Best of the Month: February 2026

Two months down. Again, February is quick. Throw in an Olympics, and February barely existed. There was always something going on, and it made the cold nights fly by. Honestly, once the Olympics are over, it feels like winter is over. It is kind of the quadrennial opposite of Labor Day. The fact it ended with a blizzard in the Northeast could not have been more fitting.

Anyway, the Olympics are over, and we are on the verge of the motorsports season really ramping into high gear. March begins with MotoGP and IndyCar on the first day of the month. We are already into Formula One testing and the opening grand prix is just over a week away. NASCAR is already underway. There have been plenty of sports car races, and more are coming. It is an exciting time.

Preseason IndyCar Tidbits

We are about to get into the IndyCar season, and there is plenty we should keep an eye on. Álex Palou is going to do something historic. As will probably Scott Dixon. Will Power might if Andretti Global is a semi-competent organization. We are always on the verge of history even if we do not see it coming. 

With the first race only a few days away, let's go over what we should keep in mind before the season starts flying by. There are three consecutive weeks with races and four races in five weekends to open this season. IndyCar has not had a season like this in a long time. If we don't take the time now, we are bound to get caught out. 

This is going to be a fair list of drivers, and we are going to list a milestone or an interesting tidbit ahead of the first race. Shall we start with the best driver in IndyCar? I think we shall. 

Álex Palou

Top 20 All-Time in Pole Positions

We have already covered the victories, but Palou is five pole positions away from tying Emerson Fittipaldi for 20th all-time. Palou has 12 pole positions. That is level with Parnelli Jones. Palou had six pole positions last season and three pole positions two seasons ago. It is achievable. 

Ten Victories From Pole Position

In the last two seasons, Palou has won at least twice from pole position. With eight victories from 12 pole positions, that is an incredible batting average at 66.667%. Only 11 drivers in IndyCar history have won ten races or more from pole position. While Will Power (18) and Scott Dixon (12) are ahead of Palou, the next closest active drivers are Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden, and both Americans have only won three times from pole position.

50 Podium Finishes

This one feels inevitable because Palou only needs six podium finishes to hit this milestone. For context, only 21 drivers have reached 50 podium finishes in a career. Hitting this mark would at least put Palou's name in the all-time podium finish leaders category listed under the record book section of the IndyCar media guide. It would be another case of getting to see his name listed among the all-time greats. Again, it feels inevitable. He could have six podium finishes in the first six races.

Scott Dixon

7,000 Laps Led

Seventy-seven laps are all Dixon needs to lead to reach 7,000 laps led in a career, and he would only be the second driver in IndyCar history to reach that milestone. Even if Dixon reaches it, he would still be 595 laps away from tying Mario Andretti's all-time record. The all-time record is not impossible, but it is a reach. This milestone is possible for 2026. If Dixon has a great year on ovals, the all-time record could become more plausible. We can reconvene in September and assess Dixon's assault on this record.

Patricio O'Ward

12 Career Victories

A dozen victories does not sound that special, but in O'Ward case it is because if he wins three more races O'Ward will surpass Adrián Fernández for most IndyCar victories for a Mexican driver. Fernández has long been seen as a legend in Mexican motorsports, and he had a strong IndyCar career. Fernández has been IndyCar's benchmark for Mexican drivers. O'Ward is only turning 27 years old in May, and he has a full career still ahead of him. Maybe someday he will get to race in his home country and be the hero that inspires future competitors to follow his path. 

Will Power

Sixth All-Time in Starts

If Power starts all 18 races this season, he will move up to sixth all-time in starts. Even if there are only 17 races, Power would move to sixth. With 18 races, he would be up to 337 starts, which would move him ahead of Al Unser and Al Unser, Jr. Power will tie Unser at St. Petersburg, and he will be level with Unser, Jr. at Road America. There is quite a gap to the top five. A.J. Foyt is fifth on 369 starts.

Graham Rahal

Eighth All-Time in Start

Power can be sixth but Rahal could end the season eighth all-time start. Taking into considering Power starting every race, if Rahal makes 18 starts he will end the season on 327 starts, which would move him ahead of Johnny Rutherford, Michael Andretti and Al Unser. It is staggering to think Rahal is about to break into the top ten all-time in starts. His debut still feels like yesterday.

Josef Newgarden

5,000 Laps Led

Dixon is potentially going to break 7,000 laps led in a career. Newgarden could reach 5,000 laps led, which is 487 laps away. If Newgarden reaches it, he will become the eighth driver to reach 5,000 laps in a career. Four times has he led at least 487 laps in a season, most recently in 2023 when he led 602 laps. He has led at least 200 laps in ten of the last 11 seasons. 

12 Consecutive Seasons with a Victory

One victory in 2026 will make it the 12th consecutive season Newgarden has won a race. He has won an oval race in a record ten consecutive seasons. If he wins in a 12th consecutive season, Newgarden will become the third driver to win a race in at least 12 consecutive seasons. Scott Dixon has an active streak of 21 consecutive seasons with a victory. Will Power has the second-longest streak when he won 16 consecutive years from 2007 to 2022.

Scott McLaughlin

60 Team Penske Victories

This one is a bit of a stretch, but if McLaughlin wins five races this season, it will give him 60 victories for Team Penske across all disciplines. That would move the New Zealander up to second all-time in the organization. It would put him just ahead of Mark Donohue, who won 59 times for Penske, and behind Brad Keselowski's organization leading 67 victories. Forty-eight of McLaughlin's victories did come in Supercars, which has an abundance of races, some of which are shorter distances than what we see in IndyCar and NASCAR, but that was his springboard to the United States and the career he currently has. 

Team Penske

250 IndyCar Victories

McLaughlin is a few victories away from a milestone. Team Penske is a few victories away from a milestone, four to be precise. With four more victories, Team Penske will hit 250 victories in IndyCar, extending a record that is already pretty much out of reach for the rest of eternity. It is a matter of when not if, but after last season, when could be 2027. I doubt that though. The last time Team Penske did not win four races in consecutive seasons was 2004 and 2005 in the Indy Racing League when it was running the less-successful Toyota engines. Engines are not holding Team Penske now. I expect to see some hats and a banner in victory lane at some point in 2026.

Chip Ganassi Racing

150 IndyCar Victories

If we are doing Team Penske, we should do Chip Ganassi Racing as well, and funny enough, Ganassi is five victories away from 150 in IndyCar. Again, a matter of when and not if, but most likely when will it occur in 2026? The team did only win four races in 2024, but it has won at least five races in four of the last six seasons. It also only won four times in 2022. There! Prepare for milestone victory lane celebrations in 2026 for IndyCar's two best teams!

Kyle Kirkwood

First Career Third-Place Finish

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Kirkwood is about to start his fifth season in IndyCar, he has won five races in his career, and yet, he has yet to have a third-place finish. That is 68 starts and no finishes of third. Along with five victories, he has finished second only once (Toronto 2024), he has finished fourth on three occasions and he has finished fifth on three occasions. He ended 2025 with a sixth-place finish. He had a few sevenths in 2024. He had a trio of eighths last season, he was ninth in two races in 2023, and his first career top ten finish was a tenth at Long Beach in 2022. 

Kirkwood has covered every spot in the top ten but third. Is this usual? I don't have enough time to go through every driver and find the longest wait until their first career third-place finish, but let's use the 33 drivers Kirkwood raced against last year as a comparison. 

Four of those drivers took longer than 68 starts to get their first third-place finish. Josef Newgarden took 71 races. Hélio Castroneves took 82 starts, and Castroneves won an Indianapolis 500 before he had one third-place finish in his career. The Brazilian actually had six career victories to his name before he finished third for the first time. It took Conor Daly 114 races to finish third. Ed Carpenter's first third-place finish was in his 153rd start, the 2014 season finale at Fontana, nearly 11 years after his IndyCar debut. 

It is not unheard of, but it is pretty rare. 

Christian Lundgaard

First victory for car #7 since...

Lundgaard had a few close calls at victory in 2025, and it was a bit of a shame he didn't get a victory, because he had his best season in IndyCar. Some drivers run into buzzsaws in their careers, and Lundgaard ran into Álex Palou. Without Palou, the Dane likely has at least two victories in 2025. Instead, history will show six podium finishes, but none on the top step. 

I have a feeling that changes this season, and if it does we will see something we have not seen in probably longer than you realize. Driving car #7, a Lundgaard victory would be the first for the number since... Danica Patrick at Motegi in 2008!

Yeah! That is a long time. Of all the single-digit numbers, it is the longest drought, though car #6 has not won since 2010 with Ryan Briscoe at Texas. Keep that in mind for Nolan Siegel.

To give you an idea of how long ago that Patrick victory was, it was the third race post-reunification, and yet, it was the penultimate race prior to complete reunification. Motegi was the same weekend as Long Beach, and when the schedules merged, Long Beach was retained but with the Champ Car teams running one final race with the Panoz DP01 chassis and Cosworth engines, and the Indy Racing League teams went to Japan. Technically, car #7 has not won a race in a unified IndyCar since June 13, 1993 with Danny Sullivan at Belle Isle. 

