Musings From the Weekend: How Often Do You Want To Do This?

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking…

People are mad. Racing was good but not good in the right ways, and this is all over the globe. The Formula One season started and it had more passing at Albert Park, but that is not what people want even though they say it is. They want it in a different way. Don’t ask how! Colton Herta didn’t have the worst Formula Two debut, though it started poorly. Oscar Piastri had another forgettable home weekend. I guess it was a weekend of sharing as Supercars also raced in Melbourne. Team Penske showed power belongs to the biggest teams. It won the IndyCar race with Josef Newgarden. It won the NASCAR Cup race with Ryan Blaney. The weekend in Phoenix was seen as a big success. Now we have one question to ask…

How Often Do You Want To Do This?

In the aftermath of IndyCar and NASCAR sharing a weekend at Phoenix Raceway, there was a large call for such weekends to occur more often. IndyCar raced in front of practically a full grandstand on an oval that wasn't Indianapolis. The race itself was rather wonderful, a big change from the last time IndyCar ran at Phoenix. In the immediate aftermath, many were asking when they could do it again at other venues.

For a segment of the IndyCar fanbase, desperate for more oval events, they will take them however they can get them, and if IndyCar is not going to be holding events on its own, running with NASCAR is a means to an end. If it worked in Phoenix, why couldn't it be IndyCar's way back to Pocono, Michigan, Richmond, Loudon and/or Chicagoland? 

But how often do we want to do this?

Phoenix looked good. Good crowd. Good race. What else could you want? That is what IndyCar needs. It needed a race that was full of spectators and had action from start to finish. It looks good. IndyCar needs to look good, even if it is because it is standing on the shoulders of another series. The general belief is this weekend benefited both series, but we must wait and see. IndyCar needs more than one great crowd. It needs it at every race. We need to wait and see if this weekend does anything in terms of regular viewership of the series. It is doubtful it will lead to much change, but it is an attempt at increased exposure. 

More people turned out on Saturday in Phoenix than for a Saturday on a typical NASCAR weekend. That is partially because a number of fans who were only interested in IndyCar showed up, but it likely drew some people who like both and felt it had a better deal with two races on Saturday with NASCAR’s second division closing out the night. Why wouldn't NASCAR want to boost its Saturday crowd and why wouldn't IndyCar want to race in front of packed grandstands? It is a mutually beneficial relationship, but there comes a point where both will want to stand on their own. 

This worked because IndyCar had nothing else going on. It isn't always going to be that way. 

People want Michigan back. NASCAR races at Michigan during the Gateway weekend. It is also a week after the Detroit round.

People want Pocono back. NASCAR races at Pocono on Le Mans weekend, a time when IndyCar fans like off because there is a chance one or two guys will drive in LMP2 and could theoretically improve the series' status on an international stage. It would also mean IndyCar would be competing at a racetrack for seven consecutive weeks as it has three weeks on track at Indianapolis in May, then Detroit and Gateway follow that, and if ran Pocono it would fill the off weekend before the Road America round. That would be a monstrous two months, something IndyCar teams are not built for. 

Races could be moved around, but IndyCar events are highly unstable. We have seen races bounced around to different months and the crowds suffer. Then the races go away. Is IndyCar willing to make that gamble to have more events where it will not control the makeup of the weekend?

NASCAR is going to dictate the terms of these weekends. IndyCar is not getting any say. It isn't getting any beneficial television window. How much does IndyCar want to move its schedule around because NASCAR says so? NASCAR holds all the power here and be careful what you wish for. IndyCar has its own races, and it already has a history of shuffling its deck too often at the detriment of existing races. Graham Rahal loves to refers robbing Peter to pay Paul, and that is exactly what IndyCar is faced with. 

How often can we do this?

Besides the conflicts that exist above, this was a Fox pushed event. When IndyCar and NASCAR first did it for four years at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was when both were competing on NBC. If it isn't a Fox NASCAR weekend, it is unlikely to happen. This season Michigan and Pocono are both Amazon Prime races. Chicagoland will be on TNT, and Richmond is on USA. There are slim pickings after Phoenix in the Fox portion of the NASCAR schedule.

IndyCar isn't going to start its season racing with NASCAR, and it also isn't going to run at Daytona or Atlanta. Darlington, Martinsville, Bristol, Talladega and Dover are not going to happen, and IndyCar just left Texas Motor Speedway and has a new event in Arlington I am sure it would love to develop without much competition in the area. 

If you take those all out of play, the only remaining oval weekends where IndyCar and NASCAR could race together are Las Vegas, which in IndyCar circles remains a forbidden place and perhaps wrongly so but this group cannot get pass Dan Wheldon’s fatal accident, and Kansas. There are also Austin and Watkins Glen, two venues IndyCar would likely love to be at, but it isn't hurting on the road course weekends even if those two venues were places where IndyCar could not get a race to stick. 

Remember the logistics in these weekends and one rainy weekend would turn a weekend of unity into a bitter relationship quickly. It is risky to do this on an oval because you cannot race through the rain. A washout on Saturday would mean IndyCar would be racing at best after the Cup race on Sunday, but that would be a full 24 hours after it was scheduled. If NASCAR’s second division also had a race rained out, there is a chance IndyCar is waiting until Monday, and at that point it will be racing in front of an empty house. There would be far less cheer than we had this weekend if that were to happen. Just remember that IndyCar will be a distant third should any disruption occur on any of these weekends. Don’t say you were not warned. 

There is also the sheer limit of race weekends IndyCar can have. It has been stuck on 17 races for years, and that may change by one in 2026, but IndyCar has shown an avoidance to schedule growth. Even if they are shared weekends, it doesn't save any money for the teams. It would still be more weekends competing, and IndyCar isn't going to give up existing events to run with NASCAR another two or three times. It would be foolish to drop Barber Motorsports Park, Mid-Ohio and Milwaukee because it has a chance to race with NASCAR at Michigan, Pocono and Richmond. 

Phoenix was a good weekend, but IndyCar cannot sacrifice its existing races and the identity it has to chase being the third-wheel on a few NASCAR weekends, even if they are at places fans, drivers and teams wish to be. It cannot trade its headline events to be the opening act on a Saturday afternoon. Running with NASCAR is good as a one-off, but IndyCar isn't growing if it is only leeching off a bigger series. That would essentially be giving up and admitting it is never going to grow to the size on its own.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Josef Newgarden and Ryan Blaney, but did you know…

George Russell won the Australian Grand Prix.

Brodie Kostecki (races one, two and four) and Broc Feeney (race three) split the Supercars races from Melbourne.

Joshua Dürksen (sprint) and Nikola Tsolov (feature) split the Formula Two races from Melbourne.

Justin Allgaier won the NASCAR Grand National Series race from Phoenix. 

Hunter Lawrence won the Supercross Triple Crown round from Indianapolis with finishes of second, fourth and first. Ken Roczen and Justin Cooper won the other two races. Cole Davies won the 250cc round after he swept the races.

Coming Up This Weekend

IndyCar continues the start of its season with a third consecutive race and a new event, the Grand Prix of Arlington.

NASCAR will be in Las Vegas.

Formula One has its first sprint weekend in the second round of the season from China.

The World Rally Championship will run the Safari Rally from Kenya. 

First Impressions: Phoenix 2026

1. Tires, tires, tires. IndyCar's return at Phoenix came down to a decision after the caution came out when Will Power slowed on circuit with a cut tire from contact with Christian Rasmussen while battling for the lead. There were about 40 laps to go, and with how tires wore during the race, a 20-lap difference could be a deciding factor at the end of a long run. 

Josef Newgarden's team decided to stop while eight of the 15 cars on the lead lap decided to stay out. Newgarden had work to do, but he had just under 40 laps to work with when the race restarted. The advantage would come late in the stint. He was not going to move from ninth to first in three laps.

When the tire advantage swung in Newgaden's favor, it swung mightily. Rasmussen faded after a second brush with the barrier exiting turn two. Kyle Kirkwood tried again to pull out a victory with an alternate strategy, but Newgarden had the speed and was no match. 

It was not a beat down performance as we have become accustomed to seeing from Newgarden on a short oval, but he remained alive when the race bunched up at the end. Newgarden had been here before and taking tires was an offensive move. Prior to the caution, it was going to be a top five finish. Staying out was not going to get him the victory. With a set of tires to burn, Newgarden went for it, and though he had been snake-bitten taking chances over the last few seasons, it was worth the gamble. 

Newgarden didn't rush. He let the tires come to him and made moves. He first had to pass O'Ward, who also stopped under that final caution. For a moment, it looked like O'Ward was going to be the challenger, but O'Ward's car did not work as well in traffic. Newgarden's did, and once ahead of O'Ward, the Tennessean had a clear view at the lead.

The victory gives Newgarden the championship lead, but as he pointed out in his victory lane interview, it is still early. He should be pleased though. For two years, things have spiraled on Newgarden and his rough days have been particularly deflating. We have seen a different Newgarden in recent years. This season is starting on the right track.

2. Kyle Kirkwood's team went slightly off-strategy again, and in the middle of the race, Kirkwood's team did not come in under a caution when the team had just changed tires 13 laps earlier. That was the sweet spot. A team could run most of a stint and hold on with about ten-lap older tires. Kirkwood remained at the front as the final pit window approached. Kirkwood had done well, but he had to take a leap to get to the front. It worked, and the car held its own. 

After Rasmussen's contact with the wall, it looked like Kirkwood had a better chance to pull out a victory, but he did not pull ahead of Rasmussen immediately, and when he finally took the lead, Newgarden was too close. Kirkwood could not hold off the Penske driver. 

You would think Kirkwood would be disappointed with this result, but like St. Petersburg where fourth was better than it could have been, second is much better than it was likely going to turn out had he not taken a risk. Qualifying can still be improved upon, but in two races this team has not let a bad start get them down. 

