Autumn is here in the Northern Hemisphere. The days are shorter. The temperatures are cooler. For one part of the world, we had enough wind and rain to satisfy us, and yet this is only the beginning. With these shorter and colder days come the dwindling number of races in every championship under the sun, and some have fewer than originally schedule. We are at a point where silverware is becoming quite common to hand out. This will be the norm for the next few months until the cupboard lay bare and we hit an offseason to restock the shelves for another year of competition to come.
IndyCar Tidbits
Speaking of silverware, we awarded another IndyCar championship at the start of the month, though it was really clinched in August. The trophy ceremony took place at the start of the month at Laguna Seca, and it was the usual suspect lifting the Astor Cup. We will get to him in a moment.
With the end of the season and some time to think, we put a bow on the 2026 season looking over the details to close the season, the good and the bad. There is always something we special in the results, and we saw a few things this season that were different.
The Champion
This is the fourth consecutive year we are recognizing an Álex Palou championship, and we have covered the lot. He has clinched the title early, and multiple races early. He has won championships with a smattering of victories. He has won a championship with a historic number of victories. There have been years he has been untouchable. There have been years he was within touching distance, only nobody could snatch him back from the top spot.
With 631 points, Palou scored 64.19125% of the maximum total (983). It is still better than two of his previous championship, but it was a little more than 12% less than his percentage last year.
This was Palou's second season where he won at least a third of the races. Last year, he won 47.0588% of the races. This was still only the third season since renunciation where the champion won at least a third of the races. The other time was 2008 when Scott Dixon won 35.294% of the races.
However, Palou's podium percentage was notably low. At 38.889%, it was tied for the fourth-lowest of champions since reunification.
Dixon had four podium finishes in 16 races in 2015, 25% of the schedule. Palou had five podium finishes from 17 races, 29.411%. In 2013, Dixon was on the podium in six of 19 races, 31.157%. Palou's seven podium finishes in 18 races is level with Will Power's 2014 championship season when Power also had seven podium finishes in 18 races.
Power's 2014 season and Palou's 2026 season are near-identical.
While Palou won six times and Power only won three times, both had seven podium finishes, Palou had 12 top five finishes while Power had eight, but both had 15 top ten finishes. However, Palou had eight pole positions, double Power's total, and Power is the all-time leader in pole position. How about that?
Americans
There were fewer full-time American drivers this season. The grid was down to eight after having 11 last season.
However, this was the third consecutive season American drivers have combined to win four races. This was the tenth consecutive season to see American drivers combine to win at least four races. This was the 16th consecutive season where multiple Americans won a race.
Kyle Kirkwood took second in the championship, a career-best for him, and it was the second consecutive season Kirkwood was the top American driver. David Malukas was fifth in the championship, a career-best for him. Josef Newgarden was eighth.
In the 19 seasons since reunification, 16 have had at least three Americans in the championship top ten.
There was a seven-spot gap between the top three American drivers and the next three American drivers. They were consecutive, but they were 15th, 16th and 17th in the championship with Alexander Rossi, Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci respectively. Nolan Siegel rounded out the top twenty. Sting Ray Robb was 25th.
Is this a bad thing? Is it a good thing?
Since reunification, the average number of full-time American drivers is 7.368 and the average number of American drivers in the championship top ten is 3.473. Out of eight full-time American drivers, we had three this year. In nine of 19 seasons since reunification has at least 50% of the full-time American drivers finished in the championship top ten. It is a 50-50 shot of it happening, but it has only happened once in the last five seasons. Make of that what you will.
Spread Them Points Around
This is just a general observation.
Last season, Palou stood on his own with 711 points. Only one other driver cleared 500 points (Patricio O'Ward - 515) and only five drivers broke 400 points.
This season, Palou stood on his own with 631 points, but four other drivers broke 500 points. Everyone in the top nine of the championship scored at least 400 points.
This was the most drivers to score at least 500 points since 2022 when the top six each had 500 points, but that was also the final season with double points for the Indianapolis 500. This was the most drivers to score at least 400 points since 2019 when the top nine each had 400 points, but that was also the final season with double points for the Indianapolis 500 and the season finale.