Santino Ferrucci

Potential Birthday Winner

There are two drivers who could potentially win on their birthday. We have touched up Will Power already, who has his birthday fall on the 2026 season opener in St. Petersburg. The other is Santino Ferrucci. Ferrucci will turn 28 years old on Sunday May 31, which is the same day as the Detroit race. 

It would also be Ferrucci's 101st career start. Currently, only three drivers have had their first career victory come after the 100th start, and the record was set on May 31, 2003. That is when Michel Jourdain, Jr. won at Milwaukee in his 129th start. 

Sting Ray Robb

Fourth-Most Starts without a Top Five Finish

Robb is entering his fourth season in IndyCar, and for the first time in his career, he is staying with a team for a second season. In the last two seasons, Robb has had a top ten finish, so he has gotten on the board and can at least be included in that group in the box score for each season. His qualifying form has been improving, however, the top five is still a long way off. His career best finish remains ninth. If Robb goes another season without a top five finish, he will end 2026 with zero top five finishes in 69 career starts. It would be the fourth-most starts without a top five finish in IndyCar history. Only Hiro Matsushita (117), Randy Lewis (81) and Jerry Karl (73) would have more.

Romain Grosjean

Most Second-Place Finishes without a Win

Grosjean is back in IndyCar, and when he left IndyCar after the 2024 season, he had yet to win a race in his brief IndyCar career. However, it wasn't for a lack of trying. Grosjean has five runner-up finishes but had yet to win. He is one of five drivers all-time to have at least five runner-up finishes but zero victories. The last time he drove for Dale Coyne Racing, Grosjean had two second-place finishes. If Grosjean has three runner-up finishes in 2026 and does not win a race, he would match Vitor Meira for most runner-up finishes without a victory. It is a stretch, but crazier things have happened in this world.

What would be crazier, Grosjean winning one race for Dale Coyne Racing and removing himself from this list or getting three or four runner-up finishes this season and either matching or surpassing Meira's record? It is the latter, right? It would be crazier that Grosjean could be that consistently good than having one race go his way and pulling out a victory. If Grosjean has three or four runner-up finishes that means the finishes across the board are pretty good and he is in the top ten of the championship and possibly pushing the top five. He could win one race and still be 14th in the championship. We see that in IndyCar with enough regularity to not be stunned when it happens. Christian Rasmussen just won a race and was 13th in the championship.

Ponder that thought for a moment. 

Caio Collet

New Brazilian Winner

Collet has been the least acknowledged rookie heading into the season, and that is a little unfair. He was competitive in both his Indy Lights seasons. He won races in Formula Three. He is a decent driver. He is driving for A.J. Foyt Racing, which has done better with the Team Penske technical alliance, but it is still A.J. Foyt Racing. No one expects it to win races. No one should expect Collet to win races out of the box. However, the team could put together one decent race, and why couldn't it end up being Collet's day. 

I stumbled upon something. Do you know the last time we had a new Brazilian winner? I am not asking when was the last time a Brazilian won a race (Hélio Castroneves, 2021 Indianapolis 500), but when was the last-time a first-time winner was Brazilian? 

You are probably thinking, it has been a minute since we have seen a great influx of Brazilian talent. It isn't like the 1990s or early 2000s when it felt like a third of the grid hailed for the Lusophone nation. But how long has it been? 

Twelve Brazilians have won an IndyCar race. 

The most recent first-time Brazilian winner was Felipe Giaffone on August 11, 2002 at Kentucky. 

For starters, that was an IRL race, and Giaffone was driving for Mo Nunn Racing. Sarah Fisher started on pole position. It was the straw that broke the camel's back for Tomas Scheckter at Team Cheever as Scheckter was fired from the team after an accident 89 laps into the race, though Scheckter had scored his first career victory in the previous race at Michigan. 

Giaffone's victory capped off a stretch where the IRL had four consecutive races with a first-time winner. That streak began with another Brazilian, Airton Daré, who won at Kansas. Alex Barron then won at Nashville before Scheckter and Giaffone concluded the four-race run. 

To add more perspective, Collet was 130 days old the last time IndyCar had a new Brazilian winner.

Mick Schumacher

Second German Winner

For as long as IndyCar has been around, it is strange there has been a lack of German drivers competing in the series especially since they have been everywhere else. Formula One, sports cars, touring cars, there have been plenty of German legends. IndyCar has been one area where we have not seen them regularly competing. The last German to start an IndyCar race was Lucas Luhr, who ran a second Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing entry at Sonoma in 2013. 

Part of that is because Germany has had a strong domestic racing scene and the German manufacturers race there. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Porsche can keep the talent at home. It is no different to the United States with NASCAR and IndyCar. There is no reason to venture far. 

Anyway, only one race in IndyCar history has had a German winner. In 1937, Auto Union, along with Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo and the best grand prix racing had to offer, came to America to contest the Vanderbilt Cup race in Westbury, New York, and the best from Europe took on the best from the AAA National Championship. Bernd Rosemeyer won the race leading 75 of 90 laps for Auto Union and defeating Mercedes-Benz's Richard Seaman by 51 seconds. To this day, it remains the only German victory in IndyCar history. 

Let's not ignore that IndyCar holds a race on the 89th anniversary of that exact race this season. Mid-Ohio falls on July 5, 2026, and fittingly it is the home race for Schumacher's team, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. 

Second-Most Experienced German

To give you an idea of how few Germans have raced in IndyCar, if Schumacher starts every race this season, he will end 2026 as tied for second-most experienced German in IndyCar history with 18 starts. He would be level with Christian Danner, who ran sporadically in CART from 1992 to 1997. The most experienced German is Arnd Meier, who made 29 starts over the 1997 and 1998 CART seasons. Timo Glock is the third-most experienced German and he only ran the 2005 Champ Car season, which had 13 races.

Lessons From the Olympics

It isn't really a lesson but it is an event that motorsports should replicate, and specifically, NASCAR should replicated it. 

I loved the team pursuit competition in speed-skating. If you did not see it, each country has three skaters on the ice. One country lines up on one straightaway and the other country lines up on the other. Each country completes eight laps and the country's time is when the third skater finishes. For eight laps, the skaters are building speed and rotating who leads the draft. It is a thrilling competition to watch. 

NASCAR should do this at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, and it should be used as qualifying for the races. This would be much more exciting than single-car runs and it could bring practice back with teams limited to three-car groups for an hour session or so. I don't think it should be eight laps in length but it could be a five-lap run for each group. The group with the fastest time gets the first three spots on the grid with the next group getting the next three spots and so on. NASCAR is almost perfectly segmented for such a thing as there are 36 chartered entries. It could be 12 groups, and most of the teams are three-car operations.

Toyota has nine cars, and four of those are for Joe Gibbs Racing, but we could split the group. 23XI Racing has its three cars, we could take three JGR cars for a group and then Ty Gibbs could join Legacy Motor Club's two cars. 

Ford is nearly perfect. It has three teams running three cars, and then the Wood Brothers. We will come back to that. 

Chevrolet would require more piecing together. There are 17 Chevrolet teams. That is just shy of six groups of three. 

Trackhouse and Spire Motorsports each run three cars. Those two are set. 

Hendrick Motorsports runs four cars, but it also has technical alliances with two single-car teams in Haas Factory Team and Hyak Motorsports. Hendrick could keep three cars together and then have Alex Bowman run with Cole Custer and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. 

Richard Childress Racing has two cars, but a technical alliance with Rick Ware Racing's lone car, so that forms another trio. 

That leaves Kaulig Racing's two cars and Wood Brothers. We could have one mixed manufacturer group for the sake of the competition. I am also not considering the potential open cars that would enter. If we had 39 entries then we could have it work especially if Beard Motorsports is entered with its Chevrolet and then there were two Fords to join Wood Brothers. 

Either way, this is something NASCAR should experiment with. Maybe it isn't all six drafting races and it is just once at each track, but it could be fun to watch. Of all the dumb things NASCAR has done, most recently its 2026 All-Star Race format which we may discuss in the not-too-distant future, this would be far from abhorrently bad, and it would be something different that would be worth tuning into see. 

It should be considered. 

March Preview

MotoGP begins this weekends and we will do a quick blitz of what things look like heading into the first race of the season. 

Marc Márquez is back to defend his championship with Ducati and Francesco Bagnaia remains as Márquez's teammate. Álex Márquez is now on a factory bike at Gresini Racing. Fermín Aldeguer is also at Gresini, but Aldeguer will miss the season-opening Thailand Grand Prix due to a fractured femur in a training accident. Michele Pirro will run the opener as a wild card with Gresini. VR46 Racing team has Fabio Di Giannantonio on a factory bike with Franco Morbidelli on a year-old model. 

Marco Bezzecchi was fastest in practice from Buriram on his Aprilia. Jorge Martín hopes to be healthy after missing a great chunk of 2025, and Martín looks to strengthen Aprilia's contingent on the grid. Trackhouse is back with Raúl Fernández and Ai Ogura.  

The only change in the Honda camp is Diogo Moreira moves up after winning the Moto2 championship to join Johann Zarco at LCR Honda. Luca Marini and Joan Mir remain on the factory bikes.

No change at KTM as Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta lead the factory outfit while Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini are at Tech3.

The most notable change is the introduction of Toprak Razgatlioglu as the three-time World Superbike champion joins Pramac Yamaha alongside Jack Miller. Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins are the Yamaha factory effort. 

