IndyCar Wrap-Up: Dale Coyne Racing's 2026 Season

A little over a week has passed since the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season concluded from Laguna Seca, and we can now review the season that occurred through a team-by-team look. Though arguably not the worst team in 2026, we start with Dale Coyne Racing mostly because another team has news coming and we should wait until it is official before reviewing later this week. That aside, Dale Coyne Racing had a new lineup compared to the previous season, though it included a familiar face. There were high expectations after the results in 2025, but this season saw a falloff and a less competitive outfit, though still a few positive outings. 

Romain Grosjean

After a year off the IndyCar grid and spending 2025 as a reserve driver for Prema's lone IndyCar season, Grosjean returned to full-time competition in a return with Dale Coyne Racing. Five years after making a stellar IndyCar debut with Coyne, Grosjean was hoping to recapture some of that magic. The combination didn't come close to their first foray together.

What objectively was his best race?

Grosjean wound up on the podium at Markham mostly through strategy. Grosjean ran two longer stints, which were aided due to cautions that allowed him to go that long. He ended with stints at 36 laps and 38 laps, and the final pit stop was simultaneous with Kyle Kirkwood hitting the barrier. Grosjean led much of the final stint, but he had to save fuel and could not defend from Marcus Ericsson, who only had to run 22 laps on his final stint. Despite saving fuel, Grosjean took second.

What subjectively was his best race?

Markham is hard to argue against, but the Indianapolis 500 deserves attention because Grosjean went off-strategy like eventual race winner Felix Rosenqvist only for Grosjean to receive a penalty for passing under caution. Grosjean recovered and was able to get back into the top ten and remain there. Even with the late caution and late restart, Grosjean took ninth, his best finish in the Indianapolis 500.

What objectively was his worst race?

It is technically Phoenix because Grosjean had a clutch failure on the grid and never turned a lap. He was classified in 25th. If we are looking only at races where Grosjean took the green flag, he was 24th in the second Milwaukee race, which was the race that started on Sunday afternoon, after a pair of spins. Grosjean had a promising start in that race and was making ground before he spun the first time exiting turn two, and it cost him being on the lead lap.

What subjectively was his worst race?

There were plenty of races where Grosjean and Dale Coyne Racing were not a factor and we didn't really notice they were out there. The entire Milwaukee weekend is disappointing because he started ninth in the race that started on Saturday and then was trapped a lap down because of a pit stop before the rain delay and he never could recover. In the first race, it looked like Grosjean was going to drive in to the top ten and then one spin ended the promising start.

Barber was another disappointing weekend because Grosjean qualified sixth, it was the second time in four races he made the Fast Six, and Grosjean went backward on every stint and finished 15th. 

Romain Grosjean's 2026 Statistics

Championship Position: 19th (259 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 4
Laps Led: 32
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 2
Fast Twelves: 4 
Average Start: 16.444
Average Finish: 16.611

Dennis Hauger

With aid from Andretti Global, Hauger moved up to IndyCar after winning the Indy Lights championship. A partnership put the Norwegian driver into Coyne's second seat, and after the team's results in 2025, it appears to be a good spot for Hauger to grow especially with Andretti technical support. The season started strong in St. Petersburg, but that proved to be one of this team's highest points of the season. What should have been a fairly comfortable season as the top rookie proved to be much closer than expected.

What objectively was his best race?

In the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Hauger started 24th but he finished eighth thanks to other teams having their own issues, but Hauger made a few passes and looked racy. He made the most of the race car he had, which probably was starting further down the order than it should have been, but he turned that into a respectable result.

What subjectively was his best race?

Is it wrong to say St. Petersburg? Though Hauger started third and went backward the entire race, he spent basically every lap in the top ten. He had a good opening stint. It was a tenth-place finish on debut. 

What objectively was his worst race?

Like Grosjean, Hauger had a mechanical issue on the grid prevent him from starting a race. A fuel leak kept Hauger from turning a lap at Gateway, and he was classified in 25th. However, he had a 25th-place result on track as Hauger was spun into the barrier on the opening lap of the season finale from Laguna Seca. Sting Ray Robb ran over Hauger, and it closed Hauger's 2026 season prematurely.

What subjectively was his worst race?

It isn't one race, but it is a collection of races where Hauger started well and did not race well. He started in the top ten of four consecutive races, two of which were top five starts and he scored zero top ten finishes from it.

Ninth to 13th at Portland. 

Fifth to 15th at Markham.

Eighth to 15th at Washington, D.C.

Fourth to 21st in the Milwaukee race that started on Saturday afternoon.

At Portland, he spent much of that race on the edge of the top ten and couldn't quite get in there before the finish. He ran out of fuel on the final lap in Markham and he started that lap in 11th. He went backward in Washington, D.C., and like Grosjean he was trapped a lap down in the first Milwaukee race after making a pit stop before the rain came. He obviously had some comfort with the car to show that much speed, but it never translated in races. 

To give one specific race, Hauger was in the same pack as Felix Rosenqvist, Patricio O'Ward and Marcus Armstrong in the Indianapolis 500, and Hauger was running as high as third before these drivers made their final pit stop on the alternate strategy. Hauger sped in pit lane for his final stop and it cost him a possible top ten finish and it definitely cost him Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year as he ended up 19th, one lap down and  a position behind top finishing rookie Mick Schumacher. The Indianapolis 500 was nearly very special for Hauger. It was probably one of his best races of the season that is missed entirely due to one mistake

Dennis Hauger's 2026 Statistics

Championship Position: 22nd (228 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 2
Laps Led: 5
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 2
Fast Twelves: 4
Average Start: 17.111
Average Finish: 17.555

An Early Look Ahead

We haven't a clue how Dale Coyne Racing will look next season, and that is often the case for this team in the aftermath of a season. 

Will both drivers be back? Probably not. Coyne doesn't retain both drivers often. 

Will one driver be back? Possibly, but it is not strong in either case. Grosjean was the "hired" Coyne driver while Hauger was the "funded" Coyne driver. Hauger had some of his own sponsorship, but the Andretti Global tie helped secure that seat. Andretti Global has lost interest in its prospect and it will no longer back Hauger, especially since Andretti has locked up Marcus Ericsson over a multi-year extension, securing that three-driver lineup for the foreseeable future. 

Dale Coyne Racing is in limbo as it regularly is after a season has ended. We don't know what drivers will be there. We don't know if it will hire a rookie or find another veteran to bring back. We will likely not know where this team will stand come Thanksgiving or Christmas or possibly even Valentine's Day. There was a brief period when Coyne did have its drivers secured well before the holidays began. That was an aberration. This is a return to the norm. 

The team fell off. Both cars did finish in Leader Circle positions after one of the Coyne cars failed to qualify in the previous three seasons that is a boost to this team. Both Coyne cars also made the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since 2023 as well. The Leader Circle money will help as much as a $1.7-million bonus can entering a lame-duck season for the current generation of car and when a massive expense is about to be undertaken for new equipment. However, its cars were 19th and 22nd in the championship. In 2024, Coyne was semi-regularly in the top ten and competitive with Rinus VeeKay. 

It doesn't feel like 2027 will be a sizable leap forward or a return to 2025 form. The Andretti partnership did nothing with Hauger. There are some shortcomings you cannot overcome. Coyne had some speed, but it could not produce it when it matter most in races. It doesn't matter what drivers are put in those cars, no one is overcoming absence of race pace.

There is some belief Coyne will replace one Indy Lights champion for another, and 2026 Indy Lights champion Nikita Johnson has been linked to the team. It would be another young driver at Coyne as Johnson does not turn 19 years old until five days before the 2027 Indianapolis 500. 

While Johnson took the title, there was not much shown that suggests he is ready for IndyCar and will be a natural fit. He could bring some funding beyond the scholarship he receives for the championship. It would help with the finances but that does not guarantee the success on the track. Combining Johnson with Grosjean and Coyne's regular stable of engineers does not inject hope into the possible outcome of this team.

Of course, we could end up with something entirely different and something we cannot imagine in our minds for Coyne's 2027 lineup. It is another offseason where we look at Dale Coyne Racing, have no clue where it is going, and we will not really care even after its driver lineup is confirmed. Whatever decision is made, it is borderline irrelevant to how next season will play out. Someone will be champion, but it will not be Dale Coyne Racing as the Illinois-based team hopes to fight for the championship top ten, but might not even be good enough to crack the top fifteen. 

Musings From the Weekend: Why Don't We Call It Like We See It?