3. It felt like this weekend was destined for David Malukas, and pole position was the first step to a memorable weekend. Malukas had a good first stint, but he lost time on the first stint running long, and it buried him in the middle of the top ten. That is where he spent most of the race. Malukas didn't stop for tires under the final caution to gain a few more spots, and it worked out to be a podium finish. 

It could have been worse. I don't think the race is a major missed opportunity. However, I don't know if Malukas could have done what Newgarden did. That car was hooked up and Newgarden has a level of confidence to overcome such a deficit in the closing stages. Not every race will turn out this way, but Malukas stood out in his first oval weekend with Team Penske, and that was expected.

4. For a moment, Patricio O'Ward was lined up to steal the show. It had been a good day, but it did not feel like a race O'Ward was going to win until he was ahead of Newgarden after the final restart. Leading the drivers on the freshest tires, O'Ward was on point to drive to the lead. It was working until he hit fourth, and then he stalled out. He could not get ahead of Malukas, and Newgarden had the legs to keep moving forward. 

It is not that big of a loss because O'Ward should have been happy with a top five from the start, but with how the final laps lined up, it could have been more. It was a good race for O'Ward.

5. Marcus Armstrong will not get enough love for this result, but he drove well all race. Armstrong had good pace at the end of stints. It allowed him to maintain track position as he was better on his tires. A slow final stop nearly cost him, but he stayed out on the final caution and was looking for a better result playing defense. It worked. 

We have seen how Armstrong races and how he has found a good foundation in the middle of the top ten. He does a good job getting a little more out of equipment. Can the day come where he takes a sixth-place car and put it in a fight for victory? He drives smart. It could come sooner than we realize. 

6. This was an odd day for Alexander Rossi because he lost ground early and it was looking as if this would be a disappointing result. The late caution gave Rossi new life as he took on tires, and it was his only choice to salvage a result. He made some passes and ended up taking sixth. 

It should sting that he could not keep up with his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rasmussen despite starting 12 spots ahead of him in sixth. It mirrored Milwaukee in the sense Rossi had a good car, but he could not keep up with his teammate when the car was clearly there. He isn't the lead driver at ECR, and I don't think he can wrestle back that spot.

7. Scott Dixon tried a few different things on strategy and it netted him a seventh-place finish. Dixon didn't have a great car today, but he can drive smart and use strategy to his favor. After how St. Petersburg ended, Dixon needed a complete race and a good result. He got that in Phoenix. 

8. Scott McLaughlin was not a factor in this race, and that was a surprise. Even during the pit cycles where drivers came and went and ground could be made stopping early, McLaughlin never found an advantage. Even though he took tires under the final caution and he did drive to eighth, he didn't have what it took to blitz through the field. It was a little odd that he wasn't closer to his teammates in this one.

9. Graham Rahal had a good day to finish ninth. Rahal spent most of the race in the top ten. He lost ground from starting third, but last season there was no prayer of a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car spending this much time in the top ten on an oval. This should be a cheerful weekend for RLLR and a move in the right direction. 

10. I don't know how Kyffin Simpson finished tenth. He took tires under the final caution, that is how, but he didn't have a great race. Most of it was spent outside the top ten. He held onto the lead lap, and it allowed him to get a few extra spots in the final stint. Take them anyway you can get them.

11. It was a little stunning how far off A.J. Foyt Racing was this weekend. To their credit, Santino Ferrucci got better over every stint of the race, but this team starts behind and makes up ground regularly. There is a limit on how well it will finish if it is always starting between 16th and 22nd. Ferrucci stayed out under the final caution because it lifted him to a top five spot, but he was a sitting duck. Eleventh is about right. 

12. Felix Rosenqvist didn't do much today, but considering how yesterday started, not doing much, avoiding trouble and being able to finish on the lead lap in 12th is a good day. 

13. Christian Lundgaard was nowhere this weekend. Qualifying 17th, he never factored in for a top ten finishing position. Lundgaard's oval form has improved, but it is still a weak spot, and he is not at a point where he can go to a new oval and be quick. Ovals take longer for him to learn. I would expect him to make a step forward at Phoenix next year.

14. And we reach Christian Rasmussen, who was probably the driver of the day. Rasmussen was incredible early driving to the front from 18th on the grid. He had the best car, and in the later stints, he was cutting through the field. It didn't matter that four cars leap-frogged ahead by 2.5 seconds because they stopped a half-dozen laps earlier, Rasmussen was going to pass them with ease. 

Rasmussen got into a battle with Will Power, who was trying to hold him off on older tires, and exiting turn two, they touched. Power didn't give Rasmussen any room on the outside, and Power gave the Dane an option of lift or make contact. He chose contact, which didn't harm Rasmussen as much as it did Power, as Power suffered a cut tire. Rasmussen's car was damaged, but it was holding on after the restart and he wasn't losing spots. 

Rasmussen didn't lose this race because of the contact with Power. Not taking tires was going to be his downfall. Newgarden had the edge. Rasmussen's car was damaged, and then he brushed the wall again. He was on the edge doing all he could to win the race when the car was not as good as those around him with fresher tires. 

Even if he doesn't brush the wall the first time after the contact with Power, in the same circumstances, I think tires win and Newgarden takes the victory. Maybe Rasmussen isn't slipping over the edge and hitting the wall a second time. Maybe he can take second while Newgarden wins. 

It stings because Rasmussen was the best driver today, and even though he found something that clicks with ECR, there is no guarantee this speed will last, and Rasmussen knows it. After the second hit with the wall, it all unraveled, and he dropped to 14th.

15. Let's talk about Power because he did finish 16th and only lost a lap. Power was on the same strategy as Kirkwood, and Power looked poised to get a better finish than Kirkwood. 

It was not the cleanest move on Rasmussen, but it wasn't dirty. Power didn't drive Rasmussen into the wall. Power forced Rasmussen to make a choice that was never going to be beneficial to Rasmussen, and that is what the leader can do to a driver trying to make a pass late on the outside. Rasmussen was a little ambitious, and could have waited until he was more alongside on the outside in a lap or two, or waited and found a way to the inside, perhaps going into turn one. 

Power is a veteran and he rolled the dice thinking he could get a young driver to blink. Rasmussen didn't, but in the end, neither won the race, and that was the best of the bad outcomes Power had in mind.

Prior to the accident, Power looked better compared to St. Petersburg. He was running well. The strategy choice allowed him to run at the front, but he was probably going to finish on the podium if the contact didn't occur. These are points lost, a too common result in the last few seasons for Power. It should also be a confidence boost for Arlington. 

16. It feels wrong to skip Dennis Hauger, but Hauger spun early exiting turn two, kept it off the wall and drove backward down the back straightaway and then resumed the race. It was an impressive example of car control and most veterans couldn't do that let alone a rookie. He was able to finish on the lead lap in 15th. That is all he could ask for. He got in 250 laps and learned something. 

When Hauger spun, it felt like the day was going to be a disaster for Dale Coyne Racing as Romain Grosjean was unable to start the race when his car had a clutch failure on the grid. This is a moral victory for DCR.

17. There are a handful of drivers we don't need to talk about. 

Marcus Ericsson didn't run well and his dice roll on strategy put him a lap down. 

At least Caio Collet didn't get into the wall. He didn't do anything great, but he didn't do anything wrong either. 

Nolan Siegel was nowhere to be seen all race and finished 20th. Siegel did have a drive-through penalty for blocking, and he was already a lap down. The penalty didn't help his day, but it wasn't going great before that. Does he make it to Mid-Ohio? 

Sting Ray Robb could not do much with his career best starting position of 12th and he finished three laps down in 21st. 

Louis Foster also brushed the wall and that ended his race, placing him in 23rd. Foster needs to get a top ten finish someday. It wasn't going to be today. Foster wasn't competitive. We know he is quick on road and street courses. It is time to get a result. 

18. You would think the Rasmussen-Power incident would be the most notable one of the race, but 20 laps in, Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay touched exiting turn four and approaching the start/finish line. Palou spun into the barrier and his race was over. VeeKay was damaged, but continued to finish four laps down in 21st. 

With this result, Palou dropped out of the championship lead for the first time since June 2024. Palou had a great start to the race, but he was bogged down a little in traffic after the first restart. VeeKay had a run to the outside. Palou was moving up the track. 

I don't think anyone was to blame, but making such a move to the outside was a low percentage move for VeeKay. It wasn't the worst move we have ever seen, but 20 laps into the race, I don't think it was worth the risk at that time. 

Palou is going to be fine. He had a bad race. He is going to be fine at Arlington and probably win the race.

19. There was some worry heading into this race because IndyCar's last trip to Phoenix was a failure. IndyCar went there for three years, didn't do anything to improve the racing after a processional race the first time, it failed to attract any interest in the market, and it was gone in a blink when it needed an oval event to develop. The good news is this race replicated what we saw at Milwaukee last year and what we have seen at Gateway where tires can wear, cars can start passing, and teams can take swings on strategy. No one felt stuck in traffic in this race, and that is the last thing you want to hear from drivers. 

Now, IndyCar must keep this package. This is how the short ovals should race. It had it at Iowa prior to the awful re-pave that only resurfaced the inside lane in the turns. IndyCar must keep this at Gateway, Milwaukee and Phoenix. Don't try to do more. Don't try to play with the downforce. Keep Firestone from dicking around with the tires. 

When the tires started to wear, we saw some teams rise and others fall. Teams could roll the dice and stop early to get ground, but then fade. That is fine. If IndyCar is chasing non-stop passing from the drop of the green flag on a short oval, it isn't going to happen, but we saw abundance today because the drivers had to manhandle the cars more and teams took risks hoping to find a better strategy later in a stint.

