Best of the Month: March 2026

We are a quarter of the way through 2026. It will be 2027 before we know it. Before we get there, many great races are still to take place. This last month saw a few more series begin their 2026 seasons, and we are in full swing. It is constant action from now through the end of November even if Formula One will have two fewer races in April. It is not a bad place to be.

Notes From Research

March is always a month where I am knocking off the rust. It takes a second to get back in the rhythm of preparing for a race weekend, thinking of topics, noticing trends and then deep-diving into the numbers to answer questions in my mind. 

The biggest issue is getting to the point, and sometimes I find an answer to a question, but I also find a few different answers to questions I didn't even know I wanted answered. In some moments, it works to share it all at once. At other times, it is better to stick to the task and not create clutter.

With this being the end of the month, I figured I would share some notes from research that didn't make it any previous post this month. 

Not Completing the First Lap of the Season

This goes back to prior to the Phoenix weekend. In the Track Walk for that race, I looked over drivers who failed to complete the opening lap of the season, drivers who started the race but didn't get around to finish a lap. For two drivers, that happened in 2026 with Santino Ferrucci and Mick Schumacher each getting caught in an accident when Sting Ray Robb locked up his tires entering turn four. Robb was able to continue. Ferrucci and Schumacher hit the showers early.

Looking over box scores to see how many drivers failed to finish an opening lap of a season, I found a few notes. 

In 1957, the first lap of the season was at the Indianapolis 500, and technically neither Elmer George nor Eddie Russo got that far as they had an accident on the pace lap. We covered that George would win later that season, but for Russo he would not start another race until the 1960 Indianapolis 500. He made it 84 laps in that race.

For Tom Frantz, he started the 1981 CART season opener from Phoenix, his first start since the September 15, 1979 Michigan race, but Frantz didn't make it a lap before the turbocharger broke. That was Frantz's only appearance of the season. He failed to qualify for four races in 1982, but he did make the Michigan race that July and last 20 laps before losing an engine. 

Some notable names have failed to complete an opening lap of a season. It happened to Chip Ganassi on debut in 1982. It happened to Teo Fabi and the Porsche program in 1990. It happened to Bobby Rahal and Raul Boesel in 1994.

In 1998, Robbie Goff qualified 16th for the Indy Racing League season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway. Groff would have an accident before the first lap was completed. It ended up being the final start of Groff's IndyCar career. He failed to qualify two month later at Phoenix and that was it for his career.

Maybe the worst opening lap incident was the 1999 CART season opener at Homestead. It was a three-car accident. Naoki Hattori and Al Unser, Jr. got together in turns one and two and Raul Boesel was collected in the accident. None of those three drivers were at the next race at Motegi.

For Hattori, he suffered a double compound fracture in his left leg in accident, and it should be noted Homestead was his debut. What a start to a career! Unser, Jr. also broke his legs in the accident. Hattori would not return until Belle Isle in August. Unser, Jr. only missed two races and was back for Nazareth in May. 

For Boesel's sake, his Motegi absence was the plan. Boesel was only at Homestead because Paul Tracy was suspended for the season opener due to a number of incidents in the 1998 season, and Boesel filled the #26 Team Green entry. Boesel did race seven days after Homestead in the IRL race at Phoenix where he completed 147 laps before oil pressure issues ended his race.

Multiple Drivers Leading the Most Laps

This hasn't come up in a post, but in the aftermath of the Arlington race, what stood out the most in the box score was Kyle Kirkwood, Álex Palou and Will Power all finished tied for the most laps led. All three drivers led 16 laps. I could not think of the last time that had happened. I knew there were races that had two drivers tied for the most laps led. I could not think of one where three drivers were tied. 

In the immediate aftermath of the Arlington race, I got to digging, and I found it had happened once before. 

September 21, 1975: Gordon Johncock, A.J. Foyt and Johnny Rutherford all led 33 laps at Trenton and they finished 1-2-3 in that order. It was a 100-lap race. New Jersey's own Wally Dallenbach led lap 25 of the race. 

I was surprised how few races had multiple drivers lead the most laps. 

It has only happened 12 times in IndyCar history. It should be noted a great number of races, especially pre-World War II are lacking information on total laps led for each driver. It is possible it has happened more but we do not have it recorded. Coincidentally enough, the first known occasion of it happening was pre-World War II and it was in the Indianapolis 500. In 1938, Floyd Roberts and Jimmy Snyder each led 92 laps. Rex May was the only other driver to lead that day. Roberts won, Snyder was 15th after a supercharger failure.

Here are the other nine times in IndyCar history where multiple drivers were tied for the most laps led:

August 16, 1958: Springfield

Don Branson led the first 36 laps. Jud Larson led the next 36 laps. Johnny Thomson led the final 28 laps and won the race.

September 19, 1982: Road America

Bobby Rahal and Mario Andretti each led 20 laps in the inaugural Road America race, but it was Héctor Rebaque who won the race leading only the final lap after Al Unser ran out of fuel.

July 23, 1989: Toronto

Danny Sullivan and Al Unser, Jr. each led 35 laps. Michael Andretti won the race with 24 laps led.

September 8, 1996: Laguna Seca

Yes! That famous Laguna Seca race with Alex Zanardi's famed pass in the corkscrew on Bryan Herta saw both drivers each lead 41 laps. It was an 83 lap race. Jimmy Vasser led the other (lap 29).

June 16, 2002: Portland

Two drivers led the 2002 Grand Prix of Portland. Cristiano da Matta and Kenny Bräck. They each led 55 laps. Da Matta took the victory. Bräck lost a wheel on lap 60 after having led 55 of the first 59 laps, and that incident ended his race.

June 22, 2003: Portland

It happened in consecutive years at Portland! Paul Tracy and Michel Jourdain, Jr. each led 42 laps in this race. The winner? That would be Adrián Fernández, who led the final 15 laps. 

August 8, 2004: Road America

It happened in three consecutive CART/Champ Car seasons! This race was slowed due to rain and ultimately raced to a time limit. Paul Tacy and Alex Tagliani each led 16 laps. Tagliani took his first and only IndyCar victory. 

October 22, 2006: Surfers Paradise

Champ Car took a year off in 2005, but in 2006, Will Power led the first 13 laps at Surfers Paradise, before it went sideways as it always did for Power at Surfers Paradise. This race saw eight lead changes among seven drivers. Nelson Philippe won the race with 13 laps led. It was Philippe's one and only victory in IndyCar. Charles Zwolsman, Jr. led the third-most laps in this race with ten! 

June 14, 2015: Toronto

Will Power led the first 30 laps, but was then caught out when a caution came out just as the first pit cycle was opening. This opened the door for Josef Newgarden to swoop into the lead. Newgarden ended up leading 30 laps as he won the race, his second career victory. This was the most recent occasion prior to Arlington. 

A couple things you may have noticed...

Three of the last four times drivers finished tied for the most laps led, the laps led total was 16... 

Will Power has be involved in the last three occasions where drivers have finished tied for the most laps led... they have occurred in three different decades... and Power won none of those three races...

It hasn't happened on an oval since that 1975 Trenton race where Johncock, Foyt and Rutherford all finished tied.

I guess it should not be surprising it is more likely to happen on a road or street course. Think about it. It is more likely two drivers finish with the same number of laps led in a 60-lap race or 75-lap race versus a 200-lap race. Two drivers could each lead 25 laps and that be enough for the most laps led. 

On an oval, are we really going to see two drivers each lead 80 laps or 90 laps in a 200-lap race? It is more unlikely two drivers will have equally as high control of a race on an oval. If you are lead 40% or 45% of the laps, it is unlikely another driver is going to match that total. 

The State Trifecta

Twitter is good for almost nothing these days (You once could have fun there and people were engaging and interesting. That is gone), but occasionally it has something good, and credit goes to Jess Peters for asking this question...

How many states have hosted #IndyCar on a street course, oval, and road course?

California, Florida, Texas… any I’m not thinking of?

— Jess Peters (@_Jess_Peters_) March 13, 2026

After seeing this, the first state that came to my mind was Colorado! 

Yes, IndyCar's hot bed Colorado. 

Of all the state to do it, Colorado is one of them. There were two variations of the Denver street course CART/Champ Car ran. The Indy Racing League raced at Pikes Peak. There was also the Pikes Peak Internaional Hill Climb, which I believe qualifies as a street course as well. Most don't know Continental Divide Raceways ever existed as a 2.66-mile road course let alone hosted three IndyCar races from 1968 to 1970. Boom! There is your answer. 

But how many other states complete the "state trifecta" of having hosted an oval race, road course race and street course for IndyCar? 

We know Colorado. The second that came to mind was Nevada because Las Vegas alone has hosted all three. Again, most people don't know Stardust International Raceway once existed, but the three-mile road course hosted one IndyCar race in 1968. Bobby Unser won it, but that wasn't even IndyCar's first trip to Nevada! The 1954 season ended with a 100-mile race on the one-mile Las Vegas Park. Jimmy Bryan won. Later would come the races around the Caesar's Palace parking lot after Formula One left, and then there was Champ Car's street race in 2007. Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted seven races between the IRL and Champ Car. 

Then it hit me Washington has hosted all three. Though the state has not hosted an IndyCar race since 1969, Washington has hosted an oval race, a street course race and a road course race. First, there were races held on the streets of Tacoma in 1912 and 1913. Then a two-mile oval followed in Tacoma, first made of dirt and then a board oval and that lasted from 1915 to 1922. In 1969, USAC raced a doubleheader at the 2.2-mile Seattle International Raceway, now known as Pacific Raceways, and that was the last time IndyCar raced in Washington.  

