slimmest of margins. At 154 points off Palou's lead, O'Ward needs some help to have any hope of stealing the championship. If O'Ward were to win the final three races with the maximum 54 points in all three, he would need Palou to fail to start two of the final three races. O'Ward will be eliminated from the championship if Palou scores eight points or greater in the first Milwaukee race.
If Palou clinches early it would be the first time the championship did not go to the wire in consecutive seasons since Sébastien Bourdais claimed the Champ Car title with a race to spare in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Palou would match Bourdais' record streak of four consecutive titles from 2004 to 2007. Palou's fifth title would place him into third all-time in championships behind A.J. Foyt's seven and Scott Dixon's six.
Andretti Global's Surge
No team is flying higher than Andretti Global at the moment.
Andretti heads to Milwaukee having won the last two races. On both occasions has it been a double-podium day for the organization as in each case its drivers have finish first and third. At Markham, Marcus Ericsson took his first victory with the team in what was his 47th start for the organization. Will Power was third. Last week, Kyle Kirkwood had a sensational race in Washington, D.C., leading 128 of 147 laps and regularly being over ten seconds clear of the field. Power again had a terrific drive to finish third.
This is the first time the organization has won consecutive races with two different drivers since 2013 when Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Milwaukee and James Hinchcliffe won at Iowa.
Not only was Andretti Global first and third in Washington, D.C., Ericsson drove to a fourth-place finish. These three drivers finished in the exact same position at Arlington in March. It is the team's second triple-top five day this season. It is the first time the team has had at least three top five finishers in multiple races in the same season since 2013. At the Indianapolis 500, Andretti went second-third-fourth with Carlos Muñoz, Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti. Four races later, Hunter-Reay won at Milwaukee with E.J. Viso taking fourth and Hinchcliffe was fifth.
The team seeks more in 2026. The organization has not won three consecutive races since Ryan Hunter-Reay went on a three-race tear in the summer of 2012 winning at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto. That vaulted Hunter-Reay into the title discussion. Andretti Global has three victories this season, but it has not won more than three races in a season since 2018 when it won five times.
Kirkwood has been one of the better drivers this season. His victory in Washington, D.C. made him one of four drivers with multiple victories this season. His nine top five finishes are second only to Álex Palou's 11, but Kirkwood leads IndyCar with 13 top ten finishes through the first 15 races. His 220 laps led are also second in IndyCar, again behind Palou, who has led 558 laps in 2026.
Ericsson is on a run of form with four consecutive top ten finishes, all results of sixth or better. The Swede will have a chance to match his longest top ten finish stretch with Andretti Global in the opening Milwaukee race. In 2024, Ericsson had five consecutive top ten finishes from Detroit through Iowa. He has consecutive top five finishes for only the third time in his career, and he has never had three consecutive top five results.
Will Power has been one of the best drivers in IndyCar since the month of August began. Power has yet to finish worse than third since the calendar changed to the eighth month of the year. The problem is Power has not finished better than third either. It is still three consecutive podium finishes for the Australian, a first for him since 2022.
With Power's surge in particular, there is a chance all three Andretti drivers could finish in the top ten of the championship this season. Kirkwood is second on 462 points, Ericsson has 361 points in seventh, and Power cracked the championship top ten for the first time this season after Washington, D.C.
The team has not had three drivers in the championship top ten since 2020 if you count Colton Herta, who ran an Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport car that year. Herta was third in the championship while Alexander Rossi was ninth and Ryan Hunter-Reay was tenth.
Historically, Milwaukee has been a great track for the Andretti Global group. The team has won five times at the circuit. In the last two years, the team has combined for six finishes outside the top ten out of nine entries. However, the team did have all three of its cars finish in the top ten of the second race of the 2024 doubleheader with Colton Herta taking third, Ericsson finishing fifth and Kirkwood in eighth.
The Final Oval
There are two oval races remaining this season, and technically 21 drivers could end this season as the unofficial oval champion.
David Malukas has the most oval points through the first four events though Malukas has not won this season. He has finished third, second, seventh and second in the four oval races. He led the most laps at Phoenix and the second-most laps at Nashville despite starting 25th in that event.
Five points behind Malukas is Josef Newgarden, a two-time winner this year on ovals. Newgarden made a late charge on fresh tires at Phoenix to take the victory having led only eight laps, including the final seven circuits of the one-mile oval. At Gateway, Newgarden led the second-most laps, but after a tense battle with Marcus Ericsson and Christian Rasmussen, Newgarden came out on top. Newgarden was second at Nashville but his accident in the Indianapolis 500 hangs over his season.