This was good. It is up to IndyCar not to screw it up. 

20. We need to have a deeper conversation about sharing the weekend with NASCAR. More people turned out today than probably showed up for the three IndyCar races between 2016 and 2018 combined. Check one for IndyCar. People showed up. Are they going to continue watching next week at Arlington? Are they going to continue to follow beyond May and into the summer? It looked like 40,000 people showed up when IndyCar couldn't get half of that eight years ago. It is exposure but IndyCar needs exposure to turn into reliable viewers who are going to be there when NASCAR is not around and IndyCar is on its own. 

It is a short-gain. How can IndyCar turn it into long-term success?

21. And now another new event. On paper, Arlington appears to be IndyCar's step into the 21st century when it comes to street races. It is a course that is mirroring what Formula One has been doing for the last decade. Spirits have been high for over a year since the event was announced. Now we find out if it is as good as what is being sold. We will find out in eight days. 

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2026

David Malukas scored his first career pole position with a two-lap average at 175.383 mph, 41.0530 seconds, in qualifying from Phoenix Raceway. This will be the third time in the last four races Malukas has started on the front row. It will be his fifth consecutive start inside the top five. This will be his 15th time starting in the top five in his IndyCar career. However, Malukas’ average finish when starting in the top five is 14.2857 with one top five finish and four top ten finishes. Two Team Penske drivers have had their first victory with the team come in their second start. Gary Bettenhausen won in his second Penske start at Trenton on April 13, 1982. Danny Sullivan’s first Penske victory was also in his second Penske start, and it was the 1985 Indianapolis 500. 

Josef Newgarden makes it an all-Team Penske front row as Newgarden was 0.1963 seconds off his teammate’s pole-winning run. Newgarden has won the second race of the season three times in his career, including at Phoenix in 2018. He enters this weekend with three consecutive top ten finishes dating back to last season. It is the first time Newgarden has had three consecutive top ten finishes since 2023 when he swept the Iowa doubleheader and then was fourth on the streets of Nashville. 

Graham Rahal makes it three consecutive Americans on the grid as Rahal was 0.328 seconds behind Malukas. This is Rahal’s best start on an oval since Texas 2012 when he started third. He was second in that race. Rahal has finished outside the top ten in ten consecutive oval races. His last top ten finish on an oval was eighth in the second Iowa race in 2023. Rahal’s most recent top five on an oval was third in the second Texas race in 2021. 

Mick Schumacher’s oval debut will start from fourth on the grid, and it rounds out an all-Rahal Lettermam Lanigan Racing second row. This is the first time RLLR has multiple top five starters since last year’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis when all three car started in the top five. Schumacher is the first German to start an oval race since Timo Glock, who was eighth in the 2005 Las Vegas Champ Car race.

Scott McLaughlin is the worst Team Penske starter in fifth. McLaughlin was 0.4579 seconds off Malukas. McLaughlin has three consecutive podium finishes. He has never had four consecutive podium finishes. McLaughlin has finished outside the top twenty in the second race of the season the last two years.

Alexander Rossi takes sixth on the grid, matching his best starting position with Ed Carpenter Racing. Rossi was the fastest in the preseason test at Phoenix. He has not won a race in 55 starts. He has not won on an oval since August 19, 2018 at Pocono.

Patricio O'Ward is starting seventh. The most recent Phoenix race in 2018 was won from seventh starting position. O'Ward has 49 career top five finishes entering this weekend. He had five top five finishes in six oval races last season, and he has nine top five finishes in the last 13 oval races.

Rinus VeeKay slots into eighth. Twice has VeeKay opened the season with consecutive top ten finishes, however, in each of those seasons, he was sixth in the opening race. This was the second consecutive season VeeKay opened the year with a ninth-place results.

Nolan Siegel is directly behind his Arrow McLaren teammate O’Ward in ninth starting position. This snaps a streak of six consecutive starts outside the top ten for Siegel. He started eighth in the first Iowa race last year before getting into an accident. In 11 oval starts, Siegel's average finish is 17.5454.

Álex Palou rounds out the top ten on the grid. This is Palou’s worst starting position since he started 24th for the 2024 season finale at Nashville. Palou makes his 100th start this weekend. Six drivers have won in their 100th start, most recently Patricio O'Ward at Mid-Ohio last year. Palou enters this weekend on 74 career top ten finishes.

Kyle Kirkwood missed out on a top ten grid position by 0.0245 seconds, and Kirkwood has now not started in the top ten in ten consecutive races. He made up 11 spots last week to finish fourth at St. Petersburg, his first top five finish since he was fourth at Laguna Seca last June. 

Sting Ray Robb has his career-best starting position in 12th, his first career top fifteen start. Robb has finished in the top fifteen only twice in his career on ovals, 15th in the first Iowa race in 2024 and ninth at Gateway later that season. 

Marcus Armstrong is set to start 13th. Armstrong has seven top ten finishes in 13 oval starts. Last year, he started outside the top ten in eight races, and he finished in the top ten in five of those, and three of those were oval events. 

Marcus Ericsson is starting 14th. Ericsson has finished worse than his starting position in his last five races. For the second consecutive season, Ericsson was sixth in the season opener. His average finish last season on ovals was 19.1667.

Scott Dixon ended up qualifying 15th. Dixon is coming off his worst finish ever in a season opener, a 23rd in St. Petersburg. He had not finished outside the top ten in the season opener since 2015. That season, he finished outside the top ten in the first two races. Dixon ended that season as champion.

Louis Foster starts on the outside of row eight. Foster had an average finish of 17.1667 on ovals last season. He did finish better than his starting position in four of six oval races last season. His best improvement was a gain of ten spots at Milwaukee from 27th to 17th. 

Christian Lundgaard starts 17th. Last year, Lundgaard went from 17th to sixth at Milwaukee. He also went from 22nd to sixth in the second Iowa race last year. Lundgaard was third at St. Petersburg after starting 12th. It was his eighth podium finish since his only career victory at Toronto in 2023. 

Christian Rasmussen makes row nine an all-Christian and an all-Danish row. This is the 30th time in 33 starts Rasmussen is starting outside the top ten. He had five top ten finishes in six oval starts last season. He was last place in the other, and it was the most recent oval race at Nashville.

Kyffin Simpson is going to start 19th. Simpson had started in the top ten of the previous two races. He has finished better than his starting position in his last five oval starts. Simpson was fourth in the last oval race at Nashville. Prior to that, his best oval finish was 13th.

Romain Grosjean rounds out the top twenty on the grid. He was 1.0982 seconds slower than Malukas’ pole position time. Grosjean has four top ten finishes on ovals with his best result being seventh in the first Iowa race in 2022. Dale Coyne Racing has never had a top ten finish at Phoenix. The team’s best result was 11th with Ed Jones in 2016.

Santino Ferrucci occupies 21st. This is the eighth consecutive race Ferrucci is starting outside the top ten. He did go from 21st to second last year at Detroit. A.J. Foyt Racing has only one victory at Phoenix Raceway. That was November 9, 1975 with Foyt himself. Foyt won four times at Phoenix, three times with Anstead-Thompson Racing.

Dennis Hauger completes row 11. In four oval races last year in Indy Lights, Hauger had three podium finishes and he finished in the top five of all them. He started on pole position for three of the races. Dale Coyne Racing had one top ten finish on an oval last year. That was seventh at Gateway with Rinus VeeKay. 

Caio Collet will make his second career start from 23rd, one spot better than his first career start at St. Petersburg. In two seasons in Indy Lights, Collet had an average finish 7.625. He had three top five finishes last year in four oval races, and his best oval finish over his two season was third at Nashville in 2024 and at Gateway in 2025. 

Felix Rosenqvist had an accident in the opening practice and was unable to make a qualifying run. Rosenqvist will start 24th The Swede did run at Phoenix in Indy Lights in 2016. He was 15th after starting 13th in a 16-car race, but he did finish on the lead lap. That is Indy Lights' most recent visit to the track. Rosenqvist is the only driver from that Indy Lights entered this weekend in IndyCar.

Will Power spun in turn two on his qualifying run, and Power will start 25th as the final two spots are set via entrants’ points due to neither Rosenqvist nor Power setting a qualifying time. Not including last year’s Indianapolis 500, when Power started 33rd after his Team Penske entry was found with an illegally modified attenuator ahead of the Fast 12 session, this is his worst starting position since the 2021 Indianapolis 500, when he started 31st after running the last row shootout. Power enters this weekend having finished outside the top twenty in the last three oval races and in four of the last five. His average finish on ovals last year was 19.5.

Fox's coverage of the Good Ranchers 250 from Phoenix Raceway begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:20 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2026

The second round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Season takes the series to Phoenix Raceway for a weekend that will be shared with NASCAR, which will have its top two divisions in competition as well. For IndyCar, it will be the 65th race held at the one-mile oval, a little shy of 62 years after the first time American open-wheel racing's top series visited. In 1964, the inaugural visit was the season opener, and A.J. Foyt took the first of what would be a record seven consecutive victories. Foyt went onto win a record ten races that season. In 2026, Phoenix is the second round and Álex Palou has already won a race. Palou has led the IndyCar championship since June 23, 2024 after a victory at Laguna Seca, 28 consecutive races entering this weekend.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday March 7 with green flag scheduled for 3:20 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

Friday:

First Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)

Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET 

High-Line Practice: 3:40 p.m. ET (80 minutes)

Final Practice: 5:10 p.m. ET (50 minutes)

Saturday:

Race: 3:29 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Early Oval Opportunity

Oval races have been few and far between in IndyCar over recent seasons, but they have been more common early in the season than we realize. While the last two seasons did not have an oval until the Indianapolis 500, this is the third time in the last six years an oval has occurred in one of the first two races, and it is the fourth time in that timespan an oval has occurred before the Indianapolis 500. 