California used to host all three in a single season, most recently in 2015 with Long Beach, Sonoma and Fontana. Laguna Seca is the road course of choice currently on the schedule. Thermal Club was on the schedule last season. There was Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside. Hanford hosted a handful of races on its 1.5-mile oval. If we go way back there used to be street races in Santa Monica in the dawn of what is now IndyCar racing and are recognized in the record book. They raced around San Francisco during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. There was also the Los Angeles Motor Speedway board oval. We could do a deep dive on California races alone. 

There was obviously Texas, and Texas checked off this box back in 2019 when Austin made its one and only appearance on an IndyCar schedule. That was the first road course race in Texas in IndyCar history. It had run at Texas World Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. Arlington Downs hosted races in the late 1940s as a dirt oval. IndyCar had run on the streets of Houston and Reliant Park in Houston and on Denver Beach in Galveston. Arlington was just gravy. 

Outside of California and Texas, most of these were not obvious. 

Did you know Wisconsin has hosted all three? You know about Road America and Milwaukee because both are currently on the schedule, but in 1912 there were three street races held in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on a 7.88-mile course. 

Did you know it Ohio has hosted all three as well? Mid-Ohio is there. It is hard to classify Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport as a street course, even though that is how IndyCar has classified such courses. It is not streets but it is not permanent. It is temporary. Even if you take Cleveland out, Cincinnati hosted a pair of street races in 1911 on a 7.9-mile course. Cincinnati even had a two-mile board oval, which hosted three races. There was even Bainbridge Fairgrounds, which hosted championship races in the late 1940s.

New York has hosted all three disciplines. You know about Watkins Glen. Syracuse's one-mile dirt oval at the state fairgrounds was a regular event from the 1920s through the early 1960s. There was also Good Time Park in Goshen, New York, and the one-mile oval held a trio of races. Sheepshead Bay had a two-mile board oval. As for street races, Riverhead, New York held an event in 1909 on a 22.75-mile course. That is not a typo. There was also the 12.64-mile Long Island Motor Parkway.

The ninth and final state to do it, and this may surprise you, is Indiana! You are wondering when has Indiana ever hosted a street race? Let's cover the obvious. There is Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which hosts an oval race and road course race on the current schedule. Even if you throw out the IMS road course, Indianapolis Raceway Park hosted a handful of races on its road course. When was the street race?Crown Point, Indiana hosted two races on a 23.27-mile course on June 18-19, 1909. These are the fourth and fifth races recognized in IndyCar's record book. The first three were in Portland, Oregon a week prior. That means Indiana host an IndyCar street course race prior to hosting an oval race. Just think about that next time you talk about tradition.

One last one, because it isn't a state, and it is kind of a technicality. Quebec has hosted races at Mont-Tremblant, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and Sanair Super Speedway, a 0.826-mile oval. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve exists in this middle ground between a street course and a road course. It is not a permanent circuit, but they really aren't streets either. It is basically one large path around Île Notre-Dame that people use for running and cycling and cars can go on, but they aren't really streets. It kind of counts.

Let's call it nine states and one Canadian province.

You may be noticing a notable omission, and Jess Peters mentioned it as well. 

Florida! Florida has never hosted an IndyCar road course race. It hosted oval races at Homestead, Walt Disney World and even Daytona, but it has never run at a permanent road course. For all the testing at Sebring, the track has never hosted a race. Miami has hosted three different street course configurations. It even hosted one board oval race. Then there is St. Petersburg and the only other Florida track to host a race was a five-mile course on Pablo Beach in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Maybe some other day we will go over all the states that have hosted two of three and are waiting on one more. 

April Preview

Three series are starting in April that are worthy of some attention.  In chronological order, Super Formula is first, beginning this weekend with a doubleheader at Motegi. Last season, Ayumu Iwasa took the championship by 5.5 points over Sho Tsuboi, seven points ahead of Kakunoshin Ohta and 11 points clear of Tadasuke Makino.

There are a number of of fun rookies this season. Luke Browning is joining with Kondo Racing and Charlie Wurz will be coming on with Team Goh. Roman Stanek is running a third car with Kondo. The grid is growing to 24 cars with Delightworks Racing entering and it is bringing in Nobuharu Matsushita, who last raced in Super Formula in 2024. Yuto Nomura will make his debut with B-Max after dominating the Super Formula Lights championship.

Sadly, Kalle Rovanperä will not be competing this season after being diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. Seita Nonaka will take over the vacant spot at KCMG.

On April 19, the FIA World Endurance Championship has a delayed start to its season after the Qatar round was postponed to October 24 due to the Middle East conflict. Imola becomes the opening round. 

We will see the Genesis debut and the South Korean manufacturer will feature Pipo Derani, Mathys Jaubert and André Lotterer in its #17 GMR-001 with Paul-Loup Chatin, Mathieu Jaminet and Daniel Juncadella in its #19 GMR-001. 

Alpine has drafted in António Felix da Costa and Victor Martins to fill out its driver lineup with the departure of Chatin to Genesis and Mick Schumacher to IndyCar. 

Peugoet has Stoffel Vandoorne and Nick Cassidy entering the program with Mikkel Jensen leaving for the future McLaren program and Jean-Éric Vergne taking a year off from WEC. Théo Pourchaire will be full-time.

One change occurs at Cadillac. Jack Aitken steps up after Jenson Button's retirement. 

In LMGT3, Garage 59 takes over the McLaren program with United Autosports focused on the McLaren Hypercar program. Manthey Racing will run two Porsches after the Iron Dames program shuttered. TF Sport will run a Corvette for Peter Dempsey, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç. Logan Sargeant will run in the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang with Stafano Gattuso and Giammarco Levorato.

At the end of the month, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will begin its eight-round, 16-race season with 21 GT3 cars representing eight manufacturers at Hockenheim. The champion is not defending. 

Ayhancan Güven turns his focus to his LMGT3 responsibilities in the WEC and will not compete in DTM this year. Ricardo Feller will join the Manthey Racing organization as one of the three Porsches on the grid alongside Thomas Preining and Bastian Buus in a Land-Motorsport Porsche. 

Lucas Auer fell four points shy of the championship and Auer is back with Mercedes-AMG at Team Landgraf, teamed with Tom Kalendar. Jules Gounon and Maro Engel will run in the two Winward Racing Mercedes-AMGs.

Lamborghini will have four Temerario GT3s on the grid and Marco Mapelli will be joining the series in one of the Abt Sportline entries as teammate to Luca Engstler. Grasser Racing Team will field Maximilian Paul and Mirko Bortolotti.

Nicki Thiim returns to an Aston Martin after driving a Abt Lamborghini. Thiim will team with Nicolas Baert for Comtoyou Racing. BMW is running back Kelvin van der Linde and Marco Wittmann. Ferrari will have Matteo Cairoli join the series alongside Thierry Vermeulen. McLaren is fielding Timo Glock and Ben Dörr. There is one rookie on the grid, Finn Wiebelhuas, who will race for HRT Ford Racing alongside Arjun Maini.

Other events of note in April:

The European Le Mans Series also opens its 2026 season, April 12 at Barcelona.

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup opens the same weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Supercars has a New Zealand swing with races at Taupō and Ruapuna.

Super GT opens at Okayama.

IndyCar has one race at Long Beach. It is also IMSA's only round. 

The Middle East conflict has also cleared MotoGP's schedule to one round in Jerez.

The World Rally Championship continues its global tour with races in Croatia and the Canary Islands.

Musings From the Weekend: Adjusting to Apple

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

New weekend, same result as Álex Palou won the earliest IndyCar race ever held at Barber Motorsports Park. Unnoticed until Sunday morning, MotoGP re-introduced the United States Grand Prix moniker for the Austin race, replacing the Grand Prix of the Americas that had been used since 2013 when MotoGP had three races in the United States. Supercross has a new championship leader. NASCAR was in Martinsville. A safety car flipped the Mercedes in Japan. Max Verstappen may quit. Dramatics aside, the first month of this Formula One season has been different in the United States, brought to the viewer in a new way.

Adjusting to Apple

It has only been three races, but we have had a decent sample size of Formula One's time on AppleTV in the United States. It has been a month and we will have a month until the next time we get to use the streaming service, as Formula One has an unexpected month off due to the current Middle East conflict preventing the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia rounds from taking place.

How has it been? 

It is a different experience, but once you get to watching a session, it is the same as if you were watching on Speed, NBCSN or ESPN. There is actually more at your disposal, and the biggest shakeup is the process and the build up to a broadcast.

For the first round of the season in Australia, despite knowing it was race weekend and the anticipation to the first practice, it came out of nowhere on that Thursday night. For most of the day, Formula One was out of sight and out of mind. Unlike the previous experiences on a cable channel, Formula One was not being promoted within other programming. It wasn't like Speed where you would hear about Formula One practice or qualifying during NASCAR coverage. It wasn't getting promos during NHL games like it was on NBCSN and ESPN. When you go about your day, those little reminders, as much as people say they hate commercials, are beneficial. Otherwise, it is lost. 

