The 14th round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season will be run at Laguna Seca as IndyCar wil be spending a few weekends on the west coast this summer. Though Chevrolet scored its second victory of the season in the most recent round at Toronto, it is likely not thrilled heading to Monterey. Honda is five-for-five at the circuit since it returned to the schedule in 2019. During that time, Chevrolet drivers have combined to led 71 of 470 laps. The most laps a Chevrolet driver has led in a single Laguna Seca race is 17. Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last three Laguna Seca races. Only one team has won four consecutive Laguna Seca races. That was Truesports when Bobby Rahal won four consecutive years from 1984 through 1987.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday July 27 with green flag scheduled for 3:22 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.
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: 5:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:02 p.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 3:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)
Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 12:02 p.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 3:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)
FS2 will have coverage of Friday practice session while FS1 will have coverage of Saturday's sessions. FS2 will show the Sunday morning warm-up. Fox will have race coverage.
Championship Picture
We haven't considered the championship picture much in IndyCar because it has been pretty clear since the middle of May. This is Álex Palou's championship. Everyone else is competing for second.
With four races remaining in the 2025 season, it is only right to lay out the picture even if the result seems inevitable.
IndyCar will enter Laguna Seca with four drivers mathematically alive for the title. Behind Palou, who has scored 536 points, an average of 41.2307 points per start, is Patricio O'Ward on 437 points. O'Ward trimmed the deficit to 99 points after his victory in Toronto while Palou finished 12th, only the second time Palou has not finished inside the top ten this season.
Kyle Kirkwood sits on 363 points while Scott Dixon is point behind Kirkwood on 362 points, deficits of 173 points and 174 points respectively to the championship leader.
The top four in the championship are the only four race winners this season. We are at least guaranteed the champion will have a race victory this season.
In the case of Palou, it is looking at a magic number, and that number is currently 117. That is the number of points Palou must score over the final four races to clinch the championship.
If O'Ward were to sweep the final four events and score the maximum of 54 points in each race, O'Ward would end on 653 points. Despite what would be a tremendous end to the season, such a streak would leave O'Ward with only six victories, and Palou's seven victories means the Catalan driver has the tiebreaker locked up.
The good news for Palou is 117 points is not entirely difficult for him to achieve over the final month-plus of the season. That is an average of 29.25 points per race. That is just worse than a fifth-place finish in each of the final four events. In the previous four races alone Palou scored 150 points, and that is including his 12th-place finish in Toronto.
There is no combination of four races this season in which Palou has not scored at least 117 points. His worst four-race stretch is the Indianapolis 500, Detroit where he was 25th after being knocked into the barrier from contact with David Malukas, Gateway where he was eighth, and Road America. In those four races, Palou still scored 138 points thanks to victories in the bookend races.
Palou could be second to O'Ward in each of the final four races with no bonus points to help in the effort, and Palou would still claim the championship by 43 points with the title still sealed before we get to the Nashville finale.
As for Kirkwood and Dixon, their championship hopes are on their last legs limbing into Laguna Seca. Both drivers will need to outscore Palou in Northern California to remain alive onto Portland. Any driver 162 points or greater behind Palou after this weekend will be mathematically eliminated from the championship.
Laguna Seca is likely the last track everyone wanted to see on the schedule. In four starts, Palou has won twice, and he has finished second and third in the other two races. His average points scored in a Laguna Seca race is 46.25.
The Unsung Drivers of the Season
While Palou has been getting all the attention at the top, and O'Ward, Kirkwood and Dixon have all had respectable seasons in their own ways, there are a few drivers who have not been getting the love and attention they deserve. Two drivers are hard to ignore after Toronto.
In Canada, Rinus VeeKay pulled off a second-place finish after running a 44-lap second stint of the race. The Dutchman led 16 laps before O'Ward leaped ahead of him in the final pit cycle. Though a position short of victory, Toronto was VeeKay's first podum finish in 59 starts. It was Dale Coyne Racing's first podium finish in 31 races, but it was Coyne's first street course podium finish since Sébastien Bourdais won the 2018 season opener at St. Petersburg.
