Best of the Month: August 2026

There are still plenty of days left in August, but with an overflowing weekend of action and the final day being on a Monday, we pay our respects to the highlights of the month now, and respects are the proper way to describe this exercise. The end of the year is still a ways off, but this August was an end, in one case for an event, in another case for a few careers. There might be a third of the year remaining, but the final chapter does not always see the start of winter. 

So Long, Zandvoort

A return was a farewell. 

Formula One's summer break finished, and the teams resumed the 2026 season from the shores of the North Sea, but this trip to Zandvoort and the Dutch Grand Prix is indefinitely the final visit. Zandvoort's exit was known long before this season started. It was known before the 2025 season started. Contracted through 2026, the race was seeing out its contract and then disappearing into the sea breeze.

The send-off could not have been much more thrilling than what we saw Sunday. A myriad of strategies, safety cars and virtual safety cars mixing up the bunch and produced a rather outstanding race, even if the sprint race was rather dull the day before. 

It closed with a Lando Norris victory. Mercedes got Andrea Kimi Antonelli to second while George Russell held off the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for third. The native son went out with a bang. Max Verstappen slammed the barrier on exit of the banked Arie Luyendyk corner, and Verstappen's race was done before he could complete a lap.

For 35 years, The Netherlands went without Formula One. At the height of its greatest driver, it returned and proved to be a tremendous host. The passion for Verstappen brought out an orange swarm, and it filled every corner of the 2.646-mile circuit. That is not an exaggeration. 

There are not many places to put people around Zandvoort, but nearly the entire permanent was occupied with on-lookers. The biggest possible grandstands were erected in some of the narrowest plots. Very few grand prix look like this. It is safe to argue no grand prix matched this. It felt like the race was taking place inside a school gymnasium, and the entire country came out to watch. 

Zandvoort was built during a different time, and it modernized the best it could ahead of Formula One's return. It could only make up for so much. Modern Formula One cars do not quite fit on this circuit. You could go back 20 years and those cars would be a tight squeeze as well. It is a circuit stuck in another era. It was fortunate to get the six years it got on the calendar. 

The final race was something special. Even 2024 was pretty fun. The 2023 race had wet weather mix up the result. It will be hard to look pass how difficult overtaking was at the circuit. The top five starters in 2021 finished in the exact same position. Last year could have been the same if Norris' car had not failed on him. We could not count on Zandvoort to be a lock for a lively race. Somehow, it turned out that way more than we expected. What we can celebrate was how much passion came out every year Formula One visited. 

We don't know if Zandvoort will ever return. It came back once. Never say never. We don't know if Formula One will ever return to The Netherlands. If it does, it might not match those scenes. It was spectacular to see. 

Most countries each year do not host a Formula One race. About 22 countries are lucky to get a race a year. At a time when one of the best drivers hails from the country, it was fitting The Netherlands got a race on the schedule and Verstappen got a home race. 

Looking over all the past World Drivers' Champions, only Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and the Finns Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen never got a home race. The Australian Grand Prix would join the calendar nearly 20 years after Brabham's last title. Brabham and Hulme both got to race at home. The Tasman Series brought Formula One's best drivers to the Antipodes each winter. It is a shame Formula One has never tried to organize a Finnish Grand Prix. The country has been so fruitful and present for over 40 years. 

There are so many people who have not had the chance to see Formula One in their backyard that calendar expansion makes sense if it brings the series to new places, especially those with ties to the series. 

If there is any hope post-Dutch Grand Prix it is for a revival of the European Grand Prix and having it be a rotating race that can see underserved and somewhat forgotten areas gifted a chance to see the best in the world. Maybe it is the way Zandvoort can remain in the rotation along while finding ways to get to Finland or Denmark or back to Germany and France and Sweden or possibly getting back to Mugello and Jerez though each country already hosts races. Maybe it is how Switzerland can host a race again. It just lifted its 71-year motorsports ban on July 1. 

There can be some melancholia in Zandvoort's end. We will lose an extraordinary scene, but perhaps we can gather hope from its inclusion to see more inspired visits in the future.

Formula E's Duo Departure

We can quickly acknowledge Pascal Wehrlein's second Formula E title in three seasons after rather controversial driving in the final race of the season from London. It was the not the first sour end to a Formula E season in the capital of the United Kingdom. The first two perpetrators of a messy London finish each were a storyline ahead of this year's finale. It marked the end to two of the original Formula E drivers, arguably the series' first rivalry. 

Lucas di Grassi and Sébastien Buemi each announced this would be their final Formula E seasons prior to the London finale. Di Grassi announced his full retirement from motorsports. Buemi will continue with Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Both drivers set the tone in Formula E, and sometimes for the wrong reasons. 

Since day one, these two drivers competed at the highest level in the series. They both were fighting for the first championship. Buemi won the second title despite di Grassi's best efforts to take out the Swiss driver in the 2016 finale from Battersea Park. Di Grassi won the third title fair and square. Each driver raised the game of the other. 

They went back-and-forth for titles. They went back-and-forth for race victories to the point they were first and second until earlier this season when Mitch Evans ascended to the top spot. They are two of the most experienced drivers in the series history, dating back to the very first race from Beijing. Buemi had a few missed races due to Toyota WEC responsibilities, but both have been Formula E lifers, so much so that we forget two-time champion Jean-Éric Vergne and 2019-20 champion António Félix da Costa both also date back to the very first season, though neither competed in the very first race, and both Vergne and da Costa will continue into 2026-27. 

Buemi and di Grassi are different. In the first years of the series, when it was attempting to gain its footing while carrying the weight a mid-race car swap and slower speeds, Buemi and di Grassi's rivalry gave the series character, a storyline to watch every week. Both were known names from Formula One and sports car racing. There was legitimacy in the competition on the racetrack because of the pedigree each driver brought. 

Their battle waned in the last few years. Neither was the Formula E stalwart they were in that first half-decade of the series. Buemi only won once in the final seven seasons. Di Grassi won four times in that period, but he only won once in the last four seasons, and both drivers each only had one top five championship finish in the last seven seasons. 

Both had gone from the top teams to fighting from the midfield and further back. The next generation arrived and took the factory-affiliated roles Buemi and di Grassi originally had, the old guard shuffled to the privateer entries fighting from behind. 

It is fitting they leave together. It would not feel right one racing without the other in this category. We will get a few more days with Vergne and da Costa, and then the first generation will be gone. For as much animosity Formula E has created for its existence and the lack of what it is, the series has beat many expectations. For a series many gave a year or two, three tops of survival, it has completed a decade and it is onto its fourth generation of car. The car swap has been long gone. Permanent racetracks are now the common stomping grounds, a change that is worthy of discussion on a later date. 

However, we have now seen one generation call a close on a career in the series with a second already underway and in full control. Whatever happens next in Formula E history will occur thanks to the exploits of Buemi and di Grassi setting the foundation.

September Preview

This is when the motorsports season start to get serious. 

A number of championships are rounding into the final stretch. IndyCar will be over in a little over a week. We are running out races, opportunities, and soon we will see the final checkered flag. Not only will trophy presentations and champagne celebrations follow but change will occur. Drivers will leave teams. Manufacturers will leave series. What we saw will be gone, never to be repeated, and we will later return to see something entirely different yet familiar. 

There will be two FIA World Endurance Championship rounds this month, Austin and Fuji. IMSA has its penultimate round from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, though it is a two-hour and 40-minute sprint and not a six-hour endurance race. The European Le Mans Series has its penultimate round at Silverstone. GT World Challenge America has its penultimate round from Barber Motorsports Park. It isn't the antepenultimate round in GT World Challenge Europe, but it is the Sprint Cup's penultimate round from Zandvoort. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters only has one more round after this month's visit to the Sachsenring. 

For sports car series, September is the month where all championships get busy. If you want to be champion, you will need an outstanding September, and even that might not be enough.

Other events of note in September:

IndyCar concludes at Laguna Seca. 

NASCAR's playoffs begin. 

Formula One has a full September with Monza, a new race in Madrid and a Saturday in Baku. 

MotoGP finishes off the main European portion of the calendar at Misano and the Red Bull Ring. 

After nearly two months off, World Superbike will race at Magny-Cours and Cremona. 

There will be the Suzuka 1000km, the 50th edition of the race, and it will be the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season. 

Track Walk: Milwaukee 2026

The 16th and 17th races of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season takes place from the Milwaukee Mile, the only doubleheader weekend in the season. It is the penultimate race weekend of the season with the Laguna Seca finale only seven days away from the checkered flag this Sunday. Through the first four oval races, we have had three different winners. Over the past two seasons, there have been three different winners in the three Milwaukee races, but all three were victories for Chevrolet drivers, and no Honda driver has won at Milwaukee since engine competition returned to IndyCar in 2012.

Coverage

Time: Race one coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Saturday August 29 with green flag scheduled for 2:50 p.m. ET. Race two coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:20 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Saturday:

Practice: 6:00 p.m. ET (90 minutes)

Saturday:

Qualifying: 11:00 a.m. ET 

Race: 2:50 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Sunday:
Race: 1:20 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Take Two For Palou

It was a stretch for Álex Palou to lock up the championship in Washington, D.C., and unfortunately for the Catalan driver he went in the wrong direction. Instead of getting closer to the championship, Palou lost some ground. A 20th-place finish combined with Kyle Kirkwood's dominant victory with 128 of 147 laps led saw Palou's lead shrink to 91 points with three races remaining. 