Twenty-two races this year with the one change being the Brazilian Grand Prix returning to the schedule in place of the Argentine Grand Prix. The Brazilian round will be at Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna in Goiânia. The circuit hosted the world championship for three seasons from 1987 to 1989. This is MotoGP's first trip to Brazil since Jacarepaguá last hosted the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix in 2004.

A few races have moved around. Barcelona has moved up to May, Hungary and the Czech Republic have moved up to June. The British Grand Prix is now in August and Austria is the final round of the 12-round European swing on September 20.

The season concludes in Valencia on November 22.

Other events of note in March:

We have three Formula One races in March: Australia, China and Japan. 

The 12 Hours of Sebring is a few weeks ago. 

The week after Sebring is the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener from Qatar.

After racing in the Swedish snow in February, the World Rally Championship heads to Kenya for the Safari Rally. 

Formula E will race at Jarama. 

Track Walk: St. Petersburg 2026

The first round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series takes place in a familiar location, St. Petersburg, Florida. A total of 181 days will have passed since the most recent IndyCar race, a 225-laps race around Nashville Superspeedway. The grid reassembles this weekend on the gulf coast with 25 cars entered for the season opener and 18 drivers in the same spot they were when IndyCar last raced. For three drivers, this weekend marks their IndyCar debuts. For another three drivers, they are in a different spot than where they were this time a year ago. And for another driver, he is back in the series after a year on the sidelines.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 1 with green flag scheduled for 12:29 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: 1:35 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 9:15 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 4:35 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:05 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:29 p.m. ET (100 laps)

Is Álex Palou Bound to Make More History?

We ended the 2025 season with Palou claiming his third consecutive IndyCar championship and the fourth title in his six-year IndyCar career. It capped off a historic season that saw Palou win eight races, stand on the podium 13 times and end with an average finish of 4.0588. As for what is to come next, probably more history.

Palou has yet to reach 100 starts in his IndyCar career, and he is already reaching heights most don't hit in an entire career. St. Petersburg will be his 99th career start and he enters this weekend with 19 career victories. One victory in the either of the first two races of this season will make him the ninth driver to win at least 20 races in the first 100 starts of a career. Palou is already tied for 22nd all-time in victories with Jimmy Bryan and Sam Hornish, Jr. 

Last season, Palou won eight times and he became just the ninth driver to win at least eight races in a season. The only driver that won eight times in consecutive seasons was Mario Andretti, who did it in 1966 and 1967. Palou opened last season with a somewhat surprising victory at St. Petersburg after starting eighth and not taking the lead until 26 laps remained during the final round of pit stops. It kicked off a start to the season that saw him win five of the first six races. Five more victories will put Palou tied with Bobby Rahal for 18th all-time, and another eight-win season would have Palou level with Johnny Rutherford for 15th.

Beyond the victories, Palou could become the second driver in IndyCar history with four consecutive championship. Only Sébastien Bourdais has achieved such a feat, though Bourdais did it in the middle of the CART-IRL split when CART had become Champ Car. During Bourdais' four-year championship run, the largest field he competed against was 19 cars. For Palou, the smallest field he has competed in was 23 entries, and all eight of those races came during his rookie season in 2020. The last 71 IndyCar races have featured at least 25 starters. Over the past three seasons, every race has started at least 27 cars.

Another title would be Palou's fifth, and it would put him alone for third all-time in championships, one behind Scott Dixon in second and two behind A.J. Foyt's all-time record. Dixon's fifth title came in his 18th season while Foyt's fifth title was in his 11th season. 

Palou ended last season with four consecutive podium finishes. It is the third time in Palou's career he has ad at least four consecutive podium finishes. In 2023, he won three consecutive races over Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio before finishing second at Toronto. Last season, he opened the season with six consecutive podium results.

It isn't only Palou who is chasing history. Entering 2026, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are tied with 17 championships apiece. Team Penske has held the record for most championship as a team since 1983 when it won its sixth title, breaking a tie with Dean Van Lines Racing, which had won five championships, three with Jimmy Bryan in the 1950s and two with Mario Andretti in the 1960s.

Who Can Conquer the Catalan?

There will be two-dozen drivers with the objective of toppling the Catalan driver and ending his three-year reign as IndyCar king. For any of these drivers to do it, they must overcome a 196-point gap as that is how massive Palou's insurance was between him and the rest of the field in 2025.

The closest competitor was Patricio O'Ward, who scored his best championship finish last season coming in second to Palou. O'Ward did win twice in 2025, and he had ten top five finishes, but he also had five finishes outside the top ten, and Palou has had only had five finishes outside the top ten over his last three seasons. The only time Palou had at least five finishes outside the top ten in a single season was his rookie year in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing. 

The best challenger could come from within the Chip Ganassi Racing stable, as Scott Dixon was third in the championship last year. The six-time champion had the second-best average finish in 2025 at 8.294, but that was over four positions worse than Palou's average. While Dixon had the second-best average finish, he only won once, and it came after an unforced error from Palou driving off the road at Mid-Ohio. Dixon only had three podium finishes in 2025, his fewest since he had only one in 2005.

Kyle Kirkwood did win the second-most races in 2025. With three victories, Kirkwood was Palou's main challenger in the first half of the season as the two competitors combined to win every race in the first half of the season. Through the first nine races, Kirkwood had an average finish 7.889, and that included 32nd in the Indianapolis 500 after being disqualified. He was sixth on the road. However, in the final eight races, Kirkwood failed to score a top five finish and his average finish dropped to 14th.

The 2025 season started on a good note for Christian Lundgaard. In his first year with Arrow McLaren, Lundgaard made a stellar first impression with four consecutive top ten finishes, three of which were consecutive podium results. After four races, Lundgaard was second in the championship behind Palou. However, Lundgaard fell into a little slump. While he would pick up three more podium finishes over the final 13 races, he did have six finishes outside the top ten, three of which were outside the top twenty. 

We have covered the remaining top five drivers from last year's championship, but we have not mentioned Team Penske. The team responsible for the most recent non-Palou title and champions in five of the last 12 seasons, Team Penske is always seen as a favorite, but last year was the organization's worst season in a quarter-century. Penske did not win until the 15th race in the 17-race season. No Penske drivers finished in the top eight of the championship, and the organization's three drivers combined for nine podium finishes over the 2025 season. Team Penske also had a combined 19 finishes outside the top twenty last season.

Greener Pastures

Most of the IndyCar grid has remained unchanged from when the 2025 season ended. Most drivers have stayed put, but a few drivers are driving somewhere else, and it is a notable change for one of the greatest drivers to ever race in IndyCar.

St. Petersburg will mark the first time in over 17 years that Will Power will compete in an IndyCar race for a team other than Team Penske. Power makes his first start for Andretti Global in the #26 Honda. Last season, Power was the top Team Penske driver in the championship, but he was ninth matching his worst championship performance for the team. Power did win at Portland, but he had nine finishes outside the top ten and six of those were results outside the top twenty. 

Andretti Global will be hoping Power can lead to successful for multiple drivers in the organization. While Kirkwood won three times last year and finished fourth in the championship, the Andretti organization has not had multiple drivers win multiple races in the same season since 2018. 

With Power leaving Team Penske, it has led to David Malukas joining the organization. Malukas spent 2025 racing for A.J. Foyt Racing where he had a career year. Malukas was 11th in the championship and he was credited with second in the Indianapolis 500. He picked up another top five finish with a fourth in the second Iowa race. Malukas ended up finishing two points better now-teammate Josef Newgarden in the championship. 

While Malukas' four-year IndyCar career has brought him to Team Penske, there is a lot he has yet to accomplish. He has yet to in a race in IndyCar, and he is the first winless veteran Team Penske has hired since Ryan Briscoe joined the organization for the 2008 IndyCar season. However, Briscoe had spent 2007 racing for Team Penske in the American Le Mans Series. Malukas has never had a top five finish on a road or street circuit. Last season, his best finish on such a circuit was seventh at Road America.

Power and Malukas dominated most of the attention during the offseason when it came to driver shuffling, but they were not the only drivers to change seats. 

Despite finishing 14th in the championship after being the final driver hired to a full-time seat for the 2025 season, Rinus VeeKay decided to leave Dale Coyne Racing for Juncos Hollinger Racing. VeeKay had a memorable season that saw him finish second at Toronto and have a brilliant drive to fourth at Barber Motorsports Park. The Dutchman had six top ten finishes in the first nine races after Dale Coyne Racing failed to score a finish better than 13th in 2024. 

VeeKay has never finished worse than 14th in the championship in six IndyCar seasons, and he moves to Juncos Hollinger Racing, which has never had a driver finish than 16th in the championship. Last season, JHR had a combined five top ten finishes between Conor Daly, whom VeeKay replaces, and Sting Ray Robb, who will be VeeKay's teammate this season. The team has had at least one top five finish in each of the last three seasons. In 2024, the team had nine top ten finishes. 

VeeKay does have history with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Together, they won the 2018 Pro Mazda championship and they were second in the 2019 Indy Lights championship behind Oliver Askew.