It is a chance for some drivers to get a jump on the championship. 

The bad news is Álex Palou is a top oval driver. Last year, Palou scored the most oval points in 2025 with two victories and two runner-up finishes. His worst finish on an oval in 2025 was eighth at Gateway. The Catalan driver has nine top five finishes in the 13 oval races dating back to the 2024 season and 14 top ten finishes in the last 18 oval races dating back to 2023. 

Though Palou will be the man to beat, an oval race could be a great chance for someone to get ahead of him. 

Patricio O'Ward has scored the most oval points in two of the last five seasons, and he has finished in the top four of oval points in the last five seasons. Last year, O'Ward was second in oval points, and it got him second in the championship. Palou scored 252 oval points while O'Ward tallied 208 points on the circle tracks. O'Ward won at Iowa and he had five top five finishes on ovals last year. He won pole position for the Nashville finale before he got into the way and was classified in 24th. 

Josef Newgarden won that Nashville race to give him his one and only victory in the 2025 season. It was the tenth consecutive season in which Newgarden won an oval race, the longest streak in IndyCar history. He started 2025 with two finishes outside the top twenty. He was caught in an accident at Gateway while leading when Louis Foster spun. Newgarden recovered with a second at Iowa and he was in the top ten for the final four oval races.

Newgarden only had the fourth-most oval points in 2025 with 156. The driver with the third-most was Christian Rasmussen on 173 points. Rasmussen stood out at the end of 2025 when he scored his first career victory at Milwaukee with an impressive drive to the front. The Dane had five consecutive top ten finishes on ovals, including a third at Gateway, before he spun on the opening lap at Nashville and was the first driver out of the season finale. 

This will be a key weekend for Team Penske. While Penske only won one oval race in 2025, it has been the dominant force on the discipline for an extended period. Penske has won 17 of 33 oval races since the introduction of the aeroscreen in 2020. Newgarden has been responsible for 13 of those victories, but Scott McLaughlin won two of those races, and he was the top driver in oval points in 2024. However, last season was a downward turn for the New Zealander. McLaughlin was 12th in oval points as he failed to start the Indianapolis 500, had a mechanical issue leave him 24th at Gateway, and he was caught in an opening lap accident in the second Iowa race. McLaughlin did finish in the top five of the other three oval races, including finishing third in both the final two races of the season. 

Phoenix will be a opportunity for David Malukas to get an early victory with Team Penske. Malukas' best IndyCar results have come on ovals, especially short ovals. All five of his top five finishes in his career have come on ovals. His first two podium results each came at Gateway, second in 2022 and third in 2023. Last year, he was classified second in the Indianapolis 500, moving up a position post-race after a penalty disqualified Marcus Ericsson. In the Nashville finale, Malukas qualified second and look poised to be a threat for victory before having an accident in turn one when negotiating the back-maker Louis Foster. 

Rasmussen's victory last year at Milwaukee should inspire some that Phoenix could be the site of their first career victory. Along with Malukas, Santino Ferruci should be encouraged entering this weekend. Nine of Ferrucci's 11 top five finishes in his career have come on ovals. Ironically, two of his three podium finishes have been on road and street courses. He has had a top five finish on an oval in every season he has competed full-time in IndyCar, including two last year, a pair of fifths at Indianapolis and Gateway. Ferrucci was eighth in oval points last year with 140.

Last year, Kyle Kirkwood picked up Andretti Global's first oval victory since 2018 when he won at Gateway in a race that turn into a bigger fuel conservation battle than expected. Though he won at Gateway, Kirkwood's only other top ten finish on an oval was sixth at Nashville. The other two Andretti drivers in 2025, Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson, combined for zero top ten finishes on ovals, and the organization in its entirety, Marco Andretti's Indianapolis 500 also included, had an oval average finish of 17.1052.

A Return to Phoenix

IndyCar has a long history with Phoenix Raceway, and for the 21st century is has been fractured. While it hosted Indy Racing League events at the turn of the century, the series stopped racing at the circuit after the 2005 season. It would be an 11-year hiatus before the top division in American open-wheel racing returned to the one-mile oval. However, that second stint lasted only three season. Now, IndyCar returns after another eight-year break.

Not as many drivers as you think competing this weekend were around for the most recent Phoenix experience. The number is five, and two of them are past Phoenix winners. Scott Dixon extends back to the original run of Phoenix races, starting with the track's opening in 1964 on the USAC National Championship schedule, bridging splits between USAC and CART, and then CART and the IRL before ending in 2005. Dixon made three starts in the early 2000s, and his best finish was second in 2004. In 2016, he won on IndyCar's Phoenix return, leading 155 of 250 laps. He had top five finishes in all three appearances from 2016 to 2018. 

Josef Newgarden is the most recent Phoenix winner as Newgarden took the 2018 race ahead of Robert Wickens, Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon. Newgarden only led 30 laps. Will Power led the most laps in this race, but Power's race ended after he hit the wall when he got into the marbles after Rossi made a pass on the Australian. Newgarden took advantage of of taking tires under the last caution and he drove pass Wickens with four laps remaining to win the race. 

Prior that wall contact, Power had finished on the podium in his first two Phoenix starts in 2016 and 2017. Rossi's third in 2018 was by far his best Phoenix finish. He had finished 14th in 2016, and he was 15th in 2017 after an accident. 

The only other active driver who has started a Phoenix race is Graham Rahal. While Rahal was fifth in 2016, he was involved in an opening lap accident in 2017 and did not complete a lap, classified in last place. In 2018, he rebounded to finish ninth. 

IndyCar held its preseason test at Phoenix Raceway last month. 

Ed Carpenter Racing led the way with Rossi running the fastest lap over the two days at 20.6254 seconds. Newgarden was 0.0213 seconds off Rossi with Álex Palou in third, 0.0381 seconds behind. Christian Rasmussen made it two ECR cars in the top four, and Rasmussen was 0.0733 off his teammate. David Malukas rounded out the top five in the test, 0.0929 seconds slower than Rossi. 

Patricio O'Ward took sixth with a lap at 20.7247 seconds, and then the three Andretti Global cars landed on the timing sheet. Kyle Kirkwood led the trio at 20.7302 seconds with Will Power (20.7867 seconds) and Marcus Ericsson (20.7956 seconds) behind him. Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top ten at 20.8165 seconds with the other two New Zealanders Dixon (20.8340 seconds) and Scott McLaughlin (20.8786 seconds) right behind him.

Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist, Rinus VeeKay, Louis Foster and Nolan Siegel were the final drivers to run in the 20-second bracket. Mick Schumacher was the fastest of the three rookies in 18th, 0.4154 seconds behind Rossi. Romain Grosjean and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top twenty. Caio Collet and Dennis Hauger were the next two on the time sheet. 

Kyffin Simpson, Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb rounded out the testing results. Robb was 0.7296 seconds off Rossi's top time.

How Bad is Not Completing the First Lap of the Season?

For two drivers, the first race of the 2026 IndyCar season could not have gotten off to a worse start. They have started more races this season than they have completed lap because Santino Ferrucci and Mick Schumacher didn't even make it through four corners in the St. Petersburg season opener.

Sting Ray Robb locked up going up the inside into turn four and with Robb sliding, he collided into Ferrucci, who nosed his car into the barrier, and Schumacher was collateral damage with no place to go but into the back of Ferrucci. 

Some would look at such an incident and wonder if it is an omen for the rest of the season. If you could not get through one place, how could you expect a full season to be good? Well, is that the case?

With Ferrucci and Schumacher each failing to make it through one lap, there have now been 36 occasions since 1946 where a driver started the first race of the season and failed to complete a lap. It is actually the second consecutive season where it has happened. Last year, Will Power spun exiting turn three and Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster were collected in the accident. 

This was actually the fourth time in the last six seasons where there has been an opening lap accident in the season opener where cars did not complete the opening lap. Prior to this run, it had not happened since 2011.

Is this a sign of a bad season to come? 

It is not a great start. 

Only twice has a driver failed to complete the first lap of the season and finished in the top five in the championship. Ten out of the first 34 drivers were able to finish in the top ten of the championship. Eighteen of the 34 drivers were outside the top fifteen in the championship at the end of that season. 

The two best drivers were Josef Newgarden in 2021 and A.J. Allmendinger in 2006. 

Newgarden was caught when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun going over the hill toward turn five at Barber Motorsports Park, and both drivers were out of the race. Newgarden recovered and finished second in the next race at St. Petersburg, and he had four consecutive top six finishes. He would go on to win twice and he ended up finishing second in the championship, 38 points off Álex Palou. 

Allmendinger's 2006 season was peculiar even by modern standards. He was involved in a four-car accident at the start of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. He had a good recovery over the next three races, but he was then fired by RuSport. Allmendinger did end up landing at Forsythe Racing, where he won his first three races with the team. Allmendinger won five times that season, and was third in the championship despite leaving the team prior to the season finale to start his moving to NASCAR. 

Newgarden and Allmendinger are the only drivers to win multiple times in a season after failing to complete the opening lap. Six other drivers have won a race in the season in which they failed to complete the opening lap. 

The first to do it was Elmer George, who didn't even start the first lap of the 1957 season. George and Eddie Russo made contact on the pace laps for the Indianapolis 500 and neither took the green flag. Later that season, George won at Syracuse. 

For the start of the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season, Robbie Buhl and Jim Guthrie had an accident on the first lap of the season at Loudon. Guthrie would go on to win three races later at Phoenix and Buhl would win in his return to Loudon, 364 days after he was unable to complete the first lap.

