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.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar's official open test from Phoenix Raceway is underway, and we are 11 days from the first race of the season from St. Petersburg. Normally, we end our team previews with the defending champions, but Dale Coyne Racing took so damn long to finalize its driver lineup that it has claimed the tail end of our previews. We have known about one of its drivers since September 24, 2025, 158 days prior to the 2026 opener. We learned about its second driver on February 13, 2026, 16 days before the first race. One driver is a rookie. The other is a returnee for Dale Coyne Racing, and IndyCar in general.

At A Glance... It is a pretty good lineup

Romain Grosjean is back in IndyCar after a year away as a Prema's reserve driver, and he is returning to Dale Coyne Racing after Grosjean made his IndyCar debut with the team in 2021. Grosjean will be driving the #18 Honda for the team. Meanwhile, Dennis Hauger will take charge of the #19 Honda in an entry that is run in partnership with Andretti Global.

It is a good lineup, and it could be fruitful. 

Grosjean did not win in his first four seasons in IndyCar, though he had a few close calls, including at Dale Coyne Racing. The lack of a victory, especially after a pair of seasons at then-Andretti Autosport, was a surprise. There were plenty of good days but Grosjean never broke through and it felt like a near certainty especially after some brilliant performances. 

We learned a lot about Grosjean, and for all the sparks of speed we will see, he is prone to falling into a rut and being in bad form for a few races. There would be those two or three races a year that would stand out, but we would then see Grosjean hit a stretch of races where he was not competitive, and he was not fighting in the top half of the field. It led to outbursts that could not be ignored. Moving to Juncos Hollinger Racing only set him further behind, and Grosjean had some impressive drives, but there was a limit to his success. 

This Dale Coyne Racing is arguably in a better spot than where it was in 2021. That was a good team as Grosjean had Ed Jones as his teammate with Vasser-Sullivan support. Coyne is coming off a good rebound in 2025 after a horrendous 2024, and combining where it was with an Andretti partnership for its second car, Coyne should be able to maintain where it was last season with Rinus VeeKay. A top fifteen championship performance is in play, but it should have two cars fighting to reach that level. 

Hauger is ready for IndyCar, and Andretti Global has great interest in his success. I am not sure the #19 Honda is going to be a de facto fourth Andretti entry, but it certainly will not be what the second Dale Coyne Racing car has been in recent seasons. I don't think Coyne should be worrying about an entry missing the Indianapolis 500 for a third consecutive year. 

Last year, Hauger showed he was better than Indy Lights, but he learned most of these circuits and is not joining the series blind. The support will be there, and he will be working closely with the Andretti group while also having a teammate that is rather comfortable and had plenty to teach the Norwegian. It is still IndyCar, and rookies have had teething problems in recent seasons, but Hauger is entering with more talent than most of the other recent rookies, and few have had this kind of support.

This is a sneaky good lineup. This could have been a Formula One lineup in a different universe where Grosjean doesn't have his career good sideways at Haas and if Hauger had more support in the ladder system. Instead, it is in IndyCar with one of the least resourced teams on the grid, but a group that has a history of punching above its weight. Coyne could be in for a memorable season. 

2025 Dale Coyne Racing Review

Wins: 0

Best Finish: 2nd (Toronto)

Poles: 0

Best Start: 5th (Barber)

Championship Finishes: 14th (Rinus VeeKay), 27th (Jacob Abel) 

Romain Grosjean - #18 Bitcoin MAX Honda

Numbers to Remember:

14.3906: Career average finish in IndyCar

3: Races where Grosjean led more than four laps

50: Percent of his starts have been lead lap finishes, 32 out of 64 starts.

What is the best possible outcome?

A sneaky run into the top ten of the championship. 

There is a reasonable season where Grosjean has a podium finish or two, about five or six top five finishes and has ten top ten finishes, and that gets him somewhere between eighth and tenth in the championship. Marcus Armstrong was eighth in the championship last year with one podium finish, two top five finishes and 11 top ten finishes. That is feasible for Grosjean, and you know what? He could win. VeeKay had competitive speed and was fighting for podium finishes. He was a little fortunate at Toronto that the stars aligned that he could be leading late, but Grosjean could be put in that same position. 

A race victory would be a terrific story and would cancel out whatever else happened during the season. Grosjean could be 15th in the championship and it would not matter. 

What is realistic?

We must look at the entire picture with Grosjean, because for all of his positives and all the promise he still has in IndyCar, this is a driver who never finished better than 13th in the championship and his most top five finishes in a season is four. In each of his final three seasons in IndyCar, Grosjean ended the year without have a top five finish in the final nine races, 13 races and nine races. Two of those seasons were with Andretti. We must also keep in mind Grosjean is returning after a year away from IndyCar, and he only competed in five aces last year, the five IMSA endurance races with Lamborghini.

