First Impressions: Phoenix 2026

1. Tires, tires, tires. IndyCar's return at Phoenix came down to a decision after the caution came out when Will Power slowed on circuit with a cut tire from contact with Christian Rasmussen while battling for the lead. There were about 40 laps to go, and with how tires wore during the race, a 20-lap difference could be a deciding factor at the end of a long run. 

Josef Newgarden's team decided to stop while eight of the 15 cars on the lead lap decided to stay out. Newgarden had work to do, but he had just under 40 laps to work with when the race restarted. The advantage would come late in the stint. He was not going to move from ninth to first in three laps.

When the tire advantage swung in Newgaden's favor, it swung mightily. Rasmussen faded after a second brush with the barrier exiting turn two. Kyle Kirkwood tried again to pull out a victory with an alternate strategy, but Newgarden had the speed and was no match. 

It was not a beat down performance as we have become accustomed to seeing from Newgarden on a short oval, but he remained alive when the race bunched up at the end. Newgarden had been here before and taking tires was an offensive move. Prior to the caution, it was going to be a top five finish. Staying out was not going to get him the victory. With a set of tires to burn, Newgarden went for it, and though he had been snake-bitten taking chances over the last few seasons, it was worth the gamble. 

Newgarden didn't rush. He let the tires come to him and made moves. He first had to pass O'Ward, who also stopped under that final caution. For a moment, it looked like O'Ward was going to be the challenger, but O'Ward's car did not work as well in traffic. Newgarden's did, and once ahead of O'Ward, the Tennessean had a clear view at the lead.

The victory gives Newgarden the championship lead, but as he pointed out in his victory lane interview, it is still early. He should be pleased though. For two years, things have spiraled on Newgarden and his rough days have been particularly deflating. We have seen a different Newgarden in recent years. This season is starting on the right track.

2. Kyle Kirkwood's team went slightly off-strategy again, and in the middle of the race, Kirkwood's team did not come in under a caution when the team had just changed tires 13 laps earlier. That was the sweet spot. A team could run most of a stint and hold on with about ten-lap older tires. Kirkwood remained at the front as the final pit window approached. Kirkwood had done well, but he had to take a leap to get to the front. It worked, and the car held its own. 

After Rasmussen's contact with the wall, it looked like Kirkwood had a better chance to pull out a victory, but he did not pull ahead of Rasmussen immediately, and when he finally took the lead, Newgarden was too close. Kirkwood could not hold off the Penske driver. 

You would think Kirkwood would be disappointed with this result, but like St. Petersburg where fourth was better than it could have been, second is much better than it was likely going to turn out had he not taken a risk. Qualifying can still be improved upon, but in two races this team has not let a bad start get them down. 

3. It felt like this weekend was destined for David Malukas, and pole position was the first step to a memorable weekend. Malukas had a good first stint, but he lost time on the first stint running long, and it buried him in the middle of the top ten. That is where he spent most of the race. Malukas didn't stop for tires under the final caution to gain a few more spots, and it worked out to be a podium finish. 

It could have been worse. I don't think the race is a major missed opportunity. However, I don't know if Malukas could have done what Newgarden did. That car was hooked up and Newgarden has a level of confidence to overcome such a deficit in the closing stages. Not every race will turn out this way, but Malukas stood out in his first oval weekend with Team Penske, and that was expected.

4. For a moment, Patricio O'Ward was lined up to steal the show. It had been a good day, but it did not feel like a race O'Ward was going to win until he was ahead of Newgarden after the final restart. Leading the drivers on the freshest tires, O'Ward was on point to drive to the lead. It was working until he hit fourth, and then he stalled out. He could not get ahead of Malukas, and Newgarden had the legs to keep moving forward. 

It is not that big of a loss because O'Ward should have been happy with a top five from the start, but with how the final laps lined up, it could have been more. It was a good race for O'Ward.

5. Marcus Armstrong will not get enough love for this result, but he drove well all race. Armstrong had good pace at the end of stints. It allowed him to maintain track position as he was better on his tires. A slow final stop nearly cost him, but he stayed out on the final caution and was looking for a better result playing defense. It worked. 

We have seen how Armstrong races and how he has found a good foundation in the middle of the top ten. He does a good job getting a little more out of equipment. Can the day come where he takes a sixth-place car and put it in a fight for victory? He drives smart. It could come sooner than we realize. 

6. This was an odd day for Alexander Rossi because he lost ground early and it was looking as if this would be a disappointing result. The late caution gave Rossi new life as he took on tires, and it was his only choice to salvage a result. He made some passes and ended up taking sixth. 

It should sting that he could not keep up with his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rasmussen despite starting 12 spots ahead of him in sixth. It mirrored Milwaukee in the sense Rossi had a good car, but he could not keep up with his teammate when the car was clearly there. He isn't the lead driver at ECR, and I don't think he can wrestle back that spot.

7. Scott Dixon tried a few different things on strategy and it netted him a seventh-place finish. Dixon didn't have a great car today, but he can drive smart and use strategy to his favor. After how St. Petersburg ended, Dixon needed a complete race and a good result. He got that in Phoenix. 

8. Scott McLaughlin was not a factor in this race, and that was a surprise. Even during the pit cycles where drivers came and went and ground could be made stopping early, McLaughlin never found an advantage. Even though he took tires under the final caution and he did drive to eighth, he didn't have what it took to blitz through the field. It was a little odd that he wasn't closer to his teammates in this one.

9. Graham Rahal had a good day to finish ninth. Rahal spent most of the race in the top ten. He lost ground from starting third, but last season there was no prayer of a Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car spending this much time in the top ten on an oval. This should be a cheerful weekend for RLLR and a move in the right direction. 

10. I don't know how Kyffin Simpson finished tenth. He took tires under the final caution, that is how, but he didn't have a great race. Most of it was spent outside the top ten. He held onto the lead lap, and it allowed him to get a few extra spots in the final stint. Take them anyway you can get them.

11. It was a little stunning how far off A.J. Foyt Racing was this weekend. To their credit, Santino Ferrucci got better over every stint of the race, but this team starts behind and makes up ground regularly. There is a limit on how well it will finish if it is always starting between 16th and 22nd. Ferrucci stayed out under the final caution because it lifted him to a top five spot, but he was a sitting duck. Eleventh is about right. 

12. Felix Rosenqvist didn't do much today, but considering how yesterday started, not doing much, avoiding trouble and being able to finish on the lead lap in 12th is a good day. 

13. Christian Lundgaard was nowhere this weekend. Qualifying 17th, he never factored in for a top ten finishing position. Lundgaard's oval form has improved, but it is still a weak spot, and he is not at a point where he can go to a new oval and be quick. Ovals take longer for him to learn. I would expect him to make a step forward at Phoenix next year.

14. And we reach Christian Rasmussen, who was probably the driver of the day. Rasmussen was incredible early driving to the front from 18th on the grid. He had the best car, and in the later stints, he was cutting through the field. It didn't matter that four cars leap-frogged ahead by 2.5 seconds because they stopped a half-dozen laps earlier, Rasmussen was going to pass them with ease. 

Rasmussen got into a battle with Will Power, who was trying to hold him off on older tires, and exiting turn two, they touched. Power didn't give Rasmussen any room on the outside, and Power gave the Dane an option of lift or make contact. He chose contact, which didn't harm Rasmussen as much as it did Power, as Power suffered a cut tire. Rasmussen's car was damaged, but it was holding on after the restart and he wasn't losing spots. 

Rasmussen didn't lose this race because of the contact with Power. Not taking tires was going to be his downfall. Newgarden had the edge. Rasmussen's car was damaged, and then he brushed the wall again. He was on the edge doing all he could to win the race when the car was not as good as those around him with fresher tires. 

Even if he doesn't brush the wall the first time after the contact with Power, in the same circumstances, I think tires win and Newgarden takes the victory. Maybe Rasmussen isn't slipping over the edge and hitting the wall a second time. Maybe he can take second while Newgarden wins. 

It stings because Rasmussen was the best driver today, and even though he found something that clicks with ECR, there is no guarantee this speed will last, and Rasmussen knows it. After the second hit with the wall, it all unraveled, and he dropped to 14th.

15. Let's talk about Power because he did finish 16th and only lost a lap. Power was on the same strategy as Kirkwood, and Power looked poised to get a better finish than Kirkwood. 

It was not the cleanest move on Rasmussen, but it wasn't dirty. Power didn't drive Rasmussen into the wall. Power forced Rasmussen to make a choice that was never going to be beneficial to Rasmussen, and that is what the leader can do to a driver trying to make a pass late on the outside. Rasmussen was a little ambitious, and could have waited until he was more alongside on the outside in a lap or two, or waited and found a way to the inside, perhaps going into turn one. 

Power is a veteran and he rolled the dice thinking he could get a young driver to blink. Rasmussen didn't, but in the end, neither won the race, and that was the best of the bad outcomes Power had in mind.

Prior to the accident, Power looked better compared to St. Petersburg. He was running well. The strategy choice allowed him to run at the front, but he was probably going to finish on the podium if the contact didn't occur. These are points lost, a too common result in the last few seasons for Power. It should also be a confidence boost for Arlington. 

