The 13th round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season has the series returning from its summer break with a round at Portland International Raceway. It will be the first of five consecutive race weekends that will see six races take place during a span of 29 days. This is the run-in for the 2026 season. The next off-weekend will be the first one of the 2026-27 offseason. Time is running out for results. Through the first 12 races, six different drivers have won a race. Thirteen drivers have made a trip to the podium. Twenty-four drivers have picked up a top ten finish. There have been four different winners in the last four races.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday August 9 with green flag scheduled for 4:27 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: 5:30 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Saturday:
Second Practice: 1:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 7:00 p.m. ET
Qualifying: 7:00 p.m. ET
Sunday:
Warm-Up: 1:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Warm-Up: 1:00 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 4:27 p.m. ET (110 laps)
Palou Loves Portland
Another trip to the Pacific Northwest sees Álex Palou firmly in control of the championship. Palou enters the Rose City with an 83-point championship lead over David Malukas. Palou is guaranteed to leave Portland with the championship lead. With only 324 points left on the table, 23 drivers remain mathematically eligible for the championship. Mick Schumacher and Sting Ray Robb were the first two full-time drivers to be mathematically eliminated from the championship after the Nashville round.
Palou will clinch the championship as long as he scores 242 points over the final six races. That is an average of 40.333 points per race. Essentially, if Palou finishes second in each of the final six races and scores at least two bonus points at any point over the final six races, he will be champion regardless if Malukas wins each of the final six races with the maximum 54 points.
This will be the sixth visit to Portland for Palou. It is his fourth consecutive year he is entering as the championship leader. He has never entered Portland worse than fifth in the championship. He has left Portland as the championship leader after four of his first five visits to the circuit.
This is one of Palou's best tracks, but it isn't even close to being his best track. Though he has an average finish of 3.8 at Portland, it still ranks fourth among tracks where he has made at least three starts. It is behind Laguna Seca (1.6), Barber Motorsports Park (2.5) and Long Beach (3.0). Portland is one of seven circuits where Palou has at least four podium finishes. The Catalan driver has finished on the podium in the last three trips to Portland. He has led a lap in four of his five starts here. The one time he did not lead at Portland is when he had his worst finish, his only finish not on the podium, a 12th in 2022. It is also the only time Palou left Portland not as the championship leader.
When it comes to starting position, Portland is at the top for Palou. He has never started worse than fifth in the Grand Prix of Portland. With an average starting position of 3.6, it ranks third-best among tracks where he has made at least three starts. Only the Detroit street circuit (2.333) and Barber Motorsports Park (3.333) are where he has a better average starting position. Palou enters this weekend having started every race this season in the top ten. Only twice has he started outside the top five. Palou has not started outside the top ten since the 2024 IndyCar finale at Nashville, a race where he started 24th partially because of a nine-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.
Palou enters this weekend with five victories this season. He is one of six drivers in IndyCar history to win at least five races in three seasons. A.J. Foyt has the most seasons with at least five victories with six. Mario Andretti, Michael Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais and Al Unser each had four seasons with at least five victories.
One more victory could make Palou the first driver to win at least six races in consecutive seasons since Bourdais won seven in the 2006 season and eight in the 2007 season. The only other driver to win at least six races in consecutive seasons is Mario Andretti, who won eight races in each 1966 and 1967.
Power Also Loves Portland
While Palou enters Portland attempting to win the Grand Prix of Portland for a third time, which would match the all-time record, Will Power already has three Portland victories, and Power has won this event the last two years.
Last year, Power became the fifth driver to win in consecutive years at Portland. In 2026, he could become the second driver to win three consecutive years at Portland. Michael Andretti won from 1990 to 1992 in the Rose City. Al Unser, Jr. scored his first career victory at Portland in 1984 before he won in consecutive years in 1994 and 1995, the other driver with three career Portland victories.
In his first two Portland victories, Power won from second on the grid. Last year, he started third but still drove to victory. In the last two Portland races, Power has led a combined 179 of 220 laps. In each of his three Portland victories, he has led at least 50 laps. Since IndyCar returned to Portland in 2018, Power has started in the top three in five of seven races. His track record has been hit-or-miss at Portland during that timespan. While he has three victories and he was also second in the 2022 race, in the other three Portland races since 2018, Power has finished outside the top ten with two results outside the top twenty.