Despite the decreased advantage, Palou is still in control and has a firm hand on the Astor Cup. There is a chance Palou could lock it up on Saturday. 

To clinch it with two races to spare, Palou would need a 108-point championship lead. It could be done with a race victory. A victory for Palou combined with Kirkwood finishing fourth or worse with fewer than three bonus points scored would clinch the championship for Palou. If Palou were to score the maximum 54 points, he could take the championship if Kirkwood finishes third. 

If Palou were to finish second with no bonus points scored, Kirkwood would need to finish ninth or worse with no bonus points and Christian Lundgaard to finish second or worse with no more than two bonus points scored.

Last year, Palou started on pole position at Milwaukee and led 199 laps before being passed with 16 laps to go and ultimately settling for second. In the 2024 Milwaukee doubleheader, Palou was fifth in the first race, but an electrical issue before the start of the second race saw Palou unable to take the green flag on time. He would join the race but he ended up finishing 21 laps down in 19th. 

Kirkwood's Washington, D.C. victory was a lifeline to his championship hopes. With 53 points scored, he was able to pick up 42 points on Palou. It was Kirkwood's second victory of the season and his ninth top five finish. Kirkwood has finished in the top ten in three of four oval races this season.

Christian Lundgaard begins the Milwaukee weekend needing some work to remain alive for the title. Entering 110 points behind Palou, Lundgaard will need to make up at least two points on Palou in the first race to remain alive, but he will need to make up more than that to have any legitimate hope. Lundgaard's best oval finish this season was tenth at Gateway. 

With three consecutive finishes outside the top ten, David Malukas has dropped to fourth in the championship, 142 points behind Palou. Malukas has finished on the podium in three of four oval races this season with his worst oval result being seventh. He has finished ahead of Palou in three of the four oval races as well.

Patricio O'Ward is still alive for the championship by the slimmest of margins. At 154 points off Palou's lead, O'Ward needs some help to have any hope of stealing the championship. If O'Ward were to win the final three races with the maximum 54 points in all three, he would need Palou to fail to start two of the final three races. O'Ward will be eliminated from the championship if Palou scores eight points or greater in the first Milwaukee race.

If Palou clinches early it would be the first time the championship did not go to the wire in consecutive seasons since Sébastien Bourdais claimed the Champ Car title with a race to spare in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Palou would match Bourdais' record streak of four consecutive titles from 2004 to 2007. Palou's fifth title would place him into third all-time in championships behind A.J. Foyt's seven and Scott Dixon's six.

Andretti Global's Surge

No team is flying higher than Andretti Global at the moment. 

Andretti heads to Milwaukee having won the last two races. On both occasions has it been a double-podium day for the organization as in each case its drivers have finish first and third. At Markham, Marcus Ericsson took his first victory with the team in what was his 47th start for the organization. Will Power was third. Last week, Kyle Kirkwood had a sensational race in Washington, D.C., leading 128 of 147 laps and regularly being over ten seconds clear of the field. Power again had a terrific drive to finish third. 

This is the first time the organization has won consecutive races with two different drivers since 2013 when Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Milwaukee and James Hinchcliffe won at Iowa. 

Not only was Andretti Global first and third in Washington, D.C., Ericsson drove to a fourth-place finish. These three drivers finished in the exact same position at Arlington in March. It is the team's second triple-top five day this season. It is the first time the team has had at least three top five finishers in multiple races in the same season since 2013. At the Indianapolis 500, Andretti went second-third-fourth with Carlos Muñoz, Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti. Four races later, Hunter-Reay won at Milwaukee with E.J. Viso taking fourth and Hinchcliffe was fifth. 

The team seeks more in 2026. The organization has not won three consecutive races since Ryan Hunter-Reay went on a three-race tear in the summer of 2012 winning at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto. That vaulted Hunter-Reay into the title discussion. Andretti Global has three victories this season, but it has not won more than three races in a season since 2018 when it won five times. 

Kirkwood has been one of the better drivers this season. His victory in Washington, D.C. made him one of four drivers with multiple victories this season. His nine top five finishes are second only to Álex Palou's 11, but Kirkwood leads IndyCar with 13 top ten finishes through the first 15 races. His 220 laps led are also second in IndyCar, again behind Palou, who has led 558 laps in 2026.

Ericsson is on a run of form with four consecutive top ten finishes, all results of sixth or better. The Swede will have a chance to match his longest top ten finish stretch with Andretti Global in the opening Milwaukee race. In 2024, Ericsson had five consecutive top ten finishes from Detroit through Iowa. He has consecutive top five finishes for only the third time in his career, and he has never had three consecutive top five results. 

Will Power has been one of the best drivers in IndyCar since the month of August began. Power has yet to finish worse than third since the calendar changed to the eighth month of the year. The problem is Power has not finished better than third either. It is still three consecutive podium finishes for the Australian, a first for him since 2022. 

With Power's surge in particular, there is a chance all three Andretti drivers could finish in the top ten of the championship this season. Kirkwood is second on 462 points, Ericsson has 361 points in seventh, and Power cracked the championship top ten for the first time this season after Washington, D.C. 

The team has not had three drivers in the championship top ten since 2020 if you count Colton Herta, who ran an Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport car that year. Herta was third in the championship while Alexander Rossi was ninth and Ryan Hunter-Reay was tenth.

Historically, Milwaukee has been a great track for the Andretti Global group. The team has won five times at the circuit. In the last two years, the team has combined for six finishes outside the top ten out of nine entries. However, the team did have all three of its cars finish in the top ten of the second race of the 2024 doubleheader with Colton Herta taking third, Ericsson finishing fifth and Kirkwood in eighth.

The Final Oval

There are two oval races remaining this season, and technically 21 drivers could end this season as the unofficial oval champion. 

David Malukas has the most oval points through the first four events though Malukas has not won this season. He has finished third, second, seventh and second in the four oval races. He led the most laps at Phoenix and the second-most laps at Nashville despite starting 25th in that event. 

Five points behind Malukas is Josef Newgarden, a two-time winner this year on ovals. Newgarden made a late charge on fresh tires at Phoenix to take the victory having led only eight laps, including the final seven circuits of the one-mile oval. At Gateway, Newgarden led the second-most laps, but after a tense battle with Marcus Ericsson and Christian Rasmussen, Newgarden came out on top. Newgarden was second at Nashville but his accident in the Indianapolis 500 hangs over his season. 

Team Penske sweeps the top three in oval points. Scott McLaughlin has scored 127 points from the first four oval races, 25 points behind his teammate Malukas. McLaughlin has finished in the top five in the last three oval races and his worst oval result was eighth at Phoenix. McLaughlin won the second race of the 2024 Milwaukee doubleheader. 

Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist sits in fourth on oval points with 125. While Rosenqvist won at Indianapolis, he has finished outside the top ten in two of the four oval races. The Swede was fifth at Nashville. Patricio O'Ward rounds out the top five with 118 points. O'Ward was fourth in the first two oval races before finishing 11th in the next two oval races. 

Nashville winner Álex Palou has scored 110 points in the first four oval races. Palou was 24th at Phoenix after an early accident with Rinus VeeKay. At Gateway, Palou ran out of fuel entering pit lane for his final pit stop and ended up finishing a lap down in 17th after appearing set for a top ten result. 

Kyle Kirkwood is just ahead of his Andretti Global teammate Marcus Ericsson. Kirkwood has 105 points with Ericsson on 102. Ericsson was second at Gateway and sixth at Nashville.

Marcus Armstrong has 90 points, one more than Rinus VeeKay, who rounds out the top ten. Santino Ferrucci has 85 oval points. Scott Dixon is on 77, three more than Kyffin Simpson. While he was third at Gateway, Christian Rasmussen has scored only 67 points on ovals this season with two finishes outside the top ten. Christian Lundgaard rounds out the top fifteen on 65 points. 

Alexander Rossi has 64 points from four oval races, two more than Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean has 59 points. Will Power has scored 55 points through the first four oval races, one more than Nolan Siegel. Graham Rahal has 50 points. 

Sting Ray Robb, Dennis Hauger, Louis Foster and Caio Collet are the four drivers that are mathematically eliminated from the unofficial oval championship. These four drivers have 42, 41, 40 and 31 points respectively. 

Last season, Palou topped the unofficial oval championship with 252 points, 44 points clear of O'Ward, the only other driver to break 200 ovals points in 2025. Rasmussen took third on 173 points, 16 points ahead of Newgarden with Dixon rounding out the top five on 153 points. 

Malukas was sixth on 149 points, seven ahead of Conor Daly. Ferrucci scored 140 oval points in 2025 with Meyer Shank Racing teammates Rosenqvist and Armstrong rounding out the top ten on 129 points and 125 points respectively. Kirkwood and McLaughlin were level on 120 points. Lundgaard was the final driver to break 100 oval points as the Dane scored 117 over the six races.