Matching VeeKay's output would be a terrific return season for Grosjean. That would be a podium, two total top five finishes and seven top ten finishes. I think Grosjean could do a little better than seven top ten finishes, but Grosjean has never had more than seven top ten finishes in a season. Keep that in mind. 

There are going to be a few weekends where we hear Grosjean's frustration, but we will also have weekends where we see Grosjean as one of the more joyous drivers post-race.

Dennis Hauger - #19 Ault Blockchain Honda

Numbers to Remember:

21.24: Average championship finish of qualified rookies season since 2020

14: Best championship finish for a Rookie of the Year since 2020

95: Hauger is on track to be the 95th different driver to start an IndyCar race for Dale Coyne Racing

What is the best possible outcome?

Hauger is essentially another Andretti Global driver and he is constantly in the second round of qualifying and pushing the top ten. He is the best Dale Coyne Racing finisher more times than not, and that is a source of frustration for his French teammate. Hauger improves each race and top ten results slowly become top five results. There is a weekend or two where it clicks and he is in the Fast Six and pushing for a podium. 

It is somewhere in that eighth to tenth territory where a handful of top five finishes and a majority of top ten finishes sets Hauger above most of the competition.

What is realistic?

Rookies have struggled in IndyCar lately, and it feels like the hybrid system has not been making it easier. Hauger is still learning this year, and it is a new system he has yet to experience. Last year's rookie class was rather good, but Louis Foster and Robert Shwartzman each struggled. Shwartzman was running for an entirely new team, but Foster was with a good group, and even when we saw flashes, we saw Foster come back to earth during races and fail to finish in the top ten. 

Hauger could crack the top fifteen in the championship, but I believe he will be outside of that group. He will still have a few really good races and there could be a weekend or two where he is outstanding, but we must remember this is Dale Coyne Racing. Andretti Global's resources will help, but we just saw an Andretti car end up 20th in the championship last season. Not everyone can crack the top ten. Not everyone can crack the top fifteen. That doesn't mean the season is a failure. 

Any finishes in the top five with at least seven or eight top ten finishes is what Hauger should be shooting for. Remember, it was not long ago Kyle Kirkwood failed to finish better than tenth as a rookie and he was soon winning races. 

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.

Musings From the Weekend: Problem Solved, Problems Remain

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

The wait is over. Dale Coyne Racing confirmed Romain Grosjean will fill out its driver lineup for the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. It was great timing as IndyCar's official test occurs this week from Phoenix Raceway. Coyne also confirmed the return of the #19 entry for Dennis Hauger. Meanwhile, Formula E had a doubleheader go unnoticed. Michael Jordan has won the Daytona 500, thanks to Tyler Reddick. A kangaroo dominated the stories out of Bathurst. Formula One testing resumed in Bahrain, and most drivers are not happy. However, there was some big news out IndyCar that should clam nerves, but does leave a lot left unanswered.

Problem Solved, Problems Remain

After a year of nervous anticipation, IndyCar has secured its current engine manufacturers in a multiyear agreement. Chevrolet and Honda will continue in IndyCar starting in 2027 and will remain through the next set of engine regulations, which begin for the 2028 season with the introduction of a 2.4-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 hybrid engine. 

Remaining in IndyCar has come with a perk for both makes as starting in 2028, both Chevrolet and Honda will receive a charter entry to be used as a factory entry on the grid. Each manufacturer will be able to use that charter with whichever team it wishes, expect for teams that already enter the maximum of three charter entries. In terms of whether these charters are coming from the existing allotment of 25 charters or if two will be added and the total number of charters will increase remains to be clarified. 

Everyone in IndyCar can breath easier after it felt like Honda was on the verge of exiting the series and putting everyone in a difficult position of needing to find a replacement to maintain the grid size, however, while this contract extension solves a problem and it keeps status quo, this agreement does not address the limitations of having two engine partners that have stressed this series. 

This is the first move, keep the ones you got, and it was important to address. IndyCar is in a better position now that Chevrolet and Honda are sticking around, but it does not change that both manufacturers have been at the limit of support when it comes to entrants, and now each manufacturer will effectively have another entrant to support in 2028 with their chartered factory entry. If anything, this deal has created more work for both groups. 

We are entering the 15th season of the current regulation, and this will be the 14th consecutive season with just Chevrolet and Honda involved after one infamous season with Lotus as a third manufacturer in 2012. The worrying thing about IndyCar is it doesn't appear to have the might to make a significant move to draw in an additional manufacturer or two. That is what we need to see now. The worrying thing is this deal feels like it takes care of those who are around, and it makes it feel like it is more unlikely to growth the manufacturer support within the series. 