With VeeKay leaving Dale Coyne Racing, it opened a spot in the Illinois-based team, and with the final full-time driver announced for the third consecutive season, Dale Coyne Racing has brought Romain Grosjean back to IndyCar. 

Grosjean spent 2025 as reserve driver for Prema behind Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman, but he never contested an IndyCar race. Grosjean did run five IMSA endurance races last year for Lamborghini, and his best finish was fourth at Petit Le Mans. The Frenchman last raced in IndyCar in 2024 with Juncos Hollinger Racing. He was 17th in the championship, but his best finish was fourth at Laguna Seca and he had six top ten finishes over the entire season. 

It is a reunion as Grosjean made his IndyCar debut with Dale Coyne Racing in 2021. The two parties combined to have three podium finishes, including finishing second in Grosjean's third IndyCar start, which came from pole position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. While Grosjean did not run three oval races, he still ended up 15th in the championship and was only 33 points behind Scott McLaughlin for Rookie of the Year.

Our Rookie Trifecta

Speaking of rookies, we have three ready for the 2026 season, and all three will be making their IndyCar debuts this weekend. Two of the three are coming up from Indy Lights while the third has a spent his career racing on the global stage, first in Formula One and most recently in the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

Dennis Hauger won the 2025 Indy Lights championship with Andretti Global, and Hauger moves up to IndyCar to run the #19 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing in a technical partnership with Andretti Global. Hauger won six of 14 races last year and he stood on the podium ten times. He also won eight pole positions and had five fastest laps. 

Prior to Indy Lights, Hauger was the 2021 Formula Three champion, which he won against the likes of Jack Doohan, Frederik Vesti and Logan Sargeant. He spent the next three seasons in Formula Two where his best championship finish was eighth in 2023 and he won five races. 

Also moving up from Indy Lights will be Caio Collet, who takes over the #4 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. Collet was second to Hauger in Indy Lights, 72 points behind the Norwegian. Last year was Collet's second year in Indy Lights. After winning one race in 2024, Collet won three times in 2025, and he had nine podium finishes, three more than the year before. 

Collet also spent time in Formula Three, competing two rungs below Formula One from 2021 to 2023. He and Hauger shared the podium in the final race of the Circuit Paul Ricard weekend in 2021. Collet was third while Hauger was second and both finished behind Jack Doohan. Collet was ninth, eighth and ninth in the championship over those three years, and all three of his victories were sprint victories. 

The most notable rookie this season is Mick Schumacher, who joins Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to drive the #47 Honda. Schumacher spent two seasons racing in Formula One, both for the Haas F1 organization. While he failed to score a point as a rookie in 2021, Schumacher had two points finishes in 2022, an eighth in the British Grand Prix and sixth in the Austrian Grand Prix. 

After spending 2023 as a reserve driver for Mercedes-AMG and McLaren in Formula One, Schumacher returned to competition in 2024 driving for the Alpine hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 16 starts, his best finish wa this on three occasions. 

Last year, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing took Rookie of the Year with Louis Foster, though Foster's best finish was 11th and he was 23rd in the championship. It was the first time the rookie of the year finished outside the top twenty in the championship since 1986. Foster did have the highlight of taking pole position at Road America. 

Foster was the second RLLR driver in the last four seasons to win rookie of the year. Christian Lundgaard took the honor in 2022. Dale Coyne Racing has produced three rookies of the year since renunciation in 2008, but it has not done it since Ed Jones in 2017. A.J. Foyt Racing has never produced a rookie of the year.

Since the introduction of the aeroscreen in 2020, the average championship finish for all qualified rookies is 21.24 and no rookie has finished better than 14th in that time. The last season where a rookie finished in the top ten of the championship saw two crack the top ten. In 2019, Felix Rosenqvist was sixth as a rookie while Colton Herta was seventh. 

A Few Changes

The opening weekend of the IndyCar season will see some changes to procedures and how things are done. We will first see these changes in practice. 

Both practice sessions before qualifying will feature the split-group format, which we saw introduced last season during the first practice sessions. Each practice will be open to all entries for the first 40 minutes before the field will be split into two groups based on alternating pit boxes. Each group will then get an additional 12 minute on track. The second practice session had previously been a 60-minute session open to all cars.

The morning warm-up session will also increase by five minutes, from 25 minutes to 30 minutes. 

With the change to the practice format, a change has also been made on how groups will be determined for the second round of qualifying. The groups will be determined based on the previous race's qualifying results. For the opening round at St. Petersburg, entrant points from last season will set the groups, meaning we know the qualifying groups even before the first session will take place. 

One group will feature Álex Palou, Scott Dixon, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Armstrong, David Malukas, Caio Collet, Christian Rasmussen, Alexander Rossi, Kyffin Simpson, Graham Rahal, Louis Foster, Sting Ray Robb and Dennis Hauger.

The other group will feature Patricio O'Ward, Kyle Kirkwood, Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, Santino Ferrucci, Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Ericsson, Nolan Siegel and Mick Schumacher.

St. Petersburg will mark the first weekend with the new alternate tire compound rule for street course races. Each team must use a set of the alternate tire compound in two stints in each street course race. In all likelihood, this will make every street course race at least three-stop race, if not a four-stop race, but it does not entirely eliminate teams attempting to make it on three stops or even two stops. The primary tire compound must only be used on one stint, theoretically opening the door to a team making it on two stops, but using the alternate tire compound for majority of the race.

All 23 finishers in last year's St. Petersburg race made at least three stops. The only car to make four stops was Patricio O'Ward, but that was after O'Ward decided to start on the primary tire and switch to the alternate tire after two laps. O'Ward then went 20 laps on the alternate tire but still had to make two more pit stops to make it to the finish of the race. In 2024, 21 of the 23 cars that took the checkered flag at St. Petersburg only made two stops.

Road to Indy

This season's St. Petersburg weekend sees two of the three Road to Indy series also opening their campaigns on the temporary circuit. 

Indy Lights is showing up with 24 cars for its opening race. 

Leading the way will be Lochie Hughes and the Andretti Global quadruplet. Hughes was third in the championship last year with a pair of victories, and he was second at St. Petersburg last year. Hughes has three new teammates. Seb Murray moves over from the Andretti Cape partnership while Max Taylor will be full-time in Indy Lights after running a few races last year in companionship with a full USF Pro 2000 season. Josh Pierson moves over from HMD Motorsports where Pierson was sixth in the championship.

Myles Rowe was fourth in the championship and he ended the 2025 season with a victory at Nashville. Rowe is back in the Force Indy entry run in partnership with Abel Motorsports. Abel Motorsports will run 2025 USF Pro 2000 championship Max Garcia. Garcia won nine races last season. Jordan Missig and Colin Kaminsky round out the Abel Motorsports drivers. 

HMD Motorpsorts is down to four full-time cars with Salvador de Alba leading the way. Jack Beeton, Enzo Fittipaldi and Tymek Kucharczyk will also be at HMD. 

Chip Ganassi Racing has expanded to four cars with Bryce Aron and Niels Koolen returning. James Roe, Jr. and Carson Etter are joining the outfit. Cape Motorsports is now running partnership with Ed Carpenter Racing, and it will have Nikita Johnson and Matteo Nannini as its drivers. 

There are three new teams on the grid from the 2025 season. Juncos Hollinger Racing is back after a year out of the series. JHR will have Alexander Koreiba and Ricardo Escotto as its drivers. Cusack Morgan Motorsports will run Nicolas Stati and Juan Manuel Correa. A.J. Foyt Racing is back in Indy Lights for the first time since 2004, and it has a two-car team for Nicholas Monteiro and Alessandro de Tullio. Both Cusick Morgan Motorsports and A.J. Foyt Racing have a technical partnership with HMD Motorsports. 

The first Indy Lights race of the season will be at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday March 1. There race is scheduled for 45 laps.

Twenty-three cars are entered for the U.S. F2000 season opener.

Exclusive Autosport won the Drivers' Championship last year with Jack Jeffers, and Exclusive Autosport is rolling into St. Petersburg with six drivers. Evan Cooley and Anthony Martella are the top returning drivers from the 2025 championship. Connor Aspley, Gabriel Cahan, Ayrton Cahan and Kaylee Countryman will round out the six-car lineup. 

VRD Racing won the Teams' Championship last year, and it is back with a four-car team for João Vergara, Colin Aitken, Ryan Giannetta and Jack Mohrhardt. 

Ed Carpenter Racing's tentacles are spreading down to the lowest rung of the Road to Indy as well, as the team has partnered with Jay Howard Driver Development. This partnership will continue in USF Pro 2000 as well. This weekend, JHDD has four cars entered for Liam Loiacono, Naim Saleh, Erik Holm and Cal Peter.

DEForce Racing has three drivers entered with Sebastián Garzón leading the way after being fastest at Homestead testing. Brady Golan and Thomas Nordquist. Pabst Racing has a trio of cars, two for Australians Brad Majman and Eddie Beswick, and one for Canadian Lucas Nanji. 

Zanella Racing has entered U.S. F2000 with 2025 USF Juniors champion Leonardo Escorpioni. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing is back with Wian Boshoff. Wesley Gundler rounds out the grid with ENVE Motorsports. 

U.S. F2000 will race at 11:30 a.m. ET on Friday February 27 and at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday March 1. Both races are scheduled for 20 laps or 40 minutes.