16. It feels wrong to skip Dennis Hauger, but Hauger spun early exiting turn two, kept it off the wall and drove backward down the back straightaway and then resumed the race. It was an impressive example of car control and most veterans couldn't do that let alone a rookie. He was able to finish on the lead lap in 15th. That is all he could ask for. He got in 250 laps and learned something. 

When Hauger spun, it felt like the day was going to be a disaster for Dale Coyne Racing as Romain Grosjean was unable to start the race when his car had a clutch failure on the grid. This is a moral victory for DCR.

17. There are a handful of drivers we don't need to talk about. 

Marcus Ericsson didn't run well and his dice roll on strategy put him a lap down. 

At least Caio Collet didn't get into the wall. He didn't do anything great, but he didn't do anything wrong either. 

Nolan Siegel was nowhere to be seen all race and finished 20th. Siegel did have a drive-through penalty for blocking, and he was already a lap down. The penalty didn't help his day, but it wasn't going great before that. Does he make it to Mid-Ohio? 

Sting Ray Robb could not do much with his career best starting position of 12th and he finished three laps down in 21st. 

Louis Foster also brushed the wall and that ended his race, placing him in 23rd. Foster needs to get a top ten finish someday. It wasn't going to be today. Foster wasn't competitive. We know he is quick on road and street courses. It is time to get a result. 

18. You would think the Rasmussen-Power incident would be the most notable one of the race, but 20 laps in, Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay touched exiting turn four and approaching the start/finish line. Palou spun into the barrier and his race was over. VeeKay was damaged, but continued to finish four laps down in 21st. 

With this result, Palou dropped out of the championship lead for the first time since June 2024. Palou had a great start to the race, but he was bogged down a little in traffic after the first restart. VeeKay had a run to the outside. Palou was moving up the track. 

I don't think anyone was to blame, but making such a move to the outside was a low percentage move for VeeKay. It wasn't the worst move we have ever seen, but 20 laps into the race, I don't think it was worth the risk at that time. 

Palou is going to be fine. He had a bad race. He is going to be fine at Arlington and probably win the race.

19. There was some worry heading into this race because IndyCar's last trip to Phoenix was a failure. IndyCar went there for three years, didn't do anything to improve the racing after a processional race the first time, it failed to attract any interest in the market, and it was gone in a blink when it needed an oval event to develop. The good news is this race replicated what we saw at Milwaukee last year and what we have seen at Gateway where tires can wear, cars can start passing, and teams can take swings on strategy. No one felt stuck in traffic in this race, and that is the last thing you want to hear from drivers. 

Now, IndyCar must keep this package. This is how the short ovals should race. It had it at Iowa prior to the awful re-pave that only resurfaced the inside lane in the turns. IndyCar must keep this at Gateway, Milwaukee and Phoenix. Don't try to do more. Don't try to play with the downforce. Keep Firestone from dicking around with the tires. 

When the tires started to wear, we saw some teams rise and others fall. Teams could roll the dice and stop early to get ground, but then fade. That is fine. If IndyCar is chasing non-stop passing from the drop of the green flag on a short oval, it isn't going to happen, but we saw abundance today because the drivers had to manhandle the cars more and teams took risks hoping to find a better strategy later in a stint.

This was good. It is up to IndyCar not to screw it up. 

20. We need to have a deeper conversation about sharing the weekend with NASCAR. More people turned out today than probably showed up for the three IndyCar races between 2016 and 2018 combined. Check one for IndyCar. People showed up. Are they going to continue watching next week at Arlington? Are they going to continue to follow beyond May and into the summer? It looked like 40,000 people showed up when IndyCar couldn't get half of that eight years ago. It is exposure but IndyCar needs exposure to turn into reliable viewers who are going to be there when NASCAR is not around and IndyCar is on its own. 

It is a short-gain. How can IndyCar turn it into long-term success?

21. And now another new event. On paper, Arlington appears to be IndyCar's step into the 21st century when it comes to street races. It is a course that is mirroring what Formula One has been doing for the last decade. Spirits have been high for over a year since the event was announced. Now we find out if it is as good as what is being sold. We will find out in eight days. 

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2026

David Malukas scored his first career pole position with a two-lap average at 175.383 mph, 41.0530 seconds, in qualifying from Phoenix Raceway. This will be the third time in the last four races Malukas has started on the front row. It will be his fifth consecutive start inside the top five. This will be his 15th time starting in the top five in his IndyCar career. However, Malukas’ average finish when starting in the top five is 14.2857 with one top five finish and four top ten finishes. Two Team Penske drivers have had their first victory with the team come in their second start. Gary Bettenhausen won in his second Penske start at Trenton on April 13, 1982. Danny Sullivan’s first Penske victory was also in his second Penske start, and it was the 1985 Indianapolis 500. 

Josef Newgarden makes it an all-Team Penske front row as Newgarden was 0.1963 seconds off his teammate’s pole-winning run. Newgarden has won the second race of the season three times in his career, including at Phoenix in 2018. He enters this weekend with three consecutive top ten finishes dating back to last season. It is the first time Newgarden has had three consecutive top ten finishes since 2023 when he swept the Iowa doubleheader and then was fourth on the streets of Nashville. 

Graham Rahal makes it three consecutive Americans on the grid as Rahal was 0.328 seconds behind Malukas. This is Rahal’s best start on an oval since Texas 2012 when he started third. He was second in that race. Rahal has finished outside the top ten in ten consecutive oval races. His last top ten finish on an oval was eighth in the second Iowa race in 2023. Rahal’s most recent top five on an oval was third in the second Texas race in 2021. 

Mick Schumacher’s oval debut will start from fourth on the grid, and it rounds out an all-Rahal Lettermam Lanigan Racing second row. This is the first time RLLR has multiple top five starters since last year’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis when all three car started in the top five. Schumacher is the first German to start an oval race since Timo Glock, who was eighth in the 2005 Las Vegas Champ Car race.

Scott McLaughlin is the worst Team Penske starter in fifth. McLaughlin was 0.4579 seconds off Malukas. McLaughlin has three consecutive podium finishes. He has never had four consecutive podium finishes. McLaughlin has finished outside the top twenty in the second race of the season the last two years.

Alexander Rossi takes sixth on the grid, matching his best starting position with Ed Carpenter Racing. Rossi was the fastest in the preseason test at Phoenix. He has not won a race in 55 starts. He has not won on an oval since August 19, 2018 at Pocono.

Patricio O'Ward is starting seventh. The most recent Phoenix race in 2018 was won from seventh starting position. O'Ward has 49 career top five finishes entering this weekend. He had five top five finishes in six oval races last season, and he has nine top five finishes in the last 13 oval races.

Rinus VeeKay slots into eighth. Twice has VeeKay opened the season with consecutive top ten finishes, however, in each of those seasons, he was sixth in the opening race. This was the second consecutive season VeeKay opened the year with a ninth-place results.

Nolan Siegel is directly behind his Arrow McLaren teammate O’Ward in ninth starting position. This snaps a streak of six consecutive starts outside the top ten for Siegel. He started eighth in the first Iowa race last year before getting into an accident. In 11 oval starts, Siegel's average finish is 17.5454.

Álex Palou rounds out the top ten on the grid. This is Palou’s worst starting position since he started 24th for the 2024 season finale at Nashville. Palou makes his 100th start this weekend. Six drivers have won in their 100th start, most recently Patricio O'Ward at Mid-Ohio last year. Palou enters this weekend on 74 career top ten finishes.

Kyle Kirkwood missed out on a top ten grid position by 0.0245 seconds, and Kirkwood has now not started in the top ten in ten consecutive races. He made up 11 spots last week to finish fourth at St. Petersburg, his first top five finish since he was fourth at Laguna Seca last June. 

Sting Ray Robb has his career-best starting position in 12th, his first career top fifteen start. Robb has finished in the top fifteen only twice in his career on ovals, 15th in the first Iowa race in 2024 and ninth at Gateway later that season. 

Marcus Armstrong is set to start 13th. Armstrong has seven top ten finishes in 13 oval starts. Last year, he started outside the top ten in eight races, and he finished in the top ten in five of those, and three of those were oval events. 

Marcus Ericsson is starting 14th. Ericsson has finished worse than his starting position in his last five races. For the second consecutive season, Ericsson was sixth in the season opener. His average finish last season on ovals was 19.1667.

Scott Dixon ended up qualifying 15th. Dixon is coming off his worst finish ever in a season opener, a 23rd in St. Petersburg. He had not finished outside the top ten in the season opener since 2015. That season, he finished outside the top ten in the first two races. Dixon ended that season as champion.

Louis Foster starts on the outside of row eight. Foster had an average finish of 17.1667 on ovals last season. He did finish better than his starting position in four of six oval races last season. His best improvement was a gain of ten spots at Milwaukee from 27th to 17th. 

Christian Lundgaard starts 17th. Last year, Lundgaard went from 17th to sixth at Milwaukee. He also went from 22nd to sixth in the second Iowa race last year. Lundgaard was third at St. Petersburg after starting 12th. It was his eighth podium finish since his only career victory at Toronto in 2023. 

