The first round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series takes place in a familiar location, St. Petersburg, Florida. A total of 181 days will have passed since the most recent IndyCar race, a 225-laps race around Nashville Superspeedway. The grid reassembles this weekend on the gulf coast with 25 cars entered for the season opener and 18 drivers in the same spot they were when IndyCar last raced. For three drivers, this weekend marks their IndyCar debuts. For another three drivers, they are in a different spot than where they were this time a year ago. And for another driver, he is back in the series after a year on the sidelines.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday March 1 with green flag scheduled for 12:29 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: 1:35 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 9:15 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 4:35 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:05 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:29 p.m. ET (100 laps)
Qualifying: 4:35 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:05 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:29 p.m. ET (100 laps)
Is Álex Palou Bound to Make More History?
We ended the 2025 season with Palou claiming his third consecutive IndyCar championship and the fourth title in his six-year IndyCar career. It capped off a historic season that saw Palou win eight races, stand on the podium 13 times and end with an average finish of 4.0588. As for what is to come next, probably more history.
Palou has yet to reach 100 starts in his IndyCar career, and he is already reaching heights most don't hit in an entire career. St. Petersburg will be his 99th career start and he enters this weekend with 19 career victories. One victory in the either of the first two races of this season will make him the ninth driver to win at least 20 races in the first 100 starts of a career. Palou is already tied for 22nd all-time in victories with Jimmy Bryan and Sam Hornish, Jr.
Last season, Palou won eight times and he became just the ninth driver to win at least eight races in a season. The only driver that won eight times in consecutive seasons was Mario Andretti, who did it in 1966 and 1967. Palou opened last season with a somewhat surprising victory at St. Petersburg after starting eighth and not taking the lead until 26 laps remained during the final round of pit stops. It kicked off a start to the season that saw him win five of the first six races. Five more victories will put Palou tied with Bobby Rahal for 18th all-time, and another eight-win season would have Palou level with Johnny Rutherford for 15th.
Beyond the victories, Palou could become the second driver in IndyCar history with four consecutive championship. Only Sébastien Bourdais has achieved such a feat, though Bourdais did it in the middle of the CART-IRL split when CART had become Champ Car. During Bourdais' four-year championship run, the largest field he competed against was 19 cars. For Palou, the smallest field he has competed in was 23 entries, and all eight of those races came during his rookie season in 2020. The last 71 IndyCar races have featured at least 25 starters. Over the past three seasons, every race has started at least 27 cars.
Another title would be Palou's fifth, and it would put him alone for third all-time in championships, one behind Scott Dixon in second and two behind A.J. Foyt's all-time record. Dixon's fifth title came in his 18th season while Foyt's fifth title was in his 11th season.
Palou ended last season with four consecutive podium finishes. It is the third time in Palou's career he has ad at least four consecutive podium finishes. In 2023, he won three consecutive races over Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio before finishing second at Toronto. Last season, he opened the season with six consecutive podium results.
It isn't only Palou who is chasing history. Entering 2026, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing are tied with 17 championships apiece. Team Penske has held the record for most championship as a team since 1983 when it won its sixth title, breaking a tie with Dean Van Lines Racing, which had won five championships, three with Jimmy Bryan in the 1950s and two with Mario Andretti in the 1960s.
Who Can Conquer the Catalan?
There will be two-dozen drivers with the objective of toppling the Catalan driver and ending his three-year reign as IndyCar king. For any of these drivers to do it, they must overcome a 196-point gap as that is how massive Palou's insurance was between him and the rest of the field in 2025.
The closest competitor was Patricio O'Ward, who scored his best championship finish last season coming in second to Palou. O'Ward did win twice in 2025, and he had ten top five finishes, but he also had five finishes outside the top ten, and Palou has had only had five finishes outside the top ten over his last three seasons. The only time Palou had at least five finishes outside the top ten in a single season was his rookie year in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing.
The best challenger could come from within the Chip Ganassi Racing stable, as Scott Dixon was third in the championship last year. The six-time champion had the second-best average finish in 2025 at 8.294, but that was over four positions worse than Palou's average. While Dixon had the second-best average finish, he only won once, and it came after an unforced error from Palou driving off the road at Mid-Ohio. Dixon only had three podium finishes in 2025, his fewest since he had only one in 2005.