Fast Facts

This will be the third IndyCar race to take place on March 1 and the first since 1925 when Tommy Milton won a 250-mile race on the 1.25-mile board oval in Culver City, California.

The only other March 1 race was in 1913. Billy Carlson won a 200-mile race on the Point Loma road course, a 5.982-mile course in San Diego, California. 

March 1 is also Will Power's 45th birthday. 

There have been nine birthday winners in IndyCar history, the most recent was Dan Wheldon on June 22, 2008 at Iowa. It was Wheldon's 30th birthday.

The oldest birthday winner in IndyCar history is Nigel Mansell, who won on his 40th birthday on August 8, 1993 at Loudon.

There have been six different winners in the last six St. Petersburg races. This matches the longest streak of different winners in the history of the race. There were six different winners from 2008 to 2013. 

Last year's race had an average speed of 97.173 mph, the fastest St. Petersburg race ever, whether it be at the 180-mile distance (100 laps) or 200-mile distance (110 laps).

Four of the last five St. Petersburg races have been completed between in the one-hour-and-51-minute range.

The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.2727 with a median of fourth. 

Last year, Álex Palou won from eighth. It was the sixth time in 22 St. Petersburg races that the winner started outside the top five.

Twenty-three consecutive IndyCar races have been won from a top ten starting position. The most recent race won from outside the top ten was the second Iowa race in 2024. Will Power won from 22nd.

The most recent road or street course race won from outside the top ten was the 2023 Laguna Seca season finale. Scott Dixon won from 11th.

Chip Ganassi Racing has won two of the last three St. Petersburg races after winning only one of the previous 18.

Chevrolet and Honda have alternated winning at St. Petersburg since 2020 with Chevrolet winning all three even-numbered years and Honda winning all three odd-numbered years.

 

The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.4545 with a median of seven.

The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 3.9545 with a median of 4.5. The average number of caution laps is 17.5 with a median of 16.

Every St. Petersburg race has had at least one caution. Last year's race became the second St. Petersburg race to feature only one caution. The first was the 2022 St. Petersburg race.

This is the first IndyCar season to start with three consecutive weekends of races since 2021, however, that was after the St. Petersburg race was delayed seven weeks due to the pandemic. The last season with the first three races originally scheduled over consecutive weekends was the 2007 Champ Car season.

Predictions

We start the season with a bang, and Will Power wins on his birthday. Only one other Team Penske driver finishes in the top five, and at least four different teams are represented in the top five finishers. Álex Palou spends majority of the laps running in the top five. Every car makes it through the first lap. Louis Foster gets his first top ten finish. Most cars start on the alternate tire and then use them again on their third stint. One driver will try to use the alternate tire in both the first two stints, and that driver will finish off the lead lap. Romain Grosjean will not have an outburst on the radio. Marcus Ericsson has his worst St. Petersburg starting position since 2021, but he will finish at least five spots better than that. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.

2026 Road to Indy Preview

We are on the verge of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season, but along with IndyCar comes the start of the Road to Indy series as many young drivers continue their journeys to the top division of American open-wheel racing. 

There are a few slight changes from past seasons. New tracks for IndyCar means new races for the junior series as well. However, not everyone is starting together in St. Petersburg. There are also a few different season finale weekends.

Indy Lights

There will be 17 races in the 2026 Indy Lights season, starting at St. Petersburg. Two weeks later, Indy Lights will also partake in the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington on March 15. Two weeks after that, Indy Lights has its first of five doubleheader weekends. This one will be at Barber Motorsports Park. 

Indy Lights will have a little more than a month off before a doubleheader on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 8-9. The seventh race of the season will be on the streets of Detroit on May 31. One week later will be the first oval race of the season from Gateway.

The season hits the halfway point during a doubleheader at Road America over June 20-21. Independence Day weekend will feature another doubleheader at Mid-Ohio. Indy Lights will race against the World Cup final on July 19 from Nashville.

Portland kicks off the final quarter of the season on August 9 before the final oval race from Milwaukee on August 30. The season ends with a doubleheader from Laguna Seca on September 5-6.

Teams:

Andretti Global

Lochie Hughes: #26 The McGinley Clinic Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Third in the Indy Lights championship with 466 points and a pair of victories, but Hughes did not win in the final eight races thought he had eight podium finishes and ten top five finishes.

What to expect in 2026: Hughes will have higher expectations as he is the top returning driver from last year's championship, and there will be an expectation that he will take the title now that Dennis Hauger is gone. Hughes should be more of a threat. He should win a few more races.

Seb Murray: #27 Dream Racing Dubai Dallara

What did he do in 2025: 13th in Indy Lights with 230 points and one top five finish.

What to expect in 2026: It should get better. Murray is now fully in the Andretti camp after racing for Andretti Cape last year. However, this grid is rather competitive. It will be a challenge to break into the top ten.  

Max Taylor: #28 Susan G. Komen/Simplify Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Taylor made six starts in Indy Lights with his best finish being fourth and he had four top ten finishes. Taylor also ran the full USF Pro 2000 season and was sixth in the championship with one victory and four podium finishes.

What to expect in 2026: Taylor did well in USF Pro 2000 but not great. With his focus only on Indy Lights, he should be competitive and possibly could win a race, but fighting for the championship top five will be a good year. 

Josh Pierson: #29 The Crypto Companies Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Sixth in Indy Lights on 378 points with a pair of podium finishes and six top five finishes.

What to expect in 2026: Pierson has been developing and this is about to be his fourth year in Indy Lights, but he is still only 20 years old. The time has come to at least win a race. If he is the second-best Andretti driver behind Hughes it will be a good season.

HMD Motorsports

Salvador de Alba: #17 Grupo Indi Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Fifth in Indy Lights on 418 points with a victory at Milwaukee, three podium finishes and nine top five finishes.

What to expect in 2026: De Alba should be a championship contender, but with the grid growing and a number of IndyCar teams entering, HMD is not as well positioned as it once was in this series. De Alba should be competing for race victories. At worst, he will be somewhere in the championship top ten.  

Jack Beeton: #45 Tailored Investment Solutions Dallara

What did he do in 2025: 13th in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship and 13th in the Formula Regional European Championship. Beeton won the FRMEC season finale at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar. In 19 FREC starts, he had eight finishes in the points with his best finish being sixth. 

What to expect in 2026: Not much. Barely competitive in the Formula Regional divisions. Indy Lights is much tougher. This is a much larger grid than past seasons. Top fifteen finishes could be good days.  

Enzo Fittipaldi: #67 HMD Motorsports Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Sixth in the European Le Mans Series LMP2 class with CLX Motorsport. His best finish was third at Circuit Paul Ricard.

What to expect in 2026: Prior to last season, Fittipaldi had spent the better part of four seasons in Formula Two. Results were good as he was eighth in the championship in 2022 and seventh in 2023. His struggle was with consistency, and with Fittipaldi adjusting to ovals it could cost him. He should be in the championship top ten, but it is hard to envision him higher than about seventh.

Tymek Kucharczyk: #71 Mubi Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Euroformula Open champion on 392 points with six victories in 24 starts.

What to expect in 2026: Euroformula Open is not a deep championship. This is a big jump to Indy Lights. He and Beeton are in a similar boat.

Abel Motorsports with Force Indy

Myles Rowe: #99 Force Indy Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Fourth in Indy Lights on 458 points with two victories, six podium finishes and ten top five finishes.

What to expect in 2026: Rowe made a big leap in 2025. He should be a championship contender alongside the likes of Lochie Hughes. Finishing in the top five of the championship is the bare minimum for this season, and it would be good if he could win a road or street course race. It isn't out of the question, but it will be tougher.

Abel Motorsports

Max Garcia: #12 USF Pro Championships Dallara

What did he do in 2025: The USF Pro 2000 champion on 495 points with nine victories, 13 podium finishes and 17 top five finishes in 18 starts.

What to expect in 2026: Abel can produce quality cars, and Garcia was rather stellar in 2025. The grid is packed, but I think results will start to turn in Garcia's favor as the season goes along. A few podium results would be a good year. 

Jordan Missig: #48 GR1P Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Ninth in the Indy Lights championship on 273 points with his best finish being sixth in the opening are of the season from St. Petersburg.

What to expect in 2026: A step back from 2025. This grid is more talented and Missig wasn't that threatening last season. I do not expect a big change. 

Colin Kaminsky: #57 Slick Locks Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Nothing. Kaminsky sat on the sideline. He last competed in 2024 in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship, Kaminsky made eight Indy Lights starts in 2023 where his best finish was sixth at Barber Motorsports Park. 

What to expect in 2026: We saw bursts for Kaminsky in the Road to Indy, but nothing has quite stuck. I expect the same. A few top ten finishes but not much more than that. 

Chip Ganassi Racing

James Roe, Jr.: #8 TopCon Dallara

What did he do in 2025: 12th in Indy Lights on 235 points, and Roe, Jr.'s best finish was seventh.

What to expect in 2026: Roe, Jr. has yo-yoed all over the Indy Lights championship in his first four seasons. He looked like a possible race winner at Andretti Global until last season. I don't see Chip Ganassi Racing being much better. He could be in the championship top ten or he could be 12th again. 