Along with Palou, Dixon (2011, 2020), Newgarden (2016, 2023), Power (2018), O'Ward (2021-22) and McLaughlin (2024) are the active drivers that previously led the series in oval points in a season since 2010. Dixon did not win an oval race in 2011. That is the only time since 2010 the top oval driver did not win an oval race.

Rasmussen's Return

The oval results do not add up compared to the pace we have seen from Christian Rasmussen this season, but Rasmussen is likely thrilled to be back in Milwaukee.

Last year, Rasmussen had a top ten run going, but a late caution for a sun shower opened an opportunity for drivers to take tires before the final 40-lap sprint to the finish. Rasmussen took tires and started working his way forward. Soon, he was the lone challenger to Álex Palou, who had been in firm control of the race. With 16 laps remaining, Rasmussen took the lead.

Despite being in front and pulling away from Palou, Rasmussen remained on the ragged edge with a few notable corrections on corner exit that could have put any other driver in the barrier. 

The victory was Ed Carpenter Racing's first since Rinus VeeKay won the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and it was ECR's first oval victory since 2016 at Iowa with Josef Newgarden. 

Rasmussen is hoping for a repeat of his 2025 performance, and he mightily needs it. The Dane and the #21 ECR team are on the bubble for the final Leader Circle spot, 22nd in the standings on 180 points, tied with Caio Collet and the #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Rasmussen and the #21 team holds the tiebreaker with the better finish. 

The best finish for Rasmussen is third while Collet picked up his first top ten finish of the season last week in Washington, D.C. when the Brazilian was ninth. Collet has finished outside the top twenty in three of four oval races this season, retiring on all three occasions, and two of those were accidents. His best oval result was 19th at Phoenix. 

Collet isn't the only one pushing for the final Leader Circle spot. Mick Schumacher and the #47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda has 170 points, ten points off 22nd. Schumacher was eighth in the most recent oval race at Nashville. The German has finished outside the top fifteen in the other three oval races. 

Sting Ray Robb and the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet is not out of the mix either. Robb is 25 points on the outside. Robb's best oval result was 15th at Nashville. His best finish this season was 11th at Markham. 

Just above Rasmussen is Dennis Hauger. Hauger is only 24 points clear of safety in 21st. Louis Foster is another eight points clear in 20th, 32 points above the drop zone. Hauger has finished outside the top twenty in the last two oval races. Foster's best oval finish was 17th at Nashville.

These will be the 117th and 118th IndyCar races held at the Milwaukee Mile. On 19 occasions has a driver won consecutive Milwaukee races. The most recent to do it was Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won in 2012 and 2013. Rasmussen could win three consecutive Milwaukee races if he sweeps the doubleheader. Prior to Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan won in consecutive years, taking victory in 2006 and 2007.

Only once has a driver won three consecutive Milwaukee races. That would be Tom Sneva, who won at the circuit in August 1982 before winning in 1983 and 1984. 

Road to Indy

We are at the very end of the Road to Indy seasons as well, and two series will compete this weekend with IndyCar, both of which will be contesting their penultimate rounds. 

Three races remain in the Indy Lights season, but it has the reverse of IndyCar. The junior series has one race at Milwaukee before concluding with a doubleheader in Laguna Seca. Eight drivers are still mathematically alive for the championship, but it is really a three-horse race that could quickly turn into two. 

Enzo Fittipaldi retook the championship lead at Portland with a seventh-place finish, and Nikita Johnson was eighth. Only one point separates the two drivers with three races remaining. Fittipaldi has 476 points and Johnson has 475 points. 

Fittipaldi has won four times this season, all coming since Johnson's most recent victory. Johnson won two of the first three races, but he has not won since. That eighth at Portland is Johnson's worst result this season. Fittipaldi has finished outside the top ten in four races this season, including both oval races. The Brazilian was 13th at Gateway and 11th at Nashville. Johnson was seventh at Gateway and second at Nashville. 

Tymek Kucharczyk is within touching distance of the championship lead. Kucharczyk is 18 points behind Fittipaldi. While the Polish driver has four top five finishes in the last five races, mixed in there is an 18th at Nashville. He was also ninth at Gateway in June. 

Max Taylor got back on the podium with a third at Portland, his first trip to the rostrum since he was second in the second race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Taylor is 80 points off the championship lead. He was fifth in both oval races this season. 

Lochie Hughes is 90 points behind Fittipaldi, and Hughes was second at Portland. It was only his third podium finish of the season. Hughes had eight podium finishes in 2025. Alessandro de Tullio scored his second victory of the season at Portland. De Tullio trails Fittipaldi by 98 points.

Myles Rowe needs a fair amount of help for his title hopes. Rowe is 132 points back. He was the winner at Gateway after starting last, and he did finish third at Nashville. Jack Beeton is mathematically alive for the championship, but he will be eliminated as soon as Fittipaldi starts the race. Beeton is 160 points back with 162 points left on the table. 

Nashville race winner Matteo Nannini is just outside championship contention. Nannini is 169 points back. Jacob Abel will be back for his second round of the season. Abel was fifth at Portland. He was second in the 2024 Milwaukee race, and he has three runner-up finishes on ovals in Indy Lights.

The Indy Lights race will begin at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday August 30 with the race scheduled for 90 laps. 

For USF Pro 2000, we have four races remaining as, after its Milwaukee date, the series will remain in Wisconsin for the finale weekend from Road America, a triple-header held over September 24-26. U.S. F2000 will also finish its season with a triple-header that weekend at Road America.

Nine drivers are still mathematically alive for the USF Pro 2000 championship, and we had a championship lead change in Markham. 

With Leonardo Escorpioni unable to compete in Canada due to a visa issue, Jack Jeffers moved into first with a victory and a second in Markham. Jeffers has 309 points and a 33-point lead over Escorpioni. 

Jeffers had not won since the IMS road course in May. Escorpioni had won four of the previous five races before the Canadian weekend. 

G3 Argyros is third, 41 points behind Jeffers. Argyros has seven top five finishes from the last nine races with three victories in that stretch, but he has finished outside the top ten in those other two races. Andrés Cárdenas scored his first victory of the season in the second Markham race, and Cárdenas is 63 points back. 

Frankie Mossman rounds out the top five, 83 points behind Jeffers. Another ten points back is Thomas Schrage, who scored his first podium finish of the season with a third in Markham. Teddy Musella is on 179 points with Brady Golan on 171 points. Indianapolis Raceway Park winner Michael Costello is still mathematically alive with 166 points, but Costello ran out of budget after the Mid-Ohio weekend and has not been able to contest the last two race weekends. 

Full-time U.S. F2000 drivers Evan Cooley and Anthony Martella will compete this weekend in USF Pro 2000 at Milwaukee. Both are racing for Exclusive Autosport, the same team they run for in U.S. F2000. 

Cooley sits fourth in the U.S. F2000 championship, and he won the U.S. F2000 race from IRP in May. It is his only victory of the eason. Martella has three victories in U.S. F2000, IMS road course, Road America and Mid-Ohio. Martella led the first 43 laps of the U.S. F2000 race from IRP but the Canadian was caught in an accident when the lapped car od Cal Peters spun in front of him.

This will be the first time the USF Pro 2000 division has competed at Milwaukee since 2014. Spencer Pigot won that race ahead of Scott Hargrove and Shelby Blackstock.

USF Pro 2000 will follow the IndyCar race on Saturday August 29. It is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. ET start. The race will have a 45-minute time limit. 

Fast Facts

This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on August 29 and the 15th race to take place on August 30, and it will be the first time both these dates have held races since 2020 when a doubleheader weekend was held at Gateway. Scott Dixon won the first race and Josef Newgarden won the second race.

Twice previously has Milwaukee hosted a race on August 29. Myron Fohr and Tony Bettenhausen won on this date in 1948. Bettenhausen ran the final 67 laps after his car droped out of the race. Manny Ayulo won in 1954. 

There have also been two past Milwaukee races held on August 30. Chuck Stevenson won on that date in 1953 and Rodger Ward won in 1959.

Ward is the all-time leader in Milwaukee races with seven races.

There have been six different winners in the last six Milwaukee races (Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Sébastien Bourdais, Patricio O'Ward, Scott McLaughlin, Christian Rasmussen).

Christian Lundgaard won at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in June. The most recent driver to win at Road America and the Milwaukee Mile in the same season was Michael Andretti in 1996. Andretti also swept the Wisconsin races in 1991. Andretti is the only driver to win at both tracks in the same season.

This will be the tenth and 11th Milwaukee races scheduled for a 250-lap distance. 

Last year, 16 cars finished on the lead lap at Milwaukee, the most ever for a Milwaukee race.

The average starting position for a Milwaukee winner is 4.5517 with a median of third. 

Eleven of the last 15 Milwaukee races have been won from a top five starting position. Two of those Milwaukee races were won from 11th, Patricio O'Ward won the first race of the 2024 doubleheader from sixth and Christian Rasmussen won from ninth last year.

Thirteen of 116 Milwaukee races have been won from outside the top ten.

The average number of lead changes in a Milwaukee race is 4.7699 with a median of five.

The second race of the 2024 doubleheader had 13 lead changes, the most ever for a Milwaukee race. Last year's race had 11 lead changes. 

The six Milwaukee races held during the DW12 era had an average of 9.833 lead changes with a median of ten.

