The 15th race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season features the series third inaugural event of the season with the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. It joins Arlington and Markham as the other debut events this season, all three being street races. The race will take place on a 1.7-mile street course that will race pass the United States Capitol Building, along Pennsylvania Avenue and around the National Mall. This is the first time IndyCar has raced in the nation's capital.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday August 23 with green flag scheduled for 1:13 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:
First Practice: 9:05 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Second Practice: 1:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 5:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:13 p.m. ET (90 laps)
Qualifying: 5:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:13 p.m. ET (90 laps)
Palou's Championship Hopes
In IndyCar's historic race in Washington, D.C., it could see history made beyond the location of the event. Álex Palou will enter this race with a chance at clinching his fourth consecutive championship and the fifth in his career.
Palou increased his championship lead in Markham with a fourth-place finish while all his nearest competitors suffered retirements. The Catalan driver left Canada up 133 points on Kyle Kirkwood and 137 points clear of David Malukas. Christian Lundgaard is 139 points back in fourth. After the 14th race last season, Palou had a 121-point championship lead.
The championship could be clinched in Washington. All it would take is Palou leaving with at least a 162-point championship lead.
Palou would clinch the championship this weekend with a maximum points victory, 54 points, with Kirkwood finished eighth or worse with no bonus points, Malukas finishing sixth or worse with no bonus points and Lundgaard finishing fifth or worse with no bonus points.
Clinching the championship with three races remaining would be the earliest since Cristiano da Matta sealed the 2002 CART championship with three races remaining. It would be the 13th time since 1946 an IndyCar championship would be claimed with at least three races remaining. Palou would join Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Sébastien Bourdais as the only drivers to have clinched the championship early on at least three occasions.
This would be the first time the championship did not go to the wire in consecutive seasons since 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.
Eight other drivers remain mathematically alive for the championship.
Kirkwood is 133 points back, but he is coming off only his second finish outside the top ten this season when he hit the barrier in turn three at Markham. Finishing 21st is Kirkwood's worst result since he had an accident in the first Iowa race last season and was 26th. Malukas was 17th in Markham, his second consecutive result outside the top ten. It is the first time Malukas has gone consecutive races without a top ten finish at Team Penske.
Lundgaard is fourth in the championship, and he has finished in the top ten in six of the last seven races. The only road or street course Lundgaard has not finished in the top ten this season is Long Beach, where he was 20th. Patricio O'Ward round out the championship top five, 157 points behind Palou.
Josef Newgarden is sixth, 190 points behind Palou, with Newgarden's Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin 197 points back. Felix Rosenqvist is a point behind McLaughlin.
Marcus Ericsson's Markham victory kept him alive for the championship. The bad news is Ericsson will be eliminated as soon as Palou starts in Washington, D.C. Even if Ericsson were to win with the maximum 54 points, Palou finishing with only five points, the minimum for starting an IndyCar race, would put Palou 164 points ahead of Ericsson with only 162 points remaining on the table over the final three races.
With six victories, Palou holds any potential tiebreaker over almost all remaining championship rivals. Only two drivers could end this season tied drivers in victories with Palou, Christian Lundgaard and Josef Newgarden. Lundgaard would theoretically hold the tiebreaker as he has two runner-up finishes to Palou's one while Newgarden also has one runner-up finish, and Newgarden and Palou each have one fourth-place finish this season, but Palou has finished fifth in three races while newgarden's next best finish is seventh. In all likelihood, the championship will not come down to a tiebreaker.
Not All These Drivers Can Win This Season
The championship is becoming clear, but what remains unclear is who could win the remaining four races. With Ericsson's triumphant in Markham, seven drivers have won a race this season, leaving 18 winless. Not all 18 can win a race. In fact, at best at least 14 of the 25 full-time drivers will be winless when this season is all said and done.
A fair number of notable names have yet to win this season, and it is getting late early for all of them.