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

Things were not all that mad in Madrid. It was rather underwhelming. One American Formula One hopeful ended up happy. Another American Formula One hopeful didn’t make it through the weekend. Brakes failed in Gateway, but new life was found near the banks of tire wear. The championship lead has changed in MotoGP. The next IndyCar chassis tested on the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it is not what occurred that has our attention.  

Why Don't We Call It Like We See It?

Distance continues to grow from the 2026 IndyCar Series season, and time has allowed us to ponder what happened this season. 

It might have been no surprise Álex Palou took the championship, especially as he won the previous three years and he had won four of the last five titles. Few went into this season thinking it could legitimately be anyone else. Even if we expected it, this doesn't diminish what Palou has accomplished.

Five titles is the third-most all-time. Palou is only the second driver to win four consecutive championships. Palou reached 25 career victories, the 18th driver to reach that milestone. He reached 20 career pole positions, the 16th driver to reach that milestone. He became the 21st driver to exceed 50 podium finishes in a career, and his 69 top five finishes place him 23rd all-time. 

Palou has achieved all this in seven seasons. He doesn't turn 30 years old until April 1, 2027. He has at least another decade in IndyCar if not another 15 years. If this is only the start, we are bound to Palou continue to achieve a remarkable level of success, and he will only continue to re-write the history book. Despite his accomplishments, there has been some reluctance to accept what Palou has done. 

We have not really seen a driver do what Palou has done, but there is pushback when trying to mention him as one of the greatest ever. The quickest and most frequent refrain is "I cannot include him with A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti." The numbers say a different story. 

Palou has more championship than Andretti. He has won more consecutive championships than Foyt ever won. In 116 starts, he has won 25 times, a winning percentage at 21.551%. Foyt had 32 victories in his first 116 starts (27.586%). Andretti had 28 victories in his first 116 starts (24.137%). Bourdais had one fewer victory than Foyt in the Frenchman's first 116 starts (26.724%), in case you are wondering.

If you want to use Indianapolis 500s against Palou, you can't. He has just as many as Andretti. It is the sheer dominance that cannot denied. The greatest indication of Palou's success is he has led the championship after 69 races in his career. That is third-most all-time behind Foyt at 81 and Andretti at 71. Based on the last half-decade, Palou is one season away from leading the championship more than any driver in IndyCar history. Palou has led the championship for 59.482% of his career. Foyt only led for 21.951% when he retired. Andretti led for 17.444% of his career. 

Using the signs of the times against Palou is incredibly unfair. Foyt raced in front-engine roadster and transitioned to rear-engine cars. Both Foyt and Andretti competed when dirt tracks were just as prominent as paved ovals. Palou cannot control the technical regulations nor can he control innovation. IndyCar isn't deciding the 2028 car will be a 21st century roadster. It could, but it hasn't and it will not adopt roadsters whenever the car after the next new one comes, whether that be 2034 or 2035 or 2040. And dirt isn't returning either. 

Times have changed. The schedule is majority road and street courses. All races are at least 164 miles in length. Palou might not be racing 100 miles at Sacramento or Springfield or Langhorne, but Foyt didn't do a 250-mile street race in Washington, D.C. or 189 miles in Markham.

The only other thing that can be held against Palou is something he definitively cannot control. That is longevity. If the knock against Palou is he has not been as dominant for as long as Foyt and Andretti, well that cannot be done overnight. Foyt's seven championships came over a span of 20 seasons. Andretti won titles in three different decades and spent most of the 1970s focused on Formula One. Foyt won a race in 18 seasons and Andretti in 16 seasons. Palou hasn't even been in IndyCar for half that length. 

Longevity is a factor, but we cannot consider Palou a flash in a pan. Flashes don't win five championships in six years. If Palou decided to walk away tomorrow and never step into a race car again, he will have left an indelible mark on IndyCar and would be the talk for years and decades to come. 

There is a sense of protection around IndyCar's past, especially when it comes to the two drivers inevitably considered the greatest to ever race. They emerged around the same time. They were competitors for decades. There is not another comparison for Foyt vs. Andretti in any part of motorsports let alone just IndyCar. Each raised the level of the other and it produced two of the most successful drivers to ever compete. That should not blind us from the greatness in front of us. 

We only lose out if we attempt to diminish the level of Palou's success. And we shouldn't discredit anyone's success, not of this level. Greatness is not finite. Great drivers have come since Foyt and Andretti retired, and more will come down the road. They will dazzle us, but only if we let them. If every driver is dismissed as being irreproachable to the level of Foyt and Andretti, we only make the present unenjoyable. To constantly say no to someone's talent when it is truly something we have rarely seen if we have ever seen is snobbery at its finest. That isn't love for the sport or series if there is a lack of openness to the greatness of the present. 

Why don't we call it like we see it? 

Without a doubt, Álex Palou is one of the greatest to compete in IndyCar even if it has only been for seven seasons. He keeps winning. That is what is most important. He is in the echelon of Foyt and Andretti and you can throw in Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Rodger Ward, Sébastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Will Power to boot. We must wait and see if Palou continues this for another ten years or 15 years, but it is unlikely he is going anywhere. 

It is doubtful  he will go winless for the next decade. There will be some level of success. Considering what Palou has already achieved, it will not take much more until he is on a plain no one else occupies. Then what will anyone have to say? 

Champion From the Weekend

Ugo Ugochukwu clinched the Formula Three championship with finishes of eighth, fourth and second in Madrid.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Ugo Ugochukwu, but did you know...

Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix, his eighth victory of the season.

Ritomo Miata (Sprint) and Dino Beganovic (Feature) split the Formula Two races from Madrid. Théophile Naël (Sprint), Pedro Clerot (Feature #1) and Tuukka Taponen (Feature #2) split the Formula Three races.

Marc Márquez won MotoGP's San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix, his fifth victory of the season, and Márquez also won the sprint race. Manuel González won in Moto2, his fifth victory of the season. Máximo Quiles won in Moto3, his eighth victory of the season.

The #8 AO by Absolute Racing Porsche of Alessio Picariello, Laurin Heinrich and Julien Andlauer won the Suzuka 1000km. 

The #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca-Gibson of Jake Hughes, Matthias Kaiser and Ben Barnicoat won the 4 Hours of Silverstone. The #85 R-ace GP Duqueine D09-Toyota of Fabien Michal, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Hugo Schwarze won in LMP3. The #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx  Mercedes-AMG of Abdulla Al-Khelaifi, Julian Hanses and Ralf Aron won in LMGT3.

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup race from Gateway, his first victory since May 2025. Jesse Love won the Grand National Series race.

Marco Wittmann and Ben Dörr split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from Sachsenring.

Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard won Supercars' The Bend 500.

Oliver Solberg won Rally Chile.

Haiden Deegan (1-1) won the SuperMotocross round from Columbus. Levi Kitchen (2-2) won the 250 SMX round as Daxton Bennick and Cole Davies split the motos.

Coming Up This Weekend

NASCAR has a night race at Bristol.

MotoGP has a weekend in Austria. 

IMSA will run a regular race in Indianapolis. 

Sportsland SUGO hosts Super GT.

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup wraps up its season at Zandvoort.

SuperMotocross holds it second playoff round from Carson, California.

IndyCar's Talent Evaluations: Be Careful of What You Wish For

We are only days removed from the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season finale from Laguna Seca, and the biggest story from the weekend might not have been Álex Palou's fifth championship, nor Scott McLaughlin's race victory. It wasn't Dreyer & Reinbold Racing's confirmation of Conor Daly to a full-time ride in 2027, nor was the continued speculation over Christian Lundgaard's future. It wasn't even rumors of Colton Herta's return that caused the greatest stir. 

It actually came in the lead up to the Laguna Seca weekend when IndyCar released defined standards for licensing drivers entering the series. 

IndyCar president Doug Boles announced the standards for the qualification process, specifically focused on drivers competing in Indy Lights. 

A driver must compete in a minimum of 12 races in the series for IndyCar eligibility to be established. 

The top three finishers in the championship as well as any drivers with at least two victories in the previous 24 months will be considered "competitively qualified."

Drivers with only one victory in the developments series will be considered "Evaluation Eligible."

The remaining winless drivers will be listed as "Résumé Review Required."

Drivers at the "Evaluation Eligible" level will be considered for an evaluation test to decide licensing while "Résumé Review Required" drivers will face a greater scrutinizing process to be approved for competition. 