Christian Rasmussen makes row nine an all-Christian and an all-Danish row. This is the 30th time in 33 starts Rasmussen is starting outside the top ten. He had five top ten finishes in six oval starts last season. He was last place in the other, and it was the most recent oval race at Nashville.

Kyffin Simpson is going to start 19th. Simpson had started in the top ten of the previous two races. He has finished better than his starting position in his last five oval starts. Simpson was fourth in the last oval race at Nashville. Prior to that, his best oval finish was 13th.

Romain Grosjean rounds out the top twenty on the grid. He was 1.0982 seconds slower than Malukas’ pole position time. Grosjean has four top ten finishes on ovals with his best result being seventh in the first Iowa race in 2022. Dale Coyne Racing has never had a top ten finish at Phoenix. The team’s best result was 11th with Ed Jones in 2016.

Santino Ferrucci occupies 21st. This is the eighth consecutive race Ferrucci is starting outside the top ten. He did go from 21st to second last year at Detroit. A.J. Foyt Racing has only one victory at Phoenix Raceway. That was November 9, 1975 with Foyt himself. Foyt won four times at Phoenix, three times with Anstead-Thompson Racing.

Dennis Hauger completes row 11. In four oval races last year in Indy Lights, Hauger had three podium finishes and he finished in the top five of all them. He started on pole position for three of the races. Dale Coyne Racing had one top ten finish on an oval last year. That was seventh at Gateway with Rinus VeeKay. 

Caio Collet will make his second career start from 23rd, one spot better than his first career start at St. Petersburg. In two seasons in Indy Lights, Collet had an average finish 7.625. He had three top five finishes last year in four oval races, and his best oval finish over his two season was third at Nashville in 2024 and at Gateway in 2025. 

Felix Rosenqvist had an accident in the opening practice and was unable to make a qualifying run. Rosenqvist will start 24th The Swede did run at Phoenix in Indy Lights in 2016. He was 15th after starting 13th in a 16-car race, but he did finish on the lead lap. That is Indy Lights' most recent visit to the track. Rosenqvist is the only driver from that Indy Lights entered this weekend in IndyCar.

Will Power spun in turn two on his qualifying run, and Power will start 25th as the final two spots are set via entrants’ points due to neither Rosenqvist nor Power setting a qualifying time. Not including last year’s Indianapolis 500, when Power started 33rd after his Team Penske entry was found with an illegally modified attenuator ahead of the Fast 12 session, this is his worst starting position since the 2021 Indianapolis 500, when he started 31st after running the last row shootout. Power enters this weekend having finished outside the top twenty in the last three oval races and in four of the last five. His average finish on ovals last year was 19.5.

Fox's coverage of the Good Ranchers 250 from Phoenix Raceway begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:20 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2026

The second round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Season takes the series to Phoenix Raceway for a weekend that will be shared with NASCAR, which will have its top two divisions in competition as well. For IndyCar, it will be the 65th race held at the one-mile oval, a little shy of 62 years after the first time American open-wheel racing's top series visited. In 1964, the inaugural visit was the season opener, and A.J. Foyt took the first of what would be a record seven consecutive victories. Foyt went onto win a record ten races that season. In 2026, Phoenix is the second round and Álex Palou has already won a race. Palou has led the IndyCar championship since June 23, 2024 after a victory at Laguna Seca, 28 consecutive races entering this weekend.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday March 7 with green flag scheduled for 3:20 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.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 10:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)

Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET 

High-Line Practice: 3:40 p.m. ET (80 minutes)

Final Practice: 5:10 p.m. ET (50 minutes)

Saturday:

Race: 3:29 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Early Oval Opportunity

Oval races have been few and far between in IndyCar over recent seasons, but they have been more common early in the season than we realize. While the last two seasons did not have an oval until the Indianapolis 500, this is the third time in the last six years an oval has occurred in one of the first two races, and it is the fourth time in that timespan an oval has occurred before the Indianapolis 500. 

It is a chance for some drivers to get a jump on the championship. 

The bad news is Álex Palou is a top oval driver. Last year, Palou scored the most oval points in 2025 with two victories and two runner-up finishes. His worst finish on an oval in 2025 was eighth at Gateway. The Catalan driver has nine top five finishes in the 13 oval races dating back to the 2024 season and 14 top ten finishes in the last 18 oval races dating back to 2023. 

Though Palou will be the man to beat, an oval race could be a great chance for someone to get ahead of him. 

Patricio O'Ward has scored the most oval points in two of the last five seasons, and he has finished in the top four of oval points in the last five seasons. Last year, O'Ward was second in oval points, and it got him second in the championship. Palou scored 252 oval points while O'Ward tallied 208 points on the circle tracks. O'Ward won at Iowa and he had five top five finishes on ovals last year. He won pole position for the Nashville finale before he got into the way and was classified in 24th. 

Josef Newgarden won that Nashville race to give him his one and only victory in the 2025 season. It was the tenth consecutive season in which Newgarden won an oval race, the longest streak in IndyCar history. He started 2025 with two finishes outside the top twenty. He was caught in an accident at Gateway while leading when Louis Foster spun. Newgarden recovered with a second at Iowa and he was in the top ten for the final four oval races.

Newgarden only had the fourth-most oval points in 2025 with 156. The driver with the third-most was Christian Rasmussen on 173 points. Rasmussen stood out at the end of 2025 when he scored his first career victory at Milwaukee with an impressive drive to the front. The Dane had five consecutive top ten finishes on ovals, including a third at Gateway, before he spun on the opening lap at Nashville and was the first driver out of the season finale. 

This will be a key weekend for Team Penske. While Penske only won one oval race in 2025, it has been the dominant force on the discipline for an extended period. Penske has won 17 of 33 oval races since the introduction of the aeroscreen in 2020. Newgarden has been responsible for 13 of those victories, but Scott McLaughlin won two of those races, and he was the top driver in oval points in 2024. However, last season was a downward turn for the New Zealander. McLaughlin was 12th in oval points as he failed to start the Indianapolis 500, had a mechanical issue leave him 24th at Gateway, and he was caught in an opening lap accident in the second Iowa race. McLaughlin did finish in the top five of the other three oval races, including finishing third in both the final two races of the season. 

Phoenix will be a opportunity for David Malukas to get an early victory with Team Penske. Malukas' best IndyCar results have come on ovals, especially short ovals. All five of his top five finishes in his career have come on ovals. His first two podium results each came at Gateway, second in 2022 and third in 2023. Last year, he was classified second in the Indianapolis 500, moving up a position post-race after a penalty disqualified Marcus Ericsson. In the Nashville finale, Malukas qualified second and look poised to be a threat for victory before having an accident in turn one when negotiating the back-maker Louis Foster. 

Rasmussen's victory last year at Milwaukee should inspire some that Phoenix could be the site of their first career victory. Along with Malukas, Santino Ferruci should be encouraged entering this weekend. Nine of Ferrucci's 11 top five finishes in his career have come on ovals. Ironically, two of his three podium finishes have been on road and street courses. He has had a top five finish on an oval in every season he has competed full-time in IndyCar, including two last year, a pair of fifths at Indianapolis and Gateway. Ferrucci was eighth in oval points last year with 140.

Last year, Kyle Kirkwood picked up Andretti Global's first oval victory since 2018 when he won at Gateway in a race that turn into a bigger fuel conservation battle than expected. Though he won at Gateway, Kirkwood's only other top ten finish on an oval was sixth at Nashville. The other two Andretti drivers in 2025, Colton Herta and Marcus Ericsson, combined for zero top ten finishes on ovals, and the organization in its entirety, Marco Andretti's Indianapolis 500 also included, had an oval average finish of 17.1052.

A Return to Phoenix

IndyCar has a long history with Phoenix Raceway, and for the 21st century is has been fractured. While it hosted Indy Racing League events at the turn of the century, the series stopped racing at the circuit after the 2005 season. It would be an 11-year hiatus before the top division in American open-wheel racing returned to the one-mile oval. However, that second stint lasted only three season. Now, IndyCar returns after another eight-year break.

Not as many drivers as you think competing this weekend were around for the most recent Phoenix experience. The number is five, and two of them are past Phoenix winners. Scott Dixon extends back to the original run of Phoenix races, starting with the track's opening in 1964 on the USAC National Championship schedule, bridging splits between USAC and CART, and then CART and the IRL before ending in 2005. Dixon made three starts in the early 2000s, and his best finish was second in 2004. In 2016, he won on IndyCar's Phoenix return, leading 155 of 250 laps. He had top five finishes in all three appearances from 2016 to 2018. 

Josef Newgarden is the most recent Phoenix winner as Newgarden took the 2018 race ahead of Robert Wickens, Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon. Newgarden only led 30 laps. Will Power led the most laps in this race, but Power's race ended after he hit the wall when he got into the marbles after Rossi made a pass on the Australian. Newgarden took advantage of of taking tires under the last caution and he drove pass Wickens with four laps remaining to win the race. 

