1. The balance between a dream and a nightmare is razor thin. Entering today, Josef Newgarden had been living a nightmare. The 2025 season somehow was worse than 2024 when it didn't seem probable it could be, but Team Penske had its worst season of the 21st century. Every race seem to come up snake eyes for at least one if not all three of Penske's cars. Newgarden appeared to be the most bitten driver of the season.
Today started slow for Newgarden. He didn't rocket to the front, but he slowly climbed up the order from sixth on the grid. He actually lost a spot or two at the start. He hadn't rocketed forward at Milwaukee either, but he was in the picture for the victory late a week ago. Unfortunately for Newgarden, even when it appeared things were going his way, something always found a way to go wrong. Whether it be seat belts coming up done, mechanical issues, cars spinning into his path, Scott Dixon hitting him from behind, or not taking tires under the final caution while every car behind you does, Newgarden couldn't escape misfortune in 2025.
That was nearly the case in the season finale. Newgarden overshot his pit box for his final pit stop after he was leading the race. Newgarden went from first to third after the pit cycle. It felt like another race had gotten away from Newgarden. However, in the closing laps, Newgarden passed Álex Palou, and he went onto battle Scott McLaughlin.
McLaughlin had a good lead, but running wide in the middle of turn one caused McLaughlin to slide up the track and brush the barrier. Newgarden inherited the lead, but there would still be 12 laps between him and victory.
For a year where it felt like Newgarden was always battling, even when he was only battling himself, Newgarden did not face extreme pressure in the closing laps. Of all the drivers to be breathing down his neck, it was Álex Palou, a driver who had been virtually flawless all season. On this day, Palou was good, but not good enough. There was no late lunge or attack for first. Josef Newgarden got to the checkered flag a little over a half-second ahead of the 2025 champion, and a great relief fell upon the Tennessean.
The last two seasons have been particularly eye-opening for Newgarden and the Team Penske organization. Regardless of this result, there were still seven finishes outside the top twenty this season. Not all of those were his fault, but at least half were down to driver error. For a driver who went into the 2024 season saying he cut out distractions in the offseason to improve results, things took a nosedive, and while there have been victories, including a second Indianapolis 500 triumph since, things have mostly gone downward.
If there is any hope for Newgarden, it is this victory can turn things around in 2026. For two years, he hasn't been close to a championship contender. We know he can be a champion. We know he is a great driver. This victory put Newgarden tenth all-time in victories on his own. He has already made his mark on the record book, but this slump has been hard to ignore. At least Newgarden and his team head into an offseason not thinking about a losing streak.
2. Álex Palou closes the season with a runner-up finish. Eight victories is damn fine. It was a number not reached previously post-reunification. Scott Dixon has never reached this number of victories in a season. Will Power has never reached this number of victories in a season, neither has Newgarden. We are going to look back on one lap at Mid-Ohio and one choice not to stop under the final caution at Milwaukee as the only things being between Palou and matching the record of ten victories in a season. Even though he didn't match the record, it was still a historic and tremendous season.
Palou had 13 podium finishes. Only five times previously has a driver had at least 13 podium finishes in a season. His 14 top five finishes are only the ninth time a driver has hit such a number in a season. He began the season with six consecutive podium finishes. He ends the season with four consecutive podium finishes. What else do you want from the guy?
This was a brilliant season, one of the best we have ever seen. Even on a day when you would think he should not have had a sniff of victory, Palou was the main challenger in the final laps. Palou had a cut tire 52 laps into the race. That should have been curtains on his 2025 season, and he should have had 90 minutes to shower off and prepare for a trophy ceremony. Instead, Palou was able to nurse the car to pit lane and essentially lose no time.
Palou led after the final pit cycle, but he didn't have the power to control the race and soon fell behind McLaughlin. It wasn't Palou's day, but it didn't need to be. He had won the war long ago.
3. When Scott McLaughlin and Newgarden were running 1-2, all I could think about was as close as Team Penske was to a dream ending for this dark 2025 season, but if there was anything we should have learned from this year, it was more likely McLaughlin and Newgarden were going to get together battling for the lead and taking each other out than those two finishing first and second. If anything, the nightmare was the more apt ending to this season than the dream.