Evaluation from other series, whether that be Formula One, Formula Two, sports cars and so on, will be separate from the three-tier process IndyCar has established for drivers coming from the Road to Indy system. 

There has been praise over a written standard for driver approval, but there are flaws to this system, and motorsports is not as clean of a meritocracy as we all wish. 

This evaluation process doesn't really matter until it turns a driver down. As far as we know, nothing has changed from how evaluations were conducted prior to IndyCar announcing these standards. What we do know is IndyCar has given us a list of drivers that it will clear more quickly or essentially automatically if a team would like to hire them. Teams are still free to pursue any driver they wish and potentially run them through an additional test or possibly interview before being allowed to drive in the series. 

We should not ignore it all comes down to money. 

Just because you win in Indy Lights and are one of the top drivers does not mean you have the money required to help a team keeps the lights on. It sounds great, but we know sponsors are not dying to tie themselves to a top Indy Lights driver. Winning that championship does not lead a company to make a three-year, $10-million annual investment in sponsoring that driver. All the money comes from the family or through that drivers own fundraising. If you win the championship and don't have the money needed, an IndyCar team will gladly take on a driver ranked 11th in the same championship but with $25 million in funding. 

See, Josh Pierson, and Pierson has been the driver connected most with this announced evaluation process. 

The 20-year-old Oregonian has finished his fourth season in Indy Lights, and it has been a fluid time in the junior series. In 2023, Pierson ran a part-time season at 16 years old as he continued to compete regularly in sports cars. In 2024, he turned to full-time Indy Lights competition and was 14th but improved to sixth in the championship in 2025. Moving to Andretti Global, Pierson took a dip this season, but he did have three podium finishes, an increase from 2025, and he won at Laguna Seca. He did fall to 11th in the championship. 

Pay drivers are nothing new to IndyCar, and based on the announced standard, Pierson is "Evaluation Eligible," one step away from being approved. 

There is plenty of pushback to Pierson being approved because he has not been stellar in the junior series. He has some good results. Along with his time in Indy Lights, Pierson has raced in IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. He has a pair of WEC class victories and he has a a pair of podiums in IMSA. However, Pierson has not been a driver consistently at the top of this championship and given the impression he should be granted an opportunity at IndyCar. 

But the standard is not perfect. 

Pierson has not finish in the top three of the championship. He has only one victory in 54 starts. You know who would have been considered "Competitively Qualified" based on this standard? Sting Ray Robb, who was second in the 2022 Indy Lights championship with one victory in 44 starts. In 69 IndyCar starts over four seasons, Robb has two top ten finishes with 39 finishes outside the top twenty and 21 lead lap finishes. 

However, a driver who has driven respectably well in three full IndyCar seasons and who had a better average finish than Scott Dixon this season, would have been in the "Résumé Review Required" status when he attempted to enter IndyCar. That would be Kyffin Simpson, 13th in the IndyCar championship in 2026 with two top five finishes and eight top ten finishes. Simpson took the checkered flag in all 18 races this season and he finished on the lead lap 16 times. However, in Simpson's two full Indy Lights seasons,  he was ninth and tenth in the championship with zero victories to his name and only two podium finishes in 27 starts. 

Let's also consider IndyCar approved Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and in his rookie year he had an average finish of 21.0833 in 12 road/street course starts. Johnson caused three cautions in his first two races and he was involved in six cautions over his 12 starts. Of course, a seven-time NASCAR Cup champion will be approved for IndyCar, but we have seen that a driver of that caliber can struggle in IndyCar and ran just as bad as drivers coming out of the IndyCar ladder system. 

We can set a standard, but just because a driver is qualified doesn't mean they will be comfortable in IndyCar, and a standard can fail to consider the actual talent of the driver pool. Simply checking off an accomplishment doesn't mean the grid isn't necessarily going to improve including this driver. We should be asking the question many are not comfortable asking.

Is Indy Lights that good of a series? 

Just because you have a development series doesn't mean it is a good series, and for as celebrated as Indy Lights has been as producing drivers, we cannot ignore the flaws nor should we ignore how IndyCar teams view the series.

Of the 23 champions since IndyCar took over sanctioning Indy Lights in 2002, only two drivers made at least 100 IndyCar starts, Josef Newgarden and Patricio O'Ward. Expand that to the 54 drivers that have finished in the top three of the Indy Lights championship from 2002 to 2025, and only Ed Carpenter, James Hinchcliffe, Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay have exceeded 100 IndyCar starts. Those 54 drivers have made an average of 43 IndyCar starts, and 19 of those drivers have made five IndyCar starts or fewer. Of those 54 drivers, 49 of them could have made at least 50 IndyCar starts. Thirty of those 49 drivers have made fewer than 50 IndyCar starts, essentially three full seasons in the series.

Of the last 13 champions, five competed full-time in IndyCar this season, which isn't bad, but the six champions from the 2012 to 2017 seasons have competed in one IndyCar since the start of the 2022 season, and that was Tristan Vautier receiving a surprise call-up with Dale Coyne Racing for Detroit nearly seven years after Vautier's previous start. 

A series with 15 average-to-bad drivers in it must have someone win the championship. That doesn't mean that championship makes that driver competitive enough to compete at the next level. IndyCar team hiring practices suggest they know the level. We don't see IndyCar teams throw themselves behind a driver in development. No one in the Road to Indy has the level of support Andrea Kimi Antonelli had from Mercedes-Benz or Charles Leclerc had from Ferrari or Max Verstappen had from Red Bull in the Formula One ladder system. Is some talent missed or is none of the talent worth it?

An objective standards has been perceived as set, but this is still a subjective process approving a driver, and it is likely a driver in the "Evaluation Eligible" level or "Résumé Review Required" level will end up on the IndyCar grid. We want the money not to matter, but that is what keeps cars on the grid and fields full. With the charter system in place, there are only 25 spots available. The sense of scarcity should increase value, but if teams cannot afford to field a car, it will sell it for whatever it can get, and I don't know how many suitors are interested in mid-September 2026 looking toward the 2027 season.

If A.J. Foyt Racing wants Josh Pierson and it is the difference between 25 cars or 24 cars and a charter effectively dying on the vine, IndyCar is going to approve Pierson. Has Pierson earned it? Has he been the best driver in Indy Lights and in the junior series? No, but we have a driver who was no better than what we have seen from Pierson run adequately in IndyCar.

IndyCar admirably announced a standard for junior drivers entering the series as it attempts to make sure the most talented drivers end up receiving opportunities at the next level, but IndyCar can only influence so much when teams are hiring drivers to remain on the grid. This could help a driver who has a fraction of the funding but better results get an opportunity over someone with a lot of cash but who hasn't been dazzling. It doesn't fully eliminate the requirement for funding to help that driver get to the next level, and it doesn't stop a team from chasing dollar signs. After all, $12 million a year is more than $3 million a year. 

Again, this standard doesn't matter until a driver is turned away. Do not hold your breath on that occurring this winter. Drivers are going to end up in IndyCar and look like a fish out of water. Someone must finish 20th in this series whether they bring millions of dollars or they were hired on ability alone. 

Let's Look at the League - September 2026

A month ago, we previewed the final month of the fictional head-to-head league format for IndyCar. Another season completed means a champion has been decided, and we have set the league positions for 2027 as well. This was one of the most challenging seasons because of how it ended. Not in a bad way, just the logistics of a postponed race in the middle of a doubleheader. We will cover how that was handled.

League One

When we last checked in, there was one race remaining in the regular season and it would set the playoff field, determine the fifth-place teams that would secure a League One spot for next year, set the relegation playoff and determine the final automatic relegation spot.

Washington, D.C. Results

#5 McLaren def. #10 CGR (16-20)

#27 Andretti def. #9 CGR (1-7)

#7 McLaren def. #60 MSR (2-19)

#26 Andretti def. #66 MSR (3-17)

#3 Penske def. #12 Penske (22-24)

#2 Penske def. #4 Foyt (8-9)

#18 Coyne def. #21 ECR (10-14)

#6 McLaren def. #14 Foyt (6-21)

Conference One Standings

#10 Ganassi 11-4

#27 Andretti 11-4

#12 Penske 10-5

#7 McLaren 9-6

#2 Penske 8-7

#26 Andretti 7-8

#6 McLaren 3-12

#21 ECR 2-13

The #10 CGR had clinched the #1 seed in conference thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. Kyle Kirkwood's victory in Washington, D.C. secured the #2 seed. The #12 Penske took third and the #7 McLaren was fourth. The #2 Penske will remain in League One for 2027. The #26 Andretti and #6 McLaren were sent to the relegation playoff. With the #6 McLaren winning in Washington, D.C. combined with the #21 ECR entry losing, the #21 ECR entry was relegated.