Jimmy Vasser could not make it one lap with his new team, Team Rahal, in 2002 as Vasser and Townsend Bell got together at the start of the Monterrey CART race. Nearly seven months later, Vasser took the checkered flag at Fontana in what was the fastest 500-mile race at the time. 

Marco Andretti started his 2011 season flipping at St. Petersburg after contact with Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon at the start of the race. However, Andretti would later that season at Iowa, and he would finish eighth in the championship.

We saw it last year. Power did not make it through the first lap at St. Petersburg, but he would get his day of glory at Portland, where he took victory. It was the highlight of Power's season as he finished ninth in the championship.

Looking at the immediate aftermath, no driver has failed to complete the first lap of the season and then won the next race. Along with Newgarden in 2021, Vasser was second in the next race in 2002 at Long Beach, and Paul Tracy was second at Houston in 2006 after not completing the first lap of the season in the previous round. Along with those three, seven other drivers were in the top ten of the next race.

The good news is no driver has failed to complete a lap in the first two races of the season. 

Shared Weekend History

This will be the fifth time IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup Series are running together at the same track on the same weekend. The first four occurred from 2020 to 2023, and all four times were at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The first get-together was over Independence Day weekend during the global pandemic in 2020. NASCAR was already scheduled to run the Brickyard 400 that weekend based on the original schedule. IndyCar had only contested one race at that point in 2020 and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was added to the weekend to be run on Saturday July 4. It was just prior to NASCAR's second division race, which also took place on the IMS road course and was always scheduled to run on the IMS road course. 

Over the next three years, every race that weekend was held on the IMS road course as NASCAR experimented with using the configuration in place of the Brickyard 400 on the oval. 

Scott Dixon won two of the four IndyCar races held in companionship with NASCAR. Dixon won the 2020 race from pole position, but after a tough fight with Graham Rahal before Dixon took advantage of cautions and tire strategy. It was Dixon's second consecutive victory to open the season, and he went on to open that season with three consecutive victories before taking his sixth championship. 

In 2023, Dixon entered the weekend with zero victories, but he was breaking the IndyCar record for consecutive starts. It was his 319th consecutive start, and Dixon won from 15th using impressive fuel conservation. It would spark an end to the season that saw him win three of the final four races and take second in the championship.

Will Power won the 2021 race held with NASCAR as he led 56 laps on the IMS road course with Romain Grosjean finishing second for the second time on the track that season. Alexander Rossi won the following year, but Rossi's car had improper weight ballast in his car. Rossi kept the victory, but the team was docked 20 points for the infraction. Christian Lundgaard was second. 

On the NASCAR side, Kevin Harvick won the 2020 Brickyard 400 after Denny Hamlin suffered a right front tire failure while leading in turn one. It was Harvick's second consecutive Brickyard 400 victory and his third overall. In the first Cup race on the IMS road course, A.J. Allmendinger took a surprise victory as he was only competing in the road course races for Kaulig Racing. It was Allmendinger's first Cup victory in seven years and five days. Tyler Reddick won the 2022 race and Michael McDowell won the 2023 race.

In 2020, Chip Ganassi Racing had cars competing in each of the big races of the weekend, and the team fell a spot short of the sweep. Matt Kenseth was second in the #42 Chevrolet. Kenseth had taken over the car after Kyle Larson had been indefinitely suspended for using a racial slur during an sim racing event on Easter night of that year. Team Penske has also had drivers competing in both the IndyCar and Cup events, and it too fell a sport short of sweeping the weekend. In 2021, a day after Power's victory, Ryan Blaney was second behind A.J. Allmendinger.

Team Penske's success at Phoenix is not contained only to IndyCar. Penske has won six Phoenix Cup races, and it has won at the circuit in three of the last four seasons. However, five of those victories have come in the autumn race at the circuit. The only time Penske has won the early Phoenix race was in 2020 when Joey Logano took victory. Logano is a four-time Phoenix winner while Blaney won last season's Phoenix finale. Rusty Wallace won Penske's first Phoenix Cup race in 1998.

Fast Facts

This will be the first IndyCar race ever held on March 7. 

After today's race, there will be 76 days in the calendar year that have never hosted an IndyCar race.

The only day remaining in the month of March to not host an IndyCar race will be March 8.

The other days that have not hosted an IndyCar race that are not in January, February or December are May 8, May 17, May 18, May 20, November 10, November 15 and November 20.

This will be the 26th Phoenix race to take place in the month of March. This will be the earliest Phoenix race in the calendar year. The previous earliest was March 11, which occurred in 1979. Gordon Johncock won the race driving for Patrick Racing. It was the first CART race.

Team Penske leads all teams with nine Phoenix victories. 

McLaren is second amongst active teams in Phoenix victories with three despite the team having not run an IndyCar race at the track since 1979. Johnny Rutherford is responsible for all three victories (March 1975, March 1977, October 1978).

Scott Dixon's victory in 2016 is Chip Ganassi Racing's only Phoenix victory.

Five drivers have won consecutive Phoenix races: Al Unser (November 1969-March 1970), Bobby Unser (swept 1972 races), Gordon Johncock (October 1977-March 1978), Rick Mears (1989-1990), Tony Kanaan (2003-04).

Honda has won four of the last seven oval races after only winning once in the previous 14 oval races.

Four drivers had their first career victory come at Phoenix (Gary Bettenhausen, Roberto Guerrero, Robby Gordon and Sam Hornish, Jr.).

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.39 with a median of third.

The last four Phoenix races have been won from the fifth, sixth or seventh starting position. 

Four Phoenix races have been won from outside the top ten, three of those have been won from 19th or worse (Mike Mosley from 19th in March 1974, Roberto Guerrero from 22nd in 1987 and Buddy Lazier from 26th in 2000).

The average number of lead changes in a Phoenix race is 5.359 with a median of five.

IndyCar's most recent visit to Phoenix in 2018 had 12 lead changes, the most ever for a race at the circuit. The previous two Phoenix races had two lead changes and four lead changes respectively.

The average number of cautions in a Phoenix race is 4.628 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 35.628 with a median of 32.

Predictions

Let's be honest, we should just pick Álex Palou every week, because it is going to be right almost 50% of the time. If it isn't Álex Palo, this is Scott McLaughlin's weekend and he is going to lead north of 175 laps.  Josef Newgarden does finish in the top five and it is a good day as all three Team Penske cars finish in the top ten. The field will get through the first lap and they will go at least 55 laps before the first caution. Two of the rookies do not see the checkered flag. Christian Lundgaard has his best oval result. Christian Rasmussen touches a barrier this weekend. I am not saying it is going to be bad, but it will happen. Alexander Rossi will leave the weekend frustrated. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

Musings From the Weekend: Playing Second or Third Fiddle

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

We had a pair of season opening weekends, but IndyCar picked up where it left off with Álex Palou stomping the competition in St. Petersburg. Tires played a surprising role at the end of MotoGP's season opener at Buriram, and now Marc Márquez has a bit of a hole to climb out of. There are 21 races remaining. Plenty of time for a comeback. Dario Franchitti held up pretty well in the Truck race from St. Petersburg. History was made in the Cup Series. However, we look ahead to next weekend and the shared bill for IndyCar and NASCAR. IndyCar's most popular driver spoke about it in St. Petersburg though he was not gushing over the event.

Playing Second or Third Fiddle

It is a quick turnaround for IndyCar from the first race of the season as six days after the checkered flag in St. Petersburg, the green flag for the second race of the season will wave from Phoenix Raceway. IndyCar returns to the one-mile oval for the first time since 2018, but this time IndyCar is running during the NASCAR weekend along with the Cup Series and NASCAR's second division, the first companion weekend for the two entities since 2023. From 2020 to 2023, IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup Series raced together at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The final three years saw both series run on the IMS road course. 

The weekends at Indianapolis were generally seen as positive as it brought the biggest series together. For one weekend, you could go to the same track and see both series compete. It was definitely convenient for spectators and the television partners. Whenever two series are getting together, optics come into play, and those optics were on the mind of Patricio O'Ward.

When asked in St. Petersburg about the upcoming Phoenix weekend, O'Ward did not express enthusiasm and noted how it looks for IndyCar competing on such weekends. 

"I'm already tired of IndyCar being like the support race," he said. "I know every time we race with them, we are always the side show. It's great for the fans, but not for us... If they add more races together, great. If they don't, great too. I don't really care."

At least O'Ward was honest and did not sugarcoat it. He has a point but these weekends can be beneficial for multiple parties.

In IndyCar's case, it is getting an oval race early in the season. For the last few years, people were displeased with IndyCar scheduling and the amount of time between races early in the season. Now, IndyCar opens with three consecutive race weekends and four in the five weekends of March. That is not a bad thing. It was also IndyCar's only chance of getting back to Phoenix, and that is a problem. 

IndyCar isn't getting to Phoenix on its own. It wasn't drawing more than 15,000 spectators eight years ago, and for all the cheer around growth, the series hasn't grown enough to pull out a reasonable crowd from the fifth-most populous city in the United States. Without NASCAR's shoulders to stand on, IndyCar would not be going to Phoenix at any point in 2026, and while there would still be three race weekends in March without it, IndyCar would be down a race weekend and only running at three ovals this season. 

However, IndyCar is the guest, and it is treated as such. It was the same way with the Indianapolis weekends. When the two sanctioning bodies ran together at Indianapolis, the NASCAR teams got the garages and the IndyCar teams set up a paddock like a street course weekend in an available parking lot. IndyCar hit the track early Friday and the race started at noon on Saturday. It was the first race of the weekend, and people interpreted that to mean IndyCar was the less-important event. 

The schedule is the same at Phoenix. IndyCar will race at 1:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, 3:00 p.m Eastern. NASCAR's second division races at 5:30 p.m. local, 7:30 p.m. Eastern that night. The Cup race is Sunday at 12:30 p.m. local, 3:30 p.m. Eastern (Don't forget about Daylight Savings starting next week). 