Hit-or-miss has been the story of Power's first season with Andretti Global. There have been a lot more misses. Power does have two podium finishes, but he has also finished outside the top fifteen in six of the first 12 races. This has Power ranked 14th in the championship on 220 points. At no point this season has Power been ranked in the top ten. The best he has been was 11th after Arlington in March. He did have three consecutive top ten finishes before he was 20th at Nashville. Power had only one top ten finish in the first eight races this season. Qualifying pace has not improved. He has started in the top ten in five races while he has also started 19th or worse in five races.
Power is the bottom of the three Andretti drivers in the championship.
Kyle Kirkwood continues to lead the way for Andretti. Though he has slipped to third in the championship, Kirkwood has five consecutive top ten finishes, and his only finish outside the top ten remains 16th in the Indianapolis 500. Portland has not been a great place for Kirkwood. His best finish is tenth, where he finished in 2023 and 2024 editions of this race. He has never started better than 11th at the circuit. He has also never led a lap.
Though he has as may top five finishes as Power, Marcus Ericsson is eighth in the championship and 30 points clear of the Australian. Ericsson's top five finishes were fourth at Arlington and second at Gateway. His sixth at Nashville was his sixth top ten finish of the season. Entering the 13th race of the 2025 season, Ericsson had one top ten finish. In five Portland starts, Ericsson has started tenth in four of those races. He started 18th in 2022. He has three top ten finishes, but he was 22nd last year.
Andretti Gloabl had a driver finish on the podium in the first three Portland races after its return to the schedule in 2018. It has not been on the podium since, and in two of the last three years the best Andretti finisher at Portland has been in tenth position.
The Top Ten Tussle
Out of the summer breather, there is a tight fight for tenth in the IndyCar championship, and it is likely involving a few drivers you did not expect to be there. Currently, 12 points cover tenth and 13th in the championship.
In tenth, maybe the biggest surprise of all. It is Rinus VeeKay! The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver has come on strong since the Indianapolis 500. After opening the season with a ninth at St. Petersburg, VeeKay failed to finish in the top ten in the next five races and he was 16th in the championship. At the Indianapolis, the Dutchman was sixth. He has alternated finishing inside and outside the top ten since, but his other two top ten finishes were each fourth-place finishes, one at Gateway and the other at Mid-Ohio.
This is the second consecutive season VeeKay has had multiple top five finishes, and it is the fifth time in seven seasons he has had multiple top five finishes. His most top five finishes in a seaosn was three in 2022. VeeKay joined Callum Ilott as the only Juncos Hollinger Racing drivers to have multiple top five finishes in a season.
A point behind VeeKay is Scott Dixon, whose historic slump continues into Portland. Dixon has not had a top ten finish in his last six starts. His only top five finish this season remains a third at Long Beach. Dixon is in danger of having his worst championship finish in over two decades. The bad news is Dixon has finished outside the top ten in the last two Portland races. Prior to that, he had three consecutive third-place finishes in this race.
Graham Rahal is a surprise for the top ten battle. Rahal is eight points behind VeeKay, and Rahal is one of six drivers this season with at least three podium finishes. Rahal had been ranked in the top ten of the championship after three races this season, but with a four-race slump where he has failed to score a top ten finish and where he has retired from three of those events, he has slipped to 12th in the championship. Portland was the location to Rahal's best finish last season. He drove from 22nd to fourth, and he has fourth top ten finishes in the last five Portland races.
Marcus Armstrong is 12 points outside the championship top ten in 13th. Armstrong had four top ten finishes from the first seven races. In the last five races, he has one top ten finish, and he has finished outside the top twenty in two of the last three races, both of which have been retirements due to engine failures, one of which while he was leading at Road America. Armstrong has finished 24th in three races this season. Armstrong's Road America retirement was a 46-point swing in the championship. Forty-six additional points would place him ninth in the championship.
VeeKay has never finished better 12th in the championship in his first six IndyCar seasons. Rahal has not had a championship top ten season since 2021, which was his seventh consecutive top ten championship finish at the time. Dixon has finished in the championship top ten in 20 consecutive seasons, and he hasn't finished worse than sixth during that timeframe. Last year, Armstrong was eighth in the championship, his first championship top ten finish.