Conference Two Standings

#5 McLaren 13-2

#3 Penske 12-3

#60 Meyer Shank 9-6

#18 Coyne 7-8

#9 Ganassi 7-8

#66 Meyer Shank 7-8

#14 Foyt 3-11

#4 Foyt 2-12

The #5 McLaren took the #1 seed over the #3 Penske. The #60 MSR entry was locked into the third seed. The nightmare scenario played out for the #66 MSR entry at Washington, D.C. The #66 MSR would miss the playoffs if it lost and the #18 Coyne entry and the #9 CGR entry won, forcing a three-way tie. That happened, and it put the #18 Coyne into the playoffs. The #9 CGR took fifth while the #66 MSR dropped to the relegation playoffs. We already knew the #4 Foyt entry was relegated and the #14 Foyt entry would be in the relegation playoff.

Playoffs

Here is where it gets complicated...

The first two round of the playoffs were slated to take place at the Milwaukee doubleheader. The first race began on Saturday, but it was not the first race to finish that weekend. Due to the rain on Saturday and storms on Sunday morning, the first race's conclusion was delayed until after the scheduled Sunday race, which is a problem. 

The Saturday race was scheduled as the quarterfinals. How could the quarterfinals end after the semifinals? We could have taken the results of the Sunday afternoon race and then waited to see the results of the delayed Saturday race. Once the Saturday race was finished, those positions would decide which teams made the semifinals and then the results of the Sunday afternoon race would decide who made the final. It could have been done, but that didn't feel right. 

The quarterfinal results would be decided based on the races finishing in chronological order. The fully scheduled race on Sunday afternoon would be the quarterfinals. The concluded race Sunday evening would be the semifinals. That doesn't feel right either because a partially completed race would be deciding a round and some cars were already off the lead lap. There was no correct option, only one that felt the least incorrect. How did that shake out?

Quarterfinals (Milwaukee):

#10 CGR def. #18 Coyne (5-24)

#3 Penske def. #12 Penske (2-4)

#27 Andretti def. #60 MSR (6-20)

#5 McLaren def. #7 McLaren (1-3)

The closest matchups were the ones between teammates. Patricio O'Ward late push to the front decided his matchup against Christian Lundgaard. Scott McLaughlin was able to keep distance between him and David Malukas. Romain Grosjean's early spin put Álex Palou in firm control of their matchup. Grosjean's second spin sealed the deal for Palou. Kyle Kirkwood went forward in the race. Felix Rosenqvist kept slipping backward.

Semifinals (Milwaukee):

#3 Penske def. #10 CGR (4-10)

#5 McLaren def. #27 Andretti (1-15)

The semifinals turned out to be a little less exciting. McLaughlin put distance between himself and Palou while Palou did not have the pace. Clinching the actual championship may have meant Palou was not too concerned with only finishing tenth. Kirkwood did not have the same pace in the resumption of the Saturday race while O'Ward restarted in the lead and spent the entire time in first or second before taking first for good on a late restart.

Final (Laguna Seca):

#3 Penske defeated #5 McLaren (1-11)

McLaughlin started on pole position, he led the most laps, and he won the race. O'Ward was never close to him. The final was a walkover. The title goes to McLaughlin for the first time in his career. I should probably list who has won the past championships.

The first three years of this exercise saw Josef Newgarden and the #2 Penske entry take the title. In 2022, Will Power won it with the #12 Penske entry. Scott Dixon and the #9 CGR team won it in 2023. Kyle Kirkwood and the #27 Andretti entry defeated Dixon and the #9 CGR team the following year. Last season, Álex Palou won the league with the #10 CGR over Dixon and the #9 team. McLaughlin makes its the sixth consecutive different champion. 

Relegation Playoff

The same decision was made for the relegation playoff. The first completed Milwaukee race was the relegation playoff semifinals with the second complete Milwaukee race being the final. I considered disregarding the delayed Milwaukee race because there was Laguna Seca and we could have two uninterrupted races decide the relegation playoff instead of having a race that had another race completed in the middle of it. 

However, that provision had not been set prior. This is make-believe. I can do whatever I want, but I need to draw a line somewhere. Again, there is no correct option, only a least incorrect option.

Semifinals (Milwaukee) 

#14 Foyt def. #26 Andretti (12-14)

#66 MSR def. #6 McLaren (16-17)

Will Power speeding entering the pit lane on his final pit stop not only cost Power a potential race victory, it cost him his head-to-head matchup. Power was looking at being at least on the podium. Santino Ferrucci was not factoring in this race. One mistake secured Ferrucci and the Foyt team into League One. Power and Andretti Global would need to compete one more time.

Neither Marcus Armstrong nor Nolan Siegel had a great Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. Armstrong was only slightly better and it kept the #66 MSR entry in League One.

Final (Milwaukee):

#6 McLaren def. #26 Andretti (13-25)

The funny thing is this might be the most head-to-head matchup we have ever seen in the eight years of this exercise. Power was in control and looking at another top ten, possibly top five finish. Then Power and the leaders made pit stops and were on fresher tires. They caught a slower Siegel, who was on the lead lap but was running long on a stint and on worn tires. Siegel was laps away from a pit stop and falling a lap down.

However, in turns three and four, Siegel was in the way and Power was forced into the marbles attempting to overtake Siegel. Power got into the barrier and his race was over. Siegel continued and that caution meant Siegel got to make his pit stop while on the lead lap. Either way, Siegel clinched the head-to-head matchup and the #6 McLaren remains in League One. Will Power and the #26 Andretti entry are relegated.

League Two

For League Two, the format is a double round robin. The Milwaukee delay did not hurt much, but we followed the same logic as with the playoffs and relegation playoffs. The Milwaukee results were based on chronological order. A month ago, eight of nine teams in League Two could still earn promotion. How did it shake out?

Week #15 (Washington, D.C.)	#20 ECR def.  #15 RLLR (12-13)
	#8 Ganassi def. #19 Coyne (5-15)
	#28 Andretti def. #77 JHR (4-25)
	#47 RLLR def. #45 RLLR (11-19)
Week #16 (Milwaukee)	#76 JHR def. #20 ECR (7-11)
	#8 Ganassi def. #15 RLLR (19-22)
	#28 Andretti def. #45 RLLR (9-10)
	#47 RLLR def. #19 Coyne (13-21)
Week #17 (Milwaukee)	#20 ECR def.  #8 Ganassi (14-16)
	#76 JHR def. #45 RLLR (3-11)
	#28 Andretti def. #15 RLLR (8-23)
	#19 Coyne def. #77 JHR (21-22)
Week #18 (Laguna Seca)	#8 Ganassi def. #76 JHR (10-16)
	#15 RLLR def. #77 JHR (19-23)
	#28 Andretti def. #47 RLLR (9-22)
	#45 RLLR def. #19 Coyne (14-25)

League Two Standings

#8 Ganassi 11-5

#28 Andretti 11-5

#76 JHR 10-6

#45 RLLR 9-7

#20 ECR 8-8

#15 RLLR 7-9

#77 JHR 6-10

#47 RLLR 5-11

#19 Coyne 5-11

The championship came down to the final day of the season. Three teams were tied at 10-5, and the #8 Ganassi taking on the #76 JHR was effectively the title-decider. A head-to-head win for Kyffin Simpson would clinch the title as the #8 CGR entry owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over the #28 Andretti and Marcus Ericsson. If Rinus VeeKay won in the #76 JHR entry and the #28 Andretti lost, VeeKay and JHR would win League Two. If VeeKay won and Ericsson won his head-to-head matchup, Ericsson would be League Two champion as the #28 Andretti entry held the tiebreaker over the #76 JHR entry.

Simpson defeated VeeKay making Ericsson's result irrelevant though Ericsson did clinch second as he won head-to-head. Those are the three promoted entries as it was clinched after the Milwaukee weekend. 

Louis Foster and the #45 RLLR entry fell out of the top three after going 1-3 in the final four weeks. It was a mixture of a poor Washington, D.C. race, partially due to his injuries from his Markham accident a week earlier. Foster drove well at Milwaukee, but he lost to Ericsson in the Sunday afternoon race with Ericsson finishing ninth and Foster in tenth. In the completed race on Sunday eventing, Foster was 11th but drawn against VeeKay, who was third. Sometimes the matchups do not line up for you even on your best days. 