Prior that wall contact, Power had finished on the podium in his first two Phoenix starts in 2016 and 2017. Rossi's third in 2018 was by far his best Phoenix finish. He had finished 14th in 2016, and he was 15th in 2017 after an accident. 

The only other active driver who has started a Phoenix race is Graham Rahal. While Rahal was fifth in 2016, he was involved in an opening lap accident in 2017 and did not complete a lap, classified in last place. In 2018, he rebounded to finish ninth. 

IndyCar held its preseason test at Phoenix Raceway last month. 

Ed Carpenter Racing led the way with Rossi running the fastest lap over the two days at 20.6254 seconds. Newgarden was 0.0213 seconds off Rossi with Álex Palou in third, 0.0381 seconds behind. Christian Rasmussen made it two ECR cars in the top four, and Rasmussen was 0.0733 off his teammate. David Malukas rounded out the top five in the test, 0.0929 seconds slower than Rossi. 

Patricio O'Ward took sixth with a lap at 20.7247 seconds, and then the three Andretti Global cars landed on the timing sheet. Kyle Kirkwood led the trio at 20.7302 seconds with Will Power (20.7867 seconds) and Marcus Ericsson (20.7956 seconds) behind him. Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top ten at 20.8165 seconds with the other two New Zealanders Dixon (20.8340 seconds) and Scott McLaughlin (20.8786 seconds) right behind him.

Rahal, Felix Rosenqvist, Rinus VeeKay, Louis Foster and Nolan Siegel were the final drivers to run in the 20-second bracket. Mick Schumacher was the fastest of the three rookies in 18th, 0.4154 seconds behind Rossi. Romain Grosjean and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top twenty. Caio Collet and Dennis Hauger were the next two on the time sheet. 

Kyffin Simpson, Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb rounded out the testing results. Robb was 0.7296 seconds off Rossi's top time.

How Bad is Not Completing the First Lap of the Season?

For two drivers, the first race of the 2026 IndyCar season could not have gotten off to a worse start. They have started more races this season than they have completed lap because Santino Ferrucci and Mick Schumacher didn't even make it through four corners in the St. Petersburg season opener.

Sting Ray Robb locked up going up the inside into turn four and with Robb sliding, he collided into Ferrucci, who nosed his car into the barrier, and Schumacher was collateral damage with no place to go but into the back of Ferrucci. 

Some would look at such an incident and wonder if it is an omen for the rest of the season. If you could not get through one place, how could you expect a full season to be good? Well, is that the case?

With Ferrucci and Schumacher each failing to make it through one lap, there have now been 36 occasions since 1946 where a driver started the first race of the season and failed to complete a lap. It is actually the second consecutive season where it has happened. Last year, Will Power spun exiting turn three and Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster were collected in the accident. 

This was actually the fourth time in the last six seasons where there has been an opening lap accident in the season opener where cars did not complete the opening lap. Prior to this run, it had not happened since 2011.

Is this a sign of a bad season to come? 

It is not a great start. 

Only twice has a driver failed to complete the first lap of the season and finished in the top five in the championship. Ten out of the first 34 drivers were able to finish in the top ten of the championship. Eighteen of the 34 drivers were outside the top fifteen in the championship at the end of that season. 

The two best drivers were Josef Newgarden in 2021 and A.J. Allmendinger in 2006. 

Newgarden was caught when Ryan Hunter-Reay spun going over the hill toward turn five at Barber Motorsports Park, and both drivers were out of the race. Newgarden recovered and finished second in the next race at St. Petersburg, and he had four consecutive top six finishes. He would go on to win twice and he ended up finishing second in the championship, 38 points off Álex Palou. 

Allmendinger's 2006 season was peculiar even by modern standards. He was involved in a four-car accident at the start of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. He had a good recovery over the next three races, but he was then fired by RuSport. Allmendinger did end up landing at Forsythe Racing, where he won his first three races with the team. Allmendinger won five times that season, and was third in the championship despite leaving the team prior to the season finale to start his moving to NASCAR. 

Newgarden and Allmendinger are the only drivers to win multiple times in a season after failing to complete the opening lap. Six other drivers have won a race in the season in which they failed to complete the opening lap. 

The first to do it was Elmer George, who didn't even start the first lap of the 1957 season. George and Eddie Russo made contact on the pace laps for the Indianapolis 500 and neither took the green flag. Later that season, George won at Syracuse. 

For the start of the 1996-97 Indy Racing League season, Robbie Buhl and Jim Guthrie had an accident on the first lap of the season at Loudon. Guthrie would go on to win three races later at Phoenix and Buhl would win in his return to Loudon, 364 days after he was unable to complete the first lap.

Jimmy Vasser could not make it one lap with his new team, Team Rahal, in 2002 as Vasser and Townsend Bell got together at the start of the Monterrey CART race. Nearly seven months later, Vasser took the checkered flag at Fontana in what was the fastest 500-mile race at the time. 

Marco Andretti started his 2011 season flipping at St. Petersburg after contact with Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon at the start of the race. However, Andretti would win later that season at Iowa, and he would finish eighth in the championship.

We saw it last year. Power did not make it through the first lap at St. Petersburg, but he would get his day of glory at Portland, where he took victory. It was the highlight of Power's season as he finished ninth in the championship.

Looking at the immediate aftermath, no driver has failed to complete the first lap of the season and then won the next race. Along with Newgarden in 2021, Vasser was second in the next race in 2002 at Long Beach, and Paul Tracy was second at Houston in 2006 after not completing the first lap of the season in the previous round. Along with those three, seven other drivers were in the top ten of the next race.

The good news is no driver has failed to complete a lap in the first two races of the season. 

Shared Weekend History

This will be the fifth time IndyCar and the NASCAR Cup Series are running together at the same track on the same weekend. The first four occurred from 2020 to 2023, and all four times were at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The first get-together was over Independence Day weekend during the global pandemic in 2020. NASCAR was already scheduled to run the Brickyard 400 that weekend based on the original schedule. IndyCar had only contested one race at that point in 2020 and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was added to the weekend to be run on Saturday July 4. It was just prior to NASCAR's second division race, which also took place on the IMS road course and was always scheduled to run on the IMS road course. 

Over the next three years, every race that weekend was held on the IMS road course as NASCAR experimented with using the configuration in place of the Brickyard 400 on the oval. 

Scott Dixon won two of the four IndyCar races held in companionship with NASCAR. Dixon won the 2020 race from pole position, but after a tough fight with Graham Rahal before Dixon took advantage of cautions and tire strategy. It was Dixon's second consecutive victory to open the season, and he went on to open that season with three consecutive victories before taking his sixth championship. 

In 2023, Dixon entered the weekend with zero victories, but he was breaking the IndyCar record for consecutive starts. It was his 319th consecutive start, and Dixon won from 15th using impressive fuel conservation. It would spark an end to the season that saw him win three of the final four races and take second in the championship.

Will Power won the 2021 race held with NASCAR as he led 56 laps on the IMS road course with Romain Grosjean finishing second for the second time on the track that season. Alexander Rossi won the following year, but Rossi's car had improper weight ballast in his car. Rossi kept the victory, but the team was docked 20 points for the infraction. Christian Lundgaard was second. 

On the NASCAR side, Kevin Harvick won the 2020 Brickyard 400 after Denny Hamlin suffered a right front tire failure while leading in turn one. It was Harvick's second consecutive Brickyard 400 victory and his third overall. In the first Cup race on the IMS road course, A.J. Allmendinger took a surprise victory as he was only competing in the road course races for Kaulig Racing. It was Allmendinger's first Cup victory in seven years and five days. Tyler Reddick won the 2022 race and Michael McDowell won the 2023 race.

In 2020, Chip Ganassi Racing had cars competing in each of the big races of the weekend, and the team fell a spot short of the sweep. Matt Kenseth was second in the #42 Chevrolet. Kenseth had taken over the car after Kyle Larson had been indefinitely suspended for using a racial slur during an sim racing event on Easter night of that year. Team Penske has also had drivers competing in both the IndyCar and Cup events, and it too fell a sport short of sweeping the weekend. In 2021, a day after Power's victory, Ryan Blaney was second behind A.J. Allmendinger.

Team Penske's success at Phoenix is not contained only to IndyCar. Penske has won six Phoenix Cup races, and it has won at the circuit in three of the last four seasons. However, five of those victories have come in the autumn race at the circuit. The only time Penske has won the early Phoenix race was in 2020 when Joey Logano took victory. Logano is a four-time Phoenix winner while Blaney won last season's Phoenix finale. Rusty Wallace won Penske's first Phoenix Cup race in 1998.

Fast Facts

This will be the first IndyCar race ever held on March 7. 

After today's race, there will be 76 days in the calendar year that have never hosted an IndyCar race.

The only day remaining in the month of March to not host an IndyCar race will be March 8.

The other days that have not hosted an IndyCar race that are not in January, February or December are May 8, May 17, May 18, May 20, November 10, November 15 and November 20.

This will be the 26th Phoenix race to take place in the month of March. This will be the earliest Phoenix race in the calendar year. The previous earliest was March 11, which occurred in 1979. Gordon Johncock won the race driving for Patrick Racing. It was the first CART race.