Only once in the 25 Milwaukee races prior to the DW12 chassis were there at least ten lead changes. The 2001 CART race had 12 lead changes with Kenny Bräck taking the victory. Michael Andretti was second with Scott Dixon finishing third, the second career podium finish for Dixon. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay led all 250 laps in the 2004 Milwaukee race.

The fewest laps led by a Milwaukee winner is nine. Joe Leonard led the final nine laps in the June 1970 race.

The average number of caution laps in a Milwaukee race since 1972 is four with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 29.7 with a median of 28.5.

There have been two caution-free races at Milwaukee, in June 1976 and June 1982.

Predictions

Álex Palou will sweep the weekend, but if Palou doesn't sweep the weekend, he is going to win at least one race, and if Palou doesn't win at least one race, Josef Newgarden takes one victory and Scott McLaughlin takes the other. Christian Rasmussen will have one good race and one bad race, but Rasmussen will put points between himself and Caio Collet for 22nd in the championship. There will be no cautions for rain. Christian Lundgaard scores his best oval finish of the season, and Lundgaard will be the best Arrow McLaren finisher in one of the races. Will Power does not have a third-place finish. Sleepers: Alexander Rossi and Marcus Armstrong.

Musings From the Weekend: This Should Be The Finale

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

Kyle Kirkwood thrashed the field on his way to victory in the IndyCar race from Washington, D.C. The Netherlands didn't need to rain help produce a good Dutch Grand Prix, though it could have used it for the sprint race. We did see one of the greater passes of the year at Zandvoort. There were a few notable accidents across the sports car racing world. NASCAR started in the damp in New England. We are approaching the final weekend of August. That means the IndyCar season is almost over. We should consider the venue of the finale. IndyCar's best option could be right under its nose.

This Should Be The Finale

In two years since its return to the IndyCar calendar, Milwaukee has developed into a can't-miss event. Prior to its return in 2024, there was skepticism the one-mile oval would draw a respectable crowd after it struggled to attract and maintain interest a decade earlier. Year one blew everyone away and it continued in year two. Year three sees a return of a doubleheader weekend, providing full Saturday and Sunday for spectators. 

Milwaukee has quickly become a standout event, something IndyCar needs especially for an oval. I said it after last year's race and I will reiterate it now, Milwaukee should be IndyCar's finale. 

It has a crowd. It has an identity. It has outstanding racing. It certainly would feel like a proper setting to conclude the season. IndyCar has struggled for decades to have a worthy season finale. It has gone around the country chasing the proper event and none have stuck. It once ended at Chicagoland and tried Homestead. A Las Vegas attempt was made. It returned to Fontana. It has experimented in Northern California, first at Sonoma and then returning to Laguna Seca, once a proper finale. Nashville got the spot in what was supposed to be a street race, but turned into a respectable oval event. Each has had shortcomings, mostly the lack of a crowd and the feeling of a championship-decider. 

Chicagoland was never going to stick on the first Sunday of the NFL season. Homestead never drew a crowd. Fontana was good and was better in 2013 it closed the season in October, but it lost the spot as the season finale when it was decided to conclude the season by Labor Day. Sonoma never really had great crowds, and Laguna Seca hasn't come close to the finales we saw over 30 years ago. Nashville was good, but it was distant from the downtown location we became accustomed to visiting. 

Milwaukee ticks all the boxes. It is essentially in a downtown location, and it fills the stands. If it was the finale, it could force the removal of some of those sponsorship banners and opening a few more of those grandstands. Most importantly, it has had some dramatic racing in the last two years. The final race would come down to the closing laps, keeping the audience engaged to the very end, which is what you want especially if a championship is on the line. There is also history in the venue, hosting IndyCar races prior to World War II and long being a staple on the schedule even if it was absent for a chunk of the 21st century. 

It might not be the finale IndyCar wants, but it is the finale IndyCar deserves. 

Laguna Seca reclaimed the finale spot this year as Nashville moved to the summer to follow the FIFA World Cup Final, an experiment rain washed out. One of the other pushes for Laguna Seca is certain people desire to be in Monterey. It is a gorgeous part of the country, and for sponsors and dignitaries, it is a good place to spend a weekend. The problem is Laguna Seca doesn't draw 15,000 spectators. The place looks empty even with grandstands that are no larger than many top-tier high school football fields. 

If Laguna Seca was drawing 40,000 people or 50,000 people and looked close to the old days of Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti and Alex Zanardi, it would be a proper place to finish the season. That isn't the case, and if we were honest, Laguna Seca could be sacrificed for a different venue with a better crowd elsewhere in the country. Pleasing sponsors is part of the game, but IndyCar needs to end with a bang, and Milwaukee is it. 

It isn't the largest crowd, but Milwaukee feels big. Anyone watching at home will see a full grandstand and believe it is an event keeping an eye on. The visuals go further than you think. If the stands are empty, viewers at home will think it is not worth their time and move on. For the finale, IndyCar's final race for six months, it should do all it can to attract an audience before closing the curtain. 

Beyond how it looks on television, Milwaukee has been done correctly the last two years. It has taken advantage of its location on the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds and made the race an extension of the fair atmosphere. People have loved it, and it gives the spectators more beyond what is happening on the track. The sponsors might love the setting of Laguna Seca, but in terms of an event, it is hard to say Milwaukee would not be a good sell. 

After all, don't sponsors want to see a crowd, potential customers, people they can sell to? Even if it is 30,000 people, it is much more than we have at Laguna Seca, and it is contained to a smaller area, making it easier to reach and be seen by those attending. 

For as much as we see IndyCar's midwestern base as a crutch to the series that keeps its from expanding, it is fine that it has that foundation and it is probably the best location for the finale to take place. We aren't lying to ourselves about where a fair number of the fanbase originates. Milwaukee would be accessible to the core audience and the finale would only be greater if it was held in their backyard. 

If you need to wine-and-dine folks, house them an hour up the road at Whistling Straits, the golf resort on the shores of Lake Michigan, and hold the banquet there. It is a little out of the way, but they will all take their helicopters back and forth. They will be fine. They can have their luxurious weekend and the IndyCar fans can have a celebrated race cap off the season while enjoying cream puffs and fried cheese curds. Hell, even the swanky crowd loves fair food. It is a win-win for everyone. 

Milwaukee is already 95% of the way to being a knockout finale location. The final 5% is mostly just making it the last race. 

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Kyle Kirkwood, but did you know...

Lando Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix, his second career victory. George Russell won the sprint race.

Ryan Blaney won the NASCAR Cup race from Loudon, his third victory of the season. Layne Riggs won the Truck race, his sixth victory of the season. 

The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell won the IMSA race from Virginia International Raceway. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis won in GTD. 

The #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson of Jakub Śmechowski, Tom Dillmann and Nick Yelloly won the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The #5 Rinaldi Racing of José Cautela, Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen and Alvise Rodella won in Ligier-Toyota won in LMP3. The #86 GR Racing Ferrari of Michael Wainwright, Lorcan Hanafin, and Mex Jansen won in LMGT3.

The #16 ARTA Mugen Honda of Tomoki Nojiri and Ren Sato won the Super GT race from Suzuka. The #9 Pacific Racing Team BMW of Yusuke Tomibayashi and Yuta Fujiwara won in GT300.

Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown and Broc Feeney split the Supercars races from Queensland Raceway.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar has its doubleheader in Milwaukee. 

GT World Challenge America will be up the road at Road America. It feels like an unnecessary clash. 

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup has its penultimate round at the Nürburgring. Another unnecessary clash within sanctioning body.

NASCAR concludes its regular season for its top two national series at Daytona.

MotoGP will be in Aragón. 

The World Rally Championship is back in Paraguay.

First Impressions: Washington, D.C. 2026

1. It could not have been more of a dominant drive for Kyle Kirkwood on his way to victory in the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. Starting on the front row with Álex Palou to his inside, Kirkwood had a challenge from the start, and it only took two corners for Kirkwood to take the lead. That didn't mean a thing though. Plenty of opening stints have seen Palou settle in second and take the lead through the first pit cycle. A caution did not allow for the pit cycle to play out with green flag pit stops, and Palou clipped a tire laid out in Mick Schumacher's pit box, taking Palou out of the equation. 

That may have made it a little easier for Kirkwood, but he still drove to the lead ahead of cars running an alternate strategy. With separation, Kirkwood flew, opening a lead over ten seconds in no time, and it was never really closer than that. Even with the late cautions toward the end of the race, bringing the rest of the field to Kirkwood's gearbox, and a late attempt from Scott McLaughlin to take the lead, Kirkwood kept firm control of this race. In the closing laps, he was running his fastest laps of the race, and he still won by over three seconds ahead of Christian Lundgaard.

Kirkwood's street course prowess has been well-documented. His sixth street course victory in seven career victories speak for themselves. He never slipped up on a course where it was uncertain you could fully be in control. With the bumps and uneven surface, it was a track setup to catch out drivers. Plenty of drivers had little bobbles that would seem to be innocuous turn out to be tumultuous. There was no sense of safety on any lap. Last week, Kirkwood clipped a barrier and ended his race in Markham while pushing for a podium finish. If anyone knew a course could trip a driver when least expected, it was Kirkwood. 

