The 14th race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season sees IndyCar visit a new location, and for the second time this season, IndyCar is running an inaugural event. Markham, Ontario, Canada plays host to Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham. This race takes the place of the Toronto race, which had hosted 39 races between 1986 and 2025. Only five races remain in the 2026 season, and we are running out of championship-eligible drivers in a hurry. Eleven drivers were mathematically eliminated from championship contention after Portland. Only 12 drivers remain alive for the Astor Cup heading to Canada.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday August 16 with green flag scheduled for 12:22 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: 3:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 10:05 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:25 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 8:40 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)
Qualifying: 2:25 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-up: 8:40 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 12:22 p.m. ET (90 laps)
A New Canadian Home
Located about 19 miles northeast of Toronto, Markham is home to just over 338,000 people, the 16th-largest city in Canada, and the seventh-largest in Ontario. It now becomes home to IndyCar's only international race, and the event has a contact for five seasons.
The course is located in the Markham Centre, the developing downtown area of the city. This track features 12 corners and is 2.19 miles in length, the second-longest street course on the IndyCar calendar.
The main straightaway and paddock area is located next to the Unionville train station. The first pair of corners will lead to a left-hand turn onto University Boulevard before another left to Enterprise Boulevard. The circuit will run to a right-hand hairpin at turn five and bring the cars onto the other side of Enterprise Boulevard and the longest straightaway on the circuit. Turn six will be a right-hand corner onto Kennedy Road before another right onto a service road and a flowing left-hand turn eight Turn nine is another big arching right-handed corner. Turns ten and 11 will be a tight left-right complex before a right-hand turn back onto the main straightaway.
This will be the third circuit on the calendar to feature a double-sided pit lane joining Detroit and Arlington, which also debuted earlier this season.
This race will be the 82nd Canadian race in IndyCar history, and Ontario has hosted over half of them. Toronto hosted 39 races while Mosport was the home for the first IndyCar races in Canada over 59 years ago. The permanent circuit in Bowmanville, Ontario hosted a pair of doubleheaders in 1967 and 1968. IndyCar returned in 1977 and 1978 for a total of six races.
British Columbia is the next most-visited Canadian province as Vancouver hosted 15 races from 1990 to 2004. Three different circuit configurations were used around Pacific Place over Vancouver's tenure on the schedule.
Quebec has held 13 races on three different circuits. Like Mosport, Circuit Mont-Tremblant hosted a pair of doubleheaders in 1967 and 1968. Champ Car returned to the circuit for one race in 2007. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal later hosted five CART/Champ Car races from 2002 to 2006. Sanair Super Speedway, a 0.826-mile oval in St. Pie, Quebec, held three races form 1984 to 1986.
Alberta is the only other province to host IndyCar, and Edmonton's City Centre Airport held eight races from 2005 to 2012. Two different configurations were used, the original 1.973-mile circuit lasting from 2005 to 2010 before a 2.224-mile circuit held the final two races.
Thirty-seven drivers have won a race in Canada.
Michael Andretti has the most Canadian victories having won ten times "North of the Border." Andretti won seven times in Toronto and three times in Vancouver. Al Unser, Jr., Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon are each tied with six Canadian victories. Paul Tracy, Sébastien Bourdais and Will Power each won five times in Canada. Bourdais is the only driver to win on three different Canadian circuits, having won at Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal. Mario Andretti swept both doubleheaders at Mont-Tremblant. No other drivers have won more than twice in Canada.
Six drivers have had their first career victory come in Canada. The first driver to do it was Adrián Fernández in the 1996 Toronto race. Maurício Gugelmin's only career victory came the following year in Vancouver. Both Canadian races in 2005 saw first time winners. First was Justin Wilson in Toronto. Next was Oriol Servià in Montreal. Like Gugelmin, it was Servià's only career victory. In 2007, Robert Doornbos' first career victory came at Mont-Tremblant. The most recent first-time winner in Canada was Christian Lundgaard at Toronto in 2023.
Paul Tracy is the only Canadian to win in Canada. Tracy's last victory in Canada was the final Vancouver race on July 25, 2004.
Who Hopes the Magic Remains in Ontario
This will be a new location for IndyCar, but plenty of drivers will be hoping the magic follows them north from Exhibition Place.
Case in point, Scott Dixon. Arguably, no driver was better in Toronto than Scott Dixon. Dixon has four victories, second-most behind only Michael Andretti's seven, Dixon had 12 top five finishes and 17 top ten finishes in 19 Toronto starts. That is the same number of top five finishes as Andretti, but Andretti never finished between sixth and tenth at Exhibition Place in 16 Toronto starts.