This season has been more than one result for VeeKay and Coyne. Toronto was VeeKay's seventh top ten finish of the season. Last year, Dale Coyne Racing's best finish was 13th. VeeKay had seven top ten finishes all of last season, and this year has matched his most in a single season. Through 13 races, he has more top ten finishes than all three Penske drivers, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi and Marcus Ericsson. VeeKay's average finish of 12.923 ranks 11th in IndyCar and is also better than all three Penske drivers.
All these results have VeeKay 11th in the championship on 252 points, seven points outside the championship top ten. VeeKay has never finished better than 12th in the championship in five seasons, and Dale Coyne Racing hasn't had a driver finish in the championship top ten since Bourdais in 2018.
VeeKay wasn't the only surprise on the podium in Toronto. Kyffin Simpson was third, his first career podium finish in his 30th career start. It was also Simpson's second top five finish of the season as he was fifth at Detroit last month. In four street races in 2025, Simpson had an average finish of ninth, but he was in the top ten in three of the four races with 18th at St. Petersburg skewing the average. If you go based on median position, Simpson's was 7.5. On average finish, Simpson was tied for the sixth-best on street courses this season. Last year, he ranked 22nd out of drivers who started at least three street races.
Ranked 14th in the championship on 226 points, Simpson has already surpassed his 2024 points total by 44 points with four races remaining in the season. He actually beat his 2024 points total of 182 when he finished 13th at Iowa the week before Toronto.
Meyer Shank Racing is having a banner season across the board. Both its drivers are ranked in the championship top ten entering the final four races. Felix Rosenqvist is in sixth with Marcus Armstrong in seventh. Both MSR drivers are ahead of all three Team Penske drivers and they are ahead of 2/3rds of the Andretti Global organization as well.
Rosenqvist has four top five results and eight top ten finishes. Prior to finishing 14th at Toronto, Armstrong entered on a string of six consecutive top ten results, which included a third at Toronto. This season, Armstrong has eight top ten finishes, one fewer than he had all of last season with Chip Ganassi Racing.
The results aren't only coming in the race for MSR. Rosenqvist has the second-best average starting position this season at 8.923, behind only Palou's 3.538. Armstrong is sixth at 10.615.
The Rookies
We are nearly through the rookie season for a trio of drivers in 2025, and let's just say it has been a learning experience for all three.
No rookie ranks in the top twenty of the championship, and we are on the verge of a historic first. There has not been a season where the rookie of the year did not finish in the top twenty of the championship since the 1986 CART season.
In that 1986 season, Chip Robinson was the top rookie in 26th, but Robinson competed in only two races and he scored six points for his seventh-place finish in the season finale in Miami. Only five rookies made a start that season, and none of them started more than nine races. Dominic Dobson made the most starts and he was 30th in the championship on three points, the same points total as rookie Mike Nish, who was tenth at Portland, but Nish made only two other starts that season. The other rookies in that 1986 season were Rick Miaskiewicz, who made five starts, and Rocky Moran, who started eight races.
In 2025, the top two rookies are tied on points with four races remaining.
Robert Shwartzman and Louis Foster have each scored 159 points through the first 13 races. The tiebreaker goes to Shwartzman though. The Prema driver has two top ten finishes this season. He was ninth in the second Iowa race and tenth at Gateway. Foster is still looking for that first carer top ten finish, and he has finished 11th in two races while he was the top finishing rookie in the Indianapolis 500 in 12th. Shwartzman, however, took Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors after winning pole position though he ended up 26th in the results after an accident on pit lane.
Foster has finished in the top fifteen in more races this season with seven such results. Shwartzman's only top fifteen results are his two top ten finishes. He best finish on a road or street course this season is 16th. Foster's 11th-place finishes were in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and at Mid-Ohio, where Foster started on pole position.
Foster will have a slight advantage over the final four races. He has raced at all these circuits in Indy Lights, and not only has he raced at them, he has won at them. His first career Indy Lights victory came at Portland in 2023. Foster swept a doubleheader at Laguna Seca last year before capping off his season with victories at Milwaukee and Nashville. He was second at the Portland race last year for good measure.