Bryce Aron: #9 Jaguar Land Rover Chesterfield Dallara

What did he do in 2025: 11th in Indy Lights on 260 points with one top five finish.

What to expect in 2026: There was a slight regression last year for Aron. Results could improve in 2026, but they will likely be around where he was in 2024, which was ninth in the championship.  

Niels Koolen: #10 Super B Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Eighth in Indy Lights on 288 points with one top five finish. 

What to expect in 2026: With a deeper grid, I think Koolen takes a step back and likely finishes outside the top ten in the championship.

Carson Etter: #11 Evisions Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Etter was 17th in the USF Pro 2000 championship on 117 points. He was the worst driver in the championship among those that started every race, and his best finish all season was sixth in the final race of the season from Portland. Prior to that, his best result of the year was 12th.

What to expect in 2026: Etter is making a big leap into Indy Lights. I don't know how he ended up at Chip Ganassi Racing (Money is the answer, I know that, but on principle, how?). He should be the bottom of the fourth Ganassi drivers. It will put him at the bottom of the championship as well. 

Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR

Matteo Nannini: #20 ENVE Motorsports Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Nothing. Nannini has not competed in any series since he made seven Indy Lights starts in 2023 where he won in the wet on the IMS road course, but he had an average finish of 14.667 in the other six races. 

What to expect in 2026: Your guess is as good as mine. It has been nearly three years since Nannini last competed. Results will be better than some, but it is unlikely he will be a regular challenger and turn some heads.

Nikita Johnson: #21 Java House Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Johnson made three Indy Lights starts and his best finish was seventh on the IMS road course. Johnson made 12 starts in the GB3 Championship and he started eight races in Formula Three with his best finish being 13th in the Monza sprint race.

What to expect in 2026: Johnson was a rising start a few years ago. A brief spell in Europe has slowed his development in the American junior system. However, he is back and focused. He could be a sleeper this season. Do not be surprised if he winds up on a few podiums and could challenge for a victory or two. A championship run is slim but not impossible.

Juncos Hollinger Racing

Alexander Koreiba: #75 Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Nothing. Koreiba was the 2024 HSR Prototype Challenge champion. Prior to that, he ran one IMSA round in the LMP3 class in 2023 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was second in the 2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge championship with Memo Gidley as his co-driver.

What to expect in 2026: Nothing brilliant. I am not sure how so many drivers who have done nothing for years are ending up in Indy Lights. 

Ricardo Escotto: #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Dallara

What did he do in 2025: 19th in Indy Lights after only contesting the first nine races with top ten finishes in his first two starts.

What to expect in 2026: Things were not going great in the first half of last season. I don't think Escotto is going to be a top ten challenger.

Cusick Morgan Motorsports

Nicolas Stati: #15 The Track Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Competed in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship and Formula Regional Americas Championship. His best finish in FRAC was third on the IMS road course and he contested only 12 of 22 races.

What to expect in 2026: Stati is a complete unknown and all these circuits are new. This is essentially a new team. He is going to be toward the bottom of the results every race. 

Juan Manuel Correa: #68 Cusick Morgan Motorsports Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Correa made nine starts in Indy Lights and was third in Detroit with four top ten finishes. He was 17th in the championship on 176 points.

What to expect in 2026: There were brief sparks of promise last season for Correa. This is a new operation. That could be a hinderance considering some of the drivers he is racing against. He should have enough to crack the championship top ten.  

A.J. Foyt Racing

Nicholas Monteiro: #4 EQR Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Tenth in the USF Pro 2000 Championship on 185 points and his best finish was sixth. Monteiro made his Indy Lights debut at Portland and finished 14th. 

What to expect in 2026: Monteiro has not been that impressive in his Road to Indy career. He never finished in the top five in 52 USF Pro 2000 starts. That is not going to change now. Any top ten results will be good days.

Alessandro de Tullio: #14 AstroaPay Dallara

What did he do in 2025: Fourth in the USF Pro 2000 Championship on 342 points with four victories and seven podium finishes. 

What to expect in 2026: After starting strong last year, de Tullio was a surprise but the results could not remain that high for the entire season. He looked good in testing, and a few good results could follow this season. It does feel like he will fall short of the championship top five. 

USF Pro 2000

USF Pro 2000 will have an 18-race season, but it will not start until the Grand Prix of Arlington with a doubleheader. The series will then have a near-two month break before running two races on the IMS road course. The first oval race will be at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Memorial Day weekend. 

After a month off, USF Pro 2000 returns with a doubleheader from Road America. The first of two triple-header weekends will be at Mid-Ohio. There will be another month off before a Portland doubleheader. USF Pro 2000 is scheduled to join IndyCar for the inaugural Markham weekend. 

Milwaukee will be the final oval event, but the season will end after the IndyCar season. Road America will host a triple-header over September 24-26 to close out the USF Pro 2000 season.

Who should we keep an eye on?

The top four from the 2025 U.S. F2000 championship are moving up to USF Pro 2000 for 2026. Jack Jeffers took the title with six victories and 13 podium finishes. Jeffers will be with Exclusive Autosport, the same team he won the U.S. F2000 championship with.

Teddy Musella wound up 67 points behind Jeffers, but he had a pair of victories and nine podium finishes. Musella will drive for VRD Racing. Thomas Schrage won three times and was only a point behind Musella in the championship. Schrage is set to drive for TJ Speed Motorsports. G3 Argyros was a distant fourth, 81 points behind Schrage. Argyros did not win a race but had four podium finishes, all third-place results. He will drive for Pabst Racing.

The top returning driver from the 2025 USF Pro 2000 championship is Jacob Douglas, who will be Argyros' teammate at Pabst Racing. Douglas was fifth in the championship last year, and he did win a race while having eight podium finishes. 

Michael Costello is also back after finishing seventh in the championship last year. Costello had a pair of podium finishes, but he finished outside the top ten in seven races. He will drive for Turn 3 Motorsport.

Who could be a surprise? 

Jay Howard Driver Development (JHDD) powered by ECR had stunning pace out of the gate at the preseason Homestead test with both drivers JT Hoskins and Andrés Cárdenas. Cardenas is coming over from Eurocup-3, a Formula Regional equivalent series in Europe, and he did win the final race of the season. Hoskins is leaping from USF Juniors to USF Pro 2000. Hoskins was 11th in the USF Juniors in 2025. That testing pace could be too good to be true. 

Christian Cameron was the fastest at the Homestead test with TJ Speed Motorsports. Cameron was 11th in U.S. F2000 last year with his best finish being fourth. He is the cousin of five-time IMSA championship Dane Cameron.

Who needs a good season?

Frankie Mossman is about to enter his third full season in USF Pro 2000, and he has yet to win a race. Mossman was quick in testing at Homestead driving for VRD Racing. He has never finished better than eighth in the championship at this level.

U.S. F2000

The season begins with a doubleheader from St. Petersburg, but there will be over two months until the next U.S. F2000 round, and it will be a triple-header held over the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend. Like USF Pro 2000, U.S. F2000 will have a race at Indianapolis Raceway Park over Memorial Day weekend. 

The second triple-header of the season will be at Road America before a doubleheader at Mid-Ohio. One month later, U.S. F2000 returns to competition at Portland, and U.S. F2000 will also race at Markham. U.S. F2000 concludes its season with a triple-header from Road America over September 24-26.

Who should we keep an eye on?

Sebastián Garzón was blisteringly quick in Homestead testing for DEForce Racing, and he is back for his second season in U.S. F2000. Garzón ended last season on a high note with three consecutive top five finishes. 

Liam Loiacono was the next fastest driver at the Homestead test with JHDD powered by ECR, and Lolacono was second in USF Juniors last season. VRD Racing had a trio of quick drivers with João Vergara, Ryan Giannetta and Colin Aitken. Naim Salih was another JHDD driver to keep an eye on. 

Leonardo Escorpioni was the 2025 USF Juniors champion, and he will run full-time in U.S. F2000 for Zanella Racing, but Escorpioni spent the entire Homestead test running in USF Pro 2000. Escorpioni had six victories, 14 podium finishes and was in the top four in 15 of 16 races last year in USF Juniors. 

Who could be a surprise? 

Evan Cooley is the top returning driver from last year's championship. Cooley was sixth and he only had two podium finishes and five top five results. Like Escorpioni, Cooley tested at Homestead in USF Pro 2000. It is tough to judge how he stacks up entering this season.

Who needs a good season?

Anthony Martella did win a race last year with the Canadian finishing first at Indianapolis Raceway Park. However, it was one of only two top five finishers he had all season as he was seventh in the championship, three points ahead of Garzón.

Indy Lights will open the season this weekend in St. Petersburg with a 45-lap race on Sunday March 1 at 10:00 a.m. ET. The first U.S. F2000 race of the weekend will be on Friday February 27 at 11:30 a.m. The second race of the weekend will not be until 3:00 p.m. on Sunday March 1. Bot races will be 20 laps or 40 minutes.