AppleTV is its own little island. It is not a channel in the traditional sense. You might tune in for a show or a film, but how many people have it on non-stop for three hours after getting home from work? It isn't on in the background. It also isn't a sports hub, which is where Formula One has been for the better part of the 21st century in the United States. Whether it was NBCSN, ESPN or even Speed though that was motorsports-focused, Formula One was a column a part of a larger structure. It was around other properties that had their own viewers. It was a guest at a party. Some people you knew, others you didn't, but you were all in the same place. AppleTV does not fit that model, and it likely will not anytime soon.

We are not going to see a 24/7 sports channel from AppleTV where its goal is to draw viewers all day, starting with the slop of debate shows and simulcasted podcasts from about 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. when live events take place. It is meant to be a hub. You come to watch the property when it is taking place. That is what it has done with Major League Soccer. That is what its Friday Major League Baseball games are like. Outside of when the games take place, there is no other reason to be on AppleTV if you are just looking to watch MLS, MLB or now Formula One. 

The best hope of promotion for Formula One is alert that AppleTV gives for upcoming or in progress events, but through three races, it has not felt like those have been numerous. I have watched MLS and subscribed once when Lionel Messi first joined Inter Miami. I still get alerts about matches happening. "Close game in Seattle. Can the Sounders hold off Toronto FC." I even get such alerts for NHL games for some reason, and Apple doesn't even have NHL rights. I have yet to get one for a Formula One session. "Practice is underway from Suzuka. Who will top the charts?" Nothing. That could just be me and my notifications, but those alerts, whether desired or not, is Formula One's best promotional tool on Apple, and it is limited because if you don't have an Apple device, you aren't getting those. 

That is kind of the problem and the concern with this contract. Can Formula One really reach out and grow viewership in the United States when it is secluded to solely a streaming platform? Plenty of people only stream their television, but in the increasingly segmented viewership world, people tend not to flock to one platform for one thing. There are shows people love, but the property needs some variety. Formula One has a built-in fanbase, but paying the monthly subscription for AppleTV when it will only be used for practice, qualifying and races, at most three days a week for a combined seven to eight hours depending on how much pre-race and post-race a person consumes could be the bridge too far. 

When it was readily available, Formula One was worth the time and effort. When a barrier was erected, the effort was no longer worth it. 

In all likelihood, there are plenty of people who have no idea we are three races into the Formula One season who would have at least been aware a year ago because it was on ESPN and it could be easily bumped into. Has there been one second of highlights aired on SportsCenter? I know last year a race highlight would make SportsCenter. ESPN provided some presence at the United States races, not much but there were boots on the ground and it let its viewers be known it was at the grand prix. Miami drew big viewership on network ABC. That isn't going to be there this year, and while Apple claimed big viewership without releasing any numbers after Australia, it is difficult to imagine the race will attract the same amount of attention as in recent years. 

The home races are where we will truly know how viewership has been. Every Formula One race is drawing a crowd, and there are enough people who are buying tickets without being diehard viewers. The change might not be seen in year one, but in a few years, when the wave of the first half of the 2020s dies down, the picture will be much more clear about how this broadcast deal is helping or hurting with interest in the United States. 

That is all tangential to the actual viewing experience. When it comes to turning on practice, qualifying or the race, there is no difference. What is different is the number of options, and it gives the viewer plenty of tools to make the broadcast what you wish it to be. 

Want the F1TV commentators? Done. Want Sky Sports? That is also an option. 

A viewer gets onboard cameras for every car. There is the telemetry feed. You can even make customizable multi-boxes. You could have a four-box with the race broadcast and your three favorite drivers. You could have just an onboard of George Russell and the map showing where the cars are on track. That was not available in previous Formula One broadcast agreements. 

It is difficult to complain when you can make the race viewing experience whatever you wish. It isn't a case of being stuck with whatever broadcast you are given. No one should ever think "too many options" is a negative experience. If you want just Sky Sports that is available, but if you want more and you want to experiment, you are free to do so, and that was never possible previously regardless of what channel held the rights.

Let's see how things change after May. The start of the Formula One season is not the best for the East Coast of the United States. Part of the absenteeism could have been sessions were starting at 10:00 p.m. or later and I wasn't 100% invested in watching or I was already planning on watching it once I woke up in the morning. That was how it was with previous broadcasters, but instead of setting a DVR, I just have to open AppleTV and select the session broadcast and I can choose to start from the beginning. 

That is an advantageous change. I no longer must worry about setting a recording before going to bed or worry about a broadcast being bumped to a different channel because of another live taking place before hand. AppleTV will have the session ready to go, whether I want to start from the beginning or join in progress. 

Three races is barely any time and the next two rounds are North American-based. This will be a big chance for Apple to draw in viewers. The next two races in Miami and Montreal are on at favorable hours. If people want to watch them, they could not be any more accommodating to the viewer. No staying up late. No getting up early. But is AppleTV too steep of a climb for those hoping to watch? 

Maybe someday we will get a clear picture of how it is going.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...

Marco Bezzecchi won MotoGP's United States Grand Prix, his fifth consecutive victory dating back to last season. Jorge Martín won the sprint race. Senna Agius won in Moto2. Guidi Pino won in Moto3, his first career victory.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the Japanese Grand Prix, his second consecutive victory.

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville. Justin Allgaier won the Grand National Series race, his third victory of the season. 

Nikita Johnson and Alessandro de Tullio split the Indy Lights races from Barber.

The #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Michai Stephens and Mikaël Grenier won the GT World Challenge America race from Sonoma. The #68 RAFA Racing Team Toyota of Westin Workman and Tyler Gonzalez swept the GT4 America races. Memo Gidley swept the GT America races.

Nicolò Bulega swept the World Superbike races from Portimão. Valentin Debise swept the World Supersport races.

Ken Roczen won the Supercross race from Detroit, his second victory of the season. Cole Davies won the 250cc race, his third victory of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend

Easter weekend see Supercross at St. Louis.

Super Formula opens its season with a doubleheader at Motegi.

NASCAR's lower two divisions will race on Friday and Saturday at Rockingham.

First Impressions: Barber 2026

1. Is it wrong to think this was the worst victory of Álex Palou's career? Seventy-nine laps led with a 13.2775-second margin of victory at Barber Motorsports Park? It wasn't very good. It isn't so much Palou's performance but more that in now 21 career victories, there aren't many where it feels like Palou took one that didn't feel like it was going his way. 

In the final round of pit stops, Palou was on the cusp of the wrong side of the pit time delta to Christian Lundgaard, who was going four laps longer on the penultimate stint. It was at least going to be close between the two after Lundgaard emerged from the pit lane. However, a bobble on the right rear tire cost Lundgaard everything. What could have been a side-by-side battle on an out lap and a 20-lap battle for the victory turned into a clear victory for Palou. 

Palou didn't put a wheel wrong in this race. There is a good chance he was going to be ahead of Lundgaard after the final pit stop anyway, and he might have had a fight on his hands, but Palou would have still been in prime position to win the race. Instead, this turned into a cakewalk. 

That is no surprise. Everyone expected Palou to win from pole position with 79 laps led before today started. It was up to the competition to defeat him, and they had a real good shot in Lundgaard, but one mistake ended any hope of Palou being defeated, and not just defeated, but beaten in a race he controlled. Palou was the clear #1 driver until the final round of pit stops approached, and with Lundgaard going long, it looked like the Dane was going to swing the race into his favor.

Palou was good and lucky. He likely was always going to win, but in the one race where it appeared someone was going to get the best of him, an unforced error allowed Palou to take a comfortable victory.

2. This is going to sting for Christian Lundgaard and Arrow McLaren. Did this group 100% deserve victory? I don't think anything was stolen with a second place finish, but Lundgaard drove a flawless race and looked set to at least challenge for victory after starting tenth. He was one of the quickest cars on the day, and he was able to make passes and move forward. Even if he did not emerge from the pit lane in the lead after the final pit stop, Lundgaard was going to have Palou in view and slightly fresher tires to make a push toward the checkered flag. 

One bad pit stop erased that. There was no overcoming that deficit, and Lundgaard had to work just to get back to second. He definitely deserved second today, but he wasn't over 13 seconds behind Palou. The speed is there, but every aspect of the team must be on point, and when the pit crew was needed most, it had its worst stop of the season. 

3. Graham Rahal was the third-best driver today, and Rahal held his ground well in this race. It was a real challenge to stay on the podium. The tires were gone in the final stint and he lost second late to Lundgaard, but Rahal was able to fend off David Malukas. It is another case of Rahal having a standout race somewhat out of nowhere, and we cannot believe if it is a change or a one-off. 

Barber has never been a good track for  Rahal, and this isn't the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course where he and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has a magic touch and automatically run at the front. At times, RLLR has good speed on road courses and at other times it doesn't. Rahal drove well all weekend and it would have been a shame if he did not finish on the podium. It was a strong drive.

4. "If only there was another lap" Well, there wasn't, and in a 90-lap affair at Barber, David Malukas was fourth. Malukas struggled on the alternate tire in the first stint and stopped early, but other teams did better on the alternate tire, especially those who put those on after the opening stint. It cost Malukas some time, but it was not devastating. He practically ran third or fourth the entire race. The pace wasn't there to keep up with Palou. It was there to push for the podium though. That is progress, and this is Malukas' first top five finish on a road or street course. 

Though he is driving for Team Penske, there are many milestones Malukas still has to reach. After not finishing in a top five on a road or street course in his first three-and-a-half seasons in IndyCar, no one should have expected Malukas to be winning immediately on this discipline just because he joined Team Penske. He needed to make this step first and just spend an entire race in the top five. Check off that box.