What does the league structure tentatively look like for 2027?

2026 League One - Conference One

#10 Ganassi

#5 McLaren

#12 Penske

#2 Penske

#60 Meyer Shank

#8 Ganassi

#66 Meyer Shank

#6 McLaren

2026 League One - Conference Two

#27 Andretti

#7 McLaren

#3 Penske

#28 Andretti

#76 JHR

#9 Ganassi

#14 Foyt

#18 Coyne

2026 League Two

#26 Andretti

#20 ECR

#15 RLLR

#45 RLLR

#21 ECR

#19 Coyne

#24 Dreyer & Reinbold 

#4 Foyt

#77 JHR

May I draw your eye to Conference Two because come the fourth race of 2027 we should see a head-to-head matchup nearly a year in the making. The #9 Ganassi entry will see some tough matchups early. Felix Rosenqvist could take on his old team. We would get Palou vs. O'Ward, and one of those matchups would be at the Indianapolis 500. David Malukas would face Josef Newgarden at the Indianapolis 500.

Will Power didn't have the greatest 2026 season, but it looks like League Two could be a walkover for him. That sounds premature for a driver that was relegated, but not when the top three are promoted. Do we think three teams are going to finish better than Power in head-to-head matchups over 16 weeks of competition? League Two was a complete tossup this year. It could be just as a tossup in 2027, and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is back to full-time competition, a new wrinkle to this and a new team to root for. 

Should there be any shakeups during the offseason, we will cover those come February when we finalize the 2027 league format.

Musings From the Weekend: 2026 IndyCar Predictions: Revisited

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

It was mostly a good weekend for Joshuas. It was a great weekend for Italians. There was late heartbreak in Texas. NASCAR beat the rain in Darlington. The Indy Lights championship nearly took a turn with an accident while taking the green flag for the final race of the season. The IndyCar season ended, but not with an Álex Palou victory. Scott McLaughlin got off the snide and his victory ended a 35-race winless streak. As with the end of any IndyCar season, we turn our eyes toward predictions made long before the season started. 

2026 IndyCar Predictions: Revisited

Our annual tradition of reviewing predictions made in the cold of winter when the calendar has yet to flip to the New Year immediately following the conclusion of an IndyCar season has returned. There was hope for this year after 2025 predictions did not quite pan out. Especially with notable drivers changing teams, there was plenty to be excited ahead of the 2026 season. 

Without further delay, let's dive in.

1. Will Power finishes in the top three of street course points

Wrong! It was a difficult debut season at Andretti Global for Power, but street courses were where he had some of his best success. Power had a hat trick of third place finishes on street courses, picking up hardware in Arlington, Markham and Washington, D.C., coincidentally the three inaugural events on the 2026 calendar. However, Power still had his stumbles on the other three street courses, finishing 22nd at St. Petersburg, 19th at Long Beach and 12th at Detroit. 

Power scored 137 points on street courses, sixth-most this season behind Álex Palou (242), Kyle Kirkwood (220), Marcus Ericsson (175), Christian Lundgaard (171) and Patricio O'Ward (166). Of course, it is the other two Andretti Global drivers that finish in the top three of street course points! Some predictions just work out that way. 

2. Josef Newgarden will at least double his top five finish total

Wrong! Last season, Newgarden had only three podium finishes, a third at St. Petersburg, a second in the first Iowa race and a victory at Nashville. He had to crack six top five finishes this season for this prediction to be correct. There were also six oval races this season, which lined up nicely for Newgarden. He ended up with four top five finishes. Two were victories at Phoenix and Gateway. He was fourth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and second at Nashville.

In the other three oval races, he had an accident in the Indianapolis when fighting for a top five finish, and the pace wasn't quite there for a top five finish in either Milwaukee race, one of which he spun and grazed the wall and the other he finished seventh. Newgarden did have seven finishes between seventh and tenth this season, never once finishing sixth and one spot off a top five finish. Newgarden hasn't finished sixth since the 2022 Nashville street race, not that means anything but it is interesting to note.

3. Álex Palou will not lead the championship after at least six races

Wrong! This one didn't sound crazy in theory, Palou could still lead the championship for a dozen races and this prediction would have been correct. However, Palou for three races, rounds two, three and four this season. Josef Newgarden led after his victory in Phoenix. Kyle Kirkwood led after Arlington and Long Beach. Palou led after the other 15 events. 

Last season, Palou went wire-to-wire leading after all 17 races. Three is worse than last year but who are we kidding? It was still a sensational season and no one was all that close to him.

4. Scott Dixon will win a race where he leads at least the final 10% of the race

Wrong! Scott Dixon didn't win a race this year let along win a race and lead at least the final 10%. Dixon barely led at all in 2026. Seventy-nine laps led are the fewest for Dixon in a season since he led only 25 laps in 2005. This was Dixon's worst championship finish since 2005 and it was only the third time in his 26-year career he has finished outside the top ten of the championship. 

5. Meyer Shank Racing wins a race

Correct! It was basically a hunch that Meyer Shank Racing's improvement in pace over the previous two seasons would finally net a victory. I am not sure I expected it to be the Indianapolis 500, but Felix Rosenqvist won that race, and with the closest margin of victory to boot in the event's 110th edition. 

Meyer Shank Racing really should have had two victories this season. Marcus Armstrong was gone from the field at Road America only to lose an engine while leading. Rosenqvist also had another pair of promising runs at Long Beach and Portland, starting first on both occasion only to finish second to Álex Palou, because whom else would you finish second to?

6. Rinus VeeKay scores the most points for a Juncos Hollinger Racing driver

Correct! Entering 2026, the most points a Juncos Hollinger Racing driver had scored in a season was 268 points. This season, VeeKay reached 269 points at the 13th round of the season in Portland. VeeKay went further, ending with a career best 378 points and finishing a career-best tenth in the championship. 

VeeKay had four top five finishes, including a third in the first Milwaukee race, another personal-best. For the second consecutive season, VeeKay exceeded expectations and is heading into the offseason as one of the most impressive drivers.

7. Christian Lundgaard will have consecutive top five finishes and one of those finishes will be fourth or fifth

Wrong! Last season, Lundgaard had a stretch of three consecutive podium finishes and a pair of runner-up finishes. He had six total top five finishes, and they were all podium results. This year, what does Lundgaard do? He has one instance of consecutive top five finishes and it was his victory at Road America with a runner-up at Mid-Ohio following. His only finish of fourth or fifth was fifth at Detroit. It was the first time he finished fourth or fifth since he was fourth for the 2023 summer Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race, held in conjunction with the NASCAR weekend. 

What stings more is entering yesterday's finale, Lundgaard was classified in third in the most recent IndyCar race, though that is confusing based on how the Milwaukee weekend ended. All he needed was to finish fifth at Laguna Seca for this predictions to be correct. Where did Lundgaard finish? Sixth. 

That sounds about right.

8. Alexander Rossi will lead at least 100 laps

Wrong! Rossi led well fewer than 100 laps. He led ten laps, four of which were in the Laguna Seca finale. The other six laps were in the Indianapolis 500. I thought Rossi would have been more competitive this season on ovals. Ed Carpenter Racing showed good potential last year. It just wasn't Rossi leading the way. 

I thought we would see Rossi lead 40 or 50 laps at Gateway and combine that with 15 or 20 laps led at the Indianapolis 500 and another 30 or 40 laps at Milwaukee, plus another 20 or so laps through the road and street course races. That didn't happen, and it wasn't close to happening. 

9. Each Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry finishes better in the entrant's championship

Correct! Though this one turned out to be aided through circumstances we did not fully anticipate. 

Let's start with the good, or at least the better. Graham Rahal turned out to be better in 2026. Rahal's end to the 2026 season might not have been as strong as he would have wished, but he did have three podium finishes, all third-place results. He helped him finish 16th in the championship, a three-position improvement from 19th in the entrants' championship in 2025.

Louis Foster did a little better. Foster picked up his first career top ten finish with a seventh in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He had three top ten finishes this season. After the #45 Honda was 23rd in the entrants' championship in 2025, Foster lifted the car to 18th in 2026. 

This is where the prediction loses some steam. With Prema withdrawing from the championship and not fielding two cars, the third RLLR entry improved in the entrants' championship by default. What was the #30 Honda in 2025 was 26th last year. Only 25 cars were competing full-time in 2026. No additional entries appeared outside the Indianapolis 500. This doesn't feel like some triumphant prediction. Mick Schumacher did place the #47 Honda 23rd in the entrants' championship. 