IndyCar will practice at 8:00 a.m. local on Friday morning before qualifying at noon and then immediately getting into a high light practice session at 1:40 p.m. local. A final practice will run from 3:10 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Phoenix.

For a shared weekend meant to bring the series together, there is really not that much mingling. IndyCar gets the available time, but it is mostly to get out of the way before the NASCAR action takes place.

It is not the ideal schedule for IndyCar. Any team that has an accident or issue in the first practice session will be under the gun. They likely are not going to make it in time for qualifying and the goal will be ready to shake the car down in the 50-minute practice in the afternoon. If an accident occurs during qualifying, that team is not getting out on track for final practice, and with how the weekend is set up, it might be unlikely the team gets shakedown laps before the race to make sure the car is properly put together as we have seen in the past. The two-seater is running Saturday night, so I guess there is a window there where a team could run five installation laps, but I doubt that time will be there Saturday morning. Cup practice is at 10:00 a.m. local.

There are plenty of weekends where IndyCar is the main event and draws the crowd. We saw it at St. Petersburg, and we will see it at Barber, Long Beach and of course Indianapolis. To go to a track and not be given the arrangement you are used to feels like a slight, especially when everything is rushed. It will be tougher to recover from a setback at Phoenix than at other weekends. In an 18-race championship, one lost weekend can lose you the title. Losing it because track time was condensed because another series prioritized the time is salt in the wound.

It is the price that comes with such a weekend. It would be nice if the schedules could be balanced. Both races could take place on Sunday. The time is there and Phoenix has lights. It is tougher to do on an oval, especially if there is weather, but 12:30 p.m. on Sunday speaks a lot different in terms of prestige than 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, and even with such a start time, the IndyCar race could be complete in two hours. The NASCAR race could still start at 3:30 p.m. local, 4:00 p.m. at the latest. 

But that is not the schedule we are getting and that is not the schedule we are going to see as IndyCar is tagging on to the NASCAR weekend. NASCAR is doing Roger Penske a favor because of IndyCar's inability to stand on its own with oval weekends. 

It is a good weekend for the fans, and I understand why you would attend such a weekend. Long Beach and Detroit are arguably two of IndyCar's best weekends because IMSA is also competing. That is valuable to me. If I can see both, that weekend is better than just seeing one or the other. We lament the lack of shared weekends with sports cars that we once had when the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am would run the same weekend as IndyCar. 

I do quibble that such a weekend does anything to grow IndyCar.

If you are a NASCAR fan in the year 2026 of our Lord, you know about IndyCar. You just don't care enough to watch or at least make it your series of choice. IndyCar has been doing this for years. How many IndyCar races have led into NASCAR races whether it be on NBC or Fox? How many times have NASCAR fans been exposed to IndyCar if they have time before a Cup race? How many more oval races does IndyCar need to run to catch a NASCAR fans attention? The Indianapolis 500 happens every year, and NASCAR fans know about it. They are largely the reason it drew over seven million viewers in 2025 (thanks, Kyle Larson!). 

We have had Fontana and Iowa before the half-ass repave and Gateway and Pocono and Milwaukee and Nashville. They have seen it. They will dabble with it when not busy with NASCAR. They are not coming to be full-time fans even if the racing is good, the championship is close without a playoff format and some of the best talents ever are competing. We did these shared weekends at Indianapolis for four years. It didn't do anything to grow IndyCar in a substantial way. We see that in the television ratings.

This is IndyCar's attempt to chase existing fans with a working knowledge of motorsports because 45,000 people are going to show up for the Cup race in Phoenix, and that is 30,000 more than IndyCar could draw at the same track even if it had a Super Bowl-esque budget in promotion. These are the same people who have had IndyCar buzzing in their ears for years and they have been swatting it away. 

This strategy ignores the larger group of people with no motorsports connection who could be turned into interested and invested primary IndyCar viewers. You know, the group of people in the United States who have found Formula One and turned it into the second-most viewed motorsports series in this country. But that takes hard work and if the France family can do Roger Penske a solid at no additional cost to Penske, you know he is going to take it, even if we know what the results are going to be. 

O'Ward's sentiments are heard, and if there is one thing we know about O'Ward is he is clearly interested in making IndyCar bigger and having it stand out on its own. He probably would love to race at Phoenix but race at Phoenix when IndyCar is the main event and drawing 45,000 people on its own and becomes the talk of the town for one weekend. That isn't happen next weekend and it probably isn't going to happen next year either. We live with the weekend we will be getting, but IndyCar should strive for more, and at least strive to be what Patricio O'Ward envisions.

Winners From the Weekend

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

Marco Bezzecchi won MotoGP's Thailand Grand Prix. Pedro Acosta won the sprint race. Manuel González won the Moto2 race. David Almansa won the Moto3 race, his first career victory. 

Nikita Johnson won the Indy Lights race from St. Petersburg. Sebastián Garzón swept the U.S. F2000 races.

Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Cup race from Austin, his third consecutive victory, and Reddick became the first driver to open a Cup season with three consecutive victories. Shane van Gisbergen won the Grand National Series race. Layne Riggs won the Truck race from St. Petersburg.

Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Daytona, his eighth Daytona victory. Seth Hammaker won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

We know about IndyCar and NASCAR's rendezvous in Phoenix.

The Formula One season begins in Australia.

Supercars also tag along in Melbourne. There are companion weekends happening all over the globe!

Supercross has a Triple Crown event in Indianapolis.

First Impressions: St. Petersburg 2026

1. It is comedy, pure comedy, every IndyCar race, because as much as we get our hopes up watching Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson battle for the lead during a pit cycle, the driver who will always come out on top is Álex Palou, and after the first round of pit stops, while McLaughlin and Ericsson tussled, Palou went three laps longer on his last stint and came out ahead of those two and the rest of the field in comfortable fashion. From there, the race was over. Palou was never challenged, running away during the second stint of the race and maintaining his mighty advantage over the final run to the checkered flag and his second consecutive victory at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Palou didn't do anything brilliant. He didn't make an astonishing pass. He didn't run down the leaders. He ran his race and stayed out of harm's way. He stretched the fuel a little longer on the first stint and he benefitted from others fighting and losing time. The door opened and Palou slipped on through to first. It was all he needed. 

He wins three races a year this way. He doesn't need to start first. He can start fourth or eighth or ninth and run this strategy and win. I don't know how you beat this. It is a man playing chess against a bunch of boys playing checkers. How does the rest of the grid not realize this? There are plenty of bright minds in IndyCar. This is year seven for Palou in IndyCar, his sixth with Chip Ganassi Racing. You would think by now someone would have figured this out and come up with a solution for the Palou strategy. 

Nope! And instead we see Palou tallying wins like they are going out of style. Race #99 in his career and victory #20. Palou becomes the eighth driver to reach 20 career victories in his first 100 starts. The championship is over, folks. This wasn't even hard for Palou, and he is going to win races harder than this with ease. 

2. It is hard to think Scott McLaughlin had another St. Petersburg race get away from him due to tire strategy. It kind of did today, but not like last year where the alternate tire compound became junk almost immediately and he had to run some kind of stint while a number of drivers got away with doing two laps under caution. 

If McLaughlin isn't caught in the battle with Ericsson after the first pit stop, maybe he is able to remain ahead of Palou and maybe McLaughlin can hold off the Catalan driver as the race unfolded. With how well Palou ran, it might have been inevitable that Palou was going to win this race. If the pass wasn't going to happen after the first round of pit stops, it was going to come after the second round of pit stops. It is still a good day for McLaughlin. The pace is there. He just has to put the pieces together and not fall asleep when Álex Palou is around.

3. This was a monster day for Christian Lundgaard to go from 12th to third and push McLaughlin for second. Lundgaard had a good middle portion of the race, and took advantage when the top five was backed up due to Marcus Ericsson struggling on the alternate tire. Lundgaard made a pair of bold moves, first on Arrow McLaren teammate Patricio O'Ward and then on Ericsson. Those two spots allowed Lundgaard to get on the podium and push for more. 

Lundgaard sounded confident during the race and he looked confident behind the wheel. We are going to see him hit higher levels this season.

4. Kyle Kirkwood held on to finish fourth. It could have been more, but it was great that it ended as well as it did. Kirkwood had to work from 15th. He made up ground early, but he really took advantage of Ericsson's slow end to his second stint to use that as a pick on the final round of pit stops. Kirkwood hit that logjam and came to pit lane. It got him a handful of positions and put him second. The problem became Kirkwood stopped early and had to save fuel. 

The fuel conservation took Kirkwood off the podium, but he needed a race where he was competitive with the top drivers after not having a top five finish over the second half of 2025. He accomplished that today. This should be a good boost. Starting 15th was not ideal and that is an area where Kirkwood and Andretti Global must work on, but they should feel better after today.

5. Patricio O'Ward came up short of getting fourth. Fifth is a good day, but it felt like the limit for O'Ward today. He got bogged behind Ericsson and lost out to his teammate in that exchange. The fire wasn't there for O'Ward to take advantage of that opportunity and his teammate pounced. It is a fine start to the season. He is going to be competitive and win races. This is a good foundation to set.

6. Marcus Ericsson took sixth after falling behind. It could have been better, and Ericsson got away with some aggressive driving. I felt like the move on Marcus Armstrong was a little dirty, driving the New Zealander to the inside barrier on the main straightaway. No penalty was called, but it felt like that was the limit. This was an important day for Ericsson because I believe everyone has him being dismissed from Andretti Global when this season is over. He was the top qualifier for the team, he finished sixth, and if he keeps doing this over the remaining races, Ericsson is going to cause a good problem from the Andretti organization. 