If you go back to 2013, the last season prior to the nine-year period with at least one double points race, only three drives scored at least 500 points, but everyone in the top ten scored 400 points, and 2013 had only one more race than 2026.
Again, just a general observation. Nothing more than that.
Bests and Worsts
Who had a career-best finish in the championship? We are going to exclude rookies.
Kyle Kirkwood (2nd)
Christian Lundgaard (3rd)
David Malukas (5th)
Rinus VeeKay (10th)
Kyffin Simpson (13th)
Louis Foster (18th) - The only sophomore driver on the grid in 2026.
Nolan Siegel (20th)
And who had a career-worst finish in the championship? Again, no rookies.
Alexander Rossi (15th) - Technically, Rossi matched his career-worst.
Romain Grosjean (19th)
Sting Ray Robb (25th) - Technically, Robb matched his career-worst.
To go deeper, Rossi scored ten more points than he scored with one more race in 2026 and finished in the same championship position.
Robb scored one more point than he scored with one more race in 2026 and finished in the same championship position.
Seeing Blue (Ensigns)
Something caught my eye in the middle of the championship standings.
From 11th to 14th you see four drivers all with the Blue Ensign, a commonly used design for national flags of the British Commonwealth with the Union Jack in the upper left with a defaced emblem or symbol adoring the open space.
In 11th was Australia's Will Power. In 12th was New Zealand's Scott Dixon. Thirteenth went to the Cayman Island's Kyffin Simpson. Fourth was New Zealand's Marcus Armstrong.
And guess what? Last season, we had three consecutive drivers in the championship with the Blue Ensign. Armstrong was eighth with Power in ninth and New Zealand's Scott McLaughlin was tenth! The year before that, McLaughlin was third and Power was fourth and the year before that Dixon and McLaughlin were second and third and the year before that Dixon and McLaughlin were third and fourth!
That is five consecutive seasons where drivers with the Blue Ensign have finished next to each other in the championship and this was the third consecutive season that total number of drivers increased. Based on the pattern, we are going to see five consecutive drivers in the championship with the Blue Ensign in their national flag, and we know there will be five drivers with the Blue Ensign on the grid next year.
Surely, it cannot happen, can it?
What was up with third?
We touched upon this during the season, but sure enough, we had a unusual circumstance this season. Of the 18 possible third-place finishers this season, 11 of them went to drivers that finished outside the top ten in the championship.
Will Power led the way with five finishes of third this season. Power was 11th in the championship, ten points from tenth. Graham Rahal had three finishes of third, and Rahal was 16th in the championship. Scott Dixon (12th), Alexander Rossi (15th) and Christian Rasmussen (21st) each had one finish of third. Throw in Romain Grosjean, who was 19th in the championship but finished second at Markham, and a grand total of 12 podium finishes went to drivers outside the championship top ten.
That is 22.222% of all possible podium finishes (54).
That feels a little high.
In 2025, ten total podium finishes went to drivers outside the championship top ten, but this year was the most since 17 podium finishes went to drivers outside the championship top ten in 2013. The 2013 season was 19 races long, the longest season since reunification. It was a year that saw three doubleheaders on the schedule. Mike Conway had two podium finishes filling in for Dale Coyne Racing on a whim at Belle Isle, one of which was a victory. Takuma Sato led the championship with two podium finishes in the first four races, and Sato dropped to 17th when the season was over. Sébastien Bourdais had three podium finishes but was 12th. Tony Kanaan won the Indianapolis 500, had three more podium finishes, and he was 11th in the championship! What a fun season that was.
In terms of percentage, this season was the highest proportion of podium finishes outside the championship top ten since 2015 where 11 of 48 possible podium finishes went to drivers outside the championship that ten, a percentage of 22.91667%.
This season's 12 podium finishes to drivers outside the championship top ten wasn't the highest proportion, and it wasn't the highest total either as you know now. It was the 16th time at least 12 podium finishes went to drivers outside the championship top ten.
What is the most podium finishes to such a collection of drivers?