Seeking a Top Five Finish
Many have had a taste of success this season. Two-dozen drivers have a top ten finish this season. Over half of those drivers have finished on the podium. While we have run a dozen races, two teams have yet to score a top five finish this season: A.J. Foyt Racing and Dale Coyne Racing.
For A.J. Foyt Racing, it has been rather competitive in recent years.
Santino Ferrucci has had at least one top five finish in each of the last three season. Last year, Ferrucci had a career-high four top five finishes. Two years ago, Ferrucci was ninth in the championship. This year, Ferrucci's best finish remains eighth, which occurred at Barber and the Indianapolis 500. While he was eighth at Barber, Ferrucci's average finish on road and street course is 16.5. Last year, his average finish on road and street courses was 14.7.
Caio Collet has been celebrated at times this season for his speed, but the results have not been following Collet. The Brazilian is 23rd in the championship on 137 points. He has yet to finish in the top ten this season, let alone in the top five. Collet is one of two full-time drivers without a top ten finish. The other is Sting Ray Robb. Collet has only two top fifteen finishes, though his best finish was only two races ago with an 11th at Mid-Ohio. His average finish on road and street courses is 16.75.
This is likely not the season Dale Coyne Racing expected. After having both cars finish in the top ten at St. Petersburg, its two drivers have combined for two top ten finishes over the 11 following races. Neither driver has been close to a top five finish.
Dennis Hauger does lead the Coyne head-to-head battle. Hauger is on 157 points in 20th, two points ahead of Romain Grosjean. Hauger has not finished in the top ten in the last six races, and each of those results have been 20th or worse. The Norwegian started third in the season opener and that remains the only time he has made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. He has started outside the top twenty in seven of 12 races this season.
Grosjean was ninth in the Indianapolis 500, but he has not cracked the top ten since. The Frenchman is currently on a pattern of one top ten finish followed by five consecutive results outside the top ten. Grosjean has made it out of the first round of qualifying twice since St. Petersburg, but he has not made it to round two since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He has started outside the top fifteen in five of the last six races after having only one start outside the top fifteen in the first six races.
Two years ago, Ferrucci started on pole position at Portland before finishing eighth. In his other four Portland starts, his best finish is 16th. In four Portland starts, Grosjean's best finish is 19th and he has finished 27th in his last two visits.
Last year, Hauger won the Indy Lights race from Portland with Collet finishing second. Though Collet started on pole position, Hauger led all 35 laps and picked up fastest lap in the process.
Ferrucci's eighth at Portland two years ago matched A.J. Foyt Racing's best finish at the circuit. Robby Gordon was eighth in the 1993 Portland race, and Matheus Leist was eighth in 2018. Dale Coyne Racing was on the podium in that 2018 race with Sébastien Bourdais in third. That is Coyne's only top five finish at Portland.
Road to Indy
The Road to Indy Series are also winding down their 2026 seasons, and all three will be on track at Portland.
For Indy Lights, only four races remain over three race weekends. Nikita Johnson retook the championship lead with a second at Nashville while Enzo Fittipaldi was 11th and Tymek Kucharczyk was 18th. Johnson has scored 451 points and he has finished on the podium in three of the last four races. However, he has not won since the third race of these season, the first race at Barber Motorsports Park.
Fittipaldi has fallen one point behind Johnson in the championship. Fittipaldi leads all drivers with four victories this season, but he has also finished outside the top ten in four races while Johnson's worst finish is seventh. Kucharczyk is 25 points off the championship lead. His 18th at Nashville was his first result outside the top ten this season.
Max Taylor is 90 points off the championship lead. Taylor was fifth at Nashville, his first top five finish in five races. Lochie Hughes is 106 points back in fifth. Hughes has only two podium finishes this season. Myles Rowe picked up his third podium finish of the season in Nashville when he was third. Rowe is 115 points behind Johnson.
Alessandro de Tullio sits on 324 points in seventh as he has three consecutive top ten finishes entering Portland. Jack Beeton has five consecutive top ten finishes, all in the top eight, after having two top ten finishes and not finishing better than ninth in the first eight races this season. Beeton's form has lifted him to eighth in the championship, 25 points behind de Tullio.