David Malukas is the top driver in the championship without a victory. Malukas is third in the championship, but his first career victory remains out of his grasp despite a few promising runs earlier this season at Phoenix, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis 500 and Nashville. A winless driver has not finished in the top three of the championship since Hélio Castroneves was third in 2016 despite failing to win a race. Castroneves' best finish that season was second on two occasions. The championship runner-up has not gone winless since 1998 when Davey Hamilton was second in the championship behind Kenny Bräck.
The next best driver in the championship without a victory is another Team Penske driver. Scott McLaughlin has not won a race in 32 starts, dating back to the penultimate race of the 2024 season. The most recent full-time Team Penske driver to go winless in consecutive seasons is Hélio Castroneves, who went winless in 2015 and 2016. Team Penske has not had a season where a majority of its full-time drivers went winless since 2011 when Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe each went winless. Will Power did win six of 17 races that season.
The only other driver ranked in the championship top ten without a victory is Rinus VeeKay in tenth, but VeeKay has finished in the top ten in four of the last six races. VeeKay is also attempting to win with a team that has yet to win in its IndyCar history. Washington, D.C. will mark the 101st for Juncos Hollinger Racing in IndyCar. The team has a combined one podium finish and eight top five finishes. It has been 92 races since VeeKay's only IndyCar victory in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Will Power has finished third on four occasions this season. That is the best Power has done in his inaugural season with Andretti Global. Combined with eight finishes outside the top ten, these results leave the Australian outside the championship top ten, only three points behind VeeKay.
Then comes Scott Dixon, a driver who has won a race in 21 consecutive seasons dating back to 2005. Dixon has finished outside the top ten in eight consecutive races. He has not finished in the top ten since he was sixth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Through the first 14 races, Dixon has led 78 laps, but 64 of those laps were between the Indianapolis 500 and Gateway. He has only led two laps this year on road or street courses, and that was two laps in St. Petersburg. The last time Dixon did not win one of the first 14 races in a season was in 2014. He won the 15th race at Mid-Ohio and then won the 17th race of that season at Sonoma.
Graham Rahal will enter Washington, D.C. on a 155-race winless streak, the longest in IndyCar. A victory would surpass Rahal's own record for longest winless streak in IndyCar history. He went 124 starts between his first career victory at St. Petersburg in 2008 and Fontana in 2015.
Searching for Redemption
A few drivers left Markham wishing for something greater.
Louis Foster likely thought he was on his way to victory in Canada. Foster scored a surprising pole position and he led the first 32 laps. Though shuffled out of the lead due to the pit cycle, Foster was passing drivers and looked poised to race back to the lead and back in control of the race. Instead, Foster clipped the inside barrier of turn three while passing Marcus Ericsson, careening Foster into the outside barrier and ending his race after completing 42 of 90 laps.
Instead of having his best day in IndyCar, Foster wound up with his sixth consecutive finish outside the top ten. He dropped to 19th in the championship as well. Foster led more laps in Markham than he had in his first 30 IndyCar starts.
While Foster was heartbroken in a bad way, Romain Grosjean was brought to tears over near glory. Using an unconventional strategy, Grosjean found himself leading in the final stint from Markham, but also saving fuel as he was attempting to go 38 laps on the final stint. While Grosjean was able to go the distance, he was not able to have the pace to fend off all comers, and Marcus Ericsson passed the Frenchman without much issue. Grosjean was able to claim second, but over 7.5 seconds off the race winner.
It was Grosjean's first top five finish of the season, and his best finish since he was second to Scott McLaughlin in the 2023 Grand Prix of Alabama, but it now means Grosjean has gone winless in his first 77 starts in IndyCar. Only nine drivers have taken more than 77 starts to earn their first career victory.
Foster and Grosjean may have been close to something special and are hoping Washington, D.C. will see them obtain what was within their grasps, a number of drivers would settle for a good day.