IndyCar has taken care of Chevrolet and Honda with this agreement. Both manufacturers have equity in the grid. It will reap whatever is beneficial from the charter system. Both will be eligible for Leaders Circle prize money, which is a drop in a bucket, but those were drops neither Chevrolet nor Honda were eligible for receiving previously, and the slice of the Leaders Circle pie increased a little more this past offseason with it believed IndyCar will payout nearly $1.7 million per entry. 

But the sweetheart deal Chevrolet and Honda received likely is not going to be extended to a new manufacturer that will likely need it and expect it, and IndyCar has put itself in a box with this decision. 

Why would a new manufacturer join IndyCar if it was not given the same charter spot on the grid? 

The introduction of the charter size was supposed to limit the grid size and increase the value of a spot in IndyCar by making it scarce to compete full-time. If a third manufacturer is interested, it will expect a charter entry like Chevrolet and Honda has received, and soon the grid is up to 28 chartered entries, three more than originally awarded and the grid would now be larger than the 27-car limit that was imposed last season on all races outside the Indianapolis 500. Then what happens if a fourth manufacturer is interested?

It is unsurprising IndyCar put itself in a pickle. This is IndyCar after all. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. 

IndyCar has set a precedent that it will take care of manufacturers to a higher level and give them effectively a stake in the grid with an entry, and that now must be expanded to others who wish to enter the series. The manufacturer total will not increase if only Chevrolet and Honda have chartered entries because of loyalty while anyone else wishing to enter will be left out. This isn't a social club where legacy should be a perk. A professional motorsports series should be working equally with its partners and making sure they all receive the same support.

If it is unwilling to give a new manufacturer the same love it just gave Chevrolet and Honda then the grid is going to remain with two manufacturers for years to come, and the same strain both groups have experienced with each supporting a dozen or more full-time entries will remain as well, though it is something both Chevrolet and Honda would like IndyCar to address. 

An additional manufacturer would do a lot more to help Chevrolet and Honda than a factory entry for each. Both groups have been expressing a desire to do less in IndyCar, and both should be praised for all that it has done as IndyCar has grown, especially over the last six seasons. There should be some concern that this deal IndyCar has given suggests the series is fine with keeping the status quo when the series needs growth. 

We are fortunate Honda has decided to stick around. An exit for the manufacturer felt more imminent than ever before in the Japanese manufacturers' three-plus decades in American open-wheel racing. Who is to say in five or six years or whenever this current deal is up, Honda doesn't decide to walkaway after almost 40 years in IndyCar? Honda is at the limit. It has achieved all that you can in IndyCar. It has won many Indianapolis 500s, but at some point it must be acknowledged that the brand recognition Honda has from racing in IndyCar has maxed out and there is nothing more it can gain competing in the series. Either IndyCar must grow substantially that leads to a greater return on investment for Honda or an additional partner must come in to alleviate the pressure of running half the grid in the next few seasons if it hopes to avoid the stress it just faced over the last year.

If it doesn't do that, then what?

IndyCar is keeping itself in the same position it has been, but for long-term health of the series, it must find more support and more interested parties. 

The last year should have been a wakeup call because in the year 2026, I don't think IndyCar can find a single manufacturer willing to support 24 full-time cars and 33 cars for the Indianapolis 500. It definitely would not be a sign of strength to be back down to one manufacturer supplying all the engines. That would be a terrible blow to the series that would hurt every team and driver competing. IndyCar shouldn't wait until it hemorrhaging to take care of its health and make sure it is best set for the future. 

It solved a problem securing Chevrolet and Honda beyond 2026, but in the next year or so, it would be wise to make substantial ground in finding an additional engine partner or two to make sure we are not in this same spot in the not-so-distant future.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Tyler Reddick, but did you know...

The #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel, Mikaël Grenier and Maxime Martin won the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Austin Hill won the Grand National Series race. Chandler Smith won the Truck race. 

Pascal Wehrlein and António Félix da Costa split the Jeddah ePrix.

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Seattle, his third victory of the season. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race, his fifth consecutive victory.

Elfyn Evans won the 73rd Rally Sweden

Coming Up This Weekend

NASCAR moves up to Atlanta.

Supercars open its season at Sydney Motorsports Park.

World Superbike opens its season a little further south at Phillip Island.

Supercross will be in Arlington.

2026 NASCAR Season Preview

A new NASCAR season is upon us, and later tonight we will know the starting grid for the season-opening Daytona 500, and so will conclude an offseason that saw a great number of changes away from the racetrack. 