He remained out of the barriers and he remained near-flawless to the checkered flag. With Palou's struggles today, Kirkwood kept his championship hopes alive for another race. It is still a 91-point deficit with three races remaining.

2. Christian Lundgaard had good pace in this race, and it looked like he would be racing for second with Scott McLaughlin until the late cautions packed the field together. Then McLaughlin threw it away on the penultimate restart in turn one. It opened the door for Lundgaard to push Kirkwood, and he kept Kirkwood honest, but Lundgaard did not have it in the closing laps.

For as good as Kirkwood has been on street courses this season, Lundgaard has been just as good. He looked strong today and was deserving of a podium finish. 

3. Three races, three consecutive third-place finishes for Will Power, and Power had a lot of pace in this race. Like Markham, Power had speed despite starting further down the order than desired. In the penultimate stint, Power chased down McLaughlin and Lundgaard and put himself firmly in the fight for the podium. He may have gotten there without McLaughlin's issues. The second half of the season has been much kinder to Power. He feels like he has settled in at Andretti Global.

4. Marcus Ericsson had another strong race, and Ericsson took a six-spot grid penalty for an engine change this morning. He went from 21st to fifth. Ericsson was shuffled a little too far back to really push for the podium. Even though the field was bunched up with the late cautions, Ericsson still finished over 12 seconds behind Kirkwood. That shows how much of a different realm Kirkwood was in today compare to a teammate that also finished in the top five

5. Kyffin Simpson went off-strategy early to attempt a four-stop race. It looked like a stretch, but the cautions fell in Simpson's favor that he could be on the same cycle as the leaders, and it turned into a strategy that put Simpson into a top five position. Two fewer cautions and Simpson likely does not get this result. Credit to Simpson for holding on and the #8 Ganassi team for rolling these dice. Simpson has been finding a way to get results in the second half of the season

6. Nolan Siegel also went on the four-stop strategy like Simpson and it got Siegel a career-best finish in sixth. Siegel drove well today. He didn't make any mistakes. He didn't overdrive the car. He held his own and kept it in a top ten position. This could have been a gamble that didn't pay off, but Siegel brought it home.

7. Scott Dixon got off the snide with a seventh place finish, but Dixon needed those late cautions. His final stop came 41 laps to the checkered flag. It would have been a mighty ask to make it if the race ran entirely green. Those late cautions helped Dixon get to the line, but Dixon also made a late move to take seventh from Josef Newgarden. Dixon was never really a factor in this one, but he just needed a good day. He got it.

8. Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske finisher, and Newgarden probably did the least of the three today. Newgarden never made a push for the front. He ran in the middle of the field all race and was in position for a top ten result. He made a few passes, but he was not breathtakingly quick today. Eighth is a good day though.

9. For the first time in his IndyCar career, Caio Collet has finished in the top ten. Collet was ninth. He didn't really make any waves. He completed 147 laps, didn't make a mistake and he was rewarded for it. He needed this day because his season has been rotten, and it sounds like Collet is under pressure to remain at A.J. Foyt Racing. This will go a long way.

10. Romain Grosjean was on the same strategy as Simpson, but an off-track excursion in turn one cost him dearly. Grosjean nearly gave away a top ten finish with that incident, but he recovered to take tenth. It definitely could have been a little better. With how his season was going, consecutive top ten finishes is tremendous for this group.

11. Mick Schumacher took 11th. The biggest thing for Schumacher was not making a mistake. Last week, a barrier caught him out. Today, he ran all 147 laps and he was the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher. That is beneficial to him and this team. 

12. Alexander Rossi was 12th. I don't know what else to say. Ed Carpenter Racing had good pace in practice. It didn't translate for Rossi in qualifying. It did for Christian Rasmussen, and Rasmussen started fourth. Come the race, we didn't see anything special. It is better than it has been for Rossi, but it is still disappointing considering how the weekend started. We hear a lot about promise from ECR but we seldom see it fulfilled.

13. Graham Rahal went well off strategy early in the race, but unlike others, it didn't cycle into Rahal's favor. He was always caught in needing to make an extra pit stop. In a way, 13th is pretty good because it looked like Rahal might have had to make a stop and end up a lap down. It is hard to count it as a moral victory, but it could have been much worse.

14. We are going to blow through the lapped cars here...

Christian Rasmussen was spun in turn five after contact from Marcus Armstrong. Both cars were competing for top ten positions at that point. Rasmussen cannot catch a break. He was fortunate the race shook out where he could finish 14th, the best of the lapped finishers. It looked like it was going to be worse than that for a great portion of this race. Rasmussen had good pace today. It is a shame he was taken out so early.

Dennis Hauger was 15th a lap down. This was another race where Hauger didn't do anything with a good starting position. He started eighth today. At no point was he moving forward. He dropped back again. This has happened too often this season for Hauger.

Patricio O'Ward cost himself a top ten finish with a bad run into turn six and going into the runoff. The bumps knocked O'Ward out of rhythm and he wasn't going to make the corner. It was surprising we didn't see more of these incidents during the race. There were plenty of those during practice and qualifying. For O'Ward, it was incredibly costly. 

Marcus Armstrong had a penalty for that contact with Rasmussen. Armstrong is in a horrendous funk. He looks like a driver who cannot get out of his own way. Everything has been a downslide since his engine failure while leading at Road America. 

Louis Foster was banged up in the Markham accident. Thumb injury, foot injury, Foster was not 100% in this race and it showed. He was never competitive in this race.

Felix Rosenqvist spun in turn one right after Scott McLaughlin smacked the barrier. The two incidents were unrelated. Rosenqvist grazed the barrier and could continue, but the damage was enough to drop him a lap down and ruin what should have been a top ten run. 

15. And now we reach Álex Palou. The first 35 laps looked good. Then Palou clipped the tire in Schumacher's pit box. It did look like that tire was in an odd spot, more centered than usual, but Palou is supposed to avoid it. That was a drive-through penalty. 

On the next pit stop, Palou's crew could not get the left front tire secure and that cost him time and put him a lap down. Palou had a chance with that stop to remain on the lead lap and be ahead on pit stops compared to Kirkwood. It would have positioned Palou to cycle to the front should a caution come out before the rest of the leaders made their next stops. Of course, the fumbled wheel nut negated that and the caution never came anyway. 

Palou ran aggressive to remain competitive, and he was going to take an extra pit stop in this effort, but he suffered left rear suspension failure and spun, effectively any hope of a promising result. The repairs were made and he ended up 20th, three laps down. 

The championship is still over. The reaction has been just like after Toronto last year. 

"It's not over." 

Does anyone think Palou is going to lose 30 points in each of the next three races? Seriously? 

"He lost 42 points today." 

Do you really think that is going to happen again? Palou is 17 points away from clinching the title with two races to spare. He would need to lose 37 points over the two Milwaukee races for the title not to be clinched early, and he really needs to lose 42 points because any championship margin of 49 points or greater means all Palou must do at Laguna Seca is start to claim the championship. 

Yeah, Palou cough up some points today. Yeah, these were unforced errors. They aren't going to happen in four consecutive races to close the season. All Palou needs is one average day in the final three races to lock up the title. That is going to happen. Mathematically, it is still alive. Unless a driver is within 49 points after Milwaukee, let's not kid ourselves into thinking we are in for a title fight to very last checkered flag of the season.

The inevitable has been delayed unless at least Saturday.

16. Electrical issues effectively ended Santino Ferrucci's race immediately. Ferrucci was on pit lane early and had to change his steering wheel. Ferrucci was basically seven laps down for this entire race, and once he couldn't gain anymore positions, he pulled it in 19 laps from the finish. That was a tough break.

17. Four retirements in this race, which feels surprisingly low. 

Scott McLaughlin went for it on Kyle Kirkwood on the penultimate restart. Kirkwood had been untouchable to that point. McLaughlin had a slight fuel advantage and the alternate tire. It was a golden opportunity to take the lead. McLaughlin overcooked it in the corner. It is a tough blow. This was probably one of McLaughlin's best races of the season, and all he will have to show for it is 22nd. 

18. Rinus VeeKay was ricocheted into the barrier after Armstrong hit Rasmussen into the Dane. There wasn't much Rasmussen could have done there, and it was devastating for VeeKay, who was actually ahead of Kirkwood on that restart because VeeKay was on pit lane when the first caution came out for David Malukas getting into the wall and collecting Sting Ray Robb as collateral damage.

VeeKay appeared to have a run on Graham Rahal, who led on that restart, but VeeKay admitted he confused where the restart line was, and he backed off. I don't know if he thought where they initially started the race on the exit of turn one was where the restart was supposed to be and not the start/finish line. VeeKay was alongside Rahal, and then he backed off and it allowed Kirkwood, Simpson and Grosjean to get ahead. Not long after that, VeeKay was pinballed into the barrier and out of the race.

The strange thing is this was the third restart of the race. VeeKay would have known that restarts were at start/finish, unless he thought it was on exit of turn one and everyone had to throttle up out of turn seven to have enough speed on the restarts exiting turn one. On the first two restarts, there were no real pass attempts into turn one. It is conceivable VeeKay got it mixed up. That confusion may have been costly to the Dutchman.