Nashville winner Matteo Nannini takes ninth on 297 points with Josh Pierson rounding out the top ten on 282 points. With four races remaining, only 216 points remain available this Indy Lights season. Juan Manuel Correa (271 points), Max Garcia (264) and Seb Murray (245) are the final drivers mathematically alive for the championship.
There are two driver changes ahead of the Portland round. Bart Harrison will take over the #17 HMD Motorsports Dallara from Salvador de Alba, and Harrison will also contest the Laguna Seca doubleheader. De Alba will return for Milwaukee. Harrison is from the United Kingdom, and he had competed in the first four rounds of the Eurocup-3 championship, a Formula Regional alternate. He is currently 16th in the Eurocup-3 championship out of 19 drivers who have scored points, and his best finish in ten races is seventh.
Jordan Missig will be unable to complete the season at Abel Motorsports due to his accident at Nashville leaving with insufficient funds. Jacob Abel will return and run the #48 Dallara for the team at Portland. Abel made his Indianapolis 500 debut this past May and finished two laps down in 24th. In 42 Indy Lights starts, Abel won three times, all in the 2024 season, include the Portland race.
The 35-lap Indy Lights race will be held at 2:08 p.m. ET on Sunday August 9. The race has a 55-minute limit.
There was a change at the top of the USF Pro 2000 championship at the Mid-Ohio round. With a sweep of the Mid-Ohio triple-header, Leonardo Escorpioni took the championship lead as the Brazilian has 228 points, two points more than Jack Jefferes. Jeffers was second, fourth and second that weekend, and he has finished in no worse than sixth in nine consecutive raes, but he has not won since the second race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Escorpioni has a streak of six consecutive top five finishes entering Portland.
G3 Argyros is 51 points off the championship lead as he ended the Road America weekend with a pair of top five results after starting with a 15th in the first race of the weekend. Andrés Cárdenas has four podium finishes in the last five races. Cárdenas is still searching for his first victory of the season. The Peruvian is 54 points off the championship lead. Frankie Mossman is also looking for his first victory of the season despite having five podium finishes, the same amount as championship leader Escorpioni. Mossman is 61 points behind the Brazilian.
In the five races since his victory at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Michael Costello has one top five finish. Costello is sixth in the championship, a point behind Mossman. Thomas Schrage has nine consecutive top ten finishes and he is seventh on 151 points. After opening the season with three consecutive results outside the top ten, Teddy Musella has seventh consecutive top ten finishes, five of those finishes have been seventh-place results. Musella has 133 points. Brady Golan and Christian Cameron round out the top ten on 116 points and 109 points respectively.
The first USF Pro 2000 race will be held at 8:05 p.m. ET on Friday August 7 with the second scheduled for Saturday August 8 at 5:30 p.m. ET. Both races are 30 laps or 45 minutes.
Despite having his worst result of the season in the first Mid-Ohio race, Sebastián Garzón has a good hold on the U.S. F2000 championship lead with 265 points. Garzón was 12th in the first Mid-Ohio race, but he bounced back with a third in race two. The Colombian has eight podium finishes and ten top five finishes from 11 races. He has not won since the fourth race of the season, the second race of the IMS road course triple-header.
Brad Majman has closed to within 19 points of Garzón. Majman has eight consecutive top five finishes and ten top five finishes from 11 races this season. Majman's fellow Australian Eddie Beswick is third in the championship, 57 points behind Garzón. Beswick picked up his second victory of the season in the first Mid-Ohio race, but he was 15th in the second race of the weekend.
After a run of six consecutive top five finishes, Evan Cooley has fallen into a three-race slump. He has finished 23rd, 13th and tenth in that span. Cooley has fallen to 90 points behind the championship leader. João Vergara is fifth in the championship, 96 points from the championship lead. Vergara was second and fifth at Mid-Ohio. His only other top five result prior was second in the St. Petersburg season opener.