Within two laps of saying that, McLaughlin slid up the track and it looked like his race would be over. However, it was only a glancing blow, and McLaughlin was able to continue. He had lost his advantage, and despite having the alternate tire for the final laps, McLaughlin could not mount a challenge to Newgarden. McLaughlin actually found himself fighting for that final podium spot with Kyffin Simpson. McLaughlin pipped it in the closing laps.
McLaughlin ends as the winless Penske driver in 2025. None of the Penske drivers had a good season. McLaughlin had some better moments, but he spent the end of spring and start of summer unable to compete for victories. He made his own mistakes as well. It isn't a victory, but with a pair of third-place results to end the season, it should be momentum to carry into 2026 just like Newgarden will have with a victory.
4. I don't know how Kyffin Simpson finished fourth. Simpson didn't get mentioned at all until he was suddenly in the top five. He kept it clean obviously while others had issues. Simpson did start eighth today. It isn't like he was slow. He had a good car in this race. The way things shook out, he was on the verge of a podium on an oval, but he will surely take fourth. Entering this race, Simpson's best oval result was 13th.
It is another odd result in an encouraging if not puzzling season from Simpson. There were plenty of races where he was in the top ten on speed. He was a little fortunate to have been fifth in Detroit and third at Toronto. He was better than last season, but he still had races where he was not comfortable. He also ran over Felix Rosenqvist at the start of the Laguna Seca race, and he was stubborn traffic in a few races when you wouldn't think that would be the case. It will be curious to see how 2026 plays out.
5. Conor Daly ends the 2025 season on a high-note with a fifth-place result. Daly didn't quite have the car to challenge for the victory today. He recovered from a woeful qualifying run to spend most of the race in the top ten. This is kind of the limit for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Even at Iowa where Daly had great pace, the team couldn't be counted on for pit stops to keep him in the picture.
This is also the limit for Conor Daly. He debuted in 2013. His first full season was in 2016. The only teams he has never driven for are Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Prema, the newest team on the grid. He has never finished better than 17th in the championship, and he was 18th this season. If he had done something impressive enough to warrant a promotion up to a better team, it would have come by now. Every year is a year-by-year basis for Daly. No one knows if he will be back next year at JHR. If he isn't, Daly is likely not going to be full-time in 2026. If he isn't full-time in 2026, I don't know if he will ever be full-time again. There are many young drivers ready to break through with a lot to prove.
6. Kyle Kirkwood ended the season with a good day in sixth. Kirkwood wasn't in the picture for race victory, but he didn't stumble down the order and end up 15th with everyone scratching their heads over what the hell happened. This was not a great end to what was a promising season. Andretti Global has a lot to consider after how this season ended. It had a team that had an outside shot at the championship halfway through the season. It should have at least had a driver finishing second in the championship considering Kirkwood had won three of the first eight races.
Andretti Global should not feel satisfied with this season. It was far better than most. It was better than Team Penske's season, but the team faded in the second half, and no one wins championship when fading away.
7. Felix Rosenqvist turned a bad day around and was seventh, which got him sixth in the championship on tiebreaker over Colton Herta, somehow matching his best championship finish and it nipped Marcus Armstrong for best Meyer Shank Racing driver in the championship.
I think sixth in the championship is flattering to Rosenqvist. We know he is quick and can be impressive. We also know he struggles to turn qualifying pace into race results. We know if he qualifies in the top five in ten races, likely only one of those races will see him as a threat for victory. It is frustrating because he could be a sneaky driver that can be an underdog and lift a mid-pack team to the top. He arguably has done that in his two years at MSR, but I don't know if the Felix Rosenqvist who is a regular contender for race victories and could one day be champion will ever come to light, which is something we all expected when he joined the series in 2019.