Musings From the Weekend: And Now the Season is Here

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

The Olympics are over. The United States swept the ice hockey gold medals. Simona de Silvestro was 23rd in the monobob and 23rd in two-woman competition. Elsewhere, not much changed in Atlanta, except a winless streak ended. Formula One continued to test. Indy Lights went to Miami. MotoGP has decided to leave Phillip Island for Adelaide, and few are happy about it. World Superbike was at Phillip Island to open its 2026 season. Supercross had a pair of first-time winners in Arlington. NASCAR could have another prominent court case on its hands, but at least it is not against the series this time. February is nearly over, and with the first day of March comes the start of the IndyCar season after a lengthy period off.

And Now the Season is Here

I guess this is going to become an annual tradition of entering the first week of the IndyCar season with a look at the temperature in the series. It might be best to gauge where things stand before everything gets underway, and then you have a reference point for when everything ends in September. 

There is a sense of nothingness after this offseason. What really happened? Other than an additional race in Washington, D.C., which based on IndyCar history you cannot get too excited about, what really happened this offseason? What happened after September 2025? 

Think about how much of this offseason took place in the first 30 to 60 days after the first race of the season. 

Within the first 23 days of September we knew Will Power was leaving Team Penske, Rinus VeeKay was leaving Dale Coyne Racing, Colton Herta was going to Formula Two, Will Power was replacing Herta at Andretti Global, David Malukas was going to Team Penske and Dennis Hauger was moving up to race for Dale Coyne Racing. That meant only three full-time seats for 2026 were unaccounted for before we got through the first month of the offseason. 

By the middle of October, we knew VeeKay was going to Juncos Hollinger Racing and we knew before Thanksgiving that Caio Collet was joining A.J. Foyt Racing and Mick Schumacher was going to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Only one seat remained opened with 97 days left in the offseason. Whatever drama remained was the final Dale Coyne Racing seat, which ultimately went to the driver we all expected to be hired in the middle of September, and then there was Prema's implosion, which had as much excitement as watching an ice cube melt in the dead of winter. 

What else did we learn? Chevrolet and Honda are staying but there has been no public progress in a new chassis, no renderings shared, no development schedule official released. No ground has been made on a new engine manufacturer joining the series. IndyCar has a new, independent officiating board, but that is administrative work. No one tunes in for officiating even if IndyCar was borderline obligated in making a change after the conflicts of interest over infractions involving Team Penske in a Roger Penske-owned series in the last two seasons. 

Not enough happens in a six-month offseason to justify a six-month offseason. A fire could have been lit under Dale Coyne and he could have had Romain Grosjean secured before Christmas. The six-month offseason isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and we will live with a lot of hurry up and wait offseasons for years to come. 

It is difficult to feel all that excited for this new season. What is going to be different? Álex Palou is going to win five or six races. It will likely be enough for the championship. Is there much excitement in seeing Will Power at Andretti Global? Is Power enough to lift that organization to a championship after 14 years of waiting? Do we really care about David Malukas at Team Penske? Is that going to change IndyCar? 

It is going to be the same season we have seen for the last 15 years. Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske is going to produce the champion. There could be a race or two that has a fun winner and a mid-pack team could perform above expectations, but ultimately top out at eighth or ninth in the championship, and then it will be over and we will do it all again starting in March 2027. 

But there should be things we should be intrigued about. Team Penske is coming off its worst season in the 21st century. It cannot be that bad again, right? But maybe it is, and then what? It would mean Chip Ganassi Racing will become the most successful team in IndyCar history with an 18th championship. That doesn't mean nothing, especially since Ganassi hasn't even been around for 40 years. 

Will Arrow McLaren finally breakthrough with Patricio O'Ward or maybe Christian Lundgaard? How many races will Nolan Siegel get before he is kicked to the gutter?

Is Christian Rasmussen going to win again? Will Alexander Rossi wake up? Are Ed Carpenter Racing for real? 

Can Meyer Shank Racing make another step forward after having both drivers finish in the top eight of the championship? 

Is Mick Schumacher the missing piece for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing? 

Will a phoenix rise from Prema's ashes? 

There is not nothing, but it just doesn't feel that substantial. An IndyCar offseason is little more than rotating the couch cushions. The cars are the same. The engines are the same. The tires are the same. The rules are basically the same. We are always asking if another team can breakthrough, and they never do. Why believe 2026 will be anything different?

The mood is better entering this season. We know Chevrolet and Honda are locked in for a handful of seasons into the new engine regulations. With that set, progress to the 2028 regulations may continue. The teams have less angst and there is a better feeling of fairness with the new officiating panel. 

Teams are going to be mandated to run two stints on alternate tires on street courses, and that is fun. Things may end up the same way, but there are fun components to the season. A Schumacher is racing in IndyCar. Who would have ever thought that? It could be only for one season, it could be the start of a lengthy career! Let's see where it goes! 

McLaren is always burning out drivers. It already set the top ten in the championship as the ultimatum for Siegel. We will know by Mid-Ohio if that objective is achievable. If it isn't, how many replacement drivers will McLaren rotate through? Who could it bring out of the woodwork? Will 20 years from now we look back in the history book to see three or four IndyCar starts for Leonardo Fornaroli or Richard Verschoor?

We are also still going to see three of the greatest drivers in IndyCar history competing against one another. Time is becoming a little more valuable when watching Scott Dixon and Will Power compete. Dixon is one victory away from 60 in his career, and he is eight away from tying A.J. Foyt for the all-time lead. A special season makes the all-time record achievable. Will Power is five victories away from 50. Only three drivers have reached that milestone. 

As inevitable as it may be, Álex Palou is something special. We must remember that and cannot become sullied in seeing greatness. It is staggering how much he has achieved this quickly in his career, but that is what makes it special. No driver has won eight races in consecutive seasons since Mario Andretti in 1966 and 1967, but Palou could do that. He could become the second driver to win four consecutive championships, and we are pretty sure if he does that he will return in 2027 with a great shot at an unprecedented fifth consecutive title. We may never see this again. It is worthy of our attention. 

Palou also has to pay over $12 million in damages to McLaren for not honoring his contract, which makes ever race a little more fun because Palou is basically racing to pay off debt, and that could be the rest of his career. At least we have that to keep us entertained!

Winners From the Weekend

You know about the United States, but did you know...

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup race from Atlanta, his second consecutive victory to open the season. Reddick is the sixth driver in Cup Series history to win the first two races in a season, and he is the first to do it since Matt Kenseth in 2009. Sheldon Creed won the Grand National Series race, his first career victory in his 137th career start. Kyle Busch won the Truck race, his 68th in the series.

Broc Feeney (race one and three) and Anton de Pasquale (race two) split the Supercars races from Sydney Motorsports Park.

Nicoló Bulega swept the World Suerpbike races from Phillip Island. Jaume Masià and Albert Arenas split the World Supersport races.

Hunter Lawrence won the Supercross race from Arlington, his first career victory in the 450cc class. Pierce Brown won the 250cc race, his first race back after being injured last year at Tampa.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar opens in St. Petersburg. 

NASCAR will be at Austin but the Trucks will be in St. Petersburg.

MotoGP opens its season at Buriram.

Supercross has Daytona Bike Week ahead of it.

Let's Look at the League - 2026 Season

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season is about to begin, and with the races about to actually happen, we bring back the fictional competition within a competition. The head-to-head, league format is back for an eighth season.

In case you need a reminder...

Imagine the IndyCar season as any other sports league season. Teams are placed in conferences and each week of competition the teams go head-to-head against one another with one team coming out as the winner and the other being the loser. Each victory counts in the league standings with a playoff to determine the champion while the worst teams are relegated. Meanwhile, in the division below, teams are fighting to earn promotion into the top league. 

This season is a little different because there have been some changes in IndyCar. Tentatively, the schedule is going to be 18 races, which poises a little problem. There is also a two-car team that will not be returning to the grid, at least not in a full-time capacity. There have been a few structural changes to keep in mind for this season. Let's face these one part at a time.

League One remains 16 teams, but with a potential 18th race, it does add an unnecessary week. Seventeen races works out nicely for this format. The regular season is 14 races. The final three races are the playoffs. Great! How do we handle an additional race?

We are keeping the double round robin within a conference. With an additional week, we add a 15th head-to-head matchup for each team in the regular season, and inter-conference play enters here. To make it easier, each team will face their respective equal in that 15th week. The top team in conference #1 ahead of this season will face the top team in conference #2 ahead of this season. That means the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Álex Palou will face the #5 Arrow McLaren entry of Patricio O'Ward.

As for when to schedule this additional week, we cannot be certain the Washington, D.C. race will happen. We still do not have a course map laid out. Keeping that in mind, the first 14 races will still be for the double round robin within each conference. The inter-conference matchups will all happen at Washington, D.C. If the Washington, D.C. race should not occur, it does not affect the standings and playoff qualification. Everyone will have completed the double round robin within each conference.

How does League One look this season?

Conference One

#10 Ganassi
#27 Andretti
#7 McLaren
#26 Andretti
#12 Penske
#2 Penske
#21 ECR 
#6 McLaren

Conference Two

#5 McLaren
#9 Ganassi
#60 Meyer Shank
#66 Meyer Shank
#3 Penske
#4 Foyt
#18 Coyne
#14 Foyt

The #10 Ganassi won the league championship last year and it has the #7 McLaren in its conference after meeting in the semifinals. The #26 Andretti entry was the top in Conference #2 in the regular season last year before losing in the quarterfinals to the #12 Penske entry. Of course, both those cars have two new drivers with Will Power now in the #26 Andretti entry after running the #12 Penske, and David Malukas is in the #12 Penske. The #2 Penske is back after surviving the relegation playoff final last year. The #21 ECR is back and the #6 McLaren rounds out the conference.