Marcus Armstrong's engine lasted until the checkered flag in Markham, but Armstrong's spin and stall cost him a promising result. A subsequent penalty for disobey orders from the officials when Armstrong attempted to spin his car around as the pace car was approaching, a move that did not work and only made the track blockage worse, cemented Armstrong's status a lap down. It was the fifth consecutive race Armstrong has finished outside the top ten, four of those being results outside the top fifteen.
Alexander Rossi has finished 20th or worse in four consecutive races, and he has finished outside the top fifteen in eight of the last nine races. Rossi was in the top ten in two of the first three street course races this season, he was ninth in both Arlington and Long Beach. He has not finished in the top five on a street course since he was fifth in the 2024 Detroit race.
Dennis Hauger has now gone eight races without a top ten finish, and it was a missed opportunity after Hauger started fifth in Markham. Even after a disastrous restart after the first caution of the race saw Hauger drop 15 laps in a blink, he was still competing for a top ten finish in the closing laps until an incident on the last lap ended his race early.
Christian Rasmussen was caught in another accident, and Rasmussen has now finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive races and in eight of 14 races this season. Rookies Caio Collet and Mick Schumacher each had incidents in Canada. Collet was 19th, completing 67 laps. Schumacher was dead last after his clipped the inside barrier in turn four. These three drivers are all competing for the final Leader Circle spot. Rasmussen holds a six-point advantage over Collet with Schumacher a further seven points on the outside.
Going the Distance
The Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. will not only be historic because of where the race is being held, but at 147 laps around the 1.7-mile circuit, the race will have a scheduled distance of 249.9 miles, the longest road/street course race of the season, and one of the longest street races in modern IndyCar history. It is one of seven races on the 2026 calendar with a scheduled distance essentially of 250 miles or greater.
Street courses have been long associated with IndyCar, but the first modern street course race in IndyCar history was not held until the 1983 Caesars Palace Grand Prix. If you want to get technical, the Grand Prix of Cleveland held at Burke Lakefront Airport was the first modern temporary circuit race, held for the first time the year prior in 1982.
The first two Cleveland races were scheduled and run to 310 miles in distance, 125 laps around the temporary circuit. The inaugural Cleveland race was held on July 4, 1982 and Bobby Rahal took the victory ahead of Mario Andretti and Al Unser. Unser won the following year with Pete Halmser in second and Teo Fabi in third. The 2002 and 2003 Cleveland races were each 115 laps, 242.19 miles. Patrick Carpentier won ahead of Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy in 2002. The 2003 Cleveland race was held under the lights. Sébastien Bourdais won from pole position with Paul Tracy finishing second and Bruno Junqueira was third.
The 2002 Road America race was longer than Cleveland that season, running for 60 laps, 242.88 miles. Cristiano da Matta won the Road America race with Alex Tagliani in second and Junqueira finishing third again. It was da Matta's sixth of seven victories that season. This is the most recent road/street course to exceed 240 miles in length.
The last time a road/street course race was run to at least the distance of this year's race from Washington, D.C. was IndyCar's final race held at Riverside International Raceway. On August 23, 1983, a 313.5-mile, 95-lap race was held at Riverside, a little over a month-and-a-half after the second Cleveland race. Bobby Rahal won that Riverside race. All six races held at Riverside between 1967 to 1969 and 1981 to 1983 were over 300 miles in length. Dan Gurney won the first two races before Mario Andretti capped off his 1969 championship season with a Riverside victory. Rick Mears won the 1981 and 1982 Riverside races.
At 147 laps, Washington, D.C. is the most laps for a street course race since the final Meadowlands race in 1991. Three of the final four races held around Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey were run to 150 laps on a 1.217-mile course. The 1989 race was scheduled for 150 laps but stopped five laps from the scheduled distance due to heavy rain.