Since 1946, the most would be 20 in 1968! It was 20 out of a possible 84 as there were 28 races that season, the longest season in IndyCar history. Many drivers were not full-time. Gordon Johncock won twice, but was 11th in the championship after skipping eight rounds and failing to qualify for two others. You had a mixture of dirt track aces (Roger McCluskey, George Snider, Larry Dickson) and budding young talents (Wally Dallenbach, Mike Mosley and Ronnie Bucknum) scoring podium finishes, and this was a year the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb counted to the championship. Ted Foltz and Wes Vandervoort are each credited with a podium finish for the 1968 season.
Along with 1968, the following seasons (since 1946) had at least 12 podium finishes to drivers outside the championship top ten.
1968 - 20
1970 - 18
2013 - 17
1969 & 2001 CART - 16
1949 & 1966 - 15
1953 & 1996-97 IRL - 14
1952, 1965 & 2000 CART - 13
1950, 1951, 1956 & 2026 - 12
What about percentages?
This season didn't even crack the top 20! It ended up in a six-way tie for 22nd.
Since 1946, nine seasons had over 30% of the podium finishes go to drivers outside the championship top ten.
1996-97 IRL: 46.667% (14/30)
1953: 38.889% (14/36)
1970: 37.5% (18/48)
1952: 36.111% (13/36)
1949: 35.714% (15/42)
1956: 33.333% (12/36)
1966: 31.25% (15/48)
1950: 30.769% (12/39)
1948: 30.555% (11/36)
This year was on the higher level, but it wasn't all that close to history.
Most Podium Finishes Outside the Championship Top Fifteen?
As you may have noticed, Graham Rahal was responsible for a quarter of those podium finishes for drivers outside the championship top ten... but Rahal was outside the championship top fifteen. Three podium finishes is a lot for a driver that low in the championship.
Two of those results were legitimately on speed. Rahal was quick and deserved to be on the podium. Detroit was a little more fortunate as Rahal was spun in the hairpin 39% of the way through the race, and at 100% distance complete, he was third thanks to a series of events. It happens, and Rahal had three podium finishes in eight races. His season could not finish much worse. Ten races, his best finish was ninth and he had seven results outside the top fifteen, five of which were 22nd or worse.
Where does Rahal rank? Well... he technically isn't the worst, but it sure feels like he was.
Three podium finishes is tied for the most for a driver outside the top fifteen in the championship. It was actually the fifth time a driver has had this many podium finishes and not been in the top fifteen, but there is something you should know about the others.
1968: George Snider (17th)
1968: Ronnie Bucknum (22nd)
2001 CART: Memo Gidley (17th)
2009: Will Power (19th)
2026: Graham Rahal (16th)
Rahal isn't alone, but he is alone because none of those other four drivers were full-time.
Snider had three podium finishes, all thirds, at Springfield, the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Phoenix. He only started 12 of 28 races that season.
Bucknum also only started 12 of 28 races in 1968. He was third at Mosport, third at Mont-Tremblant and then won the inaugural Michigan race, somewhat out of nowhere, and it would be Bucknum's only victory.
Gidley was a mid-season replacement at Chip Ganassi Racing after the Nicolas Minassian experiment lasted only six CART races and one Indianapolis 500. He did start 14 of 20 races, 70%. That is enough to qualify as a series regular, but six races is a significant total to miss. Plus, Gidley was second in his second start with the team at Cleveland before finishing third and second at Houston and Laguna Seca respectively. Based on points per start, Gidley was good enough to finish tenth in the championship.
Then you have Power, who was famously part-time in 2009, drafted into Team Penske to substitute for Hélio Castroneves as Castroneves was in court over tax evasion charges. Castroneves would be acquitted, but Power got a part-time schedule out of it and he had three podium finishes in six starts and his worst finish was ninth. Based on points per start from those six races, he was on pace for 592 points over a full, 17-race season. That would have put Power fourth in the championship.
Rahal stands alone as the only full-time driver to finish outside the championship top fifteen with at least three podium finishes. Gidley is a close comparison, but missing 30% of the season is sizable, especially when he was only five points outside the top fifteen. It feels like if Gidley had those races he would have easily cracked the top fifteen.
It is a bit of history for Rahal whether he wanted it or not.
It's Hard Being a Rookie
So... you want to be an IndyCar rookie?
The three newest drivers to IndyCar in 2026 were three of the bottom four in the championship, and the only driver they were ahead was Sting Ray Robb, which doesn't really count.