Jacob Abel is bringing up the rear in the three-horse rookie race. Abel is 27th in the championship on 95 points. Though his best finish was 11th in the second Iowa race, Abel has finished outside the top twenty in ten of 12 starts this year, and he did fail to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
Shwartzman and Foster have each been the best finishing rookie in six races this season while Abel's 11th at Iowa was his only time as the best rookie through 13 races.
All three will have some work to do if they look to avoid making history for the first time in 39 years. Shwartzman and Foster are currently 36 points outside the top twenty. Marcus Ericsson and Graham Rahal are tied for 19th in the championship on 195 points. Ericsson holds the tiebreaker with his best finish being fifth to Rahal's best finish being sixth.
The End of the Marathon
July has been a busy month for IndyCar. The series did not take a weekend off and Laguna Seca concludes a four-week, five-race marathon that began in Ohio, went west to Iowa for a doubleheader, crossed the border into Toronto, and will now make a 2,734-mile trek to Laguna Seca. All five races all have occurred in a 22-day period.
When this stretch began, IndyCar had only seen two race winners in the 2025 season. During this marathon, the number of race winners has doubled. Honda started this run unbeaten. It has since lost twice. Álex Palou had only one career victory on an oval. Palou now has two. Scott Dixon had won a race in 20 consecutive seasons. Dixon has now won in 21 consecutive seasons.
The marathon did not slow Palou. He has finished in the top five three times. Only Patricio O'Ward has finished in the top five of all four races. Dixon joins Palou and O'Ward as the only drivers with multiple podium finishes over this period.
Other than Palou, everyone in the top six of the championship has a different position. O'Ward and Kyle Kirkwood have flipped with O'Ward now in second while Kirkwood is third. It has gone from Kirkwood up 18 points on O'Ward to O'Ward leading Kirkwood by 74 points. Kirkwood has not finished in the top five in the month of July. Dixon has moved from fifth to fourth while Christian Lundgaard is up to fifth from sixth. Felix Rosenqvist has dropped two spots in the championship to sixth.
Marcus Armstrong's strong July has shot him up to seventh in the championship from 11th to seventh. Colton Herta has gained two spots to move up to eighth. Along with Palou, O'Ward and Dixon, Herta is the only driver with multiple top five finishes in July. Meanwhile, Will Power has fallen two spots to ninth while David Malukas is up two spots to tenth. Rinus VeeKay is up three positions to 11th while Santino Ferrucci is down three positions to 12th. Missing the Toronto race after his accident in the morning warm-up session cost Ferrucci two positions alone in the championship. He was tenth when he entered Canada.
Scott McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi will be looking forward for this stretch to end. McLaughlin was eighth in the championship at the start of July. He has now dropped to 13th in the championship as his average finish this month is 19.75. Though he was fourth in the first Iowa race, McLaughlin has finished 23th or worse in the other three races.
Rossi was 13th in the championship heading to Mid-Ohio. Heading to Laguna Seca, he is down to 18th in the championship as his average finish in July is 20.5 with his best result being 15th.
It has been a rough year in general for Josef Newgarden, but he has actually made some gains in July. He was 17th in the championship but he is now 16th thanks to a pair of top ten finishes in Iowa.
After Laguna Seca, there will only be 35 days remaining in the 2025 IndyCar season.
Indy Lights
There are actually more races remaining in the Indy Lights season than the IndyCar season. That is partially down to a doubleheader for the junior series held this weekend at Laguna Seca.
Dennis Hauger extended his championship by a good margin after Hauger was runner-up at Iowa while his nearest championship rival Lochie Hughes was 16th after a spin in the race. Hauger has 414 points, a 76-point advantage over his Andretti Global teammate Hughes.
Caio Collet is 18 points behind Hughes after the Brazilian was fourth in Iowa, Collet's seventh consecutive top five finish this season. Collet has finished in the top five of all but one race this year, and that was 19th at Barber Motorsports Park.