With 147 laps scheduled, it opens the door for a driver possibly leading at least 100 laps, On 20 occasions has a driver led at least 100 laps in a road or street course race. Will Power is the most recent to do it. Power led 101 of 110 laps on his way to victory in the 2024 Portland race. On 17 of the 20 occasions has the driver leading 100 laps gone on to win the race. The most recent driver to lead at least 100 laps in a road/street course race and not win was Gil de Ferran at Long Beach in 1996. De Ferran led 100 of the first 101 laps before a turbocharger issue slowed the Brazilian, and it allowed Jimmy Vasser to lead the final four laps and take victory.
Fast Facts
This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on August 23, and the first since Takuma Sato won the 2020 Indianapolis 500, a race delayed nearly three months due to the global pandemic.
The most recent road/street course event held on August 23 was the 2009 Sonoma race. Dario Franchitti led all 75 laps from pole position.
The pole-sitter has won only three of the last 12 street course races (Colton Herta at Toronto in 2024, Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach in 2025, Álex Palou at Detroit in June).
Eighteen consecutive street races have been won from a top ten starting position, 13 of those have been from a top five starting position.
Five of 14 races this season have been won from the fourth starting position, the most proficient starting position this season.
Fifth starting position has not produced a winner in the last 20 races. The most recent winner from fifth was Patricio O'Ward in the first Iowa race last season. Fifth starting position has not won a road course race since Will Power won at Road America in 2024, and it has not won a street course race since Scott Dixon won at Detroit in 2024, the race prior to Power's victory.
Honda has won 12 of the last 14 street course races, and Patricio O'Ward is responsible for the two Chevrolet victories. One of those was the 2024 St. Petersburg race, where O'Ward inherited the victory after Josef Newgarden was disqualified. The other was last year at Toronto where O'Ward won from tenth.
Dating back to 2023, Honda has won 17 of 19 street course races.
Honda has won three consecutive races. Neither manufacturer has won more than three consecutive races since Honda won 11 consecutive races stretching from the 2024 Nashville season finale through the first ten races of last season.
Nine different countries were represented in the top nine at Markham (Sweden, France, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and United States).
Washington, D.C. becomes the second nation's capital to host an IndyCar race. The first was Mexico City. Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez hosted eight races spread over 1980 to 2007.
This is the first time IndyCar has had consecutive street races since the 2024 season opener with St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Prior to that, excluding doubleheader weekends, IndyCar has not had consecutive street race weekends since the 2017 season opened with St. Petersburg and Long Beach.
There have been 99 races since the last time a driver led every lap in an IndyCar race. That was Will Power in the second Harvest Grand Prix race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on October 3, 2020.
The first three street course races of the season featured two cautions or fewer, and none of the races had more than 7% of its laps run under caution. The last two street races have featured at least five cautions, and each race had at least 23% of its laps run under caution.
Marcus Ericsson has scored fastest lap in the last two races. It is the first time a driver has scored consecutive fastest laps since Álex Palou did it last season at Barber Motorsports Park and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
The most recent driver to have at least three consecutive fastest laps was Sébastien Bourdais, who had six consecutive fastest laps during the 2007 Champ Car season (Houston, Portland, Cleveland, Mont-Tremblant, Toronto, Edmonton).
Eight drivers have finished third-place this season. Four of those drivers, who are responsible for nine third-place finishes in the first 14 races, are ranked outside the championship top ten (Will Power, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Christian Rasmussen).
Predictions
Álex Palou, but if it isn't Álex Palou, you know damn well Team Penske is winning the race Roger Penske spent $35 million to organize. No offense to Scott McLaughlin, a naturalized United States citizen, but it will be one of the natives. Sure, let's give it to David Malukas. Doesn't that add up? Basically a child, first career victory in a race that will likely never be held before, in what will be Malukas' 76th career start, coinciding with the celebration of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence. That tracks. There will be at least five cautions for at least 30 laps, but the longest green flag run will be greater than 50 laps. At least one driver will run all 147 laps on three stops. Of the six drivers that have finished in the top ten of at least the last two races, four of them will not finish in the top ten in Washington, D.C. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.