Dennis Hauger was rookie of the year in 22nd, 15 points ahead of vice-rookie of the year Mick Schumacher, and Caio Collet was 25 points back, 24th in the championship.
Prior to last year, a rookie of the year had not finished outside the championship top twenty since 1986. It has now happened twice in two seasons!
The best finish for a rookie this season was eighth. Hauger was eighth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and Schumacher was eighth at Nashville.
It has been 39 races since a rookie had a top five finish in an IndyCar race. That would be when Linus Lundqvist was third at Gateway in 2024. Throw in Lundqvist's third at Barber earlier that season and those are the only two top five finishes for IndyCar rookies in the last four seasons!
No rookie has finished better than 14th in the championship since the introduction in the aeroscreen in 2020. In 2019, there were two rookies in the top seven of the championship and three rookies in top 13 of the championship.
Is it as simple as the aeroscreen holding rookies back?
It feels more flukey than that. Scott McLaughlin was 14th in 2021 as was Christian Lundgaard in 2022. Rinus VeeKay was 14th as a rookie in 2020. They all ran well those seasons and had good days, but it is hard to get great results in IndyCar.
Rookies haven't been in outstanding equipment. Chip Ganassi Racing had two rookies in 2024 with Lundqvist and Kyffin Simpson, but this year's rookie class drove for Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing. The year before that, the rookies drove for DCR, RLLR and Prema. In 2023, the rookies drove for DCR, Foyt, Juncos Hollinger Racing, and a part-time driver for Ganassi (Marcus Armstrong).
It is just an odd spot for rookies, a combination of the teams they are competing for, the lack of track time and the learning curve of the series. It will eventually reverse. We will eventually have a year where a rookie is 12th in the championship or one will be ninth. It feels odd that it has been this long since we have seen such a rookie performance.
No Repeat Finishes
Speaking of Dennis Hauger, when we last picked through IndyCar tidbits, we discovered that through the first ten races he was the only driver without a repeat finish.
Ten races and he had finished tenth, 15th, 16th, 23rd, 11th, eighth, 19th, 13th, 25th and 20th.
How much further did he go?
No further. In the 11th race, he was 25th at Mid-Ohio.
This was the second consecutive year the last driver without a repeat finish went ten races before scoring his first repeat finish of the season. Hauger is the first rookie to go the longest without a repeat finish since Ed Jones in 2017, who went 15 consecutive races with a different finishing position to start his IndyCar career.
Hauger ended up finishing 25th in three races. He was 25th at Laguna Seca. He actually had a pair of consecutive races with the same finish. He was 15th at Markham and Washington, D.C. and he was then 21st in both Milwaukee races.
Nine in Nine
Something happened at Markham that was extraordinary, and we really didn't notice it in the moment. It took me a few days after looking at the box score to pick it out when looking over the finishing order. Why don't you look at the top nine finisher?
1. Marcus Ericsson
2. Romain Grosjean
3. Will Power
4. Álex Palou
5. Patricio O'Ward
6. Christian Lundgaard
7. Rinus VeeKay
8. Scott McLaughlin
9. Graham Rahal
Do you see it? What do none of these drivers have in common?
If it hasn't hit you yet, I will give you another moment. You will get there with enough time, but I don't have that much time to give, so the answer will be below.
The top nine finishers at Markham represented nine different nationalities.
Sweden, France, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, United States.
The tenth-place finisher was Santino Ferrucci of the United States.
It is beautiful to see, bringing a tingle up my spin, because how often could that have happened? There have been many nationalities to race in IndyCar, and for the last 20 to 30 years the grid has only become more international. For a North American series that is predominantly racing in the United States, it has its abundance of local drivers, but drivers from around the globe find a home in IndyCar.
It has surely been possible to have nine different nationalities in the top nine positions, but there are always a handful of Americans on the grid. In recent years, we have been blessed with multiple top Australian drivers or French drivers or British drivers all competing at once. For nearly the last decade, Sweden has had multiple competitors as has New Zealand. That makes it a little tough to have such a grand variety, but Markham show it was possible.
But was it historic?
Seeing nine different nationalities in the top nine feels nearly unprecedented. But IndyCar has a vast history. It could have happened before and it would not be surprising if it happened before, whether it was a year ago or over a century ago. But has there ever been a race where the top ten represented ten different nationalities? Again, difficult to achieve but not impossible in modern IndyCar. There was only one way to find out.