Team Penske leads all teams with nine Phoenix victories. 

McLaren is second amongst active teams in Phoenix victories with three despite the team having not run an IndyCar race at the track since 1979. Johnny Rutherford is responsible for all three victories (March 1975, March 1977, October 1978).

Scott Dixon's victory in 2016 is Chip Ganassi Racing's only Phoenix victory.

Five drivers have won consecutive Phoenix races: Al Unser (November 1969-March 1970), Bobby Unser (swept 1972 races), Gordon Johncock (October 1977-March 1978), Rick Mears (1989-1990), Tony Kanaan (2003-04).

Honda has won four of the last seven oval races after only winning once in the previous 14 oval races.

Four drivers had their first career victory come at Phoenix (Gary Bettenhausen, Roberto Guerrero, Robby Gordon and Sam Hornish, Jr.).

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.39 with a median of third.

The last four Phoenix races have been won from the fifth, sixth or seventh starting position. 

Four Phoenix races have been won from outside the top ten, three of those have been won from 19th or worse (Mike Mosley from 19th in March 1974, Roberto Guerrero from 22nd in 1987 and Buddy Lazier from 26th in 2000).

The average number of lead changes in a Phoenix race is 5.359 with a median of five.

IndyCar's most recent visit to Phoenix in 2018 had 12 lead changes, the most ever for a race at the circuit. The previous two Phoenix races had two lead changes and four lead changes respectively.

The average number of cautions in a Phoenix race is 4.628 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 35.628 with a median of 32.

Predictions

Let's be honest, we should just pick Álex Palou every week, because it is going to be right almost 50% of the time. If it isn't Álex Palo, this is Scott McLaughlin's weekend and he is going to lead north of 175 laps.  Josef Newgarden does finish in the top five and it is a good day as all three Team Penske cars finish in the top ten. The field will get through the first lap and they will go at least 55 laps before the first caution. Two of the rookies do not see the checkered flag. Christian Lundgaard has his best oval result. Christian Rasmussen touches a barrier this weekend. I am not saying it is going to be bad, but it will happen. Alexander Rossi will leave the weekend frustrated. Sleeper: Marcus Ericsson.

First Impressions: Phoenix 2018

1. Penske finds a way to win races and Josef Newgarden has been something special in his two seasons with Team Penske. This is the third time in two seasons he has won from seventh on the grid despite being the worst Penske qualifier. He did it at Barber and Toronto last year and he did it at Phoenix. He has done it on a road course, a street course and an oval. Who else can do that? Will Power was labeled at the start of his Penske career as a guy who could only succeed if he started at the front. Newgarden isn't winning from the back but he isn't dominating races from the point. He has not be fazed by the change of scenery nor by the shoes he filled.

He has had some breaks. In that Barber race, Power had to make an unscheduled stop for a tire puncture and he caught a timely yellow at Toronto. Tonight he made a pit stop at the right time and leapfrogged the leaders. Then he made the right call to get tires before the final restart and on a tricky track for passing he made a move to the outside of Robert Wickens to get the victory. Last year, he won in the third race of the season. This year he won the second race of the season and he already has the championship lead. He isn't going to relinquish the crown easily.

2. Second career start and first career podium finish as Robert Wickens finishes second in what was a bit of a stunning race for him. I expected him to be off a bit. He had been out of single-seater racing for over six and a half years. That hasn't stopped him from competing with the big boys of IndyCar. He should have had a podium in the first race of the season and probably should have won it. He deserved a podium tonight. When is he going to have an off day? And the next race is at Long Beach, one of the tracks Wickens has experience at.

3. Alexander Rossi hit a pit crew member on a pit stop, restarted outside the top twenty, was then handed a drive-through penalty, fell a lap down, got his lap back under green flag conditions, made two passes for position in the successive laps after getting back on the lead lap and within three minutes was within nine-seconds of the leader. This was a hell of a drive and third is incredible considering where he was after his first stop. He was the one guy who could make passes tonight and he was balls out for the entire race. Two races, two podium finishes and he was in contention for the podium last year at Long Beach. Look out for Rossi.

4. Scott Dixon started 17th and finished fourth as his crew had a great first pit stop to get him into top ten. From there he waited and waited and made his pit stops at the right time to leapfrog drivers. You cannot be surprised when Dixon does this because he does it once a season.

5. Ryan Hunter-Reay did what he does on starts and restarts and made up at least two positions each time on the outside and he ran in the top five for most of the race and he finished fifth. He stayed out probably five laps too long before the second round of green flag pit stops and that cost him a lot of track position. He might have deserved a podium finish but this is only the second time in his career he has started a season with two consecutive top ten finishes and this year starts with a pair of fifth place finishes. He should take the result and run with it.

6. James Hinchcliffe restarted in second with seven laps to go and he was the only one to fall like a rock on the older tires. Despite that, it was a good day for Hinchcliffe. He probably deserved a top five but sixth is respectable. The good news is he has a teammate that will keep him honest. No longer does Hinchcliffe have a teammate that is lagging behind in 15th most race weekends. Or so it appears. This was only Wickens' second race.

7. Ed Carpenter did next to nothing all night and finished seventh, matching his career-best finish at Phoenix, which he set last year. This is what Carpenter needed, a night where he kept his nose clean, completed all the laps and got a top ten finish. Ed Carpenter Racing didn't look competitive this weekend. The team has to make up ground to return to contending for race victories.

8. Tony Kanaan finished eighth and that seems right. He really didn't factor in this one.

9. Graham Rahal finished ninth and that has to be a bit disappointing consider how good Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was in the test. It could have been worse but the team knows this weekend could have been much better.

10. Simon Pagenaud had a slow first pit stop, it dropped him to the middle of the field and he couldn't get out of that rut and the same thing happened at St. Petersburg. The difference is he gets a top ten finish this week. This could have been a much better night for the Frenchman.

11. Takuma Sato finished 11th, kept his nose clean, completed all 250 laps but like his teammate Sato should be ticked off a bit because this team was on top of Phoenix in February.

12. Marco Andretti had a fuel issue and handling issues before qualifying and he started 20th but like Hunter-Reay he made up four spots right at the start. He ran well but one of these races he has to qualify near the front to get a respectable result.

13. Sébastien Bourdais stalled before rolling off for the pace laps. Fortunately, he got the car fired and led comfortably. Then he slid into a crew member on the first pit stop. He didn't lose as much ground as Rossi but still had to serve a penalty. He didn't have the car Rossi did but he did get to the front of the lapped cars. He lacked that extra bit to get back on the lead lap.

14. Quickly through the field: Spencer Pigot was off all night. Gabby Chaves was 15th. Zach Veach was stuck in at the back. Carlin has a long way to go. Matheus Leist has already been poisoned by A.J. Foyt Racing.

15. Four retirements in this one: Ed Jones was second after the third round of pit stops and he was trailing Newgarden but got into the marbles when behind the lapped car of Pigot. Ganassi doesn't like wrecked race cars in general but to tear one up while running in a podium position is an extra mark against Jones. Kyle Kaiser was doing well and then brushed the wall in turn four. He completed 174 laps so it is a good start to a career. Will Power got caught in the marble when Rossi blew pass him. Power was upset by the move but what else could Rossi do? Pietro Fittipaldi's debut ended after 40 laps. He was running 11th when it happened. Not sure we can take much away from this one for Fittipaldi.

16. The first 150 laps were a dud but the final 100 laps made it interesting. IndyCar was saved by Rossi and the game of cat and mouse over fresh tires. I am disappointed in how IndyCar has handled Phoenix. The first year was acceptable. It was the first time the series had been to the track since 2005 and you are not sure how it is going to race but after year one it was clear something had to be done to improve the racing. Nothing was done in year two and while the introduction of the universal aero kit was a massive overhaul compared to the previous two years IndyCar still had to take a swing and try something different.

IndyCar has two different boost levels for road/street course races and oval races but half of the ovals run the same high downforce aero package as the road/street course races. It would make sense to me if instead of assigning boost levels based on track configuration the series would pair it with aero packages or IndyCar should make the low downforce package mandated at all ovals instead of Indianapolis, Texas and Pocono.

The series also tried to lay down rubber in the top groove in the corners but when you look at what it used and compare the results to NASCAR at Texas it is disappointing how far IndyCar was off. Texas used the tire dragon and before Friday practice the turns were black even the back straightaway was rubbered in. At Phoenix, you couldn't tell anything had been done to the track at all. I understand there needs to be a preseason test but next to nothing can be taken from an afternoon session in February. Would it make more sense for IndyCar not to have the February test but give the teams all the tires they need to run for four consecutive hours starting at 5:00 p.m. local time the Thursday before the race to rubber in the racetrack? Something has to be done in year four because it is frustrating to watch the top three be covered by a second or a second and a half for 50 consecutive laps but nobody attempting to make a pass.

Even after tonight, I am not sure IndyCar gets a year four at Phoenix. IndyCar needs Phoenix more than Phoenix needs IndyCar and the track says it wants IndyCar but is it really worth it after the initial three-year deal was wasted? IndyCar's future at Phoenix will not be decided tonight, tomorrow or by the end of April but if things are quiet in August and September then I think it will be safe to say there will be an opening in the 2019 calendar.