Myles Rowe won at Iowa, his first career victory in the series, and he now has 287 points in fourth. Through nine races, Rowe has seven top five finishes and eight top ten results. Last year, Rowe opened the season with five consecutive top ten finishes, but he ended with only two in the final nine races and he finished outside the top fifteen in five of the final nine races.
Salvador de Alba was third at Iowa, and de Alba is fifth in the championship on 258 points, 15 points clear of Josh Pierson. Callum Hedge extended his streak of sixth-place finishes to three consecutive races after Iowa. This has Hedge seventh in the championship on 217 points.
There is a 41-point gulf from Hedge to Jordan Missig in eighth. Missig has finished in the top ten in the last two races after having not finished in the top ten since the St. Petersburg season opener. Niels Koolen's fifth-place finish at Iowa lifted him to ninth in the championship, tied with Jack William Miller on 169 points. Miller's best finish this season is seventh.
With 270 points left on the table, Bryce Aron and James Roe are still mathematically alive for the championship with 160 points and 148 points respectively. Ricardo Escotto sits exactly 270 points behind Hauger in the championship, and Escotto could match Hauger on five victories, however, Hauger would own the tiebreaker as Hauger has a pair of runner-up finishes while Escotto's best result from the first nine races is ninth.
The first Indy Lights race will be 4:36 p.m. ET on Saturday July 26 with the second race Sunday July 27 at 1:06 p.m. ET. Both races are scheduled for 35 laps or 55 minutes.
Fast Facts
This will be the seventh IndyCar race to take place on July 27 and the first since 2003 when CART and the Indy Racing League each held an event. Paul Tracy won at Vancouver and Alex Barron won at Michigan.
On that day in 2003, Louis Foster was born.
Foster could become the 11th driver to win on his birthday in IndyCar history.
The ten birthday winners are Dario Resta (August 19, 1916), Joe Boyer (May 30, 1924), Lou Moore (September 12, 1931), Tony Bettenhausen (September 12, 1953), Al Unser (May 29, 1971), Nigel Mansell (August 8, 1993), Sam Hornish, Jr. (July 2, 2006), Scott Dixon (July 22, 2007), and Dan Wheldon (June 22, 2008).
At 22 years old, Foster would become the youngest birthday winner in IndyCar history.
The youngest age for a birthday winner is 27, and it has happened three times. Moore, Hornish, Jr. and Dixon all won on their 27th birthdays.
Foster would become the first driver in IndyCar history to have a first career victory occur on his birthday.
Scott Dixon was the fifth-place finisher in that 2003 IRL race from Michigan. It was Dixon's 49th career start and he had four career victories.
The average starting position for a Laguna Seca winner is 3.111 with a median of first.
Seventeen of 27 Laguna Seca races have been won from pole position.
The Laguna Seca pole-sitter has never gone three consecutive races without a victory. Prior to Álex Palou's victory from pole position last year, the previous two Laguna Seca races were won from 11th.
Twenty-three of 27 Laguna Seca races have been won from a top three starting position.
The average number of lead changes in a Laguna Seca race is 3.4814 with a median of three.
Four of the five Laguna Seca races since 2019 have had at least six lead changes. Prior to this stretch, only three of the first 22 Laguna Seca races had at least six lead changes.
The average number of cautions in a Laguna Seca race is 2.074 with a median of one. The average number of caution laps is 8.3703 with a median of eight.
The last two Laguna Seca races have had at least five caution periods. Prior to 2023, only once in the first 25 races at the track had more than four cautions. That was the 2001 race, which had eight cautions.
The 2023 Laguna Seca race had a record-tying eight cautions and a record-breaking 35 caution laps.
There have been six caution-free races at Laguna Seca, most recently in 1997.
Predictions
We are riding the Álex Palou bandwagon into Laguna Seca, and Honda will have a glorious day with Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist finishing on the podium. All three Team Penske cars will finish in the top ten, but none will finish in the top five. Louis Foster will get his first career top ten finish on his birthday, and Foster will leave Laguna Seca as the top rookie in the championship. There will be no withdrawals on Sunday morning. There will be fewer than three cautions. Someone will start outside the top twenty and finish inside the top ten. Sleeper: Callum Ilott.