It is correct, but one of the RLLR entrants was guaranteed to do better because Prema closed up shop. That isn't a knock on the team, and we were expecting Prema to be on the grid when these predictions were made. 

10. Fewer than 50 points will separate Marcus Ericsson and Dennis Hauger

Wrong! This turned out to not even be close. Ericsson had a career revival in 2026 and ended up finishing seventh in the championship. He won at Markham and had four top five finishes along with 12 top ten finishes, including a streak of seven consecutive top ten results to close out the season. 

Meanwhile, Hauger started the season strong with a tenth at St. Petersburg, but he had only one other top ten finish the entire season, eighth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Norwegian slipped to 22nd in the championship, 201 points behind Ericsson! These two drivers were in two entirely different zip codes.

11. Indianapolis 500 one-offs will lead fewer than a third of the race

Correct! In 2025, one-off Indianapolis 500 drivers led a combined 103 laps, and no full-time IndyCar driver led more than 17 laps. In 2026, one-off Indianapolis 500 drivers led a combined four laps, and Conor Daly was responsible for all four of those laps. Four drivers exceeded more than 17 laps led in this year's race, and all four were full-time drivers. Álex Palou led 59 times, Scott Dixon led 32, David Malukas led 30 laps and race winner Felix Rosenqvist led 25 laps. 

12. A country wins a World Cup match and an IndyCar race on the same day

Wrong! But it was so close to being correct!

There were three chances for this prediction to come out.

June 21: Christian Lundgaard won at Road America. Denmark didn't even qualify for the World Cup. In the four matches that day Belgium and Iran played to a scoreless draw while Uruguay and Cape Verde finished 2-2. Spain defeated Saudi Arabia 4-0. Unfortunately, Álex Palou was fifth. Egypt defeated New Zealand 3-1, but New Zealand led 1-0 at halftime. Talk about a parallel between Marcus Armstrong's engine letting go and New Zealand having this lead slip away. 

July 5: We were onto the round of 16 in the World Cup. Before the two matches that day, Patricio O'Ward won at Mid-Ohio and Mexico was playing England that night from Estadio Azteca. It ended up being one of the best matches of the tournament, but England eliminated the co-hosts with a 3-2 victory. Norway defeated Brazil 2-1 earlier that day. 

July 19: Spain won the World Cup Final 1-0 over Argentina in extra time. There was supposed to be an IndyCar race from Nashville immediately following this final. However, it rained... a lot... and the race was moved to Monday... where Álex Palou was the winner. 

This prediction was kind of correct. Palou did win within 24 hours of Spain winning the World Cup. It feels correct in spirit but incorrect in writing. I will not count it, but damn was it close.

Final score... 4/12... It is better than last year but it doesn't feel great. None of these predictions felt rather drastic or fool-hearted. There was logic placed behind them. The circumstances didn't win out. Who would have thought Lundgaard would have only one finish of fourth or fifth this season and it would not be before or after another top five result? Thinking Lundgaard with finish fifth and second in consecutive races isn't a wild prediction. It just didn't happen.

I am curious, how many of these predictions end up correct next year? I am not sure Rinus VeeKay and Juncos Hollinger Racing reset both their best seasons for a second consecutive year, but 2027 could be the year Rossi leads 150 laps, 75 of which come from a great run at Phoenix, and Scott Dixon ends up winning at Mid-Ohio while leading the final 24 laps. It is not impractical to think the rest of the IndyCar grid combines to lead the championship for at least six races over Álex Palou. We may need to do a retrospective on how some past predictions would have held up if they were made this year and in other subsequent years. 

At least this year was better even if there is still work to do to be classified as great.

2025: 2/12

2024: 7/12

2023: 9/12

2022: 6/12

2021: 4/12

2020: 8/11 (one prediction was about Richmond, which never happened)

2019: 5.5/12

2018: 6/12

2017: 8/12

2016: 6/12

2015: 8/12

2014: 10/14

Champion From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou's championship from last week, but did you know...

Nikita Johnson clinched the Indy Lights championship with a pair of runner-up finishes at Laguna Seca.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Scott McLaughlin, but did you know...

Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the Italian Grand Prix, his seventh victory of the season, and Antonelli won from 19th on the grid.

Christopher Bell won the 77th Southern 500. Sheldon Creed won the NASCAR Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season..

The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen won Lone Star Le Mans. The #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon won in LMGT3.

Nicoló Bulega swept the World Superbike races from Magny-Cours. Can Öncü and Roberto García split the World Supersport races.

Josh Pearson and Tymek Kucharczyk split the Indy Lights races from Laguna Seca.

Joshua Dürksen swept the Formula Two races from Monza. Taito Kato (sprint) and Nicola Lacorte (feature) split the Formula Three races.

Coming Up This Weekend

Formula One's debut on Madrid's Madring.

MotoGP is off to Misano.

The Suzuka 1000 km marks the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season.

The European Le Mans Series will be in Silverstone.

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters heads off to the Sachsenring. 

NASCAR races at Gateway.

Supercars has its first endurance round, The Bend 500 from Tailem Bend. 

The World Rally Championship continues its South America trek to Chile. 

First Impressions: Laguna Seca 2026

1. No better time than the finale for domination, and Scott McLaughlin ended his season with a thrashing in Laguna Seca. Pole position, most laps led, victory. McLaughlin was near-flawless today. The New Zealander did not run away from the competition, Kyle Kirkwood kept him honest until the very end. This result is a fair cap to McLaughlin's season. He was good, respectable, but until today we had not seen McLaughlin really be the driver to beat. If he had not won a race in 2026, it would have been a fair encapsulation of his season. Then today happened and he was unquestionably the best driver of the day. McLaughlin gets to head into the offseason with at least the second-most confidence behind our champion. Perhaps it will lead to a surge in 2027.

2. Kyle Kirkwood was second on the day and Kirkwood earned second in the championship with this result. That is where Kirkwood has been this season, and it is pretty much where he has been for the last two seasons. Kirkwood has been in Álex Palou's shadow the most. Sometimes, Kirkwood overcomes the Catalan driver. Most of the time, Palou is the best. Kirkwood can hold his own and put up impressive drives. He has been a regular winner the last two seasons. The hard part is going that step further. This season could have been championship-caliber not long ago. In the age of Palou, it is second at best.

3. We finally had a clean race from Alexander Rossi and it was a complete weekend. Rossi was quick all weekend, but we have seen numerous weekends where practice looks good for Rossi and Ed Carpenter Racing and as the weekend continues the team declines and is not a factor in the race. Rossi was competitive today. He ran a slightly different strategy and it put him in a podium position. Rossi didn't have the pace to defeat McLaughlin and Kirkwood, but it was important Rossi and ECR had this weekend. This has been a messy season for ECR between accidents, mechanical failures and unforced errors, another one we saw today with the sister car. This team should be more competitive than the record shows.

4. Felix Rosenqvist had a spirited battle with David Malukas for fourth and Rosenqvist took it in the later stages of the race to cap off Rosenqvist's most successful, and arguably most pivotal seasons in IndyCar. He won the Indianapolis 500. He was good, but still not spotless. There were a number of races that did not turn out his way. He lost a good result at Arlington for jumping a restart. There were still off days, but Rosenqvist was highly competitive. Now, he returns to McLaren where his career once went sideways.

5. David Malukas had a better season than likely any of us expected even if he did not win a race. Malukas ended the season with a fifth-place finish, he ended up fifth in the championship, the top Team Penske driver. Malukas is the one Penske driver that did not win a race this season. I don't think that is a knock against him. He drove the best we have seen on road and street courses after rarely being a threat on any of those in his first few seasons. He was inches away from winning the Indianapolis 500. There might be another level he must ascend to, but he made a great stride in 2026.

6. Christian Lundgaard may not have ended up second in the championship, but sixth in the finale clinched him best Arrow McLaren driver, and that is bragging rights as he leaves the team. It is still rather stupefying Lundgaard has been let go after winning two races and finishing third in the championship while being replaced by Scott Dixon, who is coming off his worst season in over 20 years and who is 46 years old. It feels like McLaren has bought legacy hoping it will equal success. Sometimes the past is gone. Lundgaard showed promise for the future, and he just had his best oval weekend to boot last week in Milwaukee. McLaren has made a gamble that could backfire fairly quickly.