17. Remember how everyone was peeved about the off time between St. Petersburg and Phoenix? Well there is a race in a week from Long Beach and the week after that is Barber. You are going to be tired of IndyCar before you know it. Sweet dreams.

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2018

Sébastien Bourdais stays on top through qualifying in Phoenix

IndyCar championship leader Sébastien Bourdais will start the second race of the season from pole position. The Frenchman ran a two-lap average at 188.539 MPH in qualifying from Phoenix, giving him his 34th career pole position. This is Bourdais' first pole position since Mid-Ohio 2014 and his first pole position on an oval since Milwaukee 2006. This is his fourth career pole position on an oval and he has won all three oval races he has started on pole position. His first career victory came from pole position at Lausitzring in 2003. In 2004, he won from pole position at Las Vegas and he led 117 of 197 laps on his way to victory at Milwaukee in 2006. Bourdais leads all active drivers with 18 victories from pole position in his career. This was Dale Coyne Racing's second pole position in team history. Mike Conway won the first pole position for DCR at the second race of the Belle Isle doubleheader in 2013.

Simon Pagenaud joins Bourdais on an all-French front row. The Penske driver missed out on pole positions by 0.0811 seconds. Pagenaud is looking for his second career oval victory after he won at Phoenix last year. This is the second time Bourdais and Pagenaud will share a front row. Bourdais and Pagenaud started 1-2 at Cleveland in 2007. Bourdais led 27 laps but retired due to an engine failure while Pagenaud finished fifth. Paul Tracy won the race from seventh on the grid. Pagenaud has not won a race from second on the grid and his best finish from second on the grid was fourth at Pocono last year.

Will Power starts third in his third Phoenix start. Power finished third from ninth on the grid at Phoenix in 2016 and he started and finished second last year. Power has five career oval victories and his first two oval victories came from third on the grid in the second race of the Texas doubleheader in 2011 and at Fontana in 2013. Alexander Rossi will start next to Power on row two. This is the third time Rossi has started inside the top five on an oval in his career. He started third at Indianapolis and Texas last year. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports swept row three with James Hinchcliffe starting fifth ahead of his rookie teammate Robert Wickens. This will be the 29th time Hinchcliffe has started inside the top five in his IndyCar career and four of his five victories have come from starting inside the top five. Pagenaud won last year's race from sixth on the grid. Only once has a Canadian won at Phoenix. Scott Goodyear won the 1999 race from third on the grid.

Josef Newgarden finished seventh in the season opener at St. Petersburg and he will start seventh for the second race of the season at Phoenix. Newgarden won twice from seventh on the grid last year. He did it at Barber and Toronto and in both occasions Newgarden was the worst Penske qualifier as he is for this race. Ryan Hunter-Reay makes it an all-American row four and this is Hunter-Reay's best start at Phoenix after qualifying 12th each of the last two years. Tony Kanaan will start ninth in his first oval race for A.J. Foyt Racing. This will be Kanaan's 345th IndyCar start, putting him into third all-time. He will trail A.J. Foyt by 24 starts for second most starts in IndyCar history after this race. While Kanaan continues to climb up the record book, Pietro Fittipaldi etches his name in the record book as the Miami-native will make his IndyCar debut from tenth on the grid. A Florida-born driver has never won a IndyCar race. His grandfather Emerson won at Phoenix in 1994.

Ed Jones starts on the inside of row six. Jones finished 11th last year at Phoenix. Graham Rahal will start 12th, his best career start at Phoenix. Rahal went from 19th to fifth in the 2016 race while he did not make it through the first turn from 17th on the grid last year. Takuma Sato follows his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate in the 13th position. Like Rahal, this is Sato's best career starting position at Phoenix. He has finished 15th and 16th in his two Phoenix starts. Kyle Kaiser will make his IndyCar debut from 14th on the grid. It is the best starting position in the short history of Juncos Racing. Kaiser could become the first driver to win in Indy Lights and IndyCar at Phoenix. Spencer Pigot rounds out the top fifteen in what is his first Phoenix appearance. This is only the fifth time Pigot has started in the top fifteen in his career. Matheus Leist rounds out row eight. A.J. Foyt Racing's best finish at Phoenix the last two years is tenth.

Scott Dixon qualified 17th. Dixon's previous worst starting position at Phoenix was eighth on two occasions. He started 17th last year at Iowa and finished eighth. Dixon is tied with Bourdais, Al Unser, Jr. and Dan Wheldon for most victories from starting positions outside the top ten at four. He won from 17th on the grid at Pocono in 2013. Ed Carpenter starts next to Dixon on row nine. This is the fourth time in five Phoenix appearances Carpenter has started outside the top fifteen. His seventh place finish last year was Carpenter's first top ten finish on the one-mile oval. Gabby Chaves and Marco Andretti will start on row ten. This will be the 16th time in 28 IndyCar starts Chaves has started 19th or worse. In the 15 other starts he has finished better than his starting position 14 times and matched his starting position once. Four times has the Phoenix winner started outside the top ten, including twice from outside the top twenty.

Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball make it an all-Carlin row 11. Chilton and Kimball started 20th and 21st in the season opener at St. Petersburg. This is the second time Chilton has started outside the top twenty in his career. He started 22nd in the Indianapolis 500 two years ago. This is the first time Kimball has started outside the top twenty in consecutive races since he started 23rd and 26th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Indianapolis 500 in 2014. Kimball was the fastest driver in the night practice after qualifying. Zach Veach will round out the grid in 23rd position. This is the most starters in a Phoenix race since 26 cars started in 2002.

NBCSN's coverage of the Desert Diamond Phoenix Grand Prix begins at 9:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.

Track Walk: Phoenix 2018

Spring sees IndyCar return to Phoenix

After three weeks off, IndyCar starts a three consecutive week stretch with races on three different types of courses. The first race of the hectic month of April is the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at the famed one-mile oval in Phoenix. Chevrolet has won the last two races at Phoenix but in February testing Honda had the fastest time and led all four sessions. Team Penske's four drivers combined to lead all 250 laps last year with Simon Pagenaud taking the victory. Sébastien Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing lead the championship entering the second race of the season for the second consecutive year. Bourdais lost the championship lead at Phoenix last year when he was caught in the turn one lap one accident but Phoenix was the fourth race of the 2017 season.

Coverage:
Time: Coverage begins at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday April 7th with green flag scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: NBCSN
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Katie Hargitt and Robin Miller will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice: 5:00 p.m. ET (60-minute session)
Qualifying: 8:00 p.m. ET (NBCSN will have live coverage of this session)
Second Practice: 11:00 p.m. ET (60-minute session)
Saturday:
Race: 9:30 p.m. ET (250 laps)

Will There Be More Passing?
IndyCar's first two races back at Phoenix were remembered more for the lack of passing.

The 2016 race had only two lead changes and both occurred when the leader suffered a tire puncture. First was Hélio Castroneves on lap 40 and that handed the point to Team Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. The Colombian would lead 56 laps before a cut tire forced an unscheduled pit stop. Scott Dixon would take the lead from there and the New Zealander led the final 155 laps on his way to victory.

Last year's race had double the lead changes from 2016 but two of those occurred during the first round of green flag pit stops. Castroneves led the first 73 laps before Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud each led a pair of laps. Will Power led 59 laps after that with Pagenaud retaking the lead from the Australian and leading the final 114 laps on his way to his tenth career victory and first on an oval. Four of the top five starters finished in the top five of last year's race with Newgarden finishing ninth from fourth on the grid.

In ten Phoenix races prior to IndyCar's return to the track in 2016, seven races had seven lead changes or more with the fewest in that period being four lead changes.

The good news for IndyCar is the series is coming off an impressive debut for the universal aero kit at St. Petersburg. The race saw 366 overtakes occur, smashing the previous event record of 322 overtakes set during the wet and time-shortened 2008 St. Petersburg race. Some drivers were optimistic during testing that tire degradation would allow more overtaking and IndyCar will attempt to rubber in the up groove by rolling tires in the top lane of the turns leading up to the event Thursday, Friday and possibly before the race on Saturday.

Will Andretti Autosport Regain Short Track Dominance?
From 2008-2014, Andretti Autosport won nine of 16 short track races including seven consecutive from Iowa 2011 to Iowa 2014. In the three seasons of the aero kit-epoch, Andretti Autosport won one of six short track races, had two podium finishes and three top five finishes.

Ryan Hunter-Reay led the way for the team on the short ovals with the 2012 champion having won six short track races for Andretti Autosport and Hunter-Reay had a stretch where he won at least one short track race for five consecutive seasons from 2011 to 2015. He has yet to have a breakthrough at Phoenix with Hunter-Reay having started 12th in both of his starts at the track and he finished tenth in 2016 but retired from last year's race with suspension damage after brushing the wall.