8. Santino Ferrucci recovered from a mistake of his own to finish eighth. The lap 83 caution for David Malukas and Louis Foster coming together while Malukas was in second already stung A.J. Foyt Racing. To add insult to injury, Ferrucci entered the pit lane access road in turn three when making his pit stop under that caution. However, cars enter pit lane off of turn four under caution at Nashville. Ferrucci was given a pit lane violation for improper entry, which it was, and he was sent back to 24th prior to the restart.
Ferrucci did gain ten spots in about six laps after that restart, but he never really factored in again. He ended up finishing eighth and lost a few more spots after Robert Shwartzman blocked him in the final sprint to the finish. It was nice way to end a season after Ferrucci had been in a rut for almost two months. After four consecutive top five finishes to end May and cover the month of June, Ferrucci entered this weekend with his best finish being eighth over the last seven races, one of which he missed due to a warm-up accident in Toronto. He fell out of top ten championship battle. He was ahead of at least two Penske drivers for most of first half of the season, and he ended 2025 ahead of zero Team Penske drivers.
No bragging rights earn, and not much more than 16th in the championship. There were a few bright days, but it is a dip from last season no matter how we try to shade it.
9. Callum Ilott got ninth, and Ilott ended the season with four top ten finishes in the final five races. That is a pretty stellar ending to a first season for Prema. Ilott had a rough start to the season, but he and Prema found their legs down the stretch. The team still has work to do. Prema's drivers are ending the season ranked 21st and 24th in the championship. It is far from a good season, but it is a promising end. Prema had three top ten finishes on ovals and it won Indianapolis 500 pole position. If someone had told you Prema would have achieved that on March 1, you would have had that person locked up for insanity.
For all the celebration around Ilott, he doesn't score many outstanding results. He had about three great races with Juncos Hollinger Racing, granted they were the three best days for JHR up to that point, but if there is one knock against Ilott it is he doesn't regularly finish 12th or 13th and sneak a top ten finish every three races. If you are sneaking a top ten finish every three races you have five or six top ten finishes a season. That could get you tenth or 11th in the championship. I don't know if Prema will be capable of producing that kind of car next year. Ilott is its driver though. Can it believe in him for much greater?
10. Alexander Rossi began the season with a tenth-place finish, and Rossi ended the season with a tenth-place finish. Rossi went a little off strategy in this race and it nearly backfired on him, but the final caution for McLaughlin running wide allow Rossi to make his final pit stop without losing a lap.
Rossi didn't have great pace this weekend. Ed Carpenter Racing figured out a way to get into the fight. This is a little disappointing of a season because Rossi opened with three top ten finishes in the first four races. I didn't expect that kind of output to continue, but I didn't expect Rossi to spend basically three months being completely out of the picture. More of that is on the team than the driver.
It is a bit of a recovery to end this season for Rossi, but we saw ECR finish strongly with Rinus VeeKay last year, and it didn't appear to do a damn thing because we are ending another season with ECR's cars finishing between 13th and 15th in the championship, where they have been since Josef Newgarden left a decade ago.
11. Colton Herta got a bit of a raw deal in this race. Herta was penalized for an unsafe release on his penultimate pit stop when he pulled out into the path of Jacob Abel, who was a lap down at the time. No contact was made, but this season IndyCar race control appeared to have loosened its grip on unsafe release penalties. Basically it became, if there is contact there will be a penalty. If there is no contact, there will not be a penalty. There was no contact in this case, and I thought Herta would not be punished. I got that one wrong.
The problem is we saw inconsistent unsafe release penalties at Gateway where Felix Rosenqvist received one, and later in the same race David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin appeared to do the same thing as Rosenqvist and neither driver was reprimanded. What Herta did wasn't any worse than Malukas and McLaughlin at Gateway.
We also have Herta getting a penalty for impeding a lapped car from getting into his pit box. I had thought lapped cars had to pit the lap after lead lap cars, but I checked the pit procedures section of the rulebook, and that is not listed.
However, can we use some common sense? A top five car lost a chance at victory because of a lapped car making a pit stop. Those two parties should not be crossing paths on the pit lane, especially under caution. Herta didn't make Abel's terrible day any worse. It doesn't mean Herta can do whatever he wants on the pit lane, but it also a situation that should never present itself.