Kyle Kirkwood did win the second-most races in 2025. With three victories, Kirkwood was Palou's main challenger in the first half of the season as the two competitors combined to win every race in the first half of the season. Through the first nine races, Kirkwood had an average finish 7.889, and that included 32nd in the Indianapolis 500 after being disqualified. He was sixth on the road. However, in the final eight races, Kirkwood failed to score a top five finish and his average finish dropped to 14th.
The 2025 season started on a good note for Christian Lundgaard. In his first year with Arrow McLaren, Lundgaard made a stellar first impression with four consecutive top ten finishes, three of which were consecutive podium results. After four races, Lundgaard was second in the championship behind Palou. However, Lundgaard fell into a little slump. While he would pick up three more podium finishes over the final 13 races, he did have six finishes outside the top ten, three of which were outside the top twenty.
We have covered the remaining top five drivers from last year's championship, but we have not mentioned Team Penske. The team responsible for the most recent non-Palou title and champions in five of the last 12 seasons, Team Penske is always seen as a favorite, but last year was the organization's worst season in a quarter-century. Penske did not win until the 15th race in the 17-race season. No Penske drivers finished in the top eight of the championship, and the organization's three drivers combined for nine podium finishes over the 2025 season. Team Penske also had a combined 19 finishes outside the top twenty last season.
Greener Pastures
Most of the IndyCar grid has remained unchanged from when the 2025 season ended. Most drivers have stayed put, but a few drivers are driving somewhere else, and it is a notable change for one of the greatest drivers to ever race in IndyCar.
St. Petersburg will mark the first time in over 17 years that Will Power will compete in an IndyCar race for a team other than Team Penske. Power makes his first start for Andretti Global in the #26 Honda. Last season, Power was the top Team Penske driver in the championship, but he was ninth matching his worst championship performance for the team. Power did win at Portland, but he had nine finishes outside the top ten and six of those were results outside the top twenty.
Andretti Global will be hoping Power can lead to successful for multiple drivers in the organization. While Kirkwood won three times last year and finished fourth in the championship, the Andretti organization has not had multiple drivers win multiple races in the same season since 2018.
With Power leaving Team Penske, it has led to David Malukas joining the organization. Malukas spent 2025 racing for A.J. Foyt Racing where he had a career year. Malukas was 11th in the championship and he was credited with second in the Indianapolis 500. He picked up another top five finish with a fourth in the second Iowa race. Malukas ended up finishing two points better now-teammate Josef Newgarden in the championship.
While Malukas' four-year IndyCar career has brought him to Team Penske, there is a lot he has yet to accomplish. He has yet to in a race in IndyCar, and he is the first winless veteran Team Penske has hired since Ryan Briscoe joined the organization for the 2008 IndyCar season. However, Briscoe had spent 2007 racing for Team Penske in the American Le Mans Series. Malukas has never had a top five finish on a road or street circuit. Last season, his best finish on such a circuit was seventh at Road America.
Power and Malukas dominated most of the attention during the offseason when it came to driver shuffling, but they were not the only drivers to change seats.
Despite finishing 14th in the championship after being the final driver hired to a full-time seat for the 2025 season, Rinus VeeKay decided to leave Dale Coyne Racing for Juncos Hollinger Racing. VeeKay had a memorable season that saw him finish second at Toronto and have a brilliant drive to fourth at Barber Motorsports Park. The Dutchman had six top ten finishes in the first nine races after Dale Coyne Racing failed to score a finish better than 13th in 2024.
VeeKay has never finished worse than 14th in the championship in six IndyCar seasons, and he moves to Juncos Hollinger Racing, which has never had a driver finish than 16th in the championship. Last season, JHR had a combined five top ten finishes between Conor Daly, whom VeeKay replaces, and Sting Ray Robb, who will be VeeKay's teammate this season. The team has had at least one top five finish in each of the last three seasons. In 2024, the team had nine top ten finishes.
VeeKay does have history with Juncos Hollinger Racing. Together, they won the 2018 Pro Mazda championship and they were second in the 2019 Indy Lights championship behind Oliver Askew.
With VeeKay leaving Dale Coyne Racing, it opened a spot in the Illinois-based team, and with the final full-time driver announced for the third consecutive season, Dale Coyne Racing has brought Romain Grosjean back to IndyCar.
Grosjean spent 2025 as reserve driver for Prema behind Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman, but he never contested an IndyCar race. Grosjean did run five IMSA endurance races last year for Lamborghini, and his best finish was fourth at Petit Le Mans. The Frenchman last raced in IndyCar in 2024 with Juncos Hollinger Racing. He was 17th in the championship, but his best finish was fourth at Laguna Seca and he had six top ten finishes over the entire season.
It is a reunion as Grosjean made his IndyCar debut with Dale Coyne Racing in 2021. The two parties combined to have three podium finishes, including finishing second in Grosjean's third IndyCar start, which came from pole position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. While Grosjean did not run three oval races, he still ended up 15th in the championship and was only 33 points behind Scott McLaughlin for Rookie of the Year.
Our Rookie Trifecta
Speaking of rookies, we have three ready for the 2026 season, and all three will be making their IndyCar debuts this weekend. Two of the three are coming up from Indy Lights while the third has a spent his career racing on the global stage, first in Formula One and most recently in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Dennis Hauger won the 2025 Indy Lights championship with Andretti Global, and Hauger moves up to IndyCar to run the #19 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing in a technical partnership with Andretti Global. Hauger won six of 14 races last year and he stood on the podium ten times. He also won eight pole positions and had five fastest laps.
Prior to Indy Lights, Hauger was the 2021 Formula Three champion, which he won against the likes of Jack Doohan, Frederik Vesti and Logan Sargeant. He spent the next three seasons in Formula Two where his best championship finish was eighth in 2023 and he won five races.
Also moving up from Indy Lights will be Caio Collet, who takes over the #4 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing. Collet was second to Hauger in Indy Lights, 72 points behind the Norwegian. Last year was Collet's second year in Indy Lights. After winning one race in 2024, Collet won three times in 2025, and he had nine podium finishes, three more than the year before.
Collet also spent time in Formula Three, competing two rungs below Formula One from 2021 to 2023. He and Hauger shared the podium in the final race of the Circuit Paul Ricard weekend in 2021. Collet was third while Hauger was second and both finished behind Jack Doohan. Collet was ninth, eighth and ninth in the championship over those three years, and all three of his victories were sprint victories.
The most notable rookie this season is Mick Schumacher, who joins Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to drive the #47 Honda. Schumacher spent two seasons racing in Formula One, both for the Haas F1 organization. While he failed to score a point as a rookie in 2021, Schumacher had two points finishes in 2022, an eighth in the British Grand Prix and sixth in the Austrian Grand Prix.
After spending 2023 as a reserve driver for Mercedes-AMG and McLaren in Formula One, Schumacher returned to competition in 2024 driving for the Alpine hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 16 starts, his best finish wa this on three occasions.
Last year, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing took Rookie of the Year with Louis Foster, though Foster's best finish was 11th and he was 23rd in the championship. It was the first time the rookie of the year finished outside the top twenty in the championship since 1986. Foster did have the highlight of taking pole position at Road America.
Foster was the second RLLR driver in the last four seasons to win rookie of the year. Christian Lundgaard took the honor in 2022. Dale Coyne Racing has produced three rookies of the year since renunciation in 2008, but it has not done it since Ed Jones in 2017. A.J. Foyt Racing has never produced a rookie of the year.
Since the introduction of the aeroscreen in 2020, the average championship finish for all qualified rookies is 21.24 and no rookie has finished better than 14th in that time. The last season where a rookie finished in the top ten of the championship saw two crack the top ten. In 2019, Felix Rosenqvist was sixth as a rookie while Colton Herta was seventh.
A Few Changes
The opening weekend of the IndyCar season will see some changes to procedures and how things are done. We will first see these changes in practice.
Both practice sessions before qualifying will feature the split-group format, which we saw introduced last season during the first practice sessions. Each practice will be open to all entries for the first 40 minutes before the field will be split into two groups based on alternating pit boxes. Each group will then get an additional 12 minute on track. The second practice session had previously been a 60-minute session open to all cars.
The morning warm-up session will also increase by five minutes, from 25 minutes to 30 minutes.
With the change to the practice format, a change has also been made on how groups will be determined for the second round of qualifying. The groups will be determined based on the previous race's qualifying results. For the opening round at St. Petersburg, entrant points from last season will set the groups, meaning we know the qualifying groups even before the first session will take place.
One group will feature Álex Palou, Scott Dixon, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Armstrong, David Malukas, Caio Collet, Christian Rasmussen, Alexander Rossi, Kyffin Simpson, Graham Rahal, Louis Foster, Sting Ray Robb and Dennis Hauger.
The other group will feature Patricio O'Ward, Kyle Kirkwood, Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, Santino Ferrucci, Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Ericsson, Nolan Siegel and Mick Schumacher.
St. Petersburg will mark the first weekend with the new alternate tire compound rule for street course races. Each team must use a set of the alternate tire compound in two stints in each street course race. In all likelihood, this will make every street course race at least three-stop race, if not a four-stop race, but it does not entirely eliminate teams attempting to make it on three stops or even two stops. The primary tire compound must only be used on one stint, theoretically opening the door to a team making it on two stops, but using the alternate tire compound for majority of the race.
All 23 finishers in last year's St. Petersburg race made at least three stops. The only car to make four stops was Patricio O'Ward, but that was after O'Ward decided to start on the primary tire and switch to the alternate tire after two laps. O'Ward then went 20 laps on the alternate tire but still had to make two more pit stops to make it to the finish of the race. In 2024, 21 of the 23 cars that took the checkered flag at St. Petersburg only made two stops.
Road to Indy
This season's St. Petersburg weekend sees two of the three Road to Indy series also opening their campaigns on the temporary circuit.
Indy Lights is showing up with 24 cars for its opening race.
Leading the way will be Lochie Hughes and the Andretti Global quadruplet. Hughes was third in the championship last year with a pair of victories, and he was second at St. Petersburg last year. Hughes has three new teammates. Seb Murray moves over from the Andretti Cape partnership while Max Taylor will be full-time in Indy Lights after running a few races last year in companionship with a full USF Pro 2000 season. Josh Pierson moves over from HMD Motorsports where Pierson was sixth in the championship.
Myles Rowe was fourth in the championship and he ended the 2025 season with a victory at Nashville. Rowe is back in the Force Indy entry run in partnership with Abel Motorsports. Abel Motorsports will run 2025 USF Pro 2000 championship Max Garcia. Garcia won nine races last season. Jordan Missig and Colin Kaminsky round out the Abel Motorsports drivers.
HMD Motorpsorts is down to four full-time cars with Salvador de Alba leading the way. Jack Beeton, Enzo Fittipaldi and Tymek Kucharczyk will also be at HMD.
Chip Ganassi Racing has expanded to four cars with Bryce Aron and Niels Koolen returning. James Roe, Jr. and Carson Etter are joining the outfit. Cape Motorsports is now running partnership with Ed Carpenter Racing, and it will have Nikita Johnson and Matteo Nannini as its drivers.
There are three new teams on the grid from the 2025 season. Juncos Hollinger Racing is back after a year out of the series. JHR will have Alexander Koreiba and Ricardo Escotto as its drivers. Cusack Morgan Motorsports will run Nicolas Stati and Juan Manuel Correa. A.J. Foyt Racing is back in Indy Lights for the first time since 2004, and it has a two-car team for Nicholas Monteiro and Alessandro de Tullio. Both Cusick Morgan Motorsports and A.J. Foyt Racing have a technical partnership with HMD Motorsports.
The first Indy Lights race of the season will be at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday March 1. There race is scheduled for 45 laps.
Twenty-three cars are entered for the U.S. F2000 season opener.
Exclusive Autosport won the Drivers' Championship last year with Jack Jeffers, and Exclusive Autosport is rolling into St. Petersburg with six drivers. Evan Cooley and Anthony Martella are the top returning drivers from the 2025 championship. Connor Aspley, Gabriel Cahan, Ayrton Cahan and Kaylee Countryman will round out the six-car lineup.
VRD Racing won the Teams' Championship last year, and it is back with a four-car team for João Vergara, Colin Aitken, Ryan Giannetta and Jack Mohrhardt.
Ed Carpenter Racing's tentacles are spreading down to the lowest rung of the Road to Indy as well, as the team has partnered with Jay Howard Driver Development. This partnership will continue in USF Pro 2000 as well. This weekend, JHDD has four cars entered for Liam Loiacono, Naim Saleh, Erik Holm and Cal Peter.
DEForce Racing has three drivers entered with Sebastián Garzón leading the way after being fastest at Homestead testing. Brady Golan and Thomas Nordquist. Pabst Racing has a trio of cars, two for Australians Brad Majman and Eddie Beswick, and one for Canadian Lucas Nanji.
Zanella Racing has entered U.S. F2000 with 2025 USF Juniors champion Leonardo Escorpioni. Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing is back with Wian Boshoff. Wesley Gundler rounds out the grid with ENVE Motorsports.
U.S. F2000 will race at 11:30 a.m. ET on Friday February 27 and at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday March 1. Both races are scheduled for 20 laps or 40 minutes.
Fast Facts
This will be the third IndyCar race to take place on March 1 and the first since 1925 when Tommy Milton won a 250-mile race on the 1.25-mile board oval in Culver City, California.
The only other March 1 race was in 1913. Billy Carlson won a 200-mile race on the Point Loma road course, a 5.982-mile course in San Diego, California.
March 1 is also Will Power's 45th birthday.
There have been nine birthday winners in IndyCar history, the most recent was Dan Wheldon on June 22, 2008 at Iowa. It was Wheldon's 30th birthday.
The oldest birthday winner in IndyCar history is Nigel Mansell, who won on his 40th birthday on August 8, 1993 at Loudon.
There have been six different winners in the last six St. Petersburg races. This matches the longest streak of different winners in the history of the race. There were six different winners from 2008 to 2013.
Last year's race had an average speed of 97.173 mph, the fastest St. Petersburg race ever, whether it be at the 180-mile distance (100 laps) or 200-mile distance (110 laps).
Four of the last five St. Petersburg races have been completed between in the one-hour-and-51-minute range.
The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.2727 with a median of fourth.
Last year, Álex Palou won from eighth. It was the sixth time in 22 St. Petersburg races that the winner started outside the top five.
Twenty-three consecutive IndyCar races have been won from a top ten starting position. The most recent race won from outside the top ten was the second Iowa race in 2024. Will Power won from 22nd.
The most recent road or street course race won from outside the top ten was the 2023 Laguna Seca season finale. Scott Dixon won from 11th.
Chip Ganassi Racing has won two of the last three St. Petersburg races after winning only one of the previous 18.
Chevrolet and Honda have alternated winning at St. Petersburg since 2020 with Chevrolet winning all three even-numbered years and Honda winning all three odd-numbered years.
The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.4545 with a median of seven.
The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 3.9545 with a median of 4.5. The average number of caution laps is 17.5 with a median of 16.
Every St. Petersburg race has had at least one caution. Last year's race became the second St. Petersburg race to feature only one caution. The first was the 2022 St. Petersburg race.
This is the first IndyCar season to start with three consecutive weekends of races since 2021, however, that was after the St. Petersburg race was delayed seven weeks due to the pandemic. The last season with the first three races originally scheduled over consecutive weekends was the 2007 Champ Car season.
Predictions
We start the season with a bang, and Will Power wins on his birthday. Only one other Team Penske driver finishes in the top five, and at least four different teams are represented in the top five finishers. Álex Palou spends majority of the laps running in the top five. Every car makes it through the first lap. Louis Foster gets his first top ten finish. Most cars start on the alternate tire and then use them again on their third stint. One driver will try to use the alternate tire in both the first two stints, and that driver will finish off the lead lap. Romain Grosjean will not have an outburst on the radio. Marcus Ericsson has his worst St. Petersburg starting position since 2021, but he will finish at least five spots better than that. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.