7. Moving from 23rd to seventh and not being the center of attention is a good achievement for Josef Newgarden. We didn't see anything incredible from him today but he didn't stay at the rear of the field. We were never wondering what was wrong with him in this race. Newgarden had to get a respectable finish out of today, but there is still work to be done. This funk is moving onto year three though. Newgarden has some work to re-discover his groove. Perhaps it is somewhere lost in the desert.

8. A top ten finish on his IndyCar return was the best possible outcome for Romain Grosjean this weekend. Grosjean qualified sixth and dropped to eighth, but it is still outstanding. We saw last year Dale Coyne Racing show good speed. Pit stops were always going to be a trouble area this year. That is where time was lost today. Grosjean looked comfortable and he looked like he never missed anytime. It will be fun to see this season play out.

9. Every damn year we finish a season opener and we are wondering how the heck Rinus VeeKay cracked the top ten. Again, not a special day, he never made a notable move, but VeeKay was ninth at the finish from 19th on the grid. He impressed us last year with such a drive in this race with Dale Coyne Racing. He has picked up where he left off at Juncos Hollinger Racing. If he can finish between 12th and 14th in the championship again, it is hard to fathom how VeeKay does not get a call from a larger team because he has been impressive with lesser equipment.

10. First race, first top ten finish as Dennis Hauger takes tenth though he started third. Hauger lost spots during the race. Some of that was down to pit stops. Some of it was also down to his speed at the end of stints, but it was his first race and Hauger is going to develop. This was a great weekend for the Coyne group. Both cars made the Fast Six. Both cars finished in the top ten. It is a great place to start from.

11. It was a great weekend for Dale Coyne Racing, but it was a missed opportunity for Meyer Shank Racing. Marcus Armstrong was 11th and Felix Rosenqvist was 12th. Armstrong got up to fourth at the start of the race from seventh. After the block from Ericsson, Armstrong lost time and never recovered. It is harsh he did not get a top ten finish. 

I am trying to figure out the strategy for Felix Rosenqvist because he started on the alternate tire, switched to the primary on lap 31 and then came in under the caution for Scott Dixon's unsecured tire to put on the primary tire on lap 42. No matter what, Rosenqvist could not make it to the end of the race with that pit stop and he still had to put on the alternate tire a second time. Either there was a problem with the tire or the team didn't get enough fuel in the car. It didn't make sense and definitely ended a top ten run for the Swede.

12. Thirteenth doesn't feel good, but it could have been worse for David Malukas after his left front tire blew up a few laps after Malukas had a lock up. Seeing it live, it felt like Malukas should have immediately made a pit stop. That left front was not going to go a full stint. It didn't even make it ten more laps. This was a missed opportunity for Malukas. The result could have been much worse. Onto Phoenix!

13. This feels like another bad result for Louis Foster because of strategy because I don't know what Foster's team was thinking. Foster started the race with two stints on the primary tire, but he did 22 laps on his first stint and then the final stint had to be cut short due to the Dixon caution. Either way, Foster had to make one more stop from there. 

It felt like Foster's team expected the alternate tire to wear much more and it didn't, or the team thought teams had to use both tire compounds twice, which they didn't. It was not the case that every team could only go 20-25 laps on the alternate tire. The tire lasted a full stint. It was not like last year when no one wanted to run the alternate tire. 

We will talk about the tires in a moment.

14. Kyffin Simpson did nothing brilliant and finished 15th. I think Alexander Rossi's team misread the tire regulations because he stopped under the opening lap caution to get onto his second set of alternate tire, but the alternate tire was fine, and this put Rossi in a hole. Caio Collet was 17th and at least he got to run every lap. I don't think Collet was mentioned once during the race. Graham Rahal had a good race going and looked like he could steal a top ten finish but something happened in the final pit cycle and stint that dropped him to 18th. Rahal's day was better than this.

15. There is one notable thing Simpson did, and that was spin Christian Rasmussen in turn one. No penalty was called. I didn't mind there was no penalty. It was a racing incident, two cars going side-by-side into the corner. Rasmussen didn't look out for himself. It ruined his day. 

16. Nolan Siegel got lapped on the track. Do you know how hard it is to be lapped on track in IndyCar on a street course? It isn't a matter of if McLaren replaces Siegel after the season. It is a matter of after what race does McLaren replace Siegel this season. 

17. Sting Ray Robb locked up on the opening lap entering turn four and he collected Santino Ferrucci with Mick Schumacher left with nowhere to go. Robb locked up. It happens. It wasn't reckless. Robb's reputation doesn't help him. We know we have seen the maximum potential from him. 

It was a tough start to the season for Ferrucci and Schumacher. For Schumacher, it was a tough start to his IndyCar career. It is the second consecutive year a debutant has failed to finish a lap in the season opener, and in both cases the rookie had nowhere to go.

18. Two drivers we haven't mentioned: Will Power and Scott Dixon. 

Will Power slapped the wall exiting turn ten, and it ended what may have been a top ten finish. Scott Dixon had an unsecured tire after his second pit stop, which ruined what could have been possibly a top five finish or better. 

Power had a similar accident in the first practice. People say it was down to driving for a new team, but all the teams have the same brakes. That wasn't a difference Power must overcome at Andretti Global compared to Team Penske. It was a strange thing to see two near-identical accidents for Power this weekend. That is kind of a red flag. Did Andretti get Power a year too late?

As for Dixon, the tire changer didn't get the tire secure. That is a rough way for a race to end. Dixon stopped under the first caution and put on the primary tire. He was in a similar boat a Foster and Rossi, but Dixon was doing better and had more speed. He was positioned to make that stop and come out in the top ten. He was going to start his second stint on the alternate tire. From there, Dixon could have gotten more, possibly benefited from the Ericsson logjam, and it could have been a top five or podium finish. This ends a run of ten consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg. 

19. Let's cover the tire strategy rule because I think IndyCar got this one wrong. 

Making the teams use the alternative tire twice means races can still be two stoppers. I think what IndyCar was hoping for was the alternate tire would wear like it did last year and make it so everyone would have to make a third stop no matter what. That didn't happen. 

If IndyCar wanted a three-stop race, it should make it mandatory to use both tire compounds twice, like it did as a trial in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It didn't do that, there was no difference between the compounds, and we had a normal St. Petersburg race where everyone was gunning to run a 33-35 lap stint to make it on two stops. 

Regardless of the outcome of today, if there is going to be a primary tire compound and an alternate tire compound, there must a difference between them. If both tires can do the full stint and are basically be identical on time, then what is the point?

I thought Firestone had it right last year. The alternate tire went to junk quickly, but it played a role in strategy. How long was a team going to run them? How much time would be lost? IndyCar's issue last year, and it still remains, is if there is an opening lap accident, a team can get off a tire compound without ever really using them. They introduced this new rule but it didn't matter because there was no difference in the compound. Either the minimum number of laps on a compound must increase or the tire compounds must be very different. 

We didn't see the alternate tire wear and become a handful until about 25 laps into a run today, but that is too late. The alternate tire compound should be junk after 15 laps and it should come down to whether or not a team immediately gets off it when it starts to turn or if it tries to hold on for another five laps or so because it gets them in a better fuel window or doesn't force the primary tire to be stretch too long. That would lead to a much more lively race. 

Today's race was ok once we got toward the end of a stint, but what is the point of waiting for a half-hour for things to mix up? A tire that wears quicker keeps the race fluctuating, and if you have that and the mandate that the alternate tire must be used twice, these races could swing wildly with someone moving through the field while another team drops down the order due to a gamble gone wrong. 

Firestone had it at the start of last year. Something was different this year because the alternate was nowhere near this good in 2025. Let's hope we do not see more of the same at Arlington and Long Beach.

20. IndyCar has an opening lap issue. We had the incident today. Last year saw seven races have a caution on the opening lap. There were also nine races in 2024 that had an opening lap caution. Twelve races in 2025 had the first caution fall in the first four laps of the race. That kind of predictability is not a good thing. 

It makes the drivers look amateur. It takes the fun out of the start of races. It makes conservative pit strategies more appealing and teams will take fewer risks. It is problem, but I am not sure there is an easy solution. Can we spread out the field more at the start? Should there be a penalty for early accidents? Everyone would fear aggression being penalized, but I don't think it being a genuine 50-50 on whether or not 25 drivers can complete one lap without an issue is a good thing either. 

A half-brain idea in the immediate aftermath of the race is if there is an opening lap accident, a penalty carries over to the next race. If you cannot get through the first lap in one race, you start from your pit box the next race. Not the end of the pit lane. Before the start of the final pace lap, any car in an opening lap accident in the previous race comes to pit lane and parks in their pit box. The race starts on track and once the field clears the end of the pit lane, those cars can exit their box and join the race.

It is harsh but it would likely change something. Drivers would be held accountable. 

To add to it, if you are involved in a caution between laps two and five, you automatically start at the rear of the field. You would be on track but you would be starting 25th. 

I don't know when it becomes a problem that IndyCar and its drivers notice, but I think it is a problem now. There should not be a fear to have a higher standard of driving. 

21. We will be back at it in six days in Phoenix. It is a big opportunity for many. 

Morning Warm-Up: St. Petersburg 2026

For the second consecutive season, Scott McLaughlin is starting on pole position for the season opener at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. In the final round of qualifying, McLaughlin took the top spot with a lap at 60.5426 seconds. It is the 11th pole position of his career, but he has won only three times from pole position in his career. He was fourth in last year's St. Petersburg race after starting on pole position and leading 40 laps. Starting on the primary tire meant McLaughlin had to run a stint during the race on the alternate tire, and it cost him and ultimately the lead. IndyCar has introduced a new rule this season where all cars must complete two stints on the alternate tire in street course races. McLaughlin has finished third in the last two IndyCar races. He has not had a podium finish on a street course since he was second in the 2023 Nashville race, another race where he started on pole position.