Permanent charters, a championship format change and slight changes to horsepower and aero packages all sprung from a busy winter, the most notable of which is the championship format reverting to something previously used. We haven't even mentioned the changes to the schedule. Mexico City, Chicago and the Charlotte roval are gone with a temporary race on Naval Base Coronado use outside San Diego scheduled for June. Chicagoland Speedway returns after a six-year hiatus. A second oval race is returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Meanwhile, the All-Star Race moves to Dover International Speedway with North Wilkesboro set to host a championship race for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Gone are the three-race rounds with eliminations and returning is a ten-race aggregate to decide the champion with 16 drivers competing for the title after the regular season concludes. The 16 drivers will be based on points. Win-and-in is gone. To compete for a championship, a driver must be in the top 16 of the championship after the first 26 races. 

The championship change shakes up the identity of the Cup Series and it alters how races and the entire season are approached. A driver 27th in the championship is not one victory away from a playoff spot. It is no longer wide open until the very last lap of the regular season. Simultaneously, a victory is not a golden ticket assuring a team a better pay day and a chance to be racing for something special as summer turns to autumn. 

With these changes, come a lot of questions ahead of the 2026 season. 

How will the season look different?

Victories do not carry the same weight they once did because a driver cannot go from the bottom to the top in a blink. If a driver is 21st in the championship, one victory will not turn him into a championship-eligible driver. To make the postseason, he will need to still get to 16th. A victory will be a consolation prize, one that will be cherished, but it does not outshine the true form over an entire season.

With a clear target of making the top 16 to make the playoffs, it should raise the bar of competition. There will be greater incentive to get the most out of every race. A team cannot wait for the drafting tracks or the road courses to try and steal a victory. Making the playoffs will require decent form across all disciplines. Some teams are going to struggle, but a great number of teams will be shooting for more each week to get as many points as possible, and points matter more. They are the only thing that matters to making the playoffs. 

That should change how races are run, especially since stage points still exist. Teams would previously decline stage points in strategy decisions to race for the victory. At certain tracks or in certain circumstances, teams would make a pit before a stage break from a top position only to be back at the front after the stage break because the rest of the field would stop and that team would inherit the lead. However, is turning down ten points for a potential stage victory worth it in this system? Points determine the playoff drivers, not victories. Those ten points go further than a race victory on its own. However, combined with a race victory, stage points will lift the top teams. 

The base points total for first position increased to 55 points. Winning both stages and the race could earn a team 75 points, 76 points if that team also scores fastest lap. A victory has never been worth more. There is a good chance a race winner could earn more than double what the second-place finisher earns in some races. Even if a driver scores 75 points, the most a second-place finisher can earn is 54 points (35 points for second, 18 points for finishing second in both states and a point for fastest lap). Second is only worth 72% of a victory. Under the previous points system, second-place could be worth as much as 93.333% of a victory. 

For well over a decade, NASCAR said it emphasized winning races but had systems where proportionately, winning was still not great enough and second on down was worth too much. Now it has a system where consistently winning races will separate those teams from the rest of the field. 

Who does this change benefit?

It benefits consistent drivers. Some of the top drivers will be fine. Kyle Larson, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano will all still be where they usually are. The cleanest of those drivers will excel the most. They will not have a pair of bad races in October crush their championship hopes because of the system.

There is still a reset after 26 races, and some drivers will lose an advantage while others will get a boost. The door will be open for someone else to rise, but instead of only needing strategic victories to be champion, a driver must be decent over ten races. 

Previously, a victory was all that mattered. If a driver won the first race in a round, he could finish last in the next two and it didn't change a thing. That is no longer the case. A victory cannot hide bipolar results. If a team is finishing outside the top twenty on a regular basis that will speak louder than a victory or two in the season. 

Who is in for a greater challenge?

I would say about a third of the grid had their playoff hopes squashed before the calendar even flipped to February. Everyone has the same target to shoot for, but 16th is quite out of reach for a fair number of teams. 

In the last four seasons, the best championship finish for a Legacy Motor Club driver is 19th. The best of three Front Row Motorsports drivers in 2025 was 27th in the championship. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. has finished outside the top twenty in the championship in six of the last seven seasons. In the other season, he was 16th because he won the Daytona 500 and qualified for the playoffs. Michael McDowell has never finished in the top twenty of the championship in a season where he did not win a race. Tyler Dillon's season is hopeless before it even begins.

Rick Ware Racing and Haas Factory Team are not going to stumble into a playoff spot thanks to a victory. Even Richard Childress Racing is an outside shot for the top 16. 

There are drivers and teams that are just not going to be good enough to make the top 16, and nothing is going to change that over the course of the season. It is over before it has even begun.

There will be drivers who need to be better.

Shane van Gisbergen was the first driver to come to mind when the format change was announced. One road course victory will not secure a playoff spot, but van Gisbergen's five victories would have been enough to make the playoffs last year had this system been introduced in 2025. 