19. David Malukas appeared to have clipped the barrier on the inside of turn seven, sending Malukas into the outside barrier. Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go as Malukas was parked on corner exit. Malukas had gone off-strategy, stopping under the second caution for debris. He had been running seventh. 

I don't know how that strategy would have played out. It became clear through practice this was going to be a three-stop race as soon as any caution came out. We had a caution immediately for debris, which lasted three laps, and then on lap 18 the caution came out again for debris, which lasted four laps. At that point, it was obvious this was going to be a three-stop race. Malukas was on the same strategy Rahal employed, and Rahal had to make three more stops to make the finish. Rahal made a fourth additional stop to get tires with just over 20 laps to go after Palou's spin. 

I think Malukas is finishing at best in 12th or 13th if he went the full distance. It was a roll of the dice that didn't quite make sense, especially for a car racing in the top ten. 

Malukas was hard on himself after the accident, as this was his third consecutive result outside the top ten. He brushed the barrier at Markham, and today's accident was an unforced error. The team didn't quite have the pace at Portland. I don't think Malukas has been terribly poor. It is a bit of a rut, but not the end of the world. 

20. As mentioned above, Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go when Malukas spun. I don't know how well Robb would have done without that accident. He probably finishes at least 20th. 

21. I thought it was a good race. The track was fine. The opening stanza was rather uneventful. Minus the debris cautions, it was processional early. 

Most of this race was settled. The most action came involving lapped traffic, and with a race that was 250 miles in length, it allowed lapped traffic to be a factor. Most street races are complete around 175 miles, if we even go that far, and we might not see the very end of the pack become a factor. We never see the end of the field caught with nearly 60 laps to go. Arlington was barely over 60 laps in length. 

The roads were wide enough that it didn't feel like every pass was risky. It allowed drivers to make a move early and position themselves properly into a corner. I don't think it was the greatest street course IndyCar has ever raced. I don't think it was the worst either. It can be somewhere in the middle.

Extending the race to 147 laps might have cost us a little more thrilling race because this became a race where everyone knew it was achievable completing it in three pit stops. If this race remained 125 laps, as originally scheduled, it would have been a three-stop race for everyone and there would have been almost no shot at running it in two stops. The teams were barely making it 40 laps. Even at 125 laps, if a team made it 40 laps, they would still need to make three pit stops. 

We could have had a full-throttle, three-stopper at 125 laps because the pit windows would have been massive. Teams could have tried to stretch each stint to 35 or 36 laps and then had a shorter final stint to sprint to the finish, or teams could have stopped early, around lap 21 or 22 and run an alternate strategy from there. 

The longer street race was different to see. We have seen a road or street course race of this length in over 40 years. I don't know if we need to do it again or if this was necessary. If there is going to be a three-stop race, set it up so everyone has to push and make it so attempting to stretch fuel is disadvantageous. There should be a goal for the race length. 

22. It is getting late early. Only two race weekend remain. There are three races thanks to the Milwaukee doubleheader. I consider that a blessing. We are back on track Saturday, Friday technically because of practice, but we are talking races here. 

Morning Warm-Up: Washington, D.C. 2026

Álex Palou won pole position for the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. with a lap of 56.8993 seconds in the final round of qualifying on Saturday evening. It is Palou's seventh pole position of the season and the 19th of his career. There is a chance Palou could clinch the championship this weekend. If he leaves Washington, D.C. with at least a 162-point lead over second, Palou will clinch his fourth consecutive championship and the fifth of his career. Palou enters this race with five consecutive top five finishes, his longest streak since the five-race span that covered the final four races of last season and the St. Petersburg season opener in March. He has won ten times from pole position in his career, including at Detroit in June.

Kyle Kirkwood was 0.5668 seconds off Palou's pole-winning lap as Kirkwood was the first car to take to the track in the final round of qualifying, directly ahead of Palou. This is only the second time this season Kirkwood has started on the front row this year. He started first at Nashville. The only other time he has started second for a race was Toronto in 2024, a race he finished second to his Andretti Autosport teammate Colton Herta. Twenty-first at Markham was Kirkwood's worst street course result since he was 24th at Belle Isle in 2022, driving for A.J. Foyt Racing with a fractured wrist. He had 13 consecutive top ten finishes on street courses prior to last week.

Scott McLaughlin put the #3 Chevrolet into this on the grid, 0.7207 seconds off Palou's best lap. It is the third time in four races McLaughlin will start third, and it is his fourth time starting third this season. He has finished worse than third in each of those starts. Prior to this season, McLaughlin had never started third in his IndyCar career. McLaughlin makes his 100th career start this weekend. Six drivers have had won in their 100th career start, five of those occurred in the month of August. The only one that didn't occurred last year when Patricio O'Ward won at Iowa.

Christian Rasmussen has his best career starting position in fourth. For the second time in his career, Rasmussen is starting in the top five. He started fifth at Mid-Ohio last month. This is the fifth time this season Rasmussen has started in the top ten. Prior to 2026, he had three top ten starts in 31 races. This is the final street course race of the season. Rasmussen has finished outside the top twenty in the last three races and in eight of 14 races this season.

Marcus Armstrong will be start fifth after having started 20th or worse in three of the last four races. Entering Washington, D.C., Armstrong has failed to finish on the lead lap in consecutive three races, the longest slump in his career. The New Zealander has finished outside the top ten in four of five street races. Twice has he finished 11th. His best street course finish was tenth at Arlington. This will be Armstrong's 61st career start. Seventeen drivers took 61 starts or more to score their first career victory.

Slight contact with the barrier on his final qualifying run saw David Malukas settle for sixth on the grid as he cruised around on his final round qualifying lap. This was his third time making the final round of qualifying on a street course this season. Malukas is hoping to avoid three consecutive results out the top ten since the first five races of last season. He has finished outside the top ten in three of the first five street races. This will be Malukas' 76th career start. Ten drivers took 76 starts or more to score their first career victory.

Patricio O'Ward fell 0.1151 seconds shy of making the final round of qualifying, and this will place O'Ward seventh on the grid. This does snap a three-race skid of starting outside the top ten. This is the 15th race of the season. O'Ward has finished in the top five in the 15th race of the season five times in six seasons. The lone exception was last year when he was 25th at Portland. His third career victory came from seventh starting position at Iowa in 2022.

Dennis Hauger starts in the top ten for the third consecutive race. This time, Hauger is rolling off from eighth position. Though it has been eight races since his most recent top ten finish, Hauger has finished in the top fifteen in the last two races. He had finished 20th or worse in the four races prior to that. The most recent road/street course won from the eighth starting position was the 2025 St. Petersburg race, and Álex Palou was the winner.

Christian Lundgaard will start directly behind his Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward in ninth position. Lundgaard has never had multiple podium finishes on street courses in a season. He was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. The Dane has six top ten finishes in the last seven races. Lundgaard is one of two drivers who enter Washington, D.C. having completed all 1,815 laps this season. The other is his teammate O'Ward.

Felix Rosenqvist rounds out the top ten on the grid. This is the first time Rosenqvist has started between sixth and tenth since last year's Nashville season finale when he rolled off from ninth. Fuel pressure issues ended Rosenqvist's Markham race after 18 laps, classifying him in 24th. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top twenty since 2024 when he was 26th at Iowa and then 23rd at Toronto.

Caio Collet made it out of the first round of qualifying for the third time this season, and he will start 11th for the second time this season. Collet started and finished 11th at Mid-Ohio. Collet has failed to finish on the lead lap in the last three races with two of those being retirements. This is the first time Collet has been the top A.J. Foyt Racing starter since that Mid-Ohio race.

Nolan Siegel starts in the top twelve for only the third time this season. Siegel previously started ninth at Phoenix and seventh at Road America. This is only the second time Siegel made the second round of qualifying on a street course. The other was Long Beach last season. In three of the last four races, Siegel has finished in the top 12. He had only three finishes in the top 12 in the first ten races of the season. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Siegel will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 18th).

Will Power missed out on the second round of qualifying by 0.0632 second, and Power will start 13th. The Australian did slap the barrier late in his qualifying group. Power has finished third in the last two races. It is the first time he has had consecutive third-place finishes since the 2018 season finale at Sonoma and the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg. The last time he had three consecutive finishes in the same position was in 2022 when he was fourth at Texas, Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park.

Scott Dixon was on a lap good enough to advance to round two, but a red flag came out when Dixon was two corners away from the finish line. Instead, he will start to Power's outside on row seven. Dixon was 0.1438 seconds off advancing. Washington, D.C. is the 57th different circuit Dixon has competed on in his career. He has won on 28 of those circuits, the most all-time in IndyCar history.

Marcus Ericsson also brushed the barrier in the first round of qualifying, and Ericsson will start 15th. After each of Ericsson's first four career victories, he finished ninth, ninth, seventh and eighth. Only twice in his career has he had consecutive top five finishes, in 2021 at Mid-Ohio and Nashville and in 2022 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Ericsson will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 21st).

Josef Newgarden finds himself on the outside of row eight. This is the third consecutive race Newgarden is starting outside the top ten, and he has started outside the top ten on all six street course races this season. Newgarden has finished 25th or worse in the 15th race of the season the last three years. He had seven consecutive top ten finishes in the 15th race of the season prior to that with two victories, both coming at Gateway. 