5. Kyle Kirkwood basically spent this entire race staring at David Malukas' gearbox, and despite stopping a lap earlier for his first stop and then going two laps longer before his final stop, Kirkwood could not leapfrog ahead. Hey, it is still a top five finish, and it is enough for Kirkwood to hold onto the championship lead with a two-point edge over Palou, but Kirkwood had fourth within his grasp this entire race and he just couldn't quite grab it. 

6. Talk about another nondescript top ten finish for Marcus Armstrong. Armstrong started fourth, dropped a few spots early, and then basically ran sixth the entire race. At no point was he a threat for something better. At no point was he in danger of finishing worse. For all his consistency, we have yet to see him be a challenger, and one of these days it must happen. 

I don't know if it is the driver or if it is the team. Is this the best Armstrong can do or is the Meyer Shank Racing car good enough to be on the edge of the top five but not manufacture a podium finish or push for victory? It feels a little more like the team is against the ceiling, and it is better than it was a few years ago, but it just isn't enough for victory. 

7. And in a new trend of the season, Scott Dixon started outside the top ten, made up a few spots early, and then ran well enough to make up a few more and finish seventh. Is this the best Dixon can do at age 45 and staring down 46? We have covered his qualifying woes. The pace is not there. He has not been a threat for a while now. Maybe this is the cliff. This is the point where Dixon is still a top ten driver, but victories are becoming too hard to obtain. 

Dating back to last season, it has been seven races since Dixon has finished in the top five. The last time it was this bad he was driving a Panoz-Toyota, and both of those parts were the problem, not the driver back then. The trend has developed. How long will it go?

8. Santino Ferrucci had a good day and finished eighth. Nothing flashy occurred. Starting the race on the primary tire might have helped him because it felt like everyone who started on the alternate tire lost ground, but those who used the alternate tire during the middle of the race held ground. That kept Ferrucci in the top ten discussion and then he finished eighth. 

9. I guess ninth is good for Marcus Ericsson. Ericsson didn't do anything notable. Most drivers did nothing today. Ericsson stopped early to get off the primary tire, but having saved alternate tires for the race didn't really pave dividends. He lost a position from where he started the race. It wasn't the best strategy but it wasn't the worst. It is still a good result and three top ten finishes from four races is more top ten finishes than he had over the entirety of last season. 

10. There was an expectation this would be an alternate tire race and having an extra set would be beneficial. Josef Newgarden had three fresh sets of alternate tires and they made no positive difference as Newgarden ended up losing a spot from where he started and he was tenth at the finish. It was a strategy, but for how bold it was it neither produced a seismically good result or was an utter disaster. Not often do you find a middle ground on such a roll of the dice. 

There was one competitive Team Penske driver today, and outside of Phoenix, Team Penske does not look much better than it was last year. At least its drivers have not been caught in accidents that were not of its making nor seeming to have every mechanical issue imaginable. 

11. Alexander Rossi started 11th and finished 11th. Did anyone notice anything worth mentioning from Rossi?

12. Will Power did drive from 23rd to 12th after his qualifying accident forced Power to start at the rear of the field. It was a good drive, and Power did end the race using three sets of alternate tires. It probably helped, but the tire advantage was not great enough that three stints on new alternate tires was going to be turn the car into a rocket ship through the field. It was the best strategy to choose, and Power made the most of it.

13. There are a number of drivers we can brush through. 

Felix Rosenqvist did move forward from 18th on the grid, but 13th is a bad ceiling to hit. When you see Armstrong's speed, you would have thought Rosenqvist could have been competing for a top ten finish, and he should have been better across the board this weekend. 

Rinus VeeKay did have a spin and still recovered to finish 14th in a caution-free race! It never looked like VeeKay was going to crack the top ten, but to recovered after a lazy turn five spin while battling Alexander Rossi and finish 14th is a good rebound. 

Romain Grosjean dropped from sixth to 15th in this race. Grosjean went the wrong way on every stint, and hopes were high because Dale Coyne Racing started in the top five last year and pushed for the podium at Barber. It felt like Grosjean was in the right spot at the start, but every stint got worse. This one got away. 

14. Who had Scott McLaughlin finishing 16th and Patricio O'Ward finishing 17th? McLaughlin never had the pace today. He was worse than Newgarden and Newgarden wasn't that good. I don't recall anything going wrong. I just don't recall anything going right for McLaughlin. He did 17 laps on his first stint on alternate tires and then decided to run 25 laps on his next stint on alternate tire. That feels like a team grasping for straws and it didn't work. 

O'Ward had a bad day. He lost spots at the very start and was fighting from behind. Right when he made some of those up, he lost ground again. This must be the first time O'Ward was this irrelevant in a race since Barber two years ago when all three Arrow McLaren cars finished outside the top twenty. At least that was a team effort. We know McLaren had some pace today as Christian Lundgaard was in the discussion for victory.

15. Is anyone behind 17th worth mentioning? 

Nolan Siegel was 18th. Fine. At least he didn't hit anything.

Christian Rasmussen was 19th. Rasmussen is such an odd driver. Qualifying is basically always horrible. Sometimes, he has a much better race car and can gain ground and every few ovals he is somehow the driver to beat, but then he will struggle to crack the top fifteen in the next handful of races. There are a few interesting basket cases on the grid at the moment. 

Kyffin Simpson did nothing and finished 20th. That is how it works every now and then for Simpson. 

16. No rookie finished in the top twenty today. Caio Collet was 21st. Dennis Hauger was 23rd and Mick Schumacher was 24th. Outside of Hauger at St. Petersburg, and I guess Collet at Arlington, the rookies have genuinely been uncompetitive, and it is not much different from last year. This could just be a minor thing and a coincidence it has happened two consecutive years, but it is odd that rookie have struggled this much. We are not expecting top five finishes, but just being more competitive for the top ten and running 12th or 13th. How many laps this season have seen multiple rookies running in the top 15? We can dive into that during this extended Easter break. It cannot be many. 

There is a lot of time left in 2026, but this rookie class is shadowing 2025 very closely. That might be a larger IndyCar problem than a talent issue.

17. Sting Ray Robb was 22nd. Eh. 

18. We are likely due a Louis Foster conversation because this was his 21st start, and Foster looked lost today. He was the slowest car on track. He was in the way. He had to make a fourth pit stop. There could have been a problem bigger than Foster, but it is odd his results have been this poor for this long. 

RLLR had a car on the podium and then the worst two finishers. What is the problem at this team? Is it the engineering? Is it the drivers? I don't know if you can just hire Linus Lundqvist and if he is going to be better than Schumacher and Foster. He cannot be any worse but I don't think he is the difference between running 18th and cracking the top ten.

For Foster, we saw him last year constantly qualify best of the RLLR trio and make the second round of qualifying and even make the final round of qualifying. He even won a pole position. The race pace wasn't there, but some of that was also strategy not going in his favor. A few tweaks and he was going to start scoring respectable results. Things have gone the wrong direction through the first four races in 2026. I don't know what to make of it. Foster isn't a bad driver, but it is pretty inexplicable how poor things have turned.

This is our fifth season with three RLLR cars, and in none of those seasons has it gotten it to click for all three cars. It might be time to consider downsizing this group and focusing on two cars. From 2018 through 2021, when Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato were RLLR's two drivers, neither finished worse than 12th in the championship and in two of those seasons did both drivers finish in the championship top ten. 

I think it is time to consider that discussion, and that means we get to see what an IndyCar charter can do on the open market! All buyers welcome!

19. This is another race where we can have a discussion about the alternate and primary tire compounds because it was again a race where the tires did not matter. It feels like Firestone made a big market correction from last year where we had plenty of races where everyone wanted to get off the alternate tire in two or three laps because it wore out rapidly, but now the difference is minuscule and there is no point in having two tire compounds if the difference is negligible. 

IndyCar and Firestone should not be afraid to have an alternate tire that it knows is not going to last a fuel stint. That is kind of the point of having an alternate tire compound. We know IndyCar and Firestone can hit that happy medium, but it constantly feels like it loses that happy medium. It will have it for a year or two at a track and then we return and there is no difference in the tires. That is frustrating. You had it. How did you lose it? 

Obviously, these conversations have been held because we see the experimentation on street courses with teams mandated to use two alternate tires in those races, but I think it must go further. There must be a goal of having an alternate tire that is not going to last a full fuel stint and also changing the regulation so the minimum lap total on a compound should be higher. There is no reason for the minimum to be two laps. Raise it to ten laps. Make it carry some weight and actually have to be strategized around. 

Firestone has been involved for too long for it to be such a guessing game and having it end up with both compounds end up identical. 

20. This was a typical Barber race. It gets a little spread out. There are periods of action but it is not overwhelming. It was fine. Even with the pit issue for Lundgaard, we still had great battles for the podium positions. This is still a great track to race at. It was tough returning after the passing of track founder George Barber. When you consider this relationship between the track and IndyCar dates back to 2010, this has been a major success. IndyCar found a home in Alabama, a sentence no one could have imagined being possible at the turn of the 21st century. It is a great spring event, and one that is anticipated each year. Let's hope and pray it continues for many more years after the passing of George Barber. 

21. Now the first extended break in the IndyCar season. We get Easter off and then an extra week off for fun. Then we are off to Long Beach. At least we are entering April with four races in the bag instead of only one or two. Folks, it is getting late early.