Dating back to last season Hunter-Reay has three consecutive top ten finishes and seven top ten finishes in the last eight races. He has finished in the top five in three consecutive season openers but Hunter-Reay has not finished in the top ten in the second race of the season since he won at Barber in 2013. Only once in his career has Hunter-Reay started a season with consecutive top ten finishes. In 2004, he opened the season with three consecutive top ten finishes.

Alexander Rossi has been alternating between podium finish and non-podium finish since last year at Toronto with Rossi having four podium finishes in the last seven races. Rossi had a good outing in his first Phoenix appearance before brushing the wall late in the race dropped him from a top ten finish and he retired from last year's race after contact with the barrier. Rossi's best finish in four short track starts is sixth while he has yet to start in the top ten on a short track.

This weekend has been billed as a special weekend for the Andretti family as Phoenix celebrates the 25th anniversary of Mario Andretti's final IndyCar victory, which occurred at the track. Marco Andretti will run a special commemorative livery, matching the car his grandfather won with in 1993.  This will be Andretti's 111th start since his most recent IndyCar victory at Iowa in 2011. He finished 13th in his first trip to Phoenix in 2016 but didn't make it through a lap last year. He has not finish in the top ten on a short oval the last two seasons and his most recent top five finish on a short oval was a second place finish at Iowa in 2012.

Like his teammate Hunter-Reay, Andretti has only started a season with consecutive top ten finishes once in his career. He had five consecutive top ten finishes to start the 2013 season.

Zach Veach will make his Phoenix debut this weekend. Veach finished 8th and completed all 90 laps in his only Indy Lights start at the track in 2016. He finished 16th at St. Petersburg, a career-best finish for the Ohioan. The most recent driver to score a maiden victory at Phoenix was another Ohioan, Sam Hornish, Jr. in 2001. Veach made five short track starts in his Indy Lights career, which included a victory at Milwaukee and three podium finishes.

Will The Short Track Trend Continue?
The aero kit epoch ended Andretti Autosport's short track dominance and in the six short track races from 2015-2017, five different teams were victorious. Sébastien Bourdais won the Milwaukee race in 2015 with KV Racing before Hunter-Reay's victory at Iowa. In 2016, Scott Dixon won at Phoenix with Chip Ganassi Racing with Josef Newgarden winning that summer at Iowa with Ed Carpenter Racing. Last year, Team Penske swept the short track races with Pagenaud taking Phoenix and Castroneves taking Iowa.

The team most likely to continue the trend of different short track winners has to be Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Takuma Sato was fastest in the February test at the track with at 19.3790 seconds (189.855 MPH). His teammate was fifth fastest at the test at 19.4574 seconds (189.090 MPH) and Rahal enters second in the championship after a runner-up finish at St. Petersburg. Sato has not had a top ten finish in the last nine short track races with his last top ten finish being a seventh at Milwaukee in 2013 and he has finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races, his worst stretch since he had nine consecutive races outside the top ten in 2014. While he has not been getting the finishes, Sato has started in the top five of six consecutive races.

Rahal had four top five finishes in six short track races during the aero kit epoch. However, Rahal has only led 24 laps in his career on short tracks with most he has led in one race being 11 laps at Iowa in 2010 while substituting for an injured Mike Conway at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

A.J. Foyt Racing could be another team that keeps the parity on short ovals. Tony Kanaan was third fastest in the February test and he is the only active driver with multiple victories at Phoenix. A.J. Foyt Racing has three Phoenix victories but the team has not won at the track since 1975. Matheus Leist has never been to Phoenix but he was 13th at the test, top rookie. Leist won his only short track start in Indy Lights last year at Iowa.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports did not have a stellar test at Phoenix with Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe 16th and 22nd respectively but both drivers outperformed preseason testing at St. Petersburg. Wickens' story has been well covered. He took pole position on debut, led 69 laps and he was driver of the day only to have contact with Alexander Rossi in the final laps dropped him to an 18th place finish. This will be Wickens' first career oval race. Hinchcliffe started seventh and finished fourth at St. Petersburg. Hinchcliffe has not had a top five finish on a short track since his dominating victory at Iowa in 2013 where he led 226 of 250 laps and Phoenix has been a difficult track for him with an finish of 18th, two laps down in 2016 and four laps down in 12th last year.

A Pair of Debuts
Two junior formula series champions will make their IndyCar debuts this weekend and one has won at Phoenix previously.

Kyle Kaiser's IndyCar debut occurs at the track where the California-native picked up his first career Indy Lights victory in 2016. He led every lap from pole position in that 2016 Phoenix race. That was not only Kaiser's only oval victory in Indy Lights but his only oval victory in his entire Road to Indy series career. Kaiser won four more Indy Lights races in his three-year stint in the series. In nine oval starts in Indy Lights, along with his one victory, Kaiser had four top five finishes.

Kaiser's debut comes in the #32 Chevrolet for Juncos Racing, the team Kaiser has driven for since the 2014 Pro Mazda season. Juncos Racing finished 22nd at St. Petersburg with René Binder in what was the Austrian's IndyCar debut. This is only the third race for Juncos Racing with its best finish being 15th with Sebastián Saavedra in last year's Indianapolis 500. Kaiser was the slowest of 23 cars during the February test.

Pietro Fittipaldi won last year's Formula V8 3.5 Series championship and the American-born driver will make his IndyCar debut in #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. The grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi won six of 18 races on his way to the title last year and he had ten podium finishes. Prior to that, Pietro Fittipaldi won the 2015-16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 championship, a series where Conor Daly was champion in 2012-13. He was 15th fastest at the February test, second-best rookie, but this will not be his first time on an oval. Fittipaldi won the 2011 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship at Hickory Motor Speedway when he was 15 years old.

Fast Facts
This will be the fifth IndyCar race to take place on April 7th and the first since Ryan Hunter-Reay won at Barber Motorsports Park in 2013.

One Phoenix race has taken place on April 7th. Bobby Unser won on that day in 1968. Bobby Unser also won on April 7th, 1974 at Trenton while the year prior his brother Al Unser won on April 7th at Texas World Speedway.

Hélio Castroneves set the track record last year with a two-lap average of 194.905 MPH.

Sébastien Bourdais has won three times in the month of April. All three of those victories occurred at Long Beach.

Bourdais' victory at St. Petersburg was his fourth when starting outside the top ten. He is tied with Scott Dixon, Al Unser, Jr., and Dan Wheldon for most victories from starting outside the top ten.

Scott Dixon has finished in the top ten in 12 consecutive races, the longest streak of his career.

The last time the winner of the first oval race of the season went on to win the championship was Scott Dixon in 2008.

Simon Pagenaud has completed 2,834 consecutive laps dating back to Texas 2016.

Ed Carpenter did not have a top five finish in 18 starts during the aero kit epoch and only had three top ten finishes during that stretch including a seventh place finish last year at Phoenix.

Charlie Kimball has not had a top five finish in the last 28 races, the longest drought of his career.

Last season, five of six oval races were won from inside the top five with the worst starting position for a winner being ninth at Texas by Will Power.

The average starting position for a Phoenix winner is 4.34 with a median of three.

The last three Phoenix races have been won from row three while the four races prior to that were won from the front row.

The average number of lead changes in a Phoenix race is 5.25 with a median of five.

The record for most lead changes in a Phoenix race is 11, which occurred in the spring race in 1986 with Kevin Cogan taking the victory and in 1995 with Robby Gordon winning the race.

The average number of cautions in a Phoenix race is 4.705 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 35.97 with a median of 32.5.

Last year's race had two cautions, the fewest in a Phoenix race since the autumn race in 1986, which Michael Andretti won.

The Phoenix winner has lapped the field ten times and the most recent occurrence was Mario Andretti in 1993.

The closest margin of victory at Phoenix was Tony Kanaan winning by 0.5344 seconds over Scott Dixon in 2004.

Possible Milestones:
Simon Pagenaud needs to lead 95 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead nine laps to reach the 700 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 33 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Ed Carpenter needs to lead 90 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 50 laps to reach the 400 laps led milestone.

Predictions
To round out the celebration of his grandfather, Marco Andretti will win the race with at least two Team Penske cars finishing in the top five. However, there will be at least one lead change within the final 50 laps of the race. At least one Foyt car finishes in the top ten but the other finishes outside the top fifteen. Sébastien Bourdais finishes in the top ten but does not retain the championship lead. Robert Wickens will not be the top finishing rookie. More than four cars finish on the lead lap and there will be fewer retirements in this race than last year. Sleeper: Spencer Pigot.

First Impressions: Phoenix 2017

1. Let's start with the aero package. It is disappointing that after last year's Phoenix race IndyCar didn't say, "let's make sure that doesn't happen again." I am sure enough drivers and fans are going to express dissatisfaction and changes are going to come and hopefully before the next two short oval races later this year at Iowa and Gateway. That isn't good enough for the series and everyone within the series knows it. I have faith that changes will be made in the right direction and they will be done quickly.

2. I don't want to say Simon Pagenaud didn't deserve this victory but it felt like whoever ended up in front was going to win because you needed to have a death wish if you wanted to attempt a pass tonight. However, with passing being excruciatingly difficult Pagenaud and his team found a way to the lead and won the race, his first oval victory and tenth in his career, and that is all that matters at the end of the day. For the second consecutive year, Pagenaud leaves Phoenix as championship leader. He didn't concede it once he got it last year.