The #9 Ganassi lost in the championship final last year but it beat the #5 McLaren in the quarterfinals to get there. The #60 MSR entry is in the same conference as the #66 MSR entry, which is one of three teams to make it up via promotion. The #4 Foyt entry went 10-0 last year in League Two to win that league. The #18 Coyne entire made via the promotion playoff despite going 5-5 in the regular season and finishing sixth in the standings. The #3 Penske and #14 Foyt entry round out the Conference #2

Schedule

The first quarterfinal will be the first Milwaukee race with the semifinals held during the second Milwaukee race. Laguna Seca will host the finale. 

Though a 15th race has been added to the regular season, the relegation playoff remains. The top four teams from each conference will make the playoffs. Fifth from each conference will be safe for League One in 2027. Eighth place in each conference will be automatically relegated.

Sixth and seventh from each conference will go to the relegation playoff. In the first Milwaukee race, sixth-place from each conference will face seventh-place from the other conference. The winners will clinch safety for League One. The losers will face each other in the second Milwaukee race. The winner will secure a spot in League One. The loser will be relegated to League Two for 2027.

League Two

There is a bit of an issue in League Two, as the anticipated absence of Prema means there will be two fewer cars, and that will mean another format change, but the expansion to 18 races helps out. Instead of having 11 teams, we can do nine teams, and nine teams allow for a double round robin. Every League Two team can face each other twice. That is 16 matchups and each team can get two bye weeks to fill out an 18-race calendar. 

That does mean a pause on the promotion playoff. We are going to return to the top three League Two teams being automatically promoted. I know you are wondering, "What if Washington, D.C. does not happen and what would that mean for League Two?" The fall back is Indianapolis 500 qualifying. If Washington, D.C. does not happen, the week 15 results will use Indianapolis 500 qualifying results. It is not ideal, but it is a good fallback in this situation. 

Who is League Two?

#20 ECR

#8 Ganassi

#76 Juncos Hollinger

#15 RLLR

#28 Andretti

#45 RLLR

#77 Juncos Hollinger

#47 RLLR

#19 Coyne

The entire Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing organization and the entire Juncos Hollinger Racing organization are in League Two, and the remaining are a fun combination of teams. Ganassi and Andretti each have an entry in the second tier. Ed Carpenter Racing is there with Alexander Rossi. Then you have a Dale Coyne Racing entry because of course Dale Coyne Racing has a team in the lower league. 

Schedule

As is a custom, we will look at the league a few times over the 2026 season. We will look in after a few races have taken place, and then we will come back as the playoffs approach and as they are about to begin before recapping when the season is over sometime in September. 

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Prema

We are only ten days away from the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg, and we have previewed all the team, except one. It is with good reason. We don't know if Prema will compete at all in 2026. 

Prema did not compete in any preseason testing, including the official IndyCar test which just concluded from Phoenix Raceway. The Italian team has experienced some ownership changes as team founder Angelo Rosin and his son Rene were among those who left the organization. The team has said it is still working to make the grid at some point in 2026, but that is far from a guarantee.

With this uncertainty we aren't going to preview Prema, but discuss the team's situation, and what has been lost with the team shrinking from a full-time program. 

2025 Prema Review

Wins: 0

Best Finish: 6th (Laguna Seca, Portland)

Poles: 1 (Indianapolis 500)

Championship Finishes: 21st (Callum Ilott), 24th (Robert Shwartzman)

Where does Prema stand?

At this moment, it will not be full-time, and its first race of 2026, if it ever makes it to the racetrack, appears to be unknown. Funding has been the major issue for the program, and Prema has been looking for new backers since the end of the 2025 season. Team CEO Piers Phillips has reportedly been seeking support throughout the offseason.

Both drivers from the 2025 season are believed to be under contract with the team. Callum Ilott has taken on a full-time IMSA role with Wright Motorsports in the GT Daytona class. The only IMSA race that clashes with an IndyCar round is the August 23 race from Virginia International Raceway. This was originally not a clash until the Washington, D.C. round was added to the IndyCar calendar earlier this month. Robert Shwartzman has no reported deals in any series for this year.

Rumors state Prema will not be on the grid until Long Beach at the earliest though there has been no official timetable to the team's 2026 season.

What is lost?

Losing a two-car team will create space on the track and in the pit lane, which should give everyone a little more breathing room. It also clears up any issues with entering open entries. With a 27-car limit to every grid outside the Indianapolis 500 and 25 spots reserved for the chartered entries, Prema took the two available spots at every race in 2025. Without Prema, the door is open for a team to run an additional car without a risk of missing the race. 

There have been no official words about any teams adding cars for any races outside of the Indianapolis 500, but once we are through the first two or three months of the season and we know how active Prema will be, we could see a few teams roll out additional cars later in the season. 

While the loss has created opportunities, it does mean the likes of Ilott and Shwartzman will likely not be competing in 2026. Ilott has been racing in IndyCar since the end of the 2021 season. While at Juncos Hollinger Racing, Ilott had some impressive drives to top ten and even top five finishes. As a rookie, Shwartzman had two top ten finishes, but his 2025 season will be remembered for an incredible pole position at the Indianapolis 500.

We saw plenty of growing pains for Prema in its first year, but it was making strides. Ilott had four top ten finishes in the final five races, and we cannot forget the speed the team showed at Indianapolis. 

What has Prema's experience told us about IndyCar?

Prema may have been a year too late with its entry to IndyCar. Entering in 2025 with the introduction of charters saw the team miss out at least one, if not two, guaranteed spots on the grid while also competing for Leader Circle funding. Prema could not control when IndyCar would change its business model in terms of prize money for the teams, nor could it plan on being entirely left out in the cold. 

Prema did announce its IndyCar intentions for 2025 before the charter system was introduced. The team could have been given a spot considering it was committed to running full-time, but Prema was left to fend for itself. 

Being a European-based team that had predominantly competed in juniors series previously. Prema was not the first such team to enter IndyCar. Less than a decade ago, it was Carlin. Both teams experienced the same learning curve, and in Prema's case it was not going to overcome it in year one.

Both Carlin and Prema struggled with funding. Carlin's introduction to IndyCar largely came down to the team being partially owned by Grahame Chilton, father of Max Chilton, and then-CEO of Gallagher Insurance, while also having a second car backed with sponsorship from Charlie Kimball. In the junior series, there is always someone willing to fund a seat, especially one for a quality team. In contemporary IndyCar, funded drivers help, but they are not going to turn a team into a contender, let alone keep them alive for long. 

After year one, Carlin's second entry was on life-support and dependent on other funded drivers. Kimball stuck around on a part-time basis, but then Patricio O'Ward came in before briefly becoming a Red Bull junior driver. Sage Karam and RC Enerson brought some money for a few races, but after one-year of that experiment, Carlin shrunk to one-car and it was out of IndyCar after two more years. 

Prema was on the same path. It was largely self-funded, but it did not have the infrastructure to court sponsors in the United States, just like Carlin. It had to attract some kind of partner after year one and it has come up empty. 

Such a business model has its shortcomings with IndyCar. For junior series drivers, bringing money to a team has promise if it is leading to something greater. A driver can bring $2.5 million to a Formula Two team because there is something larger down the line. A driver could move into Formula One and that sponsor supporting a driver could easily gets its money back having a small decal on a Formula One car. The investment is work the risk. In IndyCar, the money required to fill a seat is nearly double that of Formula Two, and there is nothing higher. IndyCar is the limit and its popularity, or lack thereof, makes the price tag hard to justify. With no chance of moving up to another level and seeing a greater return on investment and more required to enter the series, IndyCar becomes a less attractive option.

Financing any IndyCar team is a difficult task. Not having the manpower to scout for sponsors and make connections makes survival bleak. We must acknowledge even if Prema had a charter entry and two charter entries, it was having issues greater than that base payment. It would have helped, but the team had greater financial issues and likely would have still been in an uphill battle entering the 2026 season. 

What comes next? 

There is hope Prema makes the grid, even if it is under a different name should someone purchase the assets. It feels like we could see an entry from this organization appear on the grid at some point. It could be a legitimate part-time entry and run a handful of races. It could be an Indianapolis 500-only program. It could see Ilott or Shwartzman in the car. It could see neither and be an entirely different driver. The program could never materialize. 

For Ilott, it is the second time his career has stalled out in IndyCar. First was the unceremonious dismissal from Juncos Hollinger Racing. For all the fanfare from within the paddock, he is a driver that has not received the big call when opportunities have presented themselves. Another year mostly on the sideline and running sports car race could be the final straw. If a bigger team does not call, or if at least a team is willing to give Ilott structure, his IndyCar career is likely over.

As for Shwartzman, your guess is as good as mine. He has etched a spot in folklore somewhere along Fabrizio Barbazza. That isn't a bad place to be.

This will be an ongoing story over the first few months of the season. Once we get through the Indianapolis 500, we will likely move on from it, especially if a car never makes it to the grid. 

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.