Anthony Martella scored his third victory of the season in the second Mid-Ohio race. While Martella has won three times, he has finished outside the top fifteen in five races, including the first Mid-Ohio race when he was 17th. The Canadian is 108 points behind Garzón. Ryan Giannetta was fourth and second at Mid-Ohio, his first top five finishes of the season. Giannetta has 139 points, tied with Ayrton Cahan, but Cahan's best finish this season is sixth.
Gabriel Cahan is ninth on 134 points while Oliver Wheldon rounds out the top ten on 132 points. Wheldon was 18th and 11th at Mid-Ohio.
U.S. F2000 will race at 7:10 p.m. ET on Friday August 7 and at 3:50 p.m. ET on Saturday August 8. The races are scheduled for 25 laps or 40 minutes.
Fast Facts
This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on August 9 and the first since Scott Dixon won at Mid-Ohio in 2009. Dixon has won the last two races held on August 9. He won at Kentucky on this day in 2008.
Scott Dixon has the most victories in the month of August in IndyCar history with 12. Will Power has the second-most with 11.
Álex Palou has never won an IndyCar race in the month of August.
There have been 17 IndyCar races held in the month of August since Palou entered IndyCar in 2020.
Since returning to the schedule in 2018, five of the seven Portland races have had an opening lap caution and six of the seven races have had a caution within the first three laps of the race.
The average length of the first caution period when it was an opening lap incident is 7.2 laps.
The only Portland race in the last seven to avoid a caution within the first three laps was 2022, which went 83 laps before a caution... for an incident entering turn one involving Jimmie Johnson and Rinus VeeKay.
The average number of caution in a Portland race is 2.129 with a median of one. The average number of caution laps is 7.933 with a median of 5.5.
There have been six caution-free races at Portland, most recently in 2007.
Six of the last seven Portland races have had at least one top five finisher started outside the top ten.
In four of those six races, at least one top five finisher started outside the top fifteen.
On race day, it will be 20 years, one month and 22 days since the last time an American driver won at Portland. That would be A.J. Allmendinger in 2006. It was Allmendinger's first career victory. Allmendinger is the only American winner at Portland in the last 30 years. Portland did not host a race from 2008 to 2017, and it did not host a race in 2020 due to the global pandemic.
Allmendinger is one of four drivers to have their first career victory occur at Portland. The others are Al Unser, Jr. (1984), Alex Zanardi (1996) and Mark Blundell (1997)
The average starting position for a Portland winner is 3.806 with a median of second.
There have been nine consecutive different pole position winners at Portland (Bruno Junqueira, Justin Wilson, Will Power, Colton Herta, Álex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Graham Rahal, Santino Ferrucci and Christian Lundgaard).
Six different teams have won the last six Portland pole positions (Andretti Global, Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, A.J. Foyt Racing, McLaren).
Six consecutive Portland races have been won from a top five starting position. Four of those six have been from the front row.
Twice has a Portland winner started outside the top ten (Mark Blundell from 11th in 1997, Takuma Sato from 20th in 2018).
The average number of lead changes in a Portland race is 6.387 with a median of six.
Nine consecutive Portland races have featured at least seven lead changes.
Last year's race featured 11 lead changes, the second-most in a Portland race. The most was 12 in 2021.
Every Portland race has featured at least two lead changes.
The only Portland race to feature less than three lead changes was the 2001 race, which had two lead changes.
Through 12 races, the driver who has led the most laps has won five times. Álex Palou is responsible for four of those victories. The other was Kyle Kirkwood at Arlington, where Kirkwood, Palou and Will Power all finished tied for the most laps led and they finished 1-2-3 respectively.
Only three times this season has the race winner had fastest lap, and it happened in three consecutive races with Álex Palou at Detroit, Josef Newgarden at Gateway and Christian Lundgaard at Road America.
Predictions
Álex Palou... but if it isn't Álex Palou, and it will probably be Álex Palou, Christian Lundgaard gets his third victory of the season, and Lundgaard is at least seven spots ahead of his Arrow McLaren teammate Patricio O'Ward. Josef Newgarden scores a top five finish. Kyle Kirkwood moves ahead of David Malukas in the championship. Louis Foster starts outside the top fifteen and finishes inside the top ten. Will Power does not lead a lap. Mick Schumacher will be the top finishing rookie and he will leave as at least the second-best rookie in the championship. Sleeper: Alexander Rossi.