That shows how much dominating races matters, but it also shows how much it will take for the likes of van Gisbergen to make it. There are also fewer road course races this season and there are no road course races in the final half of the season. Sonoma is the 18th race and that is when we will know truly how great van Gisbergen's postseason hopes are. It is unlikely he can bank on four victories getting him through, but that means he must improve and get his average finish of 21st down to something around 16th or 17th and combined with a pair of victories or a trio of victories, it could be enough to get him into the top 16.

The Rich Get Richer

The top teams are still going to be at the top. We already saw that last season. Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing split the top four drivers in the championship and took six of the top eight with Team Penske's Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney taking the other two spots. 

While the elimination formats combined with the current generation of car allowed for other teams to be in the mix for race victories and even contend for championships, we have been seeing NASCAR's biggest teams pull away. Introduce a system that rewards consistency more while also increasing what a race victory pays out, and the teams at the top are going to move further away from the rest of the field. 

There is still a chance 23XI Racing with Tyler Reddick can be competitive and break into the top group. Trackhouse or RFK Racing can still have good seasons and make championship runs, but it will require true speed and not fortunately timed results to be a threat deep into the season. 

Are the postseason drivers already set?

Four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, four Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and three Team Penske Fords account for 11 drivers. If they all make the playoffs, that leaves little room for others. 

However, Joe Gibbs Racing has seen Ty Gibbs fail to make the playoffs in two of his three Cup seasons. Austin Cindric has made the playoffs in three of his four seasons, but in each of those Cindric won a race and he has never had ten top ten finishes in a season.

It is safe to say at least nine spots are claimed before a lap is run. 23XI Racing will be competitive and have at least one car, if not both cars in the top 16. Trackhouse has kept Ross Chastian in and around the top ten, and if van Gisbergen wins enough, he could make it. RFK Racing should benefit the most as Chris Buescher was tenth in the championship when the regular season ended last year, but the lack of a victory kept him out of the playoffs.

It is still going to be interesting for 16th, but there are a handful of drivers that just need to achieve the bare minimum to be a title hopeful. 

What counts as a surprise?

Kyle Busch turning it around and getting back into the top 16. 

Spire Motorsports rising and becoming a contender with Carson Hocevar. 

Josh Berry running well enough to make the top 16 after only making the playoffs thanks to a victory that looked more flukey as the 2025 season went along. 

A.J. Allmendinger having great consistency with a road course victory or two putting him in a playoff spot. 

All of these are not impractical to happen in the 2026 season but none of these we think will happen.

Could we see a championship clinched early?

This crossed my mind when the format was announced last month. Thanks to stage points, the 2026 season is likely the greatest chance we will see a championship decided with a race to spare since 2003. 

If a driver is truly dominant, especially in those final ten races, the championship could be decided with a race to spare. When considering how Corey Heim ran in the Truck Series last year and how Connor Zilisch did in the Grand National Series, if a driver picks up four or five dominant victories and is scoring a lot of stage points, he could enter the final race with a 62-point lead and not even need to turn a lap in the Homestead season finale. 

All these changes have been made in hopes of keeping the championship compelling to the final race. NASCAR just might have made a tweak that sees the return of a dead rubber finale. What would it do then? 

We will find out in 38 weeks.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Chip Ganassi Racing

Eighteen days from the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season opener, and we move to a team who enters this season looking for its 18th IndyCar championship. This would be its fourth consecutive and sixth in the last seven seasons. Chip Ganassi Racing has never been stronger, and it has previously had some historically dominant periods. 

Nothing has changed. Drivers are the same. Management is the same. It gained a new and notable sponsor. Other than that, Chip Ganassi Racing looks the same, and with no changes it is difficult to believe much will be different this season.

At A Glance... Wash, rinse, repeat

What do you want to hear about Chip Ganassi Racing? We know what this team is capable of, and it will likely achieve it again. Chip Ganassi Racing has won five of the last six championships. It has the best driver in IndyCar, and one of the greatest drivers in IndyCar history. It actually has two of the greatest drivers in IndyCar history.

What do think will be different? Ganassi is going to win races, it is going to have two strong drivers, Álex Palou is probably going to win the championship, and we are going to repeat what we have been saying for the entire 2020s. 

I don't know what to write about this group. Nothing changed. What is going to change now? Ganassi isn't going to struggle. It is not going to get lost and start making mistakes. The speed isn't going to disappear. Palou is going to be quick everywhere. Scott Dixon is going to be in Palou's shadow to a point where everyone will think he has lost a step but Dixon is still finishing fifth, and no one really cares about Kyffin Simpson's results. Simpson's results are not a reflection of the Ganassi organization's ability.