Marcus Ericsson was 0.0195 seconds off pole position, but this is Ericsson's first front row starting position since the 2023 Grand Prix of Long Beach. This is only the third time the Swede has started on the front row in his IndyCar career, and this will be his 115th start. He started second at Gateway in 2022. Ericsson has finished in the top ten in five of seven St. Petersburg starts. His 2023 victory is his only top five finish at the circuit. Last season, he had two top ten finishes all season, and he started in the top ten in seven races. In three of those he finished outside the top twenty.

Dennis Hauger makes his IndyCar debut from third on the grid, as Hauger was 0.0317 seconds off McLaughlin's time. Since 1946, three driver have won on debut, Graham Hill at the 1966 Indianapolis 500, Nigel Mansell at Surfers Paradise in 1993 and Buzz Calkins in the inaugural Indy Racing League race at Walt Disney World Speedway in 1996. Dale Coyne Racing has had a top ten finisher in seven of the last nine St. Petersburg race. In two of those races, a rookie finished in the top ten. Ed Jones was tenth in 2017 and Santino Ferrucci was ninth in 2019.

Álex Palou starts his pursuit of a fourth consecutive championship from fourth starting position in St. Petersburg. Palou was 0.1416 seconds off please position. Palou could become the fifth driver to win consecutive St. Petersburg races joining Hélio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sébastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden. Palou has won in consecutive years at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and at Laguna Seca, both active streaks entering 2026.

David Malukas will make his Team Penske debut from fifth, and he was 0.2212 seconds off his teammate McLaughlin. Malukas will become the 39th driver to start an IndyCar race for Team Penske. Only one driver has won on his debut for Team Penske. That was Sam Hornish, Jr. on February 29, 2004 at Homestead, leading a Penske 1-2 with Hélio Castroneves in second. Five drivers have finished on the podium in their Penske debut, 11 have had a top five finish and 19 have had a top ten finish.

Romain Grosjean's return to IndyCar saw him make the Fast Six, and Grosjean starts sixth for St. Petersburg. This was actually the third consecutive St. Petersburg race in which Grosjean made it to the final round of qualifying. He started on pole position in 2023 and started fifth in 2024. However, he finished 18th and 22nd in those races respectively. In four St. Petersburg starts, Grosjean's best finishes fifth, but he finished outside the top ten in the other three starts, and his average finish is 14.5.

Marcus Armstrong fell 0.0368 seconds short of making the final round of qualifying, and Armstrong will open the season starting seventh. This is his third consecutive top ten start at St. Petersburg, but Armstrong has failed to finish the last two St. Petersburg races. His average finish in 13 street course starts is 11.538. Both of his street course top five finishes came in 2024 when he was third at Detroit and fifth at Toronto.

Patricio O'Ward joins Armstrong on row four. In six St. Petersburg starts, O'Ward has finished on the podium three times and outside the top ten in the other three races. He won the most recent street course race at Toronto from tenth on the grid. The worst starting position O'Ward has won from in his career came on a street course. He went from 16th to first in the second Belle Isle race in 2021.

Louis Foster was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier, and he will start ninth. Foster was the top RLLR starter in only five races in 2025 despite having the best average starting position among the RLLR drivers at 13.529 and winning the team's only pole position. Last year, Foster was caught in the opening lap accident at St. Petersburg and he was unable to complete a lap in his debut. 

Kyffin Simpson cracked the top ten in qualifying, and it is Simpson's best career starting position on a street course. His previous best was 13th at Toronto last year, a race in which Simpson finished third. Simpson has finished in the top five of the last two IndyCar street course races, and he has three consecutive top ten finishes. The only other driver who was in the top five in the last two street course races is Colton Herta, who is not entered this weekend. Simpson had the fastest lap in two of four street races in 2025.

Felix Rosenqvist takes 11th on the grid, and dating back to last season it is the third consecutive street race Rosenqvist is starting outside the top ten. Rosenqvist enters this race having not won in his last 92 starts. A victory this weekend would put the Swede third all-time in the most starts between victories behind Graham Rahal's record 124 and Johnny Rutherford, who had a 97-race drought. Rosenqvist led 31 laps at St. Petersburg in 2019, his IndyCar debut, and he has not led at the circuit since.

Christian Lundgaard made the second round of qualifying, but the Dane takes the 12th grid position. Last year, Lundgaard went from 12th to third at Long Beach. Lundgaard failed to win a race in 2025, but he was fifth in the championship. It was the third time since 2020 a top five championship finisher did not win a race. The other two times were also by an Arrow McLaren driver, Patricio O'Ward in 2020 and 2023. 

Will Power's Andretti Global debut will be from 13th starting position as Power fell 0.0696 seconds off making it out of group one in the first round of qualifying. This is the second consecutive year Power is starting 13th at St. Petersburg. He spun on the opening lap last year and barely completed three corners before being classified in 26th. Power has led the most laps all-time at St. Petersburg with 269, but he has led only 27 laps in the last ten St. Petersburg races. 

Christian Rasmussen missed out on advancing from group two by 0.0129 seconds, and Rasmussen will start 14th. In the last two races, Rasmussen has finished first and he has finished last. It was the 41st time in IndyCar history a driver has gone from first to last in the next race. On 30 occasions has a driver finished last and then won the next race. On seven occasions has a driver won a race, finished last in the next race, and then won the race after that. The most recent was Will Power in 2019, who won at Pocono, was last at Gateway and then won at Portland.

Kyle Kirkwood is a spot directly behind his new Andretti Global teammate in 15th position as the American was 0.1068 seconds off making it to the second round. Dating back to last season, this is the sixth time in the last eight races Kirkwood has failed to start in the top ten. Kirkwood's finishing position has improved each year at St. Petersburg. He went from 18th in 2022 to 15th to tenth and was fifth last year. Kirkwood has nine consecutive top ten finishes on street courses dating back to his Nashville victory in 2023. 

Scott Dixon will start 16th, his worst starting position at St. Petersburg since he started 20th in the 2013 race. Dixon has ten consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg. He was second last year, his fifth runner-up finish at St. Petersburg and he is still looking for his first victory in the event. Dixon has the most victories in IndyCar history from outside a top ten starting position with eight. No other driver in IndyCar history has more than four victories from outside the top ten.

Santino Ferrucci occupies the inside of row nine. Last season, Ferrucci started outside the top ten in 15 of 16 starts, but he finished better than his starting position 11 times and on five occasions he finished at least ten spots better than where he started. The only time Ferrucci started 17th in 2025 was at Mid-Ohio. He did finish better than his starting position, but he only improved to 16th at the checkered flag. 

Graham Rahal occupies the outside of row nine. Rahal started outside the top fifteen in nine races last season, including St. Petersburg where he started 21st. This is his fourth consecutive St. Petesburg race starting outside the top fifteen. This is about to be the 20th season of Rahal's IndyCar career. He has finished outside the top ten in 14 of 19 season openers in his career. His best season opening finish was second in 2018.

Rinus VeeKay leads an all-Juncos Hollinger Racing row ten for his very first IndyCar race with the organization. However, 19th is VeeKay's second-worst starting position ever at St. Petersburg. He stated 24th in 2023 and his race ended with an accident, classifying him in 21st. VeeKay has four top ten finishes in six season openers in his career, and he also has four top ten finishes in six St. Petersburg starts.

Sting Ray Robb starts the season in 20th, and prior to this weekend Robb had only started in the top twenty once for a street course race. Last year at Long Beach, he started 19th and went on to finish ninth, his second career top ten finish. In three St. Petersburg starts, Robb has finished 16th, 24th and 21st. He has never finished on the lead lap in this race.

Mick Schumacher opens his IndyCar career from 21st starting position. Schumacher has not won a race since September 26, 2020. It was the Formula Two feature race from Sochi. Yuki Tsunoda was second and Callum Ilott was third in that race. Marcus Armstrong was ninth. Christian Lundgaard was involved in an opening lap collision with current Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing reserve driver Jüri Vips.

Nolan Siegel was 22nd in the championship last season, and Siegel opens the 2026 season starting 22nd.  Siegel ended last season with six consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen. His average finish in six career street course starts is 20.5 with his best finish being 18th at Toronto last year. He ended last season with seven consecutive finishes outside the top ten.

Josef Newgarden has his worst ever starting position at St. Petersburg in 23rd. This is the fourth consecutive street course race where Newgarden is starting outside the top ten In the last seven season openers, Newgarden has either finished on the podium or outside the top fifteen. He was third last year at St. Petersburg. This will be Newgarden's 240th consecutive start, and it will break a tie with Ryan Hunter-Reay for the fifth-longest streak in IndyCar history.

Caio Collet will begin his IndyCar career from 24th starting position. Fourteen of the first 22 St. Petersburg races have featured at least 24 starters. Only once has a 24th-place starter at St. Petersburg gone on to finish in the top ten. That was Graham Rahal in 2018, who went from 24th to second. The average finish for the 24th-starter at St. Petersburg is 17.0714. Collet was seventh and third in his two Indy Lights starts in St. Petersburg. 

Alexander Rossi rounds out the grid in 25th starting position. This is Rossi's worst starting position since the 2024 Nashville season finale when he started 26th. This will be the fourth time in Rossi's career that he is starting outside the top 25 and only the ninth time he has started outside the top 20 in what will be his 165th start. He has one top five finish when starting outside the top 20, fourth from 32nd in the 2018 Indianapolis 500, and his only other top ten finish was eighth from 21st in the first Iowa race in 2020. Rossi has three consecutive top ten finishes at St. Petersburg after finishing 20th or worse in his three visits prior to this streak.

Fox's coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:29 p.m. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.