First Impressions: Washington, D.C. 2026

1. It could not have been more of a dominant drive for Kyle Kirkwood on his way to victory in the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. Starting on the front row with Álex Palou to his inside, Kirkwood had a challenge from the start, and it only took two corners for Kirkwood to take the lead. That didn't mean a thing though. Plenty of opening stints have seen Palou settle in second and take the lead through the first pit cycle. A caution did not allow for the pit cycle to play out with green flag pit stops, and Palou clipped a tire laid out in Mick Schumacher's pit box, taking Palou out of the equation. 

That may have made it a little easier for Kirkwood, but he still drove to the lead ahead of cars running an alternate strategy. With separation, Kirkwood flew, opening a lead over ten seconds in no time, and it was never really closer than that. Even with the late cautions toward the end of the race, bringing the rest of the field to Kirkwood's gearbox, and a late attempt from Scott McLaughlin to take the lead, Kirkwood kept firm control of this race. In the closing laps, he was running his fastest laps of the race, and he still won by over three seconds ahead of Christian Lundgaard.

Kirkwood's street course prowess has been well-documented. His sixth street course victory in seven career victories speak for themselves. He never slipped up on a course where it was uncertain you could fully be in control. With the bumps and uneven surface, it was a track setup to catch out drivers. Plenty of drivers had little bobbles that would seem to be innocuous turn out to be tumultuous. There was no sense of safety on any lap. Last week, Kirkwood clipped a barrier and ended his race in Markham while pushing for a podium finish. If anyone knew a course could trip a driver when least expected, it was Kirkwood. 

He remained out of the barriers and he remained near-flawless to the checkered flag. With Palou's struggles today, Kirkwood kept his championship hopes alive for another race. It is still a 91-point deficit with three races remaining.

2. Christian Lundgaard had good pace in this race, and it looked like he would be racing for second with Scott McLaughlin until the late cautions packed the field together. Then McLaughlin threw it away on the penultimate restart in turn one. It opened the door for Lundgaard to push Kirkwood, and he kept Kirkwood honest, but Lundgaard did not have it in the closing laps.

For as good as Kirkwood has been on street courses this season, Lundgaard has been just as good. He looked strong today and was deserving of a podium finish. 

3. Three races, three consecutive third-place finishes for Will Power, and Power had a lot of pace in this race. Like Markham, Power had speed despite starting further down the order than desired. In the penultimate stint, Power chased down McLaughlin and Lundgaard and put himself firmly in the fight for the podium. He may have gotten there without McLaughlin's issues. The second half of the season has been much kinder to Power. He feels like he has settled in at Andretti Global.

4. Marcus Ericsson had another strong race, and Ericsson took a six-spot grid penalty for an engine change this morning. He went from 21st to fifth. Ericsson was shuffled a little too far back to really push for the podium. Even though the field was bunched up with the late cautions, Ericsson still finished over 12 seconds behind Kirkwood. That shows how much of a different realm Kirkwood was in today compare to a teammate that also finished in the top five

5. Kyffin Simpson went off-strategy early to attempt a four-stop race. It looked like a stretch, but the cautions fell in Simpson's favor that he could be on the same cycle as the leaders, and it turned into a strategy that put Simpson into a top five position. Two fewer cautions and Simpson likely does not get this result. Credit to Simpson for holding on and the #8 Ganassi team for rolling these dice. Simpson has been finding a way to get results in the second half of the season

6. Nolan Siegel also went on the four-stop strategy like Simpson and it got Siegel a career-best finish in sixth. Siegel drove well today. He didn't make any mistakes. He didn't overdrive the car. He held his own and kept it in a top ten position. This could have been a gamble that didn't pay off, but Siegel brought it home.

7. Scott Dixon got off the snide with a seventh place finish, but Dixon needed those late cautions. His final stop came 41 laps to the checkered flag. It would have been a mighty ask to make it if the race ran entirely green. Those late cautions helped Dixon get to the line, but Dixon also made a late move to take seventh from Josef Newgarden. Dixon was never really a factor in this one, but he just needed a good day. He got it.

8. Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske finisher, and Newgarden probably did the least of the three today. Newgarden never made a push for the front. He ran in the middle of the field all race and was in position for a top ten result. He made a few passes, but he was not breathtakingly quick today. Eighth is a good day though.

9. For the first time in his IndyCar career, Caio Collet has finished in the top ten. Collet was ninth. He didn't really make any waves. He completed 147 laps, didn't make a mistake and he was rewarded for it. He needed this day because his season has been rotten, and it sounds like Collet is under pressure to remain at A.J. Foyt Racing. This will go a long way.

10. Romain Grosjean was on the same strategy as Simpson, but an off-track excursion in turn one cost him dearly. Grosjean nearly gave away a top ten finish with that incident, but he recovered to take tenth. It definitely could have been a little better. With how his season was going, consecutive top ten finishes is tremendous for this group.

11. Mick Schumacher took 11th. The biggest thing for Schumacher was not making a mistake. Last week, a barrier caught him out. Today, he ran all 147 laps and he was the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing finisher. That is beneficial to him and this team. 

12. Alexander Rossi was 12th. I don't know what else to say. Ed Carpenter Racing had good pace in practice. It didn't translate for Rossi in qualifying. It did for Christian Rasmussen, and Rasmussen started fourth. Come the race, we didn't see anything special. It is better than it has been for Rossi, but it is still disappointing considering how the weekend started. We hear a lot about promise from ECR but we seldom see it fulfilled.

13. Graham Rahal went well off strategy early in the race, but unlike others, it didn't cycle into Rahal's favor. He was always caught in needing to make an extra pit stop. In a way, 13th is pretty good because it looked like Rahal might have had to make a stop and end up a lap down. It is hard to count it as a moral victory, but it could have been much worse.

14. We are going to blow through the lapped cars here...

Christian Rasmussen was spun in turn five after contact from Marcus Armstrong. Both cars were competing for top ten positions at that point. Rasmussen cannot catch a break. He was fortunate the race shook out where he could finish 14th, the best of the lapped finishers. It looked like it was going to be worse than that for a great portion of this race. Rasmussen had good pace today. It is a shame he was taken out so early.

Dennis Hauger was 15th a lap down. This was another race where Hauger didn't do anything with a good starting position. He started eighth today. At no point was he moving forward. He dropped back again. This has happened too often this season for Hauger.

Patricio O'Ward cost himself a top ten finish with a bad run into turn six and going into the runoff. The bumps knocked O'Ward out of rhythm and he wasn't going to make the corner. It was surprising we didn't see more of these incidents during the race. There were plenty of those during practice and qualifying. For O'Ward, it was incredibly costly. 

Marcus Armstrong had a penalty for that contact with Rasmussen. Armstrong is in a horrendous funk. He looks like a driver who cannot get out of his own way. Everything has been a downslide since his engine failure while leading at Road America. 

Louis Foster was banged up in the Markham accident. Thumb injury, foot injury, Foster was not 100% in this race and it showed. He was never competitive in this race.

Felix Rosenqvist spun in turn one right after Scott McLaughlin smacked the barrier. The two incidents were unrelated. Rosenqvist grazed the barrier and could continue, but the damage was enough to drop him a lap down and ruin what should have been a top ten run. 

15. And now we reach Álex Palou. The first 35 laps looked good. Then Palou clipped the tire in Schumacher's pit box. It did look like that tire was in an odd spot, more centered than usual, but Palou is supposed to avoid it. That was a drive-through penalty. 

On the next pit stop, Palou's crew could not get the left front tire secure and that cost him time and put him a lap down. Palou had a chance with that stop to remain on the lead lap and be ahead on pit stops compared to Kirkwood. It would have positioned Palou to cycle to the front should a caution come out before the rest of the leaders made their next stops. Of course, the fumbled wheel nut negated that and the caution never came anyway. 