Team Penske sweeps the top three in oval points. Scott McLaughlin has scored 127 points from the first four oval races, 25 points behind his teammate Malukas. McLaughlin has finished in the top five in the last three oval races and his worst oval result was eighth at Phoenix. McLaughlin won the second race of the 2024 Milwaukee doubleheader.
Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist sits in fourth on oval points with 125. While Rosenqvist won at Indianapolis, he has finished outside the top ten in two of the four oval races. The Swede was fifth at Nashville. Patricio O'Ward rounds out the top five with 118 points. O'Ward was fourth in the first two oval races before finishing 11th in the next two oval races.
Nashville winner Álex Palou has scored 110 points in the first four oval races. Palou was 24th at Phoenix after an early accident with Rinus VeeKay. At Gateway, Palou ran out of fuel entering pit lane for his final pit stop and ended up finishing a lap down in 17th after appearing set for a top ten result.
Kyle Kirkwood is just ahead of his Andretti Global teammate Marcus Ericsson. Kirkwood has 105 points with Ericsson on 102. Ericsson was second at Gateway and sixth at Nashville.
Marcus Armstrong has 90 points, one more than Rinus VeeKay, who rounds out the top ten. Santino Ferrucci has 85 oval points. Scott Dixon is on 77, three more than Kyffin Simpson. While he was third at Gateway, Christian Rasmussen has scored only 67 points on ovals this season with two finishes outside the top ten. Christian Lundgaard rounds out the top fifteen on 65 points.
Alexander Rossi has 64 points from four oval races, two more than Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean has 59 points. Will Power has scored 55 points through the first four oval races, one more than Nolan Siegel. Graham Rahal has 50 points.
Sting Ray Robb, Dennis Hauger, Louis Foster and Caio Collet are the four drivers that are mathematically eliminated from the unofficial oval championship. These four drivers have 42, 41, 40 and 31 points respectively.
Last season, Palou topped the unofficial oval championship with 252 points, 44 points clear of O'Ward, the only other driver to break 200 ovals points in 2025. Rasmussen took third on 173 points, 16 points ahead of Newgarden with Dixon rounding out the top five on 153 points.
Malukas was sixth on 149 points, seven ahead of Conor Daly. Ferrucci scored 140 oval points in 2025 with Meyer Shank Racing teammates Rosenqvist and Armstrong rounding out the top ten on 129 points and 125 points respectively. Kirkwood and McLaughlin were level on 120 points. Lundgaard was the final driver to break 100 oval points as the Dane scored 117 over the six races.
Along with Palou, Dixon (2011, 2020), Newgarden (2016, 2023), Power (2018), O'Ward (2021-22) and McLaughlin (2024) are the active drivers that previously led the series in oval points in a season since 2010. Dixon did not win an oval race in 2011. That is the only time since 2010 the top oval driver did not win an oval race.
Rasmussen's Return
The oval results do not add up compared to the pace we have seen from Christian Rasmussen this season, but Rasmussen is likely thrilled to be back in Milwaukee.
Last year, Rasmussen had a top ten run going, but a late caution for a sun shower opened an opportunity for drivers to take tires before the final 40-lap sprint to the finish. Rasmussen took tires and started working his way forward. Soon, he was the lone challenger to Álex Palou, who had been in firm control of the race. With 16 laps remaining, Rasmussen took the lead.
Despite being in front and pulling away from Palou, Rasmussen remained on the ragged edge with a few notable corrections on corner exit that could have put any other driver in the barrier.
The victory was Ed Carpenter Racing's first since Rinus VeeKay won the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and it was ECR's first oval victory since 2016 at Iowa with Josef Newgarden.
Rasmussen is hoping for a repeat of his 2025 performance, and he mightily needs it. The Dane and the #21 ECR team are on the bubble for the final Leader Circle spot, 22nd in the standings on 180 points, tied with Caio Collet and the #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Rasmussen and the #21 team holds the tiebreaker with the better finish.
The best finish for Rasmussen is third while Collet picked up his first top ten finish of the season last week in Washington, D.C. when the Brazilian was ninth. Collet has finished outside the top twenty in three of four oval races this season, retiring on all three occasions, and two of those were accidents. His best oval result was 19th at Phoenix.