Morning Warm-Up: Barber 2026

Álex Palou turned the fastest lap in the final round of qualifying yesterday from Barber Motorsports Park at 66.2341 seconds, and that means Palou will start the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from pole position. It is his 13th career pole position, and his first of the season. Palou could become the fifth driver to win consecutive Barber races. He won last year from pole position and led 81 of 90 laps in the process before taking the checkered flag 16.0035 seconds ahead of the competition. Palou has won from pole position nine times in his career. His victory last year was the fastest Barber race at 116.562 mph. The last five Barber races have averaged over 110 mph after only two of the first ten Barber races averaged at least 110 mph.

David Malukas was 0.1137 seconds behind Palou in qualifying, and this will place Malukas on the front row, his second front row start of the season. He started on pole position and finished third at Phoenix. His only other front row start on a road or street course was last year at Detroit where Malukas started second but finished 14th. Malukas is looking for his third consecutive top ten finish, which would be a first in his IndyCar career. His best Barber finish was 16th. His previous best Barber start was 17th in 2023. This is Malukas' 65th career start. No driver has ever had their first career victory come in their 65th start.

Graham Rahal took a surprise third place in qualifying, matching his best start of the season. Rahal was 0.2840 seconds behind Palou. This is Rahal's best starting position at Barber since he qualifying on the front row for the 2019 race. Rahal has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive Barber races. He has finished outside the top ten in nine of 15 Barber starts. It has been 144 starts since Rahal's most recent victory, the second Belle Isle race in 2017. Rahal currently holds the record for most starts between victory at 124.

Marcus Armstrong joins Rahal on the outside of row two, Armstrong's best starting position of the season, and his best starting position at Barber. His previous best was sixth in 2024. Armstrong led the second-most laps in last year's Barber race, six laps while Álex Palou led 81 of 90 laps, but Armstrong finished 17th after an issue on his final stop refueling the car cost him time, positions and ultimately forced him the New Zealander to save fuel to make it to the finish. This will be Armstrong's 50th career start. The only driver to have their first career victory come in their 50th start was Danica Patrick at Motegi in 2008.

Championship leader Kyle Kirkwood starts fifth, his best start at Barber and the best start of the season. This is Kirkwood's first top five start since he was third at Road America last June. Kirkwood's previous best grid spot here was ninth in 2024. The American was 0.5985 seconds off pole position. Kirkwood has three consecutive top five finishes. He has never had four consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career. His best Barber finish is tenth, which came in 2024.

Romain Grosjean rounds out the top six in what was his second Fast Six appearance of the season. Grosjean started sixth at St. Petersburg before finishing eighth. This is his fourth time starting in the top ten in five Barber appearances. His worst start here was 11th in 2024. This will be the 67th start of Grosjean's career. The only driver to have their first career victory come in their 67th start was Maurício Gugelmín at Vancouver in 1997.

Santino Ferrucci snapped a streak of eight consecutive starts outside the top ten, as Ferrucci qualified sevent. He was 0.0117 seconds off advancing to the final round of qualifying. Ferrucci's best Barber finish was seventh in 2024 after starting 17th. In two of the last three seasons, Ferrucci has opened with at least five finishes outside the top ten. 

Marcus Ericsson has his third top ten start in four races as Ericsson takes eighth on the grid. The Swede was 0.0248 seconds from making it to the final round of qualifying. Ericsson's best Barber finish was his first start at the track in 2019, seventh and that was also his first top ten finish in IndyCar. He has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four races here.

Josef Newgarden starts ninth, his second consecutive year starting ninth at Barber. From 2012 through 2019, Newgarden had three Barber victories, four podium finishes, five top five finishes and seven top ten finishes with an average finish of 5.5 in eight starts. In the last five Barber races, his best finish is tenth, which came last year, and his average finish of 15.6.

Christian Lundgaard rounds out the top ten on the grid, his best start of the season. Last year, Lundgaard drove from seventh to second in this race. He has finished better than his grid position in every race this season. Lundgaard has finished on the lead lap in 21 consecutive road/street course races, and only twice in 48 road/street course races has he not finish on the lead lap. Both were at Long Beach in 2022 and in 2024. 

Alexander Rossi qualified 11th after starting in the top ten of the last two races. Rossi has alternated eighth-place finishes in two of the last three Barber races. He was ninth in the 2021 and 2022 Barber races. He has finished on the lead lap in seven consecutive races. Rossi has not had eight consecutive lead lap finishes since 2019 starting at Indianapolis 500 and running through Mid-Ohio. The only time Rossi has won from outside the top ten was the 100th Indianapolis 500, which he won from 11th.

Patricio O'Ward has his worst start of the season in 12th. O'Ward had ten consecutive top ten starts prior to this weekend. O'Ward could become the first Arrow McLaren driver to open a season with four consecutive top five finishes since the organization's return to IndyCar in 2020. Even dating back to the 1970s and McLaren's first foray into IndyCar with Johnny Rutherford as its driver, Rutherford never opened a season with four consecutive top five finishes. Rutherford had three consecutive to start in 1979.

Scott Dixon was 0.0628 seconds off advancing from the first qualifying group in round one, and this places Dixon 13th on the grid. It is his best starting position of the season. It is also his third time starting 13th in the last five Barber races. Dixon has competed in all three previous IndyCar races held on March 29. He won the first in 2008 at Homestead, but he was 18th at St. Petersburg on this day in 2010, and he was 15th at St. Petersburg on this day in 2015.

Despite an accident in second practice, which saw Scott McLaughlin go through the barrier on the exit of turn one, McLaughlin's team repaired the car and he qualified 14th. He was 0.0142 seconds off advancing from the second group in round one. It is his worst Barber start. McLaughlin had made it out of the first round of qualifying in all five of his previous visits. McLaughlin has three consecutive podium finishes here and he has four consecutive top ten results.

Nolan Siegel will start 15th as the McLaren driver was 0.1242 seconds from advancing to round two. Siegel is still looking for his first lead lap finish of the 2026 season. He has not finished in the top ten in his last ten starts, and he has failed to finish on the lead lap in his last five starts. Siegel was ninth last year at Barber but he did start sixth.

Rinus VeeKay will start on the outside of row eight. In five Barber races, VeeKay has three finishes of sixth or better and two finishes outside the top fifteen. The last 14 times the Dutchman has started outside the top fifteen he has finished better than his starting position. He has also finished better than his starting position in three of five Barber starts.

Christian Rasmussen has his second-worst grid spot of the season in 17th. Last year, Rasmussen started 17th at Barber and finished 15th. The year prior to that he started 14th but he finished 24th after spinning and losing a lap. The Dane has never had a top ten finish in one of the first five races in an IndyCar season. At 19.333, Rasmussen has the fourth-worse average finish this season through the first three races.

Felix Rosenqvist takes 18th on the grid, Rosenqvist's worst starting position at Barber since 22nd in 2021, his first race with Arrow McLaren. After a mid-week penalty, Rosenqvist was moved up to 19th in the Arlington results. Twice previously has Rosenqvist started a season with at least four consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Those seasons were 2021 and 2022.

Kyffin Simpson starts 19th at Barber. Simpson dropped from 19th to 20th in the Arlington race after a penalty was issued during the week for avoidable contact that caused the accident between Nolan Siegel and Romain Grosjean on the final restart. Last season, Simpson picked up two top ten finishes on permanent road courses. He was sixth at Road America after starting 23rd, and tenth at Mid-Ohio, falling from third at the start.

Mick Schumacher was the top rookie qualifier in 20th. Schumacher was ranked 23rd and 19th after the two practice sessions prior to qualifying. Schumacher has finished worse than his starting position in all three races this season. In his three starts, he has lost four spots, 14 spots and five spots respectively. 

Caio Collet is the next best rookie starter in 21st. Collet is coming off his best finish in IndyCar, a 12th at Arlington in his third career start. In each of his first three starts, Collet has respectively gained seven spots, four spots and four spots from his starting position to the race finish. 

Louis Foster joins Collet on row 11. This is Foster's worst starting position of the season. He started three races outside the top twenty last season, but all of those were oval events. His worst road/street course start prior to this was 16th at St. Petersburg last season. Foster enters his 21st start looking for his first top ten finish in IndyCar. Alex Barron took 21 races to get his first top ten finish. Only six drivers took more than 21 starts for their first top ten.

Will Power had a brake failure in the first round of qualifying cause an accident in turn five, and the red flag cost Power his fastest two laps. This dropped the Australian to 23rd on the grid. Power has five consecutive top five finishes at Barber Motorsports Park, including a drive from 19th to fourth in 2022, Power's previous worst starting position at this circuit. This is his second start outside the top twenty in four races this season. Power had three starts outside the top twenty all last season.

Dennis Hauger ended up 24th on the grid, his worst starting position in his brief IndyCar career. Hauger did gain seven spots at Phoenix from 22nd to 15th, and he picked up three spots at Arlington to finish 16th from 19th. Hauger had a grand slam last year in the Indy Lights race at Barber, leading all 35 laps from pole position and taking fastest lap as well.

An interference penalty in the second qualifying group relegated Sting Ray Robb to 25th and last on the grid. Robb has opened the 2026 season with three consecutive finishes of 21st. He has not had four consecutive finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career since a six-race run from Barber through Mid-Ohio in 2023.

Fox's coverage of the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix from Barber Motorsports Park begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:17 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.