Herta never recovered from that. He took tires under the final caution, and I thought he would gain some ground, but he gained about two spots. None of the drivers that took tires late shot up the order, which was a bit of surprise. I thought someone would have gained five or six positions, not enough to win but enough to make a good day a lot better. For Herta, it is 11th on day, seventh on the season, no victories, and this is a bit of disappointment when you consider he left Nashville last year as the race winner and second in the championship.
12. Scott Dixon was 12th. Dixon backed into third in the championship. Christian Lundgaard retired due to a mechanical issue. Dixon ended the season with finishes of 11th, ninth and 12th. Not the greatest end to the season. He probably should have been in the top five at Portland. Dixon only had three podium finishes this season. It wasn't a spectacular year.
He basically got third because he finished in the top twenty of every race. He was 12th or better in every race but when he was 20th at the Indianapolis 500. That is a Scott Dixon-esque bad season. He isn't going to win often, but he isn't going to have a slew of bad results. He is just going to finish eighth and ninth and pick off a few podium finishes here and there. This wasn't the highest note to end on. Dixon will be ok.
13. Why don't we give the final lead lap finisher his due and recognize Rinus VeeKay, who was 13th on the day, but he fell to 14th in the final championship standings?
I don't know if anyone would have believed that VeeKay could finish 14th in the championship when the season began. Dale Coyne Racing's best finish over the entire 2024 season was 13th. This year, VeeKay had two top five finishes and seven top ten finishes. He finished 13th or better nine times.
In VeeKay's career, he has finished 14th, 12th, 12th, 14th, 13th and 14th in the championship, and he has done that with Ed Carpenter Racing and Dale Coyne Racing. It seems like VeeKay will be back at Coyne next year. Silly season appears to have taken a sharp left turn into lunacy. VeeKay might be a hot commodity when it appeared he would be stuck in place when he is clearly ready for a greater opportunity.
14. Let's cover the Rookie of the Year battle here because Robert Shwartzman was 14th, and he was in the top ten before he got penalized for a block on Ferrucci. It was a clear block and it was a right call to penalize the Prema driver. Shwartzman went from a top ten position and ten spots ahead of Louis Foster, who entered the race only eight points ahead of Shwartzman, to 14th and Rookie of the Year was lost right there.
For most of this season, it felt like Foster was the better rookie, even though Shwartzman had two top ten finishes. If Shwartzman had ended Nashville in the top ten, it would be hard to argue he wasn't the best rookie with three top ten finishes while Foster had none. However, one costly mistake took the honor from Shwartzman. He did well this year, but outside of Indianapolis 500 qualifying, there wasn't a moment where we were really astonished with how Shwartzman raced. Even his two top ten finishes mostly came down to attrition and pit strategy. He will get better, but we didn't see the next Álex Palou either.
15. Let's jump to Louis Foster because he was part of probably the most notable moment in this race. Foster was a lap down and was traffic to the leaders. He was in front of David Malukas, who was second. Entering turn one on lap 83, Foster was low and he turned right to get separation from the yellow line to improve corner entry, but he veered into the path of Malukas.
Malukas moved up as well, but the two came together in turn one. Malukas' race was over. Foster received a drive-through penalty.
Foster was at fault, but Malukas wasn't blameless. Malukas still made a risky move when he could have backed out of it. Foster didn't drive up and collect Malukas. Foster made it more difficult entering the corner. Foster was still on the yellow line when entering the corner. He could not have driven any lower.
This has been my critique on Malukas for the last three years. He makes mistakes. This wasn't 100% on him, but he could have given it a beat with a lapped car and lived to fight another day. Backing out and waiting to try again the next lap was an option. He had plenty of space to third. Malukas was not in danger of losing a position.
We weren't even halfway through the race. There was a lot of time to go. I don't know if Malukas has the attention-span to recognize that, and Team Penske apparently thinks he is the future.