There are no surprises around this group. It isn't Team Penske, which is bringing in a young driver with a spotty track record to a group that has underground some managerial changes and is coming off its worst season in a quarter-century. It isn't Andretti Global, which has brought in a great driver but one who is over 40 and it is a team that largely under performs. It isn't Arrow McLaren, which is constantly changing drivers and is never satisfied. It isn't Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which is constantly struggling to find speed. Then there is the other half of the grid that seldom win. Until Ganassi shows it has a weakness, it is pointless trying to look for one.

A team needs to beat Ganassi, not impossible, but not something we have seen on a regular basis for quite some time. Can any team do that? Team Penske has done it, but it has been a minute. It has been a little longer for Andretti Global. Arrow McLaren could do it. We need to see it though, and it has proven to be quite difficult.

Until we see it, expect Ganassi to remain on top. 

2025 Chip Ganassi Racing Review

Wins: 9 (St. Petersburg, Thermal Club, Barber, Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Iowa II, Laguna Seca, Milwaukee)

Poles: 6 (Barber, Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Mid-Ohio, Iowa II, Laguna Seca, Milwaukee)

Championship Finishes: 1st (Álex Palou), 3rd (Scott Dixon), 17th (Kyffin Simpson)

Kyffin Simpson - #8 Sunoco Honda

Numbers to Remember:

6: Top ten finishes in 2025

10: Full-time drivers in which Simpson had more top ten finishes than in 2025

4.29411: Improvement in average finish from 2024 (19.47058) to 2025 (15.17647)

What is the best possible outcome?

An improvement and making a push for the top ten in the championship. 

Simpson did look better in his sophomore season, and he had a few races with really good pace. It netted him some strong results. From no top ten finishes to six is a big jump. There were still a few weak weekends and it shows there is still room for improvement. If he can get up to eight or nine top ten finishes, it would be a good step and it will likely see him in the conversation for the championship top ten. It would definitely get him in the top fifteen.

What is realistic?

Simpson's best results came due to some fortunate cautions and strategy in 2025. Take away his fifth at Detroit and third at Toronto and he is likely better than 21st in the championship, but he would not have been as good as 17th. I don't know if he is going to get a top five finish this season. He had three last season, but his overall pace does not suggest that will be a norm for him. He can still be competitive and get a half-dozen top ten finishes, though those finishes will likely be eighths, ninths and tenths. 

Scott Dixon - #9 PNC Bank Honda

Numbers to Remember:

2: Fast Six appearances in 2025 (St. Petersburg and Indianapolis 500)

12.647: Average starting position in 2025, his worst since 2005 (12.235)

3: Seasons in the last four with an average starting position worse than tenth

2: Seasons from 2001 to 2021 where Dixon had an average starting position worse than tenth. Along with 2005, the other season was his rookie year in 2001 (11.75)

What is the best possible outcome?

Dixon is a six-time championship. Enough said.

To expand on that, Dixon needs to fine a way to beat his teammate, which is trying to get from fourth to first in Dixon's case, and it wasn't long ago the New Zealander was the driver to beat at Chip Ganassi Racing. Few can match Dixon's consistency, and if Dixon remains consistent with any slip up from Palou, it could be Dixon controlling the championship even if he isn't winning eight or nine races. Dixon can be champion with three victories and 13 top five finishes. Few are going to be able to match that. If one of those three victories was the Indianapolis 500, it would be the cherry on top.

What is realistic?

It is realistic Dixon does not win a race this season. 

Let's just cover that straight up. Dixon could fail to win a race this season and it not be a disaster. You know why? Because Dixon was about six laps away from not winning a race n 2025 if Palou did not fall off the road from the lead at Mid-Ohio. Even if Palou had remained on the track, Dixon still would have finished second in that race and he still would have been third in the championship. A streak would have ended but in no way would it suggest Dixon had lost something. It just wasn't his year. 

It was only three years ago we went into the final four races and Dixon did not have a victory. He then won three of the final four. Just based on Dixon's consistency and the longevity of it, he is good enough to be the best for at least one race. It could be better than that and he could pull in multiple victories.

In the last 21 seasons, Dixon has finished in the top three of the championship 16 times. He has not finished worse than sixth since 2005. We know what Dixon can do.

Álex Palou - #10 DHL Honda

Numbers to Remember:

12: Palou was first in 12 statistical categories in the 2025 season (Victories, podium finishes, top five finishes, top ten finishes, pole positions, Fast Six appearances, Fast 12 appearances, races led, laps led, fastest laps, average starting position, average finishing position)

3.352: Average starting position in 2025

 

4.0588: Average finishing position in 2025

98: Career starts

What is the worst possible outcome?

We know the best possible outcome for Palou. He has won three consecutive championships, but what is Palou's worst possible outcome for the season? How bad could 2026 be? 

That is much harder to answer.