Alexander Rossi takes 17th on the grid, the fifth time in the last six races Rossi will start outside the top ten. After suffering a gearbox failure at Markham, it was the second time this season he has gone four consecutive races without a top fifteen finish. Four retirements is tied for his most in a season. Rossi retired from four of 14 races in 2020.

Louis Foster goes from starting on pole position last week to Markham to 18th on the grid for Washington, D.C., however, the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver on the grid in both instances. This is the 12th time Foster has started outside the top ten this season. Only once in Foster's career has he retired from consecutive races. That was last year at Detroit and Gateway, two races where he was in accidents.

Rinus VeeKay hit the barrier early in the first round of qualifying, and VeeKay takes 19th on the grid after only being able to complete three laps in the session. With finishes of fourth and seventh in the last two races, VeeKay is attempting to get his third consecutive top ten finish. He has had at least one run of three consecutive top ten finishes in four of his first six seasons in IndyCar.

Mick Schumacher rounds out the top twenty on the grid. Schumacher has finished outside the top twenty in four of five street course races this season. His best street course finish was 17th at Long Beach, a race where he started 21st. His accident at Markham was only Schumacher's second retirement of the season. The other was St. Petersburg, where he was caught in an opening lap incident. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Schumacher will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 24th).

Romain Grosjean occupies 21st on the grid. This is the fifth time this season Grosjean has started outside the top twenty. Grosjean picked up his sixth career runner-up finish at Markham last week. He is now tied with Geoff Brabham with most second-place finishes without a victory. Only Vitor Meira has more with eight runner-up results but no victories.

Graham Rahal was the slowest driver in the first qualifying group and this places Rahal in 22nd starting spot, the fourth time Rahal has started outside the top twenty this season. He has not finished better than 18th when starting outside the top twenty in 2026. In the first eight races, Rahal had three podium finishes and five top ten finishes. His ninth at Markham was his first top ten finish in the last six races.

Sting Ray Robb slides into the 23rd grid position. It is the tenth time this season Robb is starting outside the top twenty. In 66 career races, this is the 53rd time he has started 21st or worse. Robb has finished in the top fifteen in the last two street course races, 14th at Detroit and 11th at Markham.

Kyffin Simpson was set to advance from the second group in round one, but Simpson clipped the barrier on the outside of turn six, bringing out a red flag and deleting Simpson's two best laps. He will start 24th. Simpson has finished on the lead lap in nine consecutive street course races. This is his worst starting position of the season.

A six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change drops Santino Ferrucci to 25th. Ferrucci was going to line up 22nd prior to the penalty. Last week, Ferrucci was tenth at Markham. He has not had top ten finishes in consecutive street course races since he went sixth and tenth at the 2021 Belle Isle doubleheader while driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Fox's coverage of the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. begins at 11:30 a.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 147 laps.

Third Impressions: Markham 2026

1. It has been a week since the embarrassing opening day to the IndyCar weekend at Markham where no on-track session occurred due to construction delays. For an inaugural event where it felt imperative it came off as a success, day one was an abject failure that made the following two days nearly irrelevant. 

Somehow, it turned around and Saturday and Sunday exceeded all expectations of positivity. 

The final two days do not entirely cancel out Friday. 

Markham was a first-time event, but with an experienced promoter in Green Savoree Racing Promotions it should have been better aware of the shortcomings leading into the weekend. 

Any street course is a challenge to put together, and there will always be some last-minute work that must be done because of the nature of closing down a part of a city and keeping it open to the local traffic until the last possible moment. Even beyond the time needed for course set up, another issue that arose was a lack of tire barriers to properly place around the course, and that also led to the complete abandonment of Friday's schedule. 

Green Savoree had been the promoter for the Toronto race. It was not unaware of what it took to put together a street course in Ontario. It sounds crazy to say, but perhaps it was caught out because the Markham course was 2.1 miles in length and Toronto was 1.786 miles in length. You would think it would have accounted for the increased track length and additional braking zones. Markham had five hard braking zones and Toronto layout around Exhibition Place had three. 

It could have been a case of everything was underestimated off of Toronto's numbers when the Markham course was different enough that it warranted more infrastructure and safety equipment. It doesn't sound great, and it doesn't make it any better. Everyone knows for next year what is necessary to have the track ready in time for the first session.

2. I have been around a while. This hasn't been the first opening day street course issue. From train tracks at San Jose and Baltimore to surface issues in São Paulo to unbearable bumps in Houston, we have seen significantly disrupted opening days before, and Fridays where we wondered how in the world a race would take place on Sunday. 

Some callouses have developed from over the years. Markham was disappointing, but I am getting too old to be angry about it. Disappointment is much worse than anger anyway. 

3. Friday has traditionally been a free day to spectators at the Toronto race and that tradition continued in Markham. Some were saying it was to no loss of the spectators because attending did not cost anything. That might be true for admission but it is not entirely free. People took off from work. They traveled and had to pay for gas or parking or both. Some may have come from a great distance and paid for flights and hotels. They bought concessions, merchandise, etc. And they did all of it to see nothing take place on track because the organizers were not ready. 

The people might not have bought tickets, but they paid with their time and their time was wasted. For people who were curious observers that planned to sample Friday with maybe an inkling of attending the rest of the weekend, they were met with nothing. 

Imagine if you had new neighbors and they invited you over for a party to welcome the rest of the people who lived on the street, and you showed up and they still had 50% of their boxes unpacked and stacked in the living room and dining room, and they didn't have the grill ready nor snacks available and there were no towels in the bathroom... how would you feel about going back to said neighbor's house for future events? 

You only get one chance at a first impression. That certainly was not welcoming or professional by any sense, and some were probably turned off from spending money to go back for the rest of the weekend, and they may have been turned off from ever going again. That is a loss that will never be made up.

4. Where does blame lie? We know it is on the promoter, Green Savoree Racing Productions. IndyCar made it pretty clear in its statement at the end of Friday how upset it was with the organizers. 

Is IndyCar faultless? Mostly.

IndyCar signed off on this event with Green Savoree promoting it. It puts its trust the race weekend would be ready to go at a scheduled time, and it wasn't. Could IndyCar have done more to check on course construction and how things were looking before the event? Maybe, but IndyCar could not have done much more in terms of course construction. It wasn't organizing this race. The series already puts on a fair number of its own races. This was a third-party handling the planning.

Even if it wasn't the series' responsibility, it still didn't look good that the track was not ready. The common person has no idea Green Savoree is putting on the event. It is an IndyCar event. If IndyCar or any of the series are not running, it looks bad on IndyCar, even if that is not a fair place to direct the blame. 

5. Everyone is looking for someone's head on a platter after this and calls of punishment or terminating any partnership with Green Savoree is rather foolish. Green Savoree promotes St. Petersburg and Portland, and it owns Mid-Ohio and promotes that race as well. It has been promoting a quarter of the IndyCar schedule for basically a decade. Markham wasn't great, but it is not enough to end all relationships. 

For starters, IndyCar would be much worse without Green Savoree. No circuits are lining up to host IndyCar races. Killing four events would be suicide for the series. 

St. Petersburg is an outstanding event. Those renovations may have yet to come to Mid-Ohio as Green Savoree had suggested would happen when it purchased the facility nearly 15 years ago, but that race has strengthened during its ownership of the track. Portland does well for one of the more remote races on the IndyCar calendar, and a facility that the city owns. 

It wasn't acceptable what occurred at Markham, but the track record is long enough to know this group will do better next year. If we get a repeat of 2026 in 2027, then we will have a further discussion. 

6. Even for all the issues, the Markham circuit was great, Saturday and Sunday were excellent, and it is hard not to be excited about year two. It certainly did not seem like the events of Friday kept people away. Sunday looked phenomenal. The hope is the race we saw will keep the people coming back and bring more people out. 

Are there a few areas that could be improved? 

The turn five hairpin was not supposed to be designed like that, and while it was an active area of the track, it could be made more into a loop or a hairpin with less of a radius and still be a good passing zone. Turn ten was described as diabolical and could probably be tweak. The first few corners were a little tighter than expected and could be massaged out for next year. 

And I think we are all in agreement it would be best to invest in curved barriers for the inside of the corners so we don't lose three or four cars for slightly clipping concrete. 

7. We have probably a little less than a year until the next Markham race. Nobody should forget how terrible Friday was, and the goal will be to prevent it from happening again. While stressing the lowest moment of the weekend, it should not completely overshadow the highest moment of the weekend, and as a street course, it was a tremendous layout that produced good racing and despite a number of cautions and a choppy middle of the race, we had a terrific finish that kept people on edge until the final laps. 

That is all you can hope for in any race. Markham produced it in year one. 

Let's Look at the League - August 2026

We are into the final month of the IndyCar season, and it is the final days of the regular season in the fictional head-to-head league format. We are on the midst of clinching playoff spots while determining who will be fighting to stay up and who could be going down for next season.

League One

Washington, D.C. marks the final weekend of the regular season. For a number of teams, a spot has already been secured in the playoffs, a few teams are out of the mix, and in some instances everything is still to play for.