Collet isn't the only one pushing for the final Leader Circle spot. Mick Schumacher and the #47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda has 170 points, ten points off 22nd. Schumacher was eighth in the most recent oval race at Nashville. The German has finished outside the top fifteen in the other three oval races.
Sting Ray Robb and the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet is not out of the mix either. Robb is 25 points on the outside. Robb's best oval result was 15th at Nashville. His best finish this season was 11th at Markham.
Just above Rasmussen is Dennis Hauger. Hauger is only 24 points clear of safety in 21st. Louis Foster is another eight points clear in 20th, 32 points above the drop zone. Hauger has finished outside the top twenty in the last two oval races. Foster's best oval finish was 17th at Nashville.
These will be the 117th and 118th IndyCar races held at the Milwaukee Mile. On 19 occasions has a driver won consecutive Milwaukee races. The most recent to do it was Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won in 2012 and 2013. Rasmussen could win three consecutive Milwaukee races if he sweeps the doubleheader. Prior to Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan won in consecutive years, taking victory in 2006 and 2007.
Only once has a driver won three consecutive Milwaukee races. That would be Tom Sneva, who won at the circuit in August 1982 before winning in 1983 and 1984.
Road to Indy
We are at the very end of the Road to Indy seasons as well, and two series will compete this weekend with IndyCar, both of which will be contesting their penultimate rounds.
Three races remain in the Indy Lights season, but it has the reverse of IndyCar. The junior series has one race at Milwaukee before concluding with a doubleheader in Laguna Seca. Eight drivers are still mathematically alive for the championship, but it is really a three-horse race that could quickly turn into two.
Enzo Fittipaldi retook the championship lead at Portland with a seventh-place finish, and Nikita Johnson was eighth. Only one point separates the two drivers with three races remaining. Fittipaldi has 476 points and Johnson has 475 points.
Fittipaldi has won four times this season, all coming since Johnson's most recent victory. Johnson won two of the first three races, but he has not won since. That eighth at Portland is Johnson's worst result this season. Fittipaldi has finished outside the top ten in four races this season, including both oval races. The Brazilian was 13th at Gateway and 11th at Nashville. Johnson was seventh at Gateway and second at Nashville.
Tymek Kucharczyk is within touching distance of the championship lead. Kucharczyk is 18 points behind Fittipaldi. While the Polish driver has four top five finishes in the last five races, mixed in there is an 18th at Nashville. He was also ninth at Gateway in June.
Max Taylor got back on the podium with a third at Portland, his first trip to the rostrum since he was second in the second race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Taylor is 80 points off the championship lead. He was fifth in both oval races this season.
Lochie Hughes is 90 points behind Fittipaldi, and Hughes was second at Portland. It was only his third podium finish of the season. Hughes had eight podium finishes in 2025. Alessandro de Tullio scored his second victory of the season at Portland. De Tullio trails Fittipaldi by 98 points.
Myles Rowe needs a fair amount of help for his title hopes. Rowe is 132 points back. He was the winner at Gateway after starting last, and he did finish third at Nashville. Jack Beeton is mathematically alive for the championship, but he will be eliminated as soon as Fittipaldi starts the race. Beeton is 160 points back with 162 points left on the table.
Nashville race winner Matteo Nannini is just outside championship contention. Nannini is 169 points back. Jacob Abel will be back for his second round of the season. Abel was fifth at Portland. He was second in the 2024 Milwaukee race, and he has three runner-up finishes on ovals in Indy Lights.
The Indy Lights race will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday August 30 with the race scheduled for 90 laps.
For USF Pro 2000, we have four races remaining as, after its Milwaukee date, the series will remain in Wisconsin for the finale weekend from Road America, a triple-header held over September 24-26. U.S. F2000 will also finish its season with a triple-header that weekend at Road America.
Nine drivers are still mathematically alive for the USF Pro 2000 championship, and we had a championship lead change in Markham.
With Leonardo Escorpioni unable to compete in Canada due to a visa issue, Jack Jeffers moved into first with a victory and a second in Markham. Jeffers has 309 points and a 33-point lead over Escorpioni.
Jeffers had not won since the IMS road course in May. Escorpioni had won four of the previous five races before the Canadian weekend.
G3 Argyros is third, 41 points behind Jeffers. Argyros has seven top five finishes from the last nine races with three victories in that stretch, but he has finished outside the top ten in those other two races. Andrés Cárdenas scored his first victory of the season in the second Markham race, and Cárdenas is 63 points back.