Malukas was taken to hospital for further evaluation after this accident, and he has been released. To be fair, we must recognize Malukas did finish 11th in the championship driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. He also only had five top ten finishes in 17 races. That is fewer than VeeKay, Rossi, Ferrucci and, most notably, Will Power.
16. Let's blow through the rest of the field beause the rest of the finishers don't really matter.
Marcus Ericsson's miserable season ends with a 15th-place finish. I not only think Ericsson is on a hot seat for 2026, I think if Ericsson's form does not improve through the Indianapolis 500, Andretti Global would make a midseason driver change.
Sting Ray Robb was 16th. Yep. That is as good as it gets for Robb. We will see if he can still find the money to stay in IndyCar. Juncos Hollinger Racing will need money to keep the lights on.
Nolan Siegel was the top Arrow McLaren finisher because Lundgaard broke down and Patricio O'Ward blew a tire while leading. More on O'Ward later, but Siegel is also on a hot seat for being a midseason replacement in 2026. I don't care how much of daddy's money Siegel is bringing to the team. McLaren cannot stand having two cars in the top five of the championship and another car that is 22nd. Théo Pourchaire probably could have cracked the championship top ten this season.
Devlin DeFrancesco was 18th, the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher. I don't know where DeFrancesco goes from here. I guess it depends on what RLLR does when the driver market opens up. Graham Rahal was experiencing car issues from practically the start of the race. Rahal was multiple laps down early and he ended up five laps down in 22nd.
17. Marcus Armstrong was also penalized for blocking and this cost him a top ten finish. Armstrong wound up 19th. It also cost him a top six championship finish. Armstrong still will finish eighth in the championship in an incredible year for Meyer Shank Racing with both its drivers in the championship top ten. I bet MSR would have been thrilled to get one driver in the championship top ten. To get both, and have both cars finish ahead of all three Team Penske cars was likely unthinkable when the season started. MSR should be celebrated more for this season.
18. Speaking of Team Penske, Will Power was shot out of a cannon around the midway point, and it looked like he was set to be fighting for his second victory of the season. Then Power overshot his pit box on his penultimate pit stop, he stalled trying to leave and he lost a lap. Power could not recover and he finished 21st.
Power will turn 45 years old on the day of next year's season opener from St. Petersburg. At some point, Team Penske will need to move on, but I don't think now is time with the driver Penske is prepared to hire. If it was an obvious upgrade, maybe Penske would have a case. It does feel like that team is about to make a downgrade for the sake of change.
19. Jacob Abel was 23rd, ten laps down. I am going to give Abel some benefit of the doubt because he was driving for Dale Coyne Racing and while Rinus VeeKay was 14th in the championship, this is the same team that could not finish better than 13th last season. The resources at Coyne are scarce on a good day. That second car might not be good, but it also might not be that bad. I don't know if it is Abel or the car or the combination. Abel didn't look bad in Indy Lights even if he didn't do anything to make you think he was a star of the future. I cannot see how he will be back in 2026.
20. Patricio O'Ward suffered a right front tire failure while leading. O'Ward was the class of the field and he had led 116 of the first 127 laps. If O'Ward doesn't experience the tire failure, I think he wins the race. I don't think Newgarden was going to be able make the moves to pass O'Ward. I don't think Palou is a factor in the final pit cycle. If O'Ward doesn't have the tire failure, he makes his final stop and emerges clear of the competition. There is no worry of anyone jumping him in the pit cycle.
O'Ward was pretty critical of Firestone after the failure. It has been a tough two years for Firestone at Nashville. I will say Nashville is probably the worst surface IndyCar races on, especially among ovals. Look at the bumps in the middle of turn four! IndyCar hasn't hit a bump that bad since the train tracks in Baltimore. No track should be all-concrete. There are only three ovals in the world that are all concrete. Nashville shouldn't be all concrete.
Firestone could bring the hardest tire possible to Nashville and prevent this problem, but the racing will probably suffer. I forgive Firestone a little bit, but by next year Firestone should have this figured out and we should have tires that wear without having to worry they will fail.