The top four from each conference will make the playoffs. Fifth will remain in League One for 2027. Sixth and seventh in each conference will participate in the relegation playoff. Eighth will be relegated for next season.

Results

	Conference #1	Conference #2
Week #11 (Mid-Ohio)	#10 CGR def. #12 Penske (5-8)	#5 McLaren def. #3 Penske (7-24)
	#27 Andretti def. #2 Penske (3-9)	#4 Foyt def. #9 CGR (11-17)
	#7 McLaren def. #21 ECR (2-7)	#60 MSR def. #18 Coyne (13-23)
	#26 Andretti def. #6 McLaren (6-10)	#66 MSR def. #14 Foyt (14-19)
Week #12 (Nashville)	#10 CGR def. #26 Andretti (1-20)	#5 McLaren def. #66 MSR (7-24)
	#27 Andretti def. #7 McLaren (10-16)	#60 MSR def. #9 CGR (5-18)
	#12 Penske def. #6 McLaren (3-11)	#3 Penske def. #14 Foyt (4-13)
	#2 Penske def. #21 ECR (2-22)	#18 Coyne def. #4 Foyt (14-25)
Week #13 (Portland)	#10 CGR def. #2 Penske (1-9)	#60 MSR def. #5 McLaren (2-11)
	#26 Andretti def. #27 Andretti (3-5)	#9 CGR def. #66 MSR (14-25)
	#12 Penske def. #21 ECR (12-24)	#3 Penske def. #18 Coyne (17-19)
	#2 Penske def. #6 McLaren (8-18)	#4 Foyt def. #14 Foyt (20-21)
Week #14 (Markham)	#10 CGR def. #27 Andretti (4-21)	#5 McLaren def. #9 CGR (5-18)
	#26 Andretti def. #7 McLaren (3-6)	#66 MSR def. #60 MSR (16-24)
	#2 Penske def. #12 Penske (13-17)	#3 Penske def. #4 Foyt (8-19)
	#6 McLaren def. #21 ECR (12-23)	#18 Coyne def. #14 Foyt (2-10)

Conference One Standings

#10 Ganassi 11-3

#27 Andretti 10-4

#12 Penske 10-4

#7 McLaren 8-6

#2 Penske 7-7

#26 Andretti 6-8

#6 McLaren 2-12

#21 ECR 2-12

We know the playoff spots in Conference #1, and we are worried about the seeding. While the #7 McLaren and the #2 Penske could finish tied at 8-7, the #7 McLaren is 2-0 head-to-head over the #2 Penske this season with victories at St. Petersburg and Detroit. No matter what, the #7 McLaren will be the #4-seed in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. 

The #10 Ganassi entry has locked up the #1-seed. While either or both the #27 Andretti and #12 Penske could finish level with the #10 Ganassi, the #10 Ganassi is 4-0 against those two entries.

The #27 Andretti and #12 Penske split their head-to-head meetings, and the #27 Andretti holds the #2-seed based on its championship position, second over the #12 Penske's third. What are the odds that the top four teams in the championship ended up in the same conference, and they are all position in their exact championship positions, one to four in conference? 

While it appears the #2 Penske could be fighting to hold onto fifth and avoid the relegation playoff, it has already been clinched security to League One in 2027. The #2 Penske is 2-0 against the #26 Andretti with victories at Phoenix and Gateway. Those were not only head-to-head victories. Josef Newgarden won those races outright. 

We know the #26 Andretti will be in the relegation playoff, and the automatic relegation spot is still undecided. The #6 McLaren moved out of the drop zone after it defeated the #21 ECR entry at Markham. Both of the #6 McLaren's victories have been against the #21 ECR entry. The other victory was the Indianapolis 500.

It is simple. If the #6 McLaren wins, it remains up, barring the #21 ECR doesn't overcome the 31-point deficit in the championship.

Conference Two Standings

#5 McLaren 12-2

#3 Penske 11-3

#60 Meyer Shank 9-5

#66 Meyer Shank 7-7

#18 Coyne 6-8

#9 Ganassi 6-8

#14 Foyt 3-11

#4 Foyt 2-12

The #1-seed is still on the line in Conference #2. The #5 McLaren and the #3 Penske entries have a game between them, but they split their head-to-head meetings. There are 40 points between the #5 McLaren and the #3 Penske. Even if the #5 McLaren loses its head-to-head matchup at Washington, D.C., it will likely hold onto the #1-seed but there is slim chance it could flip. 

We know the #60 MSR entry will be locked into the #3-seed for Conference Two. The final playoff spot, the safe spot for remaining in League One next year and one of the relegation playoff spots are all up for grabs between three teams. 

The #66 MSR entry holds onto fourth at the moment... however, the #66 MSR entry lost both its matchups with the #9 CGR entry and the #18 Coyne entry. However! The #18 Coyne entry went 2-0 against the #9 CGR entry, defeating it at St. Petersburg and Detroit. 

If there is a three-way tie with the #66 MSR losing at Washington, D.C. and both the #9 CGR and #18 Coyne entries winning, the #18 Coyne will make the playoffs, the #9 CGR will take fifth and the #66 MSR entry will be in the relegation playoff. 

Relegation is decided. Though the #14 Foyt entry is only one game ahead of the #4 Foyt entry and they can end the season tied on record, and the #14 Foyt entry is 67 points ahead of the #4 Foyt, an insurmountable amount in one race. Even if they finished tied, the #14 Foyt entry cannot be surpassed in the championship.

For Week 15, we have League One inter-conference matchups for the first time since we began doing this exercise, and these matchups are set via where each team was seeded at the start of the season. The top entry from each conference was paired together with second paired second, third paired with third, and so on all the way down to the eighth-seeded teams facing one another. 

Week 15 Matchups

#10 CGR vs. #5 McLaren

#27 Andretti vs. #9 CGR

#7 McLaren vs. #60 MSR

#26 Andretti vs. #66 MSR

#12 Penske vs. #3 Penske

#2 Penske vs. #4 Foyt

#21 ECR vs. #18 Coyne

#6 McLaren vs. #14 Foyt

Going down the fixture list in the final week we have...

Essentially a dead rubber between the top teams from each conference, foreshadowing a potential championship matchup...

Two teams meeting with one wanting to win to lock up second and the other needing a win to make the playoffs or at least take fifth and secure a place in League One for 2027...

A dead-rubber with the #7 McLaren locked into fourth and the #60 MSR locked into third in their respective conferences...

A matchup where one team has nothing to race for and the other must win to clinch a playoff spot...

One Penske car racing for seeding against another Penske car that could improve its seeding but would need significant help to do so and is essentially locked into second, and this could be a quarterfinal matchup in the playoffs.

A dead-rubber with the #2 Penske locked into fifth and the #4 Foyt locked into eighth and relegated. 

One team looking to avoid relegation versus a team that could be in the playoffs but could also wind up in the relegation playoff. 

A matchup with one entry needing a win to at least clinch a relegation playoff spot versus a car that will definitely be in the relegation playoff.

Tentative Quarterfinal Matchups

#10 CGR vs. #66 MSR

#3 Penske vs. #12 Penske

#27 Andretti vs. #60 MSR

#5 McLaren vs. #7 McLaren

League Two

This is a double-round robin, meaning all nine entries will face each other twice. The top three teams will be promoted.

Week #11 (Mid-Ohio)	#20 ECR def.  #47 RLLR (20-24)
	#8 Ganassi def. #28 Andretti (15-21)
	#76 JHR def. #19 Coyne (4-25)
	#45 RLLR def. #77 JHR (18-22)
Week #12 (Nashville)	#77 JHR def. #20 ECR (15-23)
	#8 Ganassi def. #45 RLLR (9-17)
	#28 Andretti def. #76 JHR (6-12)
	#47 RLLR def. #15 RLLR (8-19)
Week #13 (Portland)	#45 RLLR def.  #20 ECR (15-19)
	#76 JHR def. #15 RLLR (4-23)
	#28 Andretti def. #19 Coyne (6-13)
	#47 RLLR def. #77 JHR (16-22)
Week #14 (Markham)	#28 Andretti def. #20 ECR (1-20)
	#77 JHR def. #8 Ganassi (11-14)
	#76 JHR def. #47 RLLR (7-25)
	#15 RLLR def. #19 Coyne (9-15)

League Two Standings

#45 RLLR 8-4

#8 Ganassi 8-4

#76 JHR 8-5

#28 Andretti 7-5

#15 RLLR 6-6

#20 ECR 6-7

#77 JHR 6-7

#19 Coyne 4-8

#47 RLLR 3-10

It is insanely tight in League Two with everyone having either three or four matchups remaining. The only team eliminated from promotion is the #47 RLLR.

The #45 RLLR is 2-0 against the #8 Ganassi. The #45 RLLR defeated the #76 JHR at Detroit, and these two will meet in the penultimate race of the season at Milwaukee. The #28 Andretti has won a race outright this season and is on the outside of promotion. The good news for the #28 Andretti is it faces the bottom two teams in the final four weeks. It also has the #45 RLLR in the first Milwaukee race. 

The #19 Coyne entry has lost four consecutive matchups with four matchups remaining and needing to win all of those with some help to have any shot to finish in the top three. 

We will come back when the season is complete and see how everything shakes out.