He is going to win at least one race. The worst possible 2026 season for Palou at Chip Ganassi Racing still includes one victory. It likely includes two. He isn't going to slow down, and he will likely still be a regular podium finisher. Five podium finishes feels like the lowest possible total for Palou. He is going to get two or three on road courses. He is going to get another two or three on street courses. Even on ovals he is likely good for one podium finish if not more. He could get two podium finishes in each discipline and we could view that as a dreadful season. 

A worst possible outcome includes some unfortunate results, which have largely been avoided in Palou's IndyCar career. This season would need to be a market correction of sorts. Something that looks like a Josef Newgarden season in recent years. Bad pit stops, collateral damage when other cars spin or miss a braking point, maybe a mechanical issue or two. There would need to be a slump, a genuine slump and not just one bad result because David Malukas' talent is limited. A three-race run outside the top ten with at least a pair of those outside the top fifteen would be a shock when it comes to Palou. 

However, even in Palou's worst possible season, it is probably still a pretty strong season. He might have four bad races, five tops, but it would still include a dozen good races.

The worst possible outcome is dropping to sixth or seventh. He has only one victory, he still has five podium finishes, but those four or five bad races take down his points total. A few early retirements mean he is finishing outside the top twenty and scoring single-digit points. While he has a bunch of podiums, he gets stuck in the back half of the top ten in more races. Finishes of seventh, eighth and ninth are good, but not great. 

Meanwhile, a combination of Scott Dixon being Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin both rising after a down season, Patricio O'Ward remaining a hassle, Will Power settling in nicely at Andretti Global, and Kyle Kirkwood running well sees Palou fall down to seventh. It is not great in Palou's terms but it could still be much worse.

What is realistic?

Again, we know Palou can be champion. It feels more likely he will be champion than not be champion, but let's reframe realistic in terms of the history book.

Palou is a driver with three consecutive championships and four total. He could win a fourth consecutive championship and join Sébastien Bourdais as the only drivers with four consecutive titles. That is realistic. It isn't crazy to think it would happen.

In terms of career victory, Palou enters this season with 19 victories. One more and Palou hits the 20-milestone, a good total to reach. If he wins eight races again, he will end with 27, which would put Palou level with Johnny Rutherford in 15th all-time.

It isn't impossible, but eight victories in a second consecutive season is a stretch. Only once in IndyCar history has a driver won at least eight races in consecutive seasons. That was someone called Mario Andretti in 1966 and 1967.

Six victories would still be a great season even if it is fewer than the previous season. IndyCar could tighten up quickly, but Palou will remain one of the best. Three or four victories is a great win total in nine seasons out of ten. Three victories would put Palou level with Tony Bettenhausen and Emerson Fittipaldi in the record book, and Palou is only in his seventh IndyCar season. Four victories for Palou puts him on 23 and it would put him tied for 20th all-time with Tommy Milton.

That is within reach.

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.

2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Andretti Global

And then there were 19 days until the opening round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. Less than three weeks until cars are back on track, Andretti Global will run three of them, but the team has undergone a change, and in a big way. One driver is off to chase a Formula One dream. Who does the team find to fill the void? One of the greatest drivers in IndyCar history. 

We do not see such driver movements often in IndyCar, but Andretti Global has made a big swing as it looks for its first championship since 2012. The pieces are there, and the team is coming off another respectable season. After winning three races in 2025, Andretti should be able to produce a contender. The only problem is too often this team is not in the conversation when it matters most.

At A Glance... We have no clue how this team will perform

We have no clue. 

Good. Bad. Great. Terrible. Wonderful. Horrid. We don't know.

We think Andretti Global will be competitive and should be respectable, but Andretti Global is pretty inconsistent. In the last two seasons, it had a driver finish in the top five of the championship. Prior to that, it struggled to have a driver finish in the top ten of the championship. In 2023, its best driver was tenth. But just a few seasons before that, Andretti was a regular top five finisher. 

Which team will we see? 

You would think Will Power entering will boost this team, but this is a team that has had Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Ercisson, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean, Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe race for it full-time in recent seasons, and it has not had a full team effort lead to sweeping success. One driver shines at best or they all struggle. The organization hasn't had two drivers finish in the top five of the championship since 2018. 

In the last two seasons, it has had multiple drivers in the top seven of the championship. That is progress, but only once in the last seven seasons has Andretti had multiple drivers win a race in a season. The track record speaks for itself. Everything on paper can be saying this should be an outstanding group, but paper has been saying a lot of positive things about the Andretti organization for a number of years now, and it has yet to be right.