Frankie Mossman rounds out the top five, 83 points behind Jeffers. Another ten points back is Thomas Schrage, who scored his first podium finish of the season with a third in Markham. Teddy Musella is on 179 points with Brady Golan on 171 points. Indianapolis Raceway Park winner Michael Costello is still mathematically alive with 166 points, but Costello ran out of budget after the Mid-Ohio weekend and has not been able to contest the last two race weekends.
Full-time U.S. F2000 drivers Evan Cooley and Anthony Martella will compete this weekend in USF Pro 2000 at Milwaukee. Both are racing for Exclusive Autosport, the same team they run for in U.S. F2000.
Cooley sits fourth in the U.S. F2000 championship, and he won the U.S. F2000 race from IRP in May. It is his only victory of the eason. Martella has three victories in U.S. F2000, IMS road course, Road America and Mid-Ohio. Martella led the first 43 laps of the U.S. F2000 race from IRP but the Canadian was caught in an accident when the lapped car od Cal Peters spun in front of him.
This will be the first time the USF Pro 2000 division has competed at Milwaukee since 2014. Spencer Pigot won that race ahead of Scott Hargrove and Shelby Blackstock.
USF Pro 2000 will follow the IndyCar race on Saturday August 29. It is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. ET start. The race will have a 45-minute time limit.
Fast Facts
This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on August 29 and the 15th race to take place on August 30, and it will be the first time both these dates have held races since 2020 when a doubleheader weekend was held at Gateway. Scott Dixon won the first race and Josef Newgarden won the second race.
Twice previously has Milwaukee hosted a race on August 29. Myron Fohr and Tony Bettenhausen won on this date in 1948. Bettenhausen ran the final 67 laps after his car droped out of the race. Manny Ayulo won in 1954.
There have also been two past Milwaukee races held on August 30. Chuck Stevenson won on that date in 1953 and Rodger Ward won in 1959.
Ward is the all-time leader in Milwaukee races with seven races.
There have been six different winners in the last six Milwaukee races (Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Sébastien Bourdais, Patricio O'Ward, Scott McLaughlin, Christian Rasmussen).
Christian Lundgaard won at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in June. The most recent driver to win at Road America and the Milwaukee Mile in the same season was Michael Andretti in 1996. Andretti also swept the Wisconsin races in 1991. Andretti is the only driver to win at both tracks in the same season.
This will be the tenth and 11th Milwaukee races scheduled for a 250-lap distance.
Last year, 16 cars finished on the lead lap at Milwaukee, the most ever for a Milwaukee race.
The average starting position for a Milwaukee winner is 4.5517 with a median of third.
Eleven of the last 15 Milwaukee races have been won from a top five starting position. Two of those Milwaukee races were won from 11th, Patricio O'Ward won the first race of the 2024 doubleheader from sixth and Christian Rasmussen won from ninth last year.
Thirteen of 116 Milwaukee races have been won from outside the top ten.
The average number of lead changes in a Milwaukee race is 4.7699 with a median of five.
The second race of the 2024 doubleheader had 13 lead changes, the most ever for a Milwaukee race. Last year's race had 11 lead changes.
The six Milwaukee races held during the DW12 era had an average of 9.833 lead changes with a median of ten.
Only once in the 25 Milwaukee races prior to the DW12 chassis were there at least ten lead changes. The 2001 CART race had 12 lead changes with Kenny Bräck taking the victory. Michael Andretti was second with Scott Dixon finishing third, the second career podium finish for Dixon.
Ryan Hunter-Reay led all 250 laps in the 2004 Milwaukee race.
The fewest laps led by a Milwaukee winner is nine. Joe Leonard led the final nine laps in the June 1970 race.
The average number of caution laps in a Milwaukee race since 1972 is four with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 29.7 with a median of 28.5.
There have been two caution-free races at Milwaukee, in June 1976 and June 1982.
Predictions
Álex Palou will sweep the weekend, but if Palou doesn't sweep the weekend, he is going to win at least one race, and if Palou doesn't win at least one race, Josef Newgarden takes one victory and Scott McLaughlin takes the other. Christian Rasmussen will have one good race and one bad race, but Rasmussen will put points between himself and Caio Collet for 22nd in the championship. There will be no cautions for rain. Christian Lundgaard scores his best oval finish of the season, and Lundgaard will be the best Arrow McLaren finisher in one of the races. Will Power does not have a third-place finish. Sleepers: Alexander Rossi and Marcus Armstrong.