Track Walk: Barber 2026

The fourth round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season sees an earlier trip to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. This will be IndyCar's earliest visit to the Yellowhammer State. Barber's previous earliest race was April 1. Kyle Kirkwood holds the championship leader after his victory at the Grand Prix of Arlington. Kirkwood is one of two drivers to have finished in the top five of all three races. He is also one of two drivers with top ten finishes in all three races. This will be the 16th Barber race. Thirteen times has the race been won from inside the top five and eight of those have been from the front row.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 29 with green flag scheduled for 1:17 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.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 3:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 11:00 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:00 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:17 p.m. ET (70 laps)

Do We Hear Four Different Championship Leaders?

Three IndyCar races, three different winners and each have led the championship after their victory. 

Álex Palou won the St. Petersburg season opener and picked up right where he left off last season. At Phoenix, Palou was out early due to an accident, and Josef Newgarden swept through for victory, which put Newgarden on top of the standings. Two weeks ago at Arlington, Kyle Kirkwood drove through the top ten to pass Palou with a daring move in the final corner of the couse while Newgarden had a spin. This combination of results lifted Kirkwood to the championship lead for the first time in his career. 

We have seen three different drivers lead the championship this season through three races. When was the last time there have been four different championship leaders through four races? Well, it just happened in 2024. Patricio O'Ward, Scott Dixon, Colton Herta and Palou all held the top spot through the first four races. It was the third time since 1975 there have been four different championship leaders after four races. It first happened in 1988 when Mario Andretti, Raul Boesel, Michael Andretti and Rick Mears each led the championship. The other time was 1995 when Jacques Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal, Paul Tracy and Scott Pruett each shared the championship lead through four races. 

Four drivers could leave Barber Motorsports Park as the fourth championship leader through the first four races of 2026. If Kirkwood starts the Barber race, any driver within 49 points could leave as the championship leader.

One of those is Patricio O'Ward, who sits 33 points off the championship lead. Besides Kirkwood, O'Ward is the only driver to finish in the top five of every race this season. He has nine top five finishes in the last 11 races. This is the first time he has opened a season with three consecutive top five finishes. He has won previously at Barber, back in 2022. O'Ward has not led the championship since after the 2024 St. Petersburg race.

Forty-one points off the championship lead is Scott McLaughlin. While he was second at St. Petersburg, McLaughlin's results have dipped over the last two races, dropping to eighth at Phoenix and 11th at Arlington, which ended a six-race top ten finish streak. McLaughlin has led the championship twice in his career, after the first two races in 2022. 

One point further behind Kirkwood in the championship is David Malukas, a driver who is looking to lead the championship for the first time in his career. Malukas rebounded from 13th at St. Petersburg to finish third and sixth in the last two races. In three Barber starts, Malukas has never finished better than 16th. Currently sixth in the championship, this matches the best Malukas has ever been in the championship. He was sixth after the 2023 Texas race, where he finished fourth, the second race of that season.

Christian Lundgaard has finished third, 13th and seventh over the first three races, giving Lundgaard 80 points. Forty-six points off the championship lead, there is a slim chance Lundgaard leaves Barber with the championship lead. Lundgaard has been ranked in the top ten of the championship after every race he has run with Arrow McLaren. Last year, he left Barber ranked second in the championship. 

Marcus Ericsson is 49 points behind his Andretti Global teammate Kirkwood, meaning the two drivers could leave this weekend tied in points. However, no matter what, Kirkwood will at least hold the tiebreaker. It requires a victory from Ericsson for the two drivers to leave Alabama tied in points, but no matter what Kirkwood would hold the tiebreaker. Each would have a victory, but Kirkwood's next best finish through the first four races would be second to Ericsson's fourth.

Eleven times since 1975 has the championship lead changed after each of the first four races though not always with four different drivers. In the last 51 years, there has never been a case where there have been more than four consecutive different championship leaders to open a season. The most consecutive races with a change in the championship lead to open a season is six, which happened in 2009.

Is This Dixon's Year?

Another year heading to Barber Motorsports Park means asking the long-unanswered question, is this Scott Dixon's year? One of three drivers to run all 15 races held at the circuit, Dixon has the most podium finishes at the track with nine. He has ten top five finishes and 13 top ten finishes and he has the third-best average finish all-time at the circuit at 5.0667, however, Dixon heads to Barber in one of his worst slumps in a long time, and it is a cause for concern.

Through the first three races, Dixon's best finish is seventh, and while he has finished in the top ten of the last two races, he is 12th in the championship. This is the first time he has not had a top five finish in one of the first three races of a season since his infamous 2005 season where he was 13th in the championship. Dating back to last season, he has six consecutive races without a top five result, another low that Dixon has not seen since the timeframe of 2005. It is his longest top five finish drought since a 26-race run from the fourth race of the 2004 season through the 15th race of the 2005 season. 

The only other time in Dixon's career he has gone six races or more without a top five finish were the final two races of his rookie season in 2001 through the first seven races of the 2002 season. The 2002 sesaon is the only other time he has not had a top five finish in one of the first three racaes of a season. 

Things are not trending well for Dixon in general or at Barber. 

While he has such an incredible track record, he has finished outside the top ten in his last two visits to the 2.37-mile road course. In three of the last four years, Dixon has not made it out of the first round of qualifying here. Last year, he started 26th. Dixon's qualifying form has been a cause for concern across the board recently. 

Last year, he started in the top five in only two race, both ovals. He has failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying in four of the last five road or street course and he has not made the Fast Six on a road or street course since the 2025 season opener from St. Petersburg. Dixon has failed to start better than 15th this season, and he has started outside the top ten in six of the last eight races. He has not had a front row start since the 2023 Texas race when he started second, and he has not started on the front row for a road or street course since Toronto in 2022. His most recent pole position was the 2022 Indianapolis 500. 

Going rather unnoticed is earlier this season IndyCar reached 100 races with the aeroscreen, reaching the landmark race at Phoenix with Arlington being the 101st race. 

In the first 50 races with the aeroscreen, Texas 2020 to Long Beach 2023, Dixon had an average starting position of 8.88. During that time he started 19 races in the top five and 31 races in the top ten. Only ten times did he start outside the top fifteen, and only two of those were starts outside the top twenty. 

In the last 50 races, Dixon's average starting position has dropped to 11.72. Only eight times has he started in the top five and only 23 times has he started in the top ten. His starts outside the top fifteen increased to 14 and Dixon has started four times outside the top twenty.

The middle race was coincidentally enough the 2023 Barber race where Dixon started fifth and finished seventh. 

While his starting position has dipped, his finishing position is not far off. In the first 50 aeroscreen races, Dixon's average finish was 6.76 with seven victories, 18 podium finishes, 29 top five results and 42 top ten finishes. In the last 50 races, Dixon's average has only gone down to 7.84, he has won six times in the last 50 races with 13 podium finishes, 23 top five finishes and 38 top ten finishes. 

In recent seasons, Dixon has had a knack of ending long winless streaks, even when it feels like we could be on the verge of the first winless season for the New Zealander in over two decades. He had a 22-race winless streak starting from the second Texas race in 2021 and ending with his victory at Toronto in 2022. He went a full year and five days between victories at Nashville in 2022 to his victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in August 2023, which saw kicked off a hot end to that season where Dixon won three of the final four races. 

Dixon's most recent victory at Mid-Ohio last July ended a 19-race winless streak. He enters Barber having not won in his last ten starts. 

Perhaps Someone Else Ends a Drought

Scott Dixon enters on a double-digit winless streak, but he is not the only one. A handful of drivers are looking to end droughts this weekend and would love to do them before getting to the April showers.

Two drivers we have already mentioned. 

Scott McLaughlin has gone 21 races since his most recent victory, the penultimate race of the 2024 season at Milwaukee. McLaughlin has not won on a road or street course since his 2024 Barber victory, and his last two road course victories have come at Barber Motorsports Park as he won here in 2023. He was third last year at Barber after starting next to Álex Palou on the front row. McLaughlin was 0.1469 seconds off Palou's pole position time, and then McLaughlin finished 23.4453 seconds behind Palou in the race. McLaughlin's most recent top five finish on a permanent road course was fourth at last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Christian Lundgaard has been pretty close to victory in his first 20 starts with Arrow McLaren. The problem is close has not been good enough. Lundgaard might have seven podium finishes in the last 20 races, second only behind Palou's 15, but none of those have been trips to the top step for the Dane. Lundgaard's winless streak since his first career victory at Toronto in 2023 is now up to 44 races. Last year, Lundgard was second to Palou at Barber. He has finished in the top six in the last three Barber races.

Marcus Ericsson cannot leave Barber as the championship leader, but Ericsson could end a 53-race winless streak. The Swede has not won since the 2023 St. Petersburg season opener. In that space of time, Ericsson has only three podium finishes and nine top five finishes, but Ericsson is off to his best start since 2023. He picked up his first career pole position at Arlington two weeks ago and finished fourth. Combined with sixth at St. Petersburg, this is the first time he has had at least two top ten finishes in the first three race since 2023 when he opened the season with eight consecutive top ten results. 

Will Power has won fairly recently, his most recent victory was only five races ago, but Andretti Global has gone nearly 12 years since it last won at Barber Motorsports Park. The team's only two victories came in consecutive years, and both at the hands of Ryan Hunter-Reay. Since then, the Andretti Global organization has a combined five top five finishes at Barber. It was second in 2018 with Hunter-Reay and second again in 2023 with Romain Grosjean. Andretti Global has failed to finish better than seventh in four of the last five Barber races.