Kirkwood led the team last year, but Herta went from championship hopeful to winless and he was not threatening at all last season. Ericsson declined in year two with the team when year one was not that impressive to begin with. There is excitement with Power joining this team, and at its best, Andretti and Power should be a dangerous combination. Power has some juice and Andretti has cars that can lead to victories, but if it works for Power, will Kirkwood remain at the same level we saw in 2025? Can Ericsson also rise? It never feels like a tide is lifting all boats at Andretti. One of them is always taking on water.

Maybe we do have a clue how this team will perform. Not as good as we think. 

2025 Andretti Global Review

Wins: 3 (Long Beach, Detroit, Gateway)

Poles: 3 (Long Beach, Detroit, Toronto)

Championship Finishes: 4th (Kyle Kirkwood), 7th (Colton Herta), 20th (Marcus Ericsson), 34th (Marco Andretti)

Will Power - #26 TWG Honda

Numbers to Remember:

6,384: Days since Power's last IndyCar start with a team other than Team Penske and his scheduled Andretti Global debut (September 7, 2008 at Chicagoland with KV Racing)

357: Points in 2025, matching his fewest with Team Penske, which previously occurred in 2021, and ironically in both of those seasons Power finished ninth in the championship

6: Finishes outside the top twenty last season

What is the best possible outcome?

Power comes in and it is a hit immediately. The street course form of Andretti Global accentuates Power's best ability and that is his launching pad to more. He looks like the Will Power of old. He is back to being one of the quickest we have seen, and the speed translate to every circuit. Power looks like he is a veteran with the organization and makes you think he has always been with Andretti. 

The best is opening the season with a victory in St. Petersburg, picking up another three or four victories, one being the Indianapolis 500 to boot. Everyone realizes Team Penske made a mistake as Power takes a stunning championship.

What is realistic?

I do think Power will excel with Andretti on street courses and that will be the best discipline of his season. He should be a regular top ten finisher and be able to bring another Andretti car into the conversation for the top five in the championship. The concern is we have seen Power have off days at Penske and we have seen Andretti have its slumps. A few of those seem unavoidable. If Andretti is off, I don't see Power being enough to lift the team on his own.

He is going to win multiple races. He is going to win on a street course and probably an oval. In all likelihood, Power is going to be the best Andretti driver in the championship.

Kyle Kirkwood - #27 Siemens Honda

Numbers to Remember:

7.889: Average finish in the first nine races of 2025, which includes being classified in 32nd for the Indianapolis 500 after being disqualified for modifications to the Energy Management System cover

14: Average finish in the final eight races of 2025

10.667: Average starting position in the first nine races of 2025

13.25: Average starting position in the final eight races of 2025

105: Laps led in the first nine races

9: Laps led in the final eight races

What is the best possible outcome?

Kirkwood repeats the first half of his 2025 season and then repeats it in the second half of 2026. Kirkwood is able to get more out of the car. He becomes a driver to beat at almost every race, and he gives Álex Palou a run for his money. If Kirkwood turns into a six-race winner and takes points away from Palou while also being a regular top five finisher. Kirkwood and the season learning from last season could turn him into a championship contender.

What is realistic?

Kirkwood had a great season last year, and he was Palou's toughest competition for the first half. Then it fell off in the second half. Kirkwood likely could be better than fifth with a more complete season. The speed is there to win, but there will be additional competition from within the organization on street courses with Will Power. That will take some points from Kirkwood. This will be a good year for Kirkwood, but it will be tougher for him to crack the top ten. He should have a spot comfortably in the top ten.

Marcus Ericsson - #28 Delaware Life Honda

Numbers to Remember:

9.34375: Average finish in 64 starts at Chip Ganassi Racing

16.3939: Average finish in 34 starts at Andretti Global

30: Finishes outside the top ten in Ericsson's first five seasons

24: Finishes outside the top ten in Ericsson's two seasons with Andretti Global

What is the best possible outcome?

Everything clicks in year three at Andretti. Bad days do not bite him. Ericsson is able to keep up with his two teammates and Andretti Global is an organization that is getting all three cars to the second round of qualifying regularly. On some weekends, all three are sneaking into the Fast Six. For Ericsson, it is returning to being a top ten finisher. Every race we are noting he is in seventh or eighth again. A few races a season, he is a little higher than that and gets on the podium. Anything in the championship top ten would be a smashing season for the Swede.

What is realistic?

Championship top ten is not impossible, but if it not click in year two with Andretti and it actually got worse, I don't see a major leap forward in year three. It should get better. If it isn't, Ericsson will be replaced. It is tough to run well in IndyCar. Someone has to finish 20th in the championship. Andretti doesn't think it should be one of its drivers. Ericsson can do better, but it doesn't feel like he is going to be a threat to win races, unlike his teammates. Top ten finishes should come his way, but I don't think they will be enough to get the championship top ten. Twelfth feels like the ceiling. 

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.