7. Even a slight pit bobble didn't derail Marcus Armstrong's finale, and Armstrong was able to finish seventh. The results do not tell the full story of Armstrong's season, and he was better than the results. He lost an engine in three of four races over the summer, including one that took away a sure victory at Road America. That flipped his season. The entire Meyer Shank Racing team appeared rattled and could not have a clean weekend. Armstrong needed this race. It was a good race, a positive to end on. He will be the team leader in 2027. The result must be better even if the bad ones were not his fault.

8. And we arrive at our champion Álex Palou, who went off-strategy and attempted a four-stop race. It didn't work, but Palou had the wiggle room to try things today. He didn't have to win. He didn't have to follow McLaughlin and try to jump him during a pit cycle. Palou could run a little harder. It didn't work. It didn't need to. Palou already claimed the championship. He can throw this race away. It will not affect him one bit.

9. Marcus Ericsson caps his revival season with a ninth place finish after taking a late grid penalty for an engine change. We knew Ericsson was capable of this. He was a regular top ten finisher at Chip Ganassi Racing. It didn't immediately click at Andretti Global. I think Andretti Global has been ironing out some wrinkles in the team. The team was better this year and Ericsson benefitted because of it. Now the team believes in him. That driver never disappeared. He was always there and now he can shine at Andretti.

10. Kyffin Simpson closes out an impressive season with a tenth-place finish. Simpson isn't flashy. There are still many races where he isn't notable, but he has become a driver that can finish somewhat regularly in the top ten and occasionally pull off a stellar result. There has been plenty of conversation about driving standards and the IndyCar approval process. We will discuss it in greater detail later. Simpson's junior record was not glowing, but in IndyCar he has shown to be capable. Let's keep that in mind moving forward.

11. Patricio O'Ward did not end on a high note. He didn't quite have it this weekend, and this is a weekend we have not seen from O'Ward and McLaren much in 2026. This group had its handful of anonymous races for the last few seasons. Those didn't really happen this year. If anything, we saw O'Ward run fifth and just remain there, nothing moving forward or backward. This was an odd day for O’Ward. He never showed any threatening pace. 

12. We are going to handle a few drivers in chunks here.

Santino Ferrucci went from 21st to 12th. Ferrucci has this kind of race at least four times a year. Doesn't look quick, strategy works in his favor with a hair more speed. It is good to improve but he is constantly racing from behind that it limits his results.

Will Power's first season with Andretti Global concludes with a 13th place finish. Power had a brief off-track excursion. It was a yo-yo season for Power, but it mostly ended as a positive. You would think he should be more confident next year, but we also know Power is bound to throw away a few results a season. He did it speeding into pit lane while leading at Milwaukee.

Louis Foster was 14th. It is hard to tell if Foster improved in his sophomore season. The qualifying pace was not as good as last year, but he did get a few top ten finishes. How much of it is the driver and how much of it is the team?

Josef Newgarden struggled all weekend for speed and the best he could do was 15th. This is the second consecutive season where the takeaway is Newgarden must return to the drawing board. The comfort has not been there on road and street courses for arguably three years.

Rinus VeeKay held onto tenth in the championship though he was 16th in this race. Overall, a brilliant season for VeeKay and Juncos Hollinger Racing. It was VeeKay's best season in IndyCar. It was JHR's best season in IndyCar. This partnership was bountiful in success. Expectations only go up for next season as VeeKay is expected to return, but it is hard for the smaller programs to maintain this kind of success. VeeKay has shown a great ability to do more with less. The task might not be too challenging for him.

13. The Scott Dixon era at Chip Ganassi Racing ended with a 17th place finish and so mercifully ended a deflating season to an otherwise spectacular career. The winning streak is over at 21 seasons. The top-six championship finish streak is over after 20 seasons. Dixon exits 12th in the championship. Nothing lasts forever, but I think we all wished it ended on Dixon's term. Few drivers go out on top. All drivers lose it at some point. It is hard to wrap your mind around the fast ball being gone for Dixon.

Maybe this was just an off-year, but it doesn't feel like that is the case. We tell that to ourselves to save us from the truth. One of IndyCar's greatest has aged out. McLaren is taking a gamble on a 46-year-old driver recapturing magic for one, maybe two years. Maybe that is the case and all Dixon needed after 25 years at Ganassi. It doesn't feel like that is all we have witnessed.

14. Romain Grosjean ended the season in 18th, and he was 19th in the championship. Was the return to IndyCar worth it? He didn't seem as vocal with his frustration as we heard in the past. This was not a return to 2021 with Coyne. He will always have second at Markham.

Graham Rahal had such a season of polar opposites. At one point, he had three podium finishes and looked like a strong contender for a top ten championship finish. Then he was spun out of a podium finish at Road America, and his season never recovered. One top ten finish in the final ten races. I don't know where the form went. Every year, we are curious over what is happening at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and it is not the good kind of curiosity.

Caio Collet took a grid penalty and never recovered to finish 20th. It felt like Collet's season was inflated. The highs and promise did not feel as great as some led on. It wasn't a terrible season, but I don't think this is an astonishing talent.

A botched pit stop cost Christian Rasmussen any promising result, and he ended up 21st. It feels like Rasmussen's final results should be better, but if we looked back, his actual finishes might not have been that far over from how he actually ran this season.

Mick Schumacher coughed a golden opportunity to take rookie of the year with Dennis Hauger retiring on the opening lap of the season with an accident after Sting Ray Robb punted Hauger. That is kind of the tale of any driver at RLLR for the last four seasons. It is kind of the tale of this rookie class. None of them ran that strong to make a large gain if another had a poor result.

15. Sting Ray Robb was 23rd and Nolan Siegel was 24th. Neither result is surprising. Both futures are questionable.

16. Dennis Hauger will claim rookie of the year, but no rookie ended on a lower note than Hauger. This season was a big disappointment. Andretti Global supported Hauger's entry at Coyne, and the results were not up to standard. None of the rookies did well this year. None of the rookies have been competitive for the last four seasons. We haven't had a rookie crack the top fifteen in the championship since 2022.

I am not sure what it is about this current environment that makes it so difficult for rookies to find competitive speeds in IndyCar. I think all three rookies should get another season, almost every rookie should get more than one season, but they all need to be better should they get a second opportunity.

17. We had a typical Laguna Seca race to end the season. Start at the front, stay at the front. There were some battles, but it settled pretty quickly. It almost feels like the teams have so much information that there are no surprises or teams getting it that wrong on strategy. I don't know how you fix it. Laguna Seca is a different race. Kirkwood did close in and keep McLaughlin honest, but Kirkwood never quite got there for a challenge. Maybe Kirkwood never really had what it took to get the better of McLaughlin.

18. And now the season is over. We have six months and a day until the next race, about eight seats to fill and half the schedule to find out. There is almost too much time to review, but we will start tomorrow.

Morning Warm-Up: Laguna Seca 2026

Scott McLaughlin picked up the final pole position of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season with a lap at 69.1363 seconds around Laguna Seca during the final round of Saturday qualifying. It is McLaughlin's third pole position of the season, and he bookends the season with pole positions as he qualified first for the St. Petersburg season opener. He is the first driver to bookend the season with pole positions since Will Power did it in 2015. McLaughlin enters this weekend with a 35-race winless streak, the longest of his IndyCar career. It has been nearly 26 years since Team Penske's most recent Laguna Seca victory. Hélio Castroneves won on September 10, 2000. Castroneves led 81 of 83 laps that day from pole position and led a Team Penske 1-2 with Gil de Ferran finishing second.

Álex Palou fell 0.0177 seconds short of another pole position, and the 2026 champion-elect will start on the outside of row one, the third consecutive year Palou starts in the front row at Laguna Seca. It will be the 11th time this season Palou is starting on the front row. Palou has not finished on the podium in the last four races. He has not gone five consecutive races without a podium finish since the final 11 races of his rookie season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2020.

Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0568 seconds off McLaughlin's pole-winning time, and Rosenqvist takes third on the grid. Rosenqvist enters this weekend level with his worst top fifteen finish slump in his IndyCar career. He has not finished better than 17th in the last four races, matching his previous longest streak without a top fifteen result, a five-start streak in 2021. At Laguna Seca, Rosenqvist has two top five finishes and four results outside the top ten, three of which have been finishes of 19th or worse.

Alexander Rossi ends the season with his best starting position of the season on a road or street course in fourth. Rossi was 0.1884 seconds from pole position. His only other top five starting position this season was second for the Indianapolis 500. In four of six Laguna Seca starts, Rossi has finished in the top ten. His best finish at the circuit was third in 2024. That 2024 Laguna Seca race is the last time Rossi started in the top five on a road or street course.