I will throw Lundgaard in here because three laps before O'Ward's spin, Lundgaard came to pit lane with his mechanical issue. What a sour turn for Arrow McLaren. Lundgaard was in good position to get third in the championship prior to this problem. Fifth in the championship is still really good in year one at McLaren.
21. And we end with the driver we began with last week. Christian Rasmussen was first last week, and he was the first out this week. In turn two on the opening lap, Rasmussen was running high and he lost the back end, sending him into the wall. For all the risks he took last week, it bit him immediately in the next race.
The victory last week gives Rasmussen a mulligan, and he still finished 13th in the championship despite today's result. We can laugh about it now, but next year will be key for Rasmussen and ECR. It will be year three together. Results must take a leap, something that has proven to be difficult for ECR to do.
22. I have written quite a bit for this finale, and I still have more to say.
I liked the multiple tire compounds. Maybe we should just do it at all the oval races as well as the road and street courses.
I forgot Nashville was running multiple compound and I think we all forgot about it until about Thursday.
This is something IndyCar could have promoted. After Portland, or even after Laguna Seca, IndyCar should have promoted what was to come over the final few races. We all knew the championship was likely going to be clinched early. In the middle of an off-week, IndyCar should just get ahead on what is to come over the upcoming races. It could have been mentioned and celebrated weeks ago that Nashville would have multiple tire compounds.
This is what NASCAR does well. It takes the most inconsequential crap and makes it something worth talking about. Whether it is the All-Star Race format in the weeks leading up to that race, the in-season tournament, the throwback weekend at Darlington when they did the throwback weekend or visiting a new racetrack, you know something is coming two or three or four weeks before it will happen and the drumbeat of attention will slowly grow louder.
That is easy to do and it cost no money. IndyCar must learn how to talk about itself. I don't need social media posting videos about how the drivers peel a mango or if they can name all the seven dwarfs from Snow White. Talk about you! Talk about the racing! And bring the drivers into the discussion. Some of IndyCar's awareness problem is down to IndyCar being unaware about itself.
23. For all the displeasure we saw this year, I thought IndyCar ended on a good note. We had five good races to end the year after an Iowa weekend that was disappointing even if the races were better than we expected.
Toronto saw a new winner in the season, and with how the cautions fell we had Dale Coyne Racing on the door step of a victory. Laguna Seca was a good race even if Palou smoked the competition. Portland was a great story with Power winning, Palou clinching the title and there were a number of drivers who had their best races of the season. Then we had Rasmussen taking a surprise victory in a really good race at Milwaukee, and today you had Newgarden getting off the snide in another lively race.
This wasn't a perfect season, but for all the complaints we heard early in 2025, we aren't hearing those now. We ended with five different winners in the final five races. For the 16th consecutive season, IndyCar had at least seven different winners. We had 15 different drivers finish on the podium, the most since 2015.
There are still things for IndyCar to work on, but we can at least acknowledge the positives. They are there even if you think there are none.
24. It is odd going into this offseason. A month ago, it felt like very little would change. Now, it feels like things are going to be shaken up drastically. Forget Malukas knocking Power out of Penske, now Colton Herta is going to Formula Two, Álex Palou is a driver of interest for Red Bull, and Romain Grosjean is interested in a full-time return to IndyCar!
I honestly thought we were looking at an offseason where five or six seats were going to change. We still aren't going to see 14 or 15 seats change, but I don't think this offseason is going to be as simple as Malukas going to Penske, Power going to some team he doesn't really want to be at, Dennis Hauger getting a chance at Dale Coyne Racing, and then Juncos Hollinger Racing finding someone to help fund the program along side Sting Ray Robb or finding two new drivers to keep the team afloat.
It should be an anticipated offseason, but it also feels like we are bound to see some illogical moves.
25. At some point we will find out the 2026 calendar and whether or not IndyCar is running a combination with NASCAR at Phoenix, how the spring gap will be filled, when and where IndyCar will be racing in Canada, if Mexico City formalizes and if Iowa is retained or IndyCar moves on. We will have plenty of time to talk about that and more.
May the six-month offseason begin!