It has also been a minute since Power has won at Barber. While being one of five drivers to win at the track multiple times, his most recent victory was in 2012, the second race of the DW12 chassis. At that time, Hélio Castroneves was one of Power's Team Penske teammates, Graham Rahal was driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, Rubens Barrichello was eighth driving for KV Racing, and Sébastien Bourdais got Lotus its lone top ten finish with a ninth-place result. It was also Josef Newgarden's second career start. 

Other drivers with notable winless streaks entered this weekend are Rinus VeeKay (81 starts), Félix Rosenqvist (95 starts) and Graham Rahal (144 starts).

Getting Late Early?

The fourth race of the season has been the quarter-pole of sorts in recent IndyCar seasons as there have only been 17 races. An additional race in 2026 does make the fourth race fell a tad earlier, but we have enough history to suggest the fourth race is a good measuring stick for how a season will be. 

Not everyone will get a victory within the first four races of the season, but a fair amount of the field could have a top five finish in that time. With 20 opportunities for top five finishes in such a span, most of the field could have a top five finish within the first four races. That is of course not the case. Scott Dixon is arguably the most notable driver without a top five finish this season, but he is not the only one. 

The only driver in the top ten of the championship who does not have a top five finish this season is Alexander Rossi. Rossi has finished sixth and ninth in the last two races, but for the third consecutive season and the sixth time in the last seven season, Rossi does not have a top five finish within the first three races of the season. Only five times in Rossi's ten IndyCar seasons has he had a top five finish in one of the first four races. His best finish at Barber is fifth, and most recently in 2019. 

Ninety-three of the 94 champions since 1947 have had at least one top five finish within the first four races of the season. Gil de Ferran is the lone exception. De Ferran's first top five result in the 2000 season was his victory at Nazareth, the fifth race of that season. Only one champion since reunification did not finish in the top five in one of the first two races. That would be Dixon in 2015. 

All 94 champions since the 1947 American Automobile Association season had at least one top ten finish within the first four races of the season. Seventy-three of those champions were top ten finishers in the first race of the season. Ninety-three of the 94 champions had at least one top ten finish within the first three races. The only champion that did not get his first top ten finish until the fourth race was Danny Sullivan in 1988. Sullivan cracked the top ten with a runner-up finish at Milwaukee that year.

Only eight drives have not had a top ten finish through the first three races of the season. Felix Rosenqvist had a top ten finish on the road in Arlington before a penalty for jumping the final restart demoted him to 20th. A penalty to Kyffin Simpson for avoidable contact at the end of the Arlington race has lifted Rosenqvist up a position to 19th ten days after the fact while Simpson dropped a spot to 20th in the final results. Rosenqvist had finished 12th in the first two races of the season. 

Caio Collet has yet to finish in the top ten in his rookie season, and he was 12th in the most recent race. Louis Foster has completed 20 IndyCar races and he has yet to finish in the top ten. Santino Ferrucci joins his A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Collet in not having a top ten finish this season. Ferrucci's best finish was 11th at Phoenix. 

Christian Rasmussen is arguably the driver who came the closest to victory this season not to win a race, and despite this he has yet to finish in the top ten this season, and he is 22nd in the championship out of 25th drivers. Rasmussen was 14th at the Phoenix finish after his late race misfortune saw him lose the lead late and bounce off the wall in the process. 

Sting Ray Robb enters having finished 21st in each of the first three races of the season. Nolan Siegel has finished 20th twice and 24th once. Mick Schumacher is last in the championship, and his best finish was surprisingly enough at Phoenix, though only 18th. 

Of the 18 champions since reunification, 11 of them won one of the first three races. Of the seven champions that did not win one of the first three races, five of them did not pick up their first victory until race six or later. In the last 12 seasons, the eventual champion has had his first victory come within the first seven races of the season.

Road to Indy

Indy Lights will be the lone junior series joining IndyCar at Barber, but this is the first of five doubleheader weekends this season. 

At Arlington, Andretti Global's Max Taylor pulled off a daring move into the final corner to take the lead and ultimately the victory from Enzo Fittipaldi. With the victory, Taylor moved into the championship lead on 92 points. He was second in the St. Petersburg season opener. Taylor is ten points clear of Cape Motorsports powered by ECR's Nikita Johnson, who followed his St. Petersburg victory with a sixth-place result in Arlington. 

Tymek Kucharczyk has been the surprise through the first two races as Kucharczyk has a pair of third-place finishes and that puts the Polish driver third on 70 points. He is the top HMD Motorsports driver in the championship. Lochie Hughes' pair of fifth-place results gives Hughes 60 points, and he is 32 points behind his Andretti Global teammate Taylor. Seb Murray makes it three Andretti drivers in the top five. Murray has 58 points. 

Fittipaldi's runner-up finish lifted him to sixth in the championship on 57 points. The Brazilian was 17th at the St. Petersburg opener. Juan Manuel Correa is seventh in the championship with 54 points for Cusick Morgan Motorsports while Myles Rowe is on 50 points for Abel Motorsport with Force Indy.

A.J. Foyt Racing's Alessandro de Tullio took a stunning pole position at Arlington only to go off track on the opening lap. With finishes of tenth and 11th, de Tullio is ninth in the championship on 40 points, four ahead of Abel's Jordan Missig. 

Matteo Nannini and Ricardo Escotto are tied on 35 points. Salvador de Alba will attempt to bounce back from a 20th in Arlington. De Alba is on 34 points as is Jack Beeton and Max Garcia. Josh Pierson sits on 33 points. 

The top Chip Ganassi Racing driver in the championship is Niels Koolen in 17th on 25 points. Koolen's teammate Bryce Aron is 19th on 24 points, James Roe is 21st on 22 pints and Carson Etter has 17 points in 23rd. 

The first Indy Lights race of the weekend will take place at 1:06 p.m. ET on Saturday March 28. Race two on Sunday March 29 will be held at 11:09 a.m. ET.  The first race will be 35 laps with the second scheduled for 30 laps. 

Fast Facts

This will be the fourth race to take place on March 29, and the first since 2015 when Juan Pablo Montoya won at St. Petersburg. 

Every race on March 29 occurred post-reunification. 

The first race post-reunification was held on March 29, 2008 at Homestead. Scott Dixon won that race. The other was at St. Petersburg in 2010 when the race was delayed a day to Monday due to weather, and Will Power took the victory.

This will be IndyCar's fourth race before the month of March has concluded. IndyCar has not had four races run in a single series before the end of March since technically the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season, which started in August 1996 and completed two races before the end of the calendar year before running two more races in the first three months of 1997. 

The last time four races were run before the end of March in a season that started in the same calendar year was 1975, but even that has a technicality as the first two races were qualifying races for the California 500 and each contained only half the field. 

You must go back to 1921 to find a season that had four races completed before the end of March, and that season started with five races at Los Angeles Motor Speedway, a 1.25-mile board oval, on February 27 of that year.

The average starting position for a Barber winner is 2.8667 with a median of second.

The worst starting position for a Barber winner is ninth (Will Power 2012).

Twenty-six consecutive races have been won from inside the top ten.

Forty-three of 45 podium finishers at Barber have started inside the top ten. 

The only two podium finishers to start outside the top ten at Barber have come in two of the last three races. In 2023, Will Power went from 11th to third. In 2024, Linus Lundqvist went from 19th to third.

Two drivers have had their first career victories come at Barber Motorsports Park, Josef Newgarden in 2017 and Álex Palou in 2021.

The average number of lead changes in a Barber race is 6.9333 with a median of seven. 

Eleven of 15 Barber races have had six lead changes or more. 

Ten of 15 Barber winners have led at least half the laps in the race. 

The average number of cautions in a Barber race is 2.1333 with a median of two. The average number of caution laps is 8.1333 with a median of seven. 

Last year was the first caution-free Barber race. Twelve of 15 races have had two cautions or fewer. 

Predictions

Álex Palou, but if it isn't Palou, it will be Scott Dixon even though everything from recent history says there is no way it will be Scott Dixon and it will more likely be Christian Lundgaard or Scott McLaughlin, but not an Andretti Global driver. Mick Schumacher gets his best finish in IndyCar and he is also the best finishing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver. Sting Ray Robb does not finish 21st. Both top five finish streaks end. At least three drivers get their first top ten finishes of the season. No Team Penske cars make contact with one another. Sleeper: Marcus Armstrong. 

Musings From the Weekend: Are We Too Smart For Our Own Good?

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

Rain did not ruin MotoGP's return to Brazil, neither did a poor track surface but it was not the most accommodating conditions at Goiânia. Despite the troubles, Marco Bezzecchi made it two wins on the spin to open 2026 and four consecutive dating back to last season. Marc Márquez got to keep this sprint victory. There was a team orders row in Sebring. There was also a spectacular comeback in GTD, though it was mostly self-inflicted. NASCAR had a phenomenal race from Darlington. Max Verstappen’s team won on the road at the Nürburgring but was disqualified for using one too many sets of tires. Sadly, Grand Prix of Long Beach president and CEO Jim Michaelian passed away, aged 83. With a little less action this weekend, it was a chance for reflection over what we are seeing in every competition. 

Are We Too Smart For Our Own Good?

March has kept us all occupied. Through four weekends, each weekend fills a little more lively. With IndyCar and Formula One off, it allowed for more time to think, and my mind drifted over what we have seen over the last few weeks. It is hard to ignore the displeasure. 