3. Will Power finished second and he finally had a fine day. He wants more horsepower and less downforce on short ovals and he has been preaching that for over a year. Let's listen to the man.

4. J.R. Hildebrand made the most passes on the night and he finished third and gave Power a run for his money for second. This is a great way to come back after missing a race due to a broken hand. Hopefully that momentum carries over to the remaining races.

5. Surprise! Hélio Castroneves finished fourth after starting on pole position and leading, I don't know, the first 77 laps? This is what he does. He finishes fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh every race but can't keep up with the leaders.

6. Scott Dixon finished fifth and did nothing. There aren't many races where you can say Scott Dixon did nothing.

7. Tony Kanaan finished sixth and did nothing.

8. Ed Carpenter went from 21st to seventh and may have made one pass all night.

9. Charlie Kimball finished eighth and did nothing. He didn't even hit anybody.

10. Josef Newgarden was contending for a podium but he had to make two wing changes and contact with the lapped car of Ryan Hunter-Reay forced him to stop from third. He went from being on Pagenaud's rear in the championship to being much further back after a ninth-place finish.

11. Carlos Muñoz finished tenth and didn't do a damn thing. Congratulations to A.J. Foyt Racing on finally getting a top ten finish.

12. Ed Jones finished 12th in his first IndyCar oval race and completed 247 of 250 laps. Not bad. He has been fun to watch this season.

13. James Hinchcliffe had horrible fuel mileage and it cost him a top ten finished and he finished 12th.

14. Ryan Hunter-Reay brushed the wall while in the top ten and he called it a night 80 laps early but still finished 13th. Conor Daly was 70 laps down the entire night after a gearbox issue but was still running at the finish 14th

15. I have no idea what happened to Alexander Rossi. I think he brushed the wall and he finished 15th. Takuma Sato smacked the wall and brought out a caution. Andretti Autosport keeps finding a new way to get hit in the crotch.

16. Mikhail Aleshin, Marco Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Max Chilton and Graham Rahal all failed to complete lap one. I tweeted just prior to the race that I thought there would be an accident lap one because I thought Aleshin would lose it or Hunter-Reay would lose it by going to the outside on the start. I was right on the former. Aleshin gets a lot of praise but 50/50 chance is he bins it. The other four drivers were collateral damage and unfortunately it ended the fairy tale start to the season for Bourdais and Dale Coyne Racing.

17. A few off-track things I want to get to. If you didn't know, ESPN has been laying off a ton of people and included in those are Allen Bestwick and Dr. Jerry Punch. If they are gone, two men who did more than just IndyCar but also college football, college basketball and college hockey, I have to think Eddie Cheever, Scott Goodyear, Jon Beekhuis and Rick DeBruhl have all also been handed their walking papers. Bestwick and Punch have both said they will continue through Belle Isle but when Bestwick signs off after that Sunday race, he and likely all of them are gone.

A lot of people have wanted the ABC/ESPN team gutted and frankly wants the series off the network. I have been critical of the network's use of Cheever and Goodyear but I was a proponent to Bestwick taking over the reins to the IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 coverage prior to Marty Reid being fired and Dr. Punch, Beekhuis and DeBruhl are a solid pit reporting team.

There is no positive from the ESPN layoffs and it only creates more questions as the network's IndyCar deal extends through 2018 and the lead commentator and senior IndyCar broadcaster are gone and I can't imagine ESPN kept the other four guys on through 2018. I am starting to wonder if ESPN will buyout its final year but I don't think the network would do that. If the final year of the deal is honored, what does the announce team look like? I can't imagine after laying off an unfathomable number of people ESPN is going to hire a few people to do five weekends of IndyCar racing and I can't imagine ESPN bringing the NBCSN crew in on loan but it could be the easiest solution.

We knew the next IndyCar television deal was going to be negotiated over the course of this season but now a whole set of questions have arisen over 2018.

18. While one network is in flux, I have to make a comment about NBCSN's crew and in particular the pit reporters. I caught the end of the qualifying show and it featured Kevin Lee, Katie Hargitt, Robin Miller and Marty Snider all sitting on the pit wall, a somewhat common thing the crew has done after a race or session dating back to the Texas rain delay when they talked to just about everyone on pit road. It is a relaxed atmosphere and it is refreshing but NBCSN has done a great job of putting together a diverse group of pit reporters.

You have Miller, the experienced some would call curmudgeon who has seen it all, Lee and Snider, generation X-ers, Lee who got into the series during the split and Snider who has covered almost every form of motorsports and Hargitt, a millennial woman who is in the same age bracket as many of the drivers and of the demographic the series tries to attract to the broadcast and race track. They all bring different mindsets and ideas to the broadcast and that is good for the presentation of the series.

19. Finally, I want to send my prayers and thoughts to John Andretti, who is fighting stage four colon cancer. It sucks. It just sucks to hear he is going through such a thing. There is so much I want to say but for now I will say John Andretti has come off as nothing but a soft-spoken gentleman and besides that he is an underrated talent as a driver. He never lit the world on fire and dominated a championship but he raced everything and anything and was competitive in it all.

20. May is Monday.

Morning Warm-Up: Phoenix 2017

Another pole position for Team Penske and Hélio Castroneves

Hélio Castroneves picked up his 48th career pole position and his second pole position of the season as the Brazilian obliterated the track record he set last year. Castroneves ran a two-lap average of 194.905 MPH, over two and a half miles per hour faster than his pole speed from a year ago. He also broke the one-lap record with a lap of 194.975 MPH. This is Castroneves' tenth pole position since his most recent victory at Belle Isle in 2014. His average finish in his last nine starts from pole position is 11.333 with two podiums but only three top ten finishes. Will Power made it a sweep of the front row for Team Penske but the Australian was nearly a mile per hour slower than his teammate at 194.017 MPH. Power has not won from second on the grid since Edmonton 2011. He finished third last year in his Phoenix debut.

J.R. Hildebrand's return to competition will come from third on the grid after the Californian missed the Barber race due to a broken wrist. Third will be a career-best starting position for Hildebrand. His previous best was fourth at Iowa in 2011 and Fontana in 2012. This will be his fifth career top five start but he has only finished in the top ten once when starting in the top five and that was finishing fourth from fourth at Iowa in 2011. Next to Hildebrand will be the man he replaced in the #21 Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden. Newgarden is coming off victory at Barber, which was his fourth career victory. Simon Pagenaud makes it four Penske cars in the first five positions. Last year, Pagenaud went from tenth to second and took the championship lead at Phoenix. Tony Kanaan rounds out row three and he is the top Honda on the starting grid.

Mikhail Aleshin was the top Honda for most of the qualifying session but he will start seventh, next to Kanaan's teammate Scott Dixon. Aleshin has five top ten finishes in ten oval starts, including a second-place finish at Pocono last year but he only has five top ten finishes in his previous 12 top ten starts. The top seven qualifiers were faster than last year's pole speed. Dixon has never won from eighth position in his career and his only podium from eighth position was a third at Milwaukee in 2001, his fifth career start. Rounding out the top ten will be Marco Andretti and Sébastien Bourdais. This is Andretti's second top ten start in the last three races after going 17 races without a top ten start. Andretti has finished in the top ten in the last four oval races he has started in the top ten. Despite having a victory and leading the championship, this is Bourdais' best starting position of the season.

James Hinchcliffe starts on the inside of row six with Ryan Hunter-Reay next to him in 12th position. This is Hinchcliffe's worst starting position of the season while Hunter-Reay matches his worst starting position of the season. Hunter-Reay went from 12th to fourth at St. Petersburg in March and he started 12th last year at Phoenix. Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball make it an all-Ganassi row seven. Chilton finished seventh last year at Phoenix in his first IndyCar oval race. Kimball has always finished better than his starting position when starting 14th with him achieving four top ten finishes from the position. Alexander Rossi starts 15th next to Ed Jones in 16th. Rossi started and finished 14th last year at Phoenix while Jones finished second in the Indy Lights race last year at the track.

Graham Rahal will start on the inside of row eight, his worst starting position on an oval since he started 26th at Indianapolis last year. Takuma Sato will be to the outside of Rahal. This will be the fifth time Sato has started 18th in his career and he started and finished 18th at Long Beach three weeks ago. While Chevrolet swept the top five, it will also hold the final three positions on the grid. A.J. Foyt Racing teammates Carlos Muñoz and Conor Daly will start on row ten. Ed Carpenter will round out the grid in 21st position. Carpenter suffered a fuel leak in practice and the team scrambled to get the car ready for the qualifying session. This is Carpenter's 12th time starting 21st in his career. His average finish in his previous 11 starts from that position is 17.0 and his lone top ten finish when starting 21st was eighth at Iowa in 2012. Twice has a Phoenix IndyCar race been won from outside the top twenty, 1987 by Roberto Guerrero from 22nd and 2000 by Buddy Lazier from 26th.

NBCSN's coverage of the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix will start at 9:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 9:35 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.