Palou ran aggressive to remain competitive, and he was going to take an extra pit stop in this effort, but he suffered left rear suspension failure and spun, effectively any hope of a promising result. The repairs were made and he ended up 20th, three laps down. 

The championship is still over. The reaction has been just like after Toronto last year. 

"It's not over." 

Does anyone think Palou is going to lose 30 points in each of the next three races? Seriously? 

"He lost 42 points today." 

Do you really think that is going to happen again? Palou is 17 points away from clinching the title with two races to spare. He would need to lose 37 points over the two Milwaukee races for the title not to be clinched early, and he really needs to lose 42 points because any championship margin of 49 points or greater means all Palou must do at Laguna Seca is start to claim the championship. 

Yeah, Palou cough up some points today. Yeah, these were unforced errors. They aren't going to happen in four consecutive races to close the season. All Palou needs is one average day in the final three races to lock up the title. That is going to happen. Mathematically, it is still alive. Unless a driver is within 49 points after Milwaukee, let's not kid ourselves into thinking we are in for a title fight to very last checkered flag of the season.

The inevitable has been delayed unless at least Saturday.

16. Electrical issues effectively ended Santino Ferrucci's race immediately. Ferrucci was on pit lane early and had to change his steering wheel. Ferrucci was basically seven laps down for this entire race, and once he couldn't gain anymore positions, he pulled it in 19 laps from the finish. That was a tough break.

17. Four retirements in this race, which feels surprisingly low. 

Scott McLaughlin went for it on Kyle Kirkwood on the penultimate restart. Kirkwood had been untouchable to that point. McLaughlin had a slight fuel advantage and the alternate tire. It was a golden opportunity to take the lead. McLaughlin overcooked it in the corner. It is a tough blow. This was probably one of McLaughlin's best races of the season, and all he will have to show for it is 22nd. 

18. Rinus VeeKay was ricocheted into the barrier after Armstrong hit Rasmussen into the Dane. There wasn't much Rasmussen could have done there, and it was devastating for VeeKay, who was actually ahead of Kirkwood on that restart because VeeKay was on pit lane when the first caution came out for David Malukas getting into the wall and collecting Sting Ray Robb as collateral damage.

VeeKay appeared to have a run on Graham Rahal, who led on that restart, but VeeKay admitted he confused where the restart line was, and he backed off. I don't know if he thought where they initially started the race on the exit of turn one was where the restart was supposed to be and not the start/finish line. VeeKay was alongside Rahal, and then he backed off and it allowed Kirkwood, Simpson and Grosjean to get ahead. Not long after that, VeeKay was pinballed into the barrier and out of the race.

The strange thing is this was the third restart of the race. VeeKay would have known that restarts were at start/finish, unless he thought it was on exit of turn one and everyone had to throttle up out of turn seven to have enough speed on the restarts exiting turn one. On the first two restarts, there were no real pass attempts into turn one. It is conceivable VeeKay got it mixed up. That confusion may have been costly to the Dutchman.

19. David Malukas appeared to have clipped the barrier on the inside of turn seven, sending Malukas into the outside barrier. Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go as Malukas was parked on corner exit. Malukas had gone off-strategy, stopping under the second caution for debris. He had been running seventh. 

I don't know how that strategy would have played out. It became clear through practice this was going to be a three-stop race as soon as any caution came out. We had a caution immediately for debris, which lasted three laps, and then on lap 18 the caution came out again for debris, which lasted four laps. At that point, it was obvious this was going to be a three-stop race. Malukas was on the same strategy Rahal employed, and Rahal had to make three more stops to make the finish. Rahal made a fourth additional stop to get tires with just over 20 laps to go after Palou's spin. 

I think Malukas is finishing at best in 12th or 13th if he went the full distance. It was a roll of the dice that didn't quite make sense, especially for a car racing in the top ten. 

Malukas was hard on himself after the accident, as this was his third consecutive result outside the top ten. He brushed the barrier at Markham, and today's accident was an unforced error. The team didn't quite have the pace at Portland. I don't think Malukas has been terribly poor. It is a bit of a rut, but not the end of the world. 