Using Racing-Reference and ChampCarStats and even Wikipedia, I went through the box score for all 1,793 races recognized in the IndyCar record book to find out if Markham was a first or if we have seen this before.
It took a few days, but the first 80 years of IndyCar history was rather quick to go through as the series was largely domestic based at that time with only Americans or far fewer than nine nationalities on the grid. I noted every race I could find where the podium had at least three different nationalities and went from there noting every race with four different nationalities and five and so on. Of course, as we approached the turn of the millennium and the Split, it got a little more time consuming scrolling over flags and carefully counting.
A few notes before we get to an answer. This is considering the United Kingdom in its entirety. We are not counting drivers from England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland as different. That is really the only note. Some drivers have mixed nationalities. Memo Gidley is Mexican-American and has been attributed as either nationalities in his career. Jeff Ward was born in Scotland but moved to the United States at a young age. Both drivers raced with the American flag on their car or firesuit. We are going with that and classifying those two as American drivers. Other drivers, if not clearly established in the record books what their representative nationalities was will go by which one they are mostly associated with. This did not pertain to many drivers but it pertain to enough.
Where do we stand?
In IndyCar history, out of 1,793 recognized races, Markham was the SECOND EVER to have nine different nationalities represented in the top nine finisher. Never in IndyCar history has a race had ten nationalities represented in the top ten. Markham tied the record. What was the other race?
2007 Belgian Champ Car Grand Prix at Zolder
1. Sébastien Bourdais (France)
2. Bruno Junqueira (Brazil)
3. Graham Rahal (United States)
4. Will Power (Australia)
5. Justin Wilson (United Kingdom)
6. Oriol Servià (Spain)
7. Robert Doornbos (Netherlands)
8. Neel Jani (Switzerland)
9. Alex Tagliani (Canada)
Paul Tracy was tenth, making it two Canadians to round out the top ten. It is coincidental that in both cases did the ninth place finisher and tenth place finisher represent the same nationality. Zolder was the 1,466th race to occur in IndyCar history. It only took another 323 races and nearly 19 years for it to be matched.
How close were we from either race being ten different nationalities? In Zolder, the next different nationality was fittingly enough Belgium's Jan Heylen in 13th. For Markham, the next different nationality was Cayman Islands' Kyffin Simpson in 14th.
In IndyCar history, I was able to find 12 total races that featured nine different nationalities in the top ten.
2005 San Jose
2006 Cleveland
2007 Las Vegas
2007 Edmonton
2007 Mexico City
2008 Long Beach
2013 St. Petersburg
2021 Road America
2022 Iowa Race 1
2026 St. Petersburg
2026 Markham
The first six of those races were Champ Car races. Looking back at those grid, I may have forgotten how diverse those grids were. They weren't the largest grids but out of 18 drivers, there could be 11 or 12 nationalities represented.
There were some other observations from going through this information I would love to pick apart, but we do not have the time for it. We have an entire offseason to get to it. We are through one month and still have five to go. We will circle back to this, but know that in 2026 you saw something in IndyCar that is still rather historic and who knows if we will ever see it again.
October Preview
There are plenty of championships wrapping up that I cannot decide one to highlight.
The IMSA season and the World Rally Championship end this Sunday.
Intercontinental GT World Challenges ends with the Indianapolis 8 Hour, the final Indianapolis 8 Hour on October 11. Indianapolis also closes out the GT World Challenge America season. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters also ends that weekend at Hockenheim.
Portimão hosts a pair of season finales, European Le Mans Series on October 10 and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup on October 18.
Again, we are clearing the cupboard of silverware.
Other events of note in October
Formula One has plenty of races to keep us busy with two trips to Asia, with Malaysia cosplaying as Bahrain and then Singapore. It will end the month in the United States.
MotoGP will also be in the Asia-Pacific region, but no cosplaying rounds as of yet.
I didn't mention World Superbike above, but its final two rounds are Estoril (October 10-11) and Jerez (October 17-18).
NASCAR winds down its season.
Supercars runs endurance rounds at Bathurst and Surfers Paradise.