David Malukas starts fifth for the final race of the season. This is the 13th time Malukas has started in the top ten this season, and this is his tenth time starting in the top five. He entered this season having started in the top five in 13 races previously in his career. Malukas has finished outside the top ten in three of four season finales in his IndyCar career. This will be Malukas' 79th career start. Only two drivers had their first career victory come at Laguna Seca, Gil de Ferran in 1995 and Bryan Herta in 1998.

Kyle Kirkwood missed out on the Fast Six by a little over a tenth of a second, but a grid penalty slides Kirkwood up to sixth. Kirkwood enters the finale needing to finish second in the championship to reach the 40 points threshold to qualify for a FIA Super License. With championship finishes of seventh and fourth the last two seasons Kirkwood has 14 points. Second in the championship pays 30 Super License points while third pays 25 Super License points. He could earn one Super License point for completing at least 100 km during a Formula One free practice session. The 40 points must be accumulated over a three-year period.

Marcus Ericsson takes seventh on the grid. It is Ericsson's tenth time starting in the top ten this season. Last year, he had seven starts in the top ten. Ericsson enters this weekend with six consecutive top ten finishes. The Swede has not had seven consecutive top ten results since a nine-race span that began at the 2022 season finale and ran through the first eight races of 2023. In five of his first seven season finales, Ericsson has failed to finish in the top ten. His best finale result was seventh at St. Petersburg in 2020.

(Update 11:55 a.m. ET - Marcus Ericsson will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change).

Kyffin Simpson will start eighth. It is only the fifth time Simpson has started in the top ten this season. He started outside the top fifteen in ten races this season, including the last three races. Simpson has had an accident in each of his two Laguna Seca starts. In 2024, Simpson was collected when Graham Rahal spun in front of him. Last year, Simpson ran into the back of Felix Rosenqvist at the start and did not complete a lap.

Marcus Armstrong starts ninth for the second consecutive race, and he finished ninth the most recent time IndyCar took the checkered flag in the completion of the first Milwaukee race last Sunday evening. In two of Armstrong's first three Laguna Seca starts, he finished eighth. Those were in 2023 and 2025. In 2024, he started 11th but was pushed off course racing Christian Lundgaard and spun. This left Armstrong two laps down in 22nd.

Louis Foster rounds out the top ten on the grid, the third consecutive race Foster has started in the top ten and the fourth time in five races. In the first 13 races, he had two top ten starts. In Milwaukee, Foster was 11th and tenth. He could have three consecutive top fifteen finishes for only the second time in his career. Last year, he had four consecutive top fifteen results, an 11th at Road America before three consecutive 14th-place finishes.

Christian Lundgaard made the Fast Six, but a six-spot grid penalty due to an engine change drops the Dane from fifth to 11th starting position. This is the 11th time Lundgaard has started outside the top ten this season. In 34 starts with Arrow McLaren, Lundgaard has been the top McLaren finisher 13 times while Patricio O'Ward has been the best McLaren driver 19 times and Nolan Siegel was twice the best McLaren finisher in that span. Lundgaard could become the seventh driver to complete every lap in a season.

Patricio O'Ward did not make it out of the first round of qualifying, but a grid penalty allows O'Ward to start 12th next to his Arrow McLaren teammate Lundgaard. O'Ward was 0.0090 seconds from advancing to round two. O'Ward is attempting to become the first driver to end a season with three consecutive victories since Jimmy Bryan did it in 1955. It would be the 59th time in IndyCar history a driver has won at least three consecutive races.

Will Power missed advancing from group two by 0.0575 seconds, and Power occupies 13th on the grid, the same grid spot he occupied for the season opener at St. Petersburg. In six Laguna Seca starts, Power has two podium finishes, three top five finishes and five top ten finishes. Power has finished outside the top twenty in the last two season finales. He has six consecutive top ten finishes in season finales held in California.

Mick Schumacher starts to Power's outside on row seven, the fourth time in the last five races Schumacher starts in the top fifteen. He had two starts in the top fifteen through the first 13 races. In the last three races, Schumacher has had three consecutive top fifteen finishes. In the first 14 races of the season, he had only one top fifteen result. Schumacher enters the finale 13 points behind Dennis Hauger for rookie of the year. When they take the green flag, Schumacher will make up ten points to the Norwegian based on grid position alone.

Nolan Siegel was only 0.0579 seconds from making the second round of qualifying, and the California-native starts 15th. This will be Siegel's 46th career start. It has been a career-year for Siegel as he has three top ten finishes, a personal best, and he enters the weekend 18th in the championship, four positions better than where he finished last year. Mathematically, Siegel could finish as high as 14th in the championship.

Scott Dixon's final start with Chip Ganassi Racing is from 16th position. Dixon hopes to avoid his first winless season since 2005. During that 2005 season, Dixon had two top five finishes and ten top ten finishes in 15 starts, including four consecutive top ten results to close out the season. He has three season finale victories in his career. He could join Johnnie Parsons, A.J. Foyt and Tom Sneva as the only drivers with four finale victories since 1946.

Christian Rasmussen will start on row nine for the third consecutive race, as the Dane claims 17th. It is the 11th time Rasmussen has started outside the top fifteen, and ten of those have been starting between 16th and 19th. At Milwaukee, Rasmussen finished fifth and eighth. It is the second time in his IndyCar career he has consecutive top ten finishes. The other was the 2025 Iowa doubleheader when he was sixth and eighth in the two Iowa races.

Caio Collet made the second round, but a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change relegates Collet from 12th starting position to 18th. This was the sixth time the Brazilian has made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. It is the second time he has taken a grid penalty after advancing to round two. His qualifying time was disallowed at the Indianapolis 500 as his car failed inspection. Last year, he swept the Indy Lights doubleheader at Laguna Seca.

Rinus VeeKay closes the season with four consecutive starts outside the top ten, as VeeKay rolls off from 19th. He had started in the top ten in the four races prior to this slump. In five Laguna Seca starts, VeeKay's best finish is 14th with an average finish of 19.8. The Dutchman has failed to crack the top twenty in the last two Monterey visits.

Josef Newgarden rounds out the top twenty, the fifth time Newgarden has started 20th or worse this season. This start marks the 250th of Josef Newgarden's career, the 19th driver to reach the milestone in IndyCar history. Only once has a driver won in their 250th start. That would be A.J. Foyt, whose 250th start was the 1977 season opener from Ontario Motor Speedway. Foyt won ahead of Al Unser. It was Foyt's 57th career victory.

Santino Ferrucci ends the season with four consecutive starts outside the top twenty with Ferrucci starting 21st in the finale. It is the ninth time he has started outside the top twenty in 2026, and the eight of those starts were from row 11. Ferrucci has not cracked the top ten in the last three races. His best Laguna Seca finish was ninth in 2024, but he has finished 17th or worse in his other three starts at the circuit.

Graham Rahal makes it an all-American row 11, and this is his worst starting position on a road or street course since he was 24th at Arlington in March. For the second time this season, Rahal has finished outside the top twenty in consecutive races. He is looking to avoid three consecutive finishes outside the top twenty for the first time since Edmonton, Mid-Ohio and Loudon in 2011.

Romain Grosjean leads an all-Dale Coyne Racing row 12. Laguna Seca is one of four circuits where Grosjean has multiple top five finishes. He was third at Laguna Seca in 2021 and fourth in 2024. He has two top five finishes on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Long Beach and Road America. Dale Coyne Racing has failed to produce a top twenty finisher in the last two Laguna Seca races and it has not had a top ten finisher in the last four Laguna Seca races.

Dennis Hauger will be to Grosjean's outside in 24th starting position. This is the fourth time both Coyne drivers start outside the top twenty this season, but the first three were on ovals. Hauger could become the second consecutive Indy Lights champion to win IndyCar Rookie of the Year in the following year. There has never been an instance where reigning Indy Lights champions have won IndyCar Rookie of the Year in consecutive seasons.

Sting Ray Robb starts last for the fourth time this season. It is the fourth consecutive race Robb has started outside the top twenty, his 13th time this season he has started outside the top twenty and the 56th time in his career starting 21st or worse. This will be Robb's 69th career start. He has made the fourth-most starts in IndyCar history without a top five five. Only Hiro Matsushita (117), Randy Lewis (81) and Jerry Karl (73) have made more.

Fox's coverage of the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 95 laps.