20. As mentioned above, Sting Ray Robb had nowhere to go when Malukas spun. I don't know how well Robb would have done without that accident. He probably finishes at least 20th. 

21. I thought it was a good race. The track was fine. The opening stanza was rather uneventful. Minus the debris cautions, it was processional early. 

Most of this race was settled. The most action came involving lapped traffic, and with a race that was 250 miles in length, it allowed lapped traffic to be a factor. Most street races are complete around 175 miles, if we even go that far, and we might not see the very end of the pack become a factor. We never see the end of the field caught with nearly 60 laps to go. Arlington was barely over 60 laps in length. 

The roads were wide enough that it didn't feel like every pass was risky. It allowed drivers to make a move early and position themselves properly into a corner. I don't think it was the greatest street course IndyCar has ever raced. I don't think it was the worst either. It can be somewhere in the middle.

Extending the race to 147 laps might have cost us a little more thrilling race because this became a race where everyone knew it was achievable completing it in three pit stops. If this race remained 125 laps, as originally scheduled, it would have been a three-stop race for everyone and there would have been almost no shot at running it in two stops. The teams were barely making it 40 laps. Even at 125 laps, if a team made it 40 laps, they would still need to make three pit stops. 

We could have had a full-throttle, three-stopper at 125 laps because the pit windows would have been massive. Teams could have tried to stretch each stint to 35 or 36 laps and then had a shorter final stint to sprint to the finish, or teams could have stopped early, around lap 21 or 22 and run an alternate strategy from there. 

The longer street race was different to see. We have seen a road or street course race of this length in over 40 years. I don't know if we need to do it again or if this was necessary. If there is going to be a three-stop race, set it up so everyone has to push and make it so attempting to stretch fuel is disadvantageous. There should be a goal for the race length. 

22. It is getting late early. Only two race weekend remain. There are three races thanks to the Milwaukee doubleheader. I consider that a blessing. We are back on track Saturday, Friday technically because of practice, but we are talking races here. 

Morning Warm-Up: Washington, D.C. 2026

Álex Palou won pole position for the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. with a lap of 56.8993 seconds in the final round of qualifying on Saturday evening. It is Palou's seventh pole position of the season and the 19th of his career. There is a chance Palou could clinch the championship this weekend. If he leaves Washington, D.C. with at least a 162-point lead over second, Palou will clinch his fourth consecutive championship and the fifth of his career. Palou enters this race with five consecutive top five finishes, his longest streak since the five-race span that covered the final four races of last season and the St. Petersburg season opener in March. He has won ten times from pole position in his career, including at Detroit in June.

Kyle Kirkwood was 0.5668 seconds off Palou's pole-winning lap as Kirkwood was the first car to take to the track in the final round of qualifying, directly ahead of Palou. This is only the second time this season Kirkwood has started on the front row this year. He started first at Nashville. The only other time he has started second for a race was Toronto in 2024, a race he finished second to his Andretti Autosport teammate Colton Herta. Twenty-first at Markham was Kirkwood's worst street course result since he was 24th at Belle Isle in 2022, driving for A.J. Foyt Racing with a fractured wrist. He had 13 consecutive top ten finishes on street courses prior to last week.

Scott McLaughlin put the #3 Chevrolet into this on the grid, 0.7207 seconds off Palou's best lap. It is the third time in four races McLaughlin will start third, and it is his fourth time starting third this season. He has finished worse than third in each of those starts. Prior to this season, McLaughlin had never started third in his IndyCar career. McLaughlin makes his 100th career start this weekend. Six drivers have had won in their 100th career start, five of those occurred in the month of August. The only one that didn't occurred last year when Patricio O'Ward won at Iowa.

Christian Rasmussen has his best career starting position in fourth. For the second time in his career, Rasmussen is starting in the top five. He started fifth at Mid-Ohio last month. This is the fifth time this season Rasmussen has started in the top ten. Prior to 2026, he had three top ten starts in 31 races. This is the final street course race of the season. Rasmussen has finished outside the top twenty in the last three races and in eight of 14 races this season.