Dixon had 13 consecutive top ten finishes in Toronto, and he had five top five finishes in the final six Toronto races. He surely is hoping he can continue the magic in Markham because Dixon is in the middle of his worst slump in over 20 years. He hasn't had a top ten finish since he was sixth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. His only top five finish remains his third at Long Beach. He has not led since Gateway and St. Petersburg remains the only road/street race he has led this season.
Dixon was one of four different winners in the last four Toronto races. One of those other winners was Christian Lundgaard, who scored his first career victory at Exhibition Place in 2023 from pole position. Lundgaard had three top ten finishes in his first three trips to Toronto. Last year, he was 13th in his first year competing with Arrow McLaren after starting 19th. He was on the lead lap in all four of his Toronto starts. Lundgaard is also coming off an impressive drive in Portland going from 25th to ninth.
Patricio O'Ward won the final Grand Prix of Toronto, a little bit of a surprising victory as O'Ward won from tenth. Timely cautions played into O'Ward's favor and he jumped into the lead through pit cycle. Though a race winner, his Toronto results were a little mixed. In his other three starts, he was 11th, eighth and 17th after an accident in 2024. While O'Ward won at Mid-Ohio at the start of July, that is his only top five finish in the last five races with three results outside the top ten, including 11th last week at Portland.
Rinus VeeKay left Toronto on a high note. In 2025, VeeKay led 16 laps and he was the driver O'Ward jumped ahead during the final pit cycle. VeeKay did manage to finish second in the race driving for Dale Coyne Racing. It was another year where his Toronto finishing position did not slip. After finishing 13th in his first two trips to Ontario, he was eighth in 2024 before being runner-up last year. VeeKay has finished fourth in three of the last five races.
Like Scott Dixon, another driver in need for some magic making its way up to Markham is fellow New Zealander Marcus Armstrong. Armstrong has suffered three engine failures in the last four races, and he has not had a top ten finish since he was ninth at Gateway. He was ranked ninth in the championship after Gateway, and he has since dropped to 15th. In three Toronto starts, Armstrong was seventh, fifth and 14th. He picked up a penalty when he spun Kyle Kirkwood entering the pit lane. Armstrong had started third in that race.
Palou vs. Kirkwood
Álex Palou has the championship under control. With 510 points, Palou is 110 points ahead of Kyle Kirkwood in second. Palou's championship lead through the first 13 races of this season is 11 points greater than his championship lead through the first 13 races of last season. Palou has four consecutive top five finishes while Kirkwood has only three top five finishes over the last eight races. The one place where these two drivers have been close are on street courses.
Through the first four street course races of the season, these two drivers have combined to win all four. Palou holds the edge having won three of four street course races. Kirkwood won the inaugural Arlington race in March. Twice have these two drivers finished 1-2 this season on street courses. Palou was second to Kirkwood at Arlington, and Kirkwood took second to Palou in Detroit. While Palou won at St. Petersburg and Long Beach, Kirkwood was fourth in both races.
When it comes to street course points this season, Palou leads the way with 199. Kirkwood is second with 158.
Dating back to last season, Palou has six podium finishes in the last eight street course races. Kirkwood has four podium finishes in the same span, but he has seven top five finishes, one more than Palou. Kirkwood has 13 consecutive top ten finishes on street courses. His streak dates back to his 2023 victory on the streets of Nashville. Kirkwood's early results this year have come despite poor qualifying runs. He went from 15th to fourth at St. Petersburg, and he won from seventh at Arlington. In the last two street races, Kirkwood did start fourth and sixth.
Meanwhile, Palou has not started worse than fourth this season on a street course. He has yet to start outside the top ten this season, and he has started on one of the first two rows in 11 of 13 races in 2026.
Though he never won at Exhibition Place, and it will likely go down as one of the few tracks Palou never won at, Palou was one of the best in Toronto. He had an average finish of sixth in four starts. Ironically, Palou started 15th or worse in his first three Toronto starts, and in all three races he finished in the top six. Last year, Palou started second and led 37 laps before being shuffled back due to tire strategy and how the cautions fell.
Kirkwood had better results in his final two Toronto starts than his first two. In his first trip to Canada, Kirkwood's race ended with an accident with Jimmie Johnson, and he was placed 22nd. Kirkwood spun Hélio Castroneves in 2023 and that penalty dropped him to 15th after possibly having a shot for victory. In 2024, Kirkwood spent the entire race essentially on Colton Herta's gearbox as Kirkwood was second in an Andretti Autosport 1-2 finish. Despite being spun entering the pit lane for his first pit stop last year, Kirkwood recovered to finish sixth, exactly where he started.
Team Penske Street Woes
Street courses have not been Team Penske's bread and butter for a number of years now. It has been 19 street course races since Team Penske took a victory.
The most recent one was the last Belle Isle race in 2022. Will Power took victory while Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi was second. Scott Dixon was third. It was the seventh race of David Malukas' career, and he finished 11th. Scott McLaughlin had one career victory to his name at that time. This race saw Santino Ferrucci competing with Juncos Hollinger Racing, Jimmie Johnson competing with Chip Ganassi Racing, and Dalton Kellett was the top A.J. Foyt Racing finisher, better than Tatiana Calderón and Kyle Kirkwood.
Results have not been that flowery for Team Penske this season on street courses.
Scott McLaughlin was second at St. Petersburg to open the season after starting win pole position. That remains Team Penske's only top five finish on a street course this season. The three Team Penske drivers have a combined average finish of 10.667 on street courses this season. At least one Team Penske car has finished outside the top ten in every street course race this season. The last time Team Penske had every car finish in the top ten in street race was Nashville 2023.
McLaughlin has the best average finish on street courses this season at 9.5. He was sixth at Long Beach, but he was 11th in Arlington and 19th in Detroit. McLaughlin has settled in this season with four top ten finishes in the last five races. He had four top ten finishes in the first eight races of the season. McLaughlin is the worst of the three Team Penske drivers in the championship. He is eighth on 321 points.
David Malukas has been the best Team Penske driver in the championship since Barber Motorsports Park, the fourth round of the season. Malukas dropped to third after Portland. He is 118 points behind Álex Palou in the championship. Portland was the third time this season Malukas did not finish in the top ten. The other two times were on street courses. Malukas was 13th at St. Petersburg and 18th at Detroit. He was sixth at Arlington and seventh at Long Beach, Malukas' best two finishes on street courses. He is still looking for his first top five finish in a street race.
Top five finishes are not something Josef Newgarden has been accustomed to on street courses lately. Newgarden's most recent top five finish in a street race was third at St. Petersburg last year, seven street races ago. Three of Newgarden's four top five finishes this season have come on ovals. The Tennessean does have the worst average finish among the three Penske drivers on street courses, but it is only a half a position worse than Malukas. Newgarden does head to Markham with three consecutive top ten finishes, the first time he has had three consecutive top ten finishes in a single season since a four-race stretch in 2023 that included Toronto, the Iowa doubleheader and Nashville.
Canada has not been a friendly place to Team Penske lately. It failed to produce a top ten finisher in the last two visits to Toronto. Team Penske has not had a driver stand on a podium in Canada since Simon Pagenaud won the 2019 Toronto race.
Road to Indy
Only two of the three Road to Indy series will join IndyCar on the trek into Canada. Indy Lights will have the weekend off, but the lower two series will be busy with each running a doubleheader in Markham.
Leonardo Escorpioni extended his championship lead to 25 points with finishes of eighth and first in Portland, however, Escorpioni will not be able to compete in Markham due to immigration issues for the Brazilian. Jack Jeffers had a 14th and fourth in the Pacific Northwest. Jeffers' winless streak is up to eight races. He had finished behind Escorpioni in four of the last five races. G3 Argyros went first and second in Portland, and Argyros is 43 points off Escorpioni on 233 points.
There is a 40-point gap from Argyros in third and Frankie Mossman in fourth with Andrés Cárdenas a further point back in fifth. Thomas Schrage extended his top ten finish streak to 11 races, and Schrage is sixth in the championship on 177 points, 99 off the championship lead. Michael Costello was not at Portland, and Costello is not entered for Markham either. He has dropped to seventh on 166 points.
Teddy Musella's top ten finish streak ended at seven races after a pair of 13th-place finishes. Musella has 149 point, two more than Brady Golan. Christian Cameron picked up his first podium finish of the season with a second in the first Portland race. Colin Aitken went second and third in Portland. Cameron remains tenth in the championship on 144 points, nine points ahead of Aitken.
USF Pro 2000 will race at 1:05 p.m. ET on Saturday August 15 and at 10:25 a.m. ET on Sunday August 16.
Markham is the penultimate round of the U.S. F2000 championship, and only 12 drivers remain mathematically alive for the title.
Sebastián Garzón cancelled out his 14th-place finish in the first Portland race with a runner-up result, increasing his championship points total to 298 and increasing his championship lead to 29 points over Brad Majman. Majman went sixth and 13th in Portland, losing a third-place finish in the second race due to a 30-second penalty for avoidable contact. Eddie Beswick was 16th and fifth and he has fallen to 68 points behind Garzón.
João Vergara had a pair of fourths in Portland, and Vergara is ow fourth in the championship on 207 points, four ahead of Evan Cooley, who was third in the second race of the Portland weekend, ended a streak of four races without finishing better than tenth. Oliver Wheldon swept the weekend in Portland, the first two victories of his U.S. F2000 career, and despite missing the opening round, Wheldon is sixth on 197 points.
It will be a home race weekend for Canadian Anthony Martella. Though he was 21st in the second Portland race, Martella has three podium finishes in the last six races, and he was second to Wheldon in the first race of the Portland weekend. Martella is seventh in the championship on 193 points, ten ahead of Ryan Giannetta.
Only a point separate the Cahan brothers. Ayrton Cahan is on 151 points with Gabriel on 150. Wesley Gundler is 11th on 143 points. Wian Boshoff is the final driver mathematically alive for the championship, 160 points behind Garzón with 165 points left on the table.
U.S. F2000 hits the track with race one at 8:50 a.m. ET on Saturday August 15. Race two will be at 9:25 a.m. ET on Sunday August 16.
Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race held on August 16, and the first since 1998 when Dario Franchitti won the CART race at Road America and Kenny Bräck won the Indy Racing League race at Pikes Peak. It was Franchitti's first career victory and Bräck's second career victory. Bräck had scored his first career victory in the previous race, three weeks earlier in Charlotte.
This will be the 12th Canadian IndyCar race to take place during the month of August. All five races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the first four Mont-Tremblant races were held in August. The 1992 and 1997 Vancouver races were also held in August.
All three races held at Sanair were held in the month of September.
The pole-sitter has won only three of the last 11 street course races (Colton Herta at Toronto in 2024, Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach in 2025, Álex Palou at Detroit in June).
Seventeen consecutive races have been won from a top ten starting position, 12 of those have been from a top five starting position.
Honda has won 11 of the last 13 street course races, and Patricio O'Ward is responsible for the two Chevrolet victories. One of those was the 2024 St. Petersburg race, where O'Ward inherited the victory after Josef Newgarden was disqualified. The other was last year at Toronto where O'Ward won from tenth.
Dating back to 2023, Honda has won 16 of 18 street course races.
The average number of lead changes in the four street course races this season is 7.25.
Eleven consecutive street races have had at least five lead changes. The 2024 St. Petersburg race had four lead changes.
There has not been a street race where a driver has led every lap since Scott Dixon won at Belle Isle in 2012. However, that Belle Isle race was shortened to 60 laps from 90 laps after a lengthy delay due to the track surface coming apart of requiring repairs.
The last time a driver led every lap in a street race that went the scheduled distance was on July 13, 2003. Paul Tracy led all 112 laps at Toronto, Tracy's second of two Toronto victories.
There have been 98 races since the last time a driver led every lap in an IndyCar race. That was Will Power in the second Harvest Grand Prix race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on October 3, 2020.
Five active drivers have won in Canada. Along with the aforementioned Scott Dixon and Will Power, Josef Newgarden has won twice. Christian Lundgaard and Patricio O'Ward each has one victory.
Through the first four street course races, there has been an average of 2.5 cautions per race for an average of nine caution laps.
Detroit had five caution periods, tied for the second-most this season with Road America. The Indianapolis 500 had seven caution periods.
Eighteen times has a driver won a Canadian race and the championship in the same year. The most recent driver to do it was Scott Dixon in 2018.
Dixon and Sébastien Bourdais have each won a Canadian race and the championship in the same year on three occasions. Bourdais did it three consecutive years from 2004 to 2006. Along with 2018, Dixon also won in Canada in his 2008 and 2013 championship seasons.
Predictions
Álex Palou, but if it isn't Álex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood. There will not be any delays for course issues. Markham will race more like Arlington than Detroit. There will not be any cautions for incidents in the turn five hairpin. Christian Lundgaard will not need to make up 16 positions to finish in the top ten. Marcus Armstrong's car is able to go the distance. Will Power's streak of races led ends at three. At least one driver 16th or worse in the championship picks up a top ten finish. Rinus VeeKay continues to alternate between fourth-place finishes and results outside the top ten. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.