IndyCar caught a break in the last two races that were fairly active and Álex Palou did not win. After the first race in St. Petersburg, there was plenty of angst over how the season started and the remaining races to come. A stellar Phoenix race and a battle in Arlington has quieted the disgruntled… for now. Formula One has not been as fortunate. 

The first two races have started out well, and we have seen active opening stints, so far between Mercedes and Ferrari. Cars have passed at the start. Cars have run closer together. Then the Mercedes pull away. That has been the theme over the first two races. There are portions of close racing at the front, and then the last two-thirds, maybe half the race, is a forgone conclusion. If anything, the battles have remained semi-frequent in the middle of the field and for the other points positions. The DRS trains have been eradicated with the new active aerodynamic pieces.

We have action and at an above average level for Formula One through the first two races, and yet there has been a notable portion of viewers that have been dissatisfied with what we are saying. Drivers are feeling the same way. Max Verstappen is the leading driver who is not enthused with the new regulations. However, Lewis Hamilton might be the biggest proponent saying this is the best racing he has ever had in his career. I am also sure the Mercedes group is pleased.

Are we too smart for our our good? Do we know too much about racing, what is going on, why thinks are happening on track and how the cars are driven, and does that prevent us from having any enjoyment in what we are watching? 

Over the last few years, my mind has wondered to what it was like being a motorsports fan in the 1960s or 1970s or even the 1980s. Coverage was not this abundant. You got races on televisions occasionally. Practice sessions were not televised. Qualifying was not televised. There was National Speed Sport News and a few other publications, but there was no way to consume an endless flow of information of motorsports. You got your weekly, or perhaps monthly update. If something was big enough to crack a newspaper, you learned a little more. Fandom was more innocent but also more relaxed. Those fandoms could live on a little because not much more existed. 

The closest thing I can imagine what the 1960s or 1970s were like is when I go to a race track as a spectator, and I have no clue what is going on during the race. I like to wander around a course with my camera and take photographs from different vantage points. I am watching. I know who started at the front. I know who is still at the front and who had problems, but I know so little. I can see the gap, but I have no clue the exact time between the two cars. Some areas have a public address system and video boards. You get snippets of the broadcast and you know who is leading and how the cars are running, but you still have to form your own picture of what is happening, and sometimes you aren’t sure why a car lost five positions. You figure pit stops will happen, but you are not sure when everyone last stopped and how long a pit window can actually be. 

That was the normal viewing experience for practically the entire 20th century. And people loved it! 

Do not mistakes this for a call to return to being a Luddite. We have so much at our disposal, and we should be happy that so much information is available to us. We know what tire compound is being used and whether those tires are worn or not in every IndyCar race and we can follow along to the tire strategy through Firestone’s live timing. That is incredible, but I feel we are missing out and expecting more to love because we believe we know exactly how a race should be. We also believe we know everything that is wrong. 

There must have been a time 50 or 60 years ago when people went to the racetrack because they loved motorsports, and races didn't come around that often. Think about how many fewer races there were back then. If IndyCar was coming to town, it was the highlight of the spring or summer. You were going because you loved the engineering and cars pushing the limits. It was your one chance to see it. The same goes for Formula One. People weren't dissecting the racing. In a way, all they wanted to see was fast cars on is racetrack. They weren’t worried about passing and downforce creating dirty air or how tire wear would play a role. In a sense, racing then wasn't racing as you think about it today. 

We have created a myth about what happened even if there is actual documentation. Race broadcasts exist. We can see what it was like, and it was nothing like we have today, and I don't mean the past definitively had better races. 

The racing of the 1960s didn't have 10,000 passes every race. They were not wide-open affairs that anyone could win. Races were different, but people just wanted to see the cars on the track, fall in awe of the speed and the level the drivers were competing at, and perhaps feel close to something dangerous, thrill-seekers even if they didn’t want to admit it. Pit stops were nearly non-existent. Everyone would use one set of tires, no re-fueling and just go for 100 miles or 200 miles. No one was worried about fuel strategy even if teams back then had a harder limit on fuel they could use during a race. In some cases, teams didn't last long enough for fuel to be a factor. 

It is not better nor it is worse. It is just different. Take a race from 1976. People were not showing up expecting a two-stop strategy or maybe a three-stop strategy but an early caution would force cars to save fuel and dictate the strategy. Every car was saving fuel, especially in IndyCar. There was a limit each team had each race, but not everyone was going to make it. A car had to go long enough before that could become a concern. 

Pieces broke left-and-right. Some engines were not meant to go further than halfway. Cars were falling out of the race or running conservatively enough just to get the car further in the race that it isn't like today. Every car can make it to the end. Every car knows how many laps they must make on a stint to have the race be done in two stops. Everyone is effectively on the same strategy because what other choice is there and why do something wild and stupid? That is what makes a modern race feel more dull. 

Fifty years ago, anyone and everyone could break down and from any position. You never knew if a car had to be nursed home and if that would allow someone to take control of a race. There was not urgency from 25 teams to save fuel from the immediate start of the race. At least ten of the teams likely didn’t expect to make it the distance, and if nearly half the field has no belief it will see the checkered flag that changes the makeup of the race. Every race had its unknowns, and they were arguably greater than today. 

What we have today is an evolution, whether we want to admit it or not. Everyone is going to make it to the end. It becomes tougher to get ahead when everyone is running essentially the same strategy. Everyone is trying to hit the same fuel windows. The field doesn't get spread out. Teams are not nursing cars to the finish. It becomes stagnant quickly. Attempts have been made to mix it up, and we just end up hating it. 

Hello, alternate tires which may force a team to stop ten laps earlier than for fuel because a car does not have any grip and is losing time. Hello, movable aerodynamic parts to decrease drag and potentially allow a car to have an advantage in traffic. Hello, push-to-pass, energy deployment systems and the like and the push for road relevance in an increasingly electric automobile world. 

And we hate it because it is not "pure" but few think about what purity means in this context. If it was what happened 50 or 60 years ago, I think many would hate it more should it be reincarnated in the year 2026. 

We think we know what we want or what is good. Good is subjective and constantly changing. That is a problem, especially for series trying to keep up with the expectations of the viewer. How are they to know when we change of minds? 

Do we get in our own way? 

The first two races of this Formula One season might not be like last year or the first two races of 2006, but the anger and dissatisfaction over it not being what we previously saw, whether it be yesterday or 20 years ago, is a waste of sorts. 

This is what it is, and if you focus on what it is and how it is playing out, you can see action and excitement. 

It is different. It doesn't feel comfortable from what we know. Energy recovery and speeds slowing at the end of a straightaway is a notable difference, but everyone is working on energy recovery and energy deployment. This is the new strategy. If you are going to discredit all action as artificial because battles and passes are down to when teams are recovery and deploying energy at different times, you are bound to be miserable. Nothing will be good enough, but the racing of 20 years ago is not returning, and even if it was you might not even like that either.

We have constructed our past as perfect but we are likely boosting the best moments and glorifying those as how it always was. It wasn't. There were definitely good times. There might have been more good times back then compared to now, but the amount is unlikely to be substantially greater than what we have today. 

As we have completed a quarter of the 21st century, I wonder if we are spoiled and use the 20th century, especially the second half of it too much as a measuring stick for how things should be across all walks of life. Everyone just wants the 90s or 80s or 70s. Everyone wants Lolas and Reynards. Everyone wants V10s. Everyone wants the past. And yet, everyone wants a past where innovation was plentiful and the cars were inspiring. How can you go backward and yet continue to innovate?

Nothing says progress like looking and moving backward. 

Every series could give you exactly what the viewer wants. Every series could develop a car that has as many passes as possible and as much speed as possible. We all know the elements of closer racing and the conditions that keep cars together... and even if that was given, there would be a segment of the fanbase that would hate it! You could get exactly as you wish, and then everyone would complain about things being stale (Hello, DW12 chassis!). 

Are we smart or are inconsolable to a point of obnoxiousness? Are we the only barrier to our own enjoyment and happiness? Are we too stubborn?

Perhaps, the best decision would be to change our mindset, and have greater openness. Perhaps what will cure most of our saltiness is if we stopped trying to return to something that is long gone and something we don't even accurately recollect anyway, and come to terms with what is in front of us and how it is exciting in its own way. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Márquez, but did you know...

The #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche of Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich won the 74th 12 Hours of Sebring. The #2 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea and Phil Fayer won in LMP2. The #911 Manthey Racing Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Ricardo Feller and Thomas Preining won in GTD Pro. The #21 AF Corse Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Simon Mann and Lilou Wadoux won in GTD.

Daniel Holgado won the Moto2 race from Brazil. Máximo Quiles won the Moto3 race.

António Félix da Costa won the Madrid ePrix, his second consecutive victory.

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup race from Darlington, his fourth victory of the season. Justin Allgaier won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. Corey Heim won the Truck race.

Hunter Lawrence won the Supercross race from Birmingham, his third victory of the season. Cole Davies won the 250cc East-West showdown race after Haiden Deegan received a penalty for cutting the course. 

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar keeps the Birmingham-area busy with its round at Barber Motorsports Park.

Formula One has the Japanese Grand Prix before an unexpected month off. 

MotoGP heads north to Austin, Texas.

NASCAR is at Martinsville.

World Superbike will be at Portimão.

GT World Challenge America opens its season at Sonoma.

Supercross will be in Detroit.