Marcus Armstrong will be start fifth after having started 20th or worse in three of the last four races. Entering Washington, D.C., Armstrong has failed to finish on the lead lap in consecutive three races, the longest slump in his career. The New Zealander has finished outside the top ten in four of five street races. Twice has he finished 11th. His best street course finish was tenth at Arlington. This will be Armstrong's 61st career start. Seventeen drivers took 61 starts or more to score their first career victory.

Slight contact with the barrier on his final qualifying run saw David Malukas settle for sixth on the grid as he cruised around on his final round qualifying lap. This was his third time making the final round of qualifying on a street course this season. Malukas is hoping to avoid three consecutive results out the top ten since the first five races of last season. He has finished outside the top ten in three of the first five street races. This will be Malukas' 76th career start. Ten drivers took 76 starts or more to score their first career victory.

Patricio O'Ward fell 0.1151 seconds shy of making the final round of qualifying, and this will place O'Ward seventh on the grid. This does snap a three-race skid of starting outside the top ten. This is the 15th race of the season. O'Ward has finished in the top five in the 15th race of the season five times in six seasons. The lone exception was last year when he was 25th at Portland. His third career victory came from seventh starting position at Iowa in 2022.

Dennis Hauger starts in the top ten for the third consecutive race. This time, Hauger is rolling off from eighth position. Though it has been eight races since his most recent top ten finish, Hauger has finished in the top fifteen in the last two races. He had finished 20th or worse in the four races prior to that. The most recent road/street course won from the eighth starting position was the 2025 St. Petersburg race, and Álex Palou was the winner.

Christian Lundgaard will start directly behind his Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward in ninth position. Lundgaard has never had multiple podium finishes on street courses in a season. He was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. The Dane has six top ten finishes in the last seven races. Lundgaard is one of two drivers who enter Washington, D.C. having completed all 1,815 laps this season. The other is his teammate O'Ward.

Felix Rosenqvist rounds out the top ten on the grid. This is the first time Rosenqvist has started between sixth and tenth since last year's Nashville season finale when he rolled off from ninth. Fuel pressure issues ended Rosenqvist's Markham race after 18 laps, classifying him in 24th. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top twenty since 2024 when he was 26th at Iowa and then 23rd at Toronto.

Caio Collet made it out of the first round of qualifying for the third time this season, and he will start 11th for the second time this season. Collet started and finished 11th at Mid-Ohio. Collet has failed to finish on the lead lap in the last three races with two of those being retirements. This is the first time Collet has been the top A.J. Foyt Racing starter since that Mid-Ohio race.

Nolan Siegel starts in the top twelve for only the third time this season. Siegel previously started ninth at Phoenix and seventh at Road America. This is only the second time Siegel made the second round of qualifying on a street course. The other was Long Beach last season. In three of the last four races, Siegel has finished in the top 12. He had only three finishes in the top 12 in the first ten races of the season. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Siegel will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 18th).

Will Power missed out on the second round of qualifying by 0.0632 second, and Power will start 13th. The Australian did slap the barrier late in his qualifying group. Power has finished third in the last two races. It is the first time he has had consecutive third-place finishes since the 2018 season finale at Sonoma and the 2019 season opener at St. Petersburg. The last time he had three consecutive finishes in the same position was in 2022 when he was fourth at Texas, Long Beach and Barber Motorsports Park.

Scott Dixon was on a lap good enough to advance to round two, but a red flag came out when Dixon was two corners away from the finish line. Instead, he will start to Power's outside on row seven. Dixon was 0.1438 seconds off advancing. Washington, D.C. is the 57th different circuit Dixon has competed on in his career. He has won on 28 of those circuits, the most all-time in IndyCar history.

Marcus Ericsson also brushed the barrier in the first round of qualifying, and Ericsson will start 15th. After each of Ericsson's first four career victories, he finished ninth, ninth, seventh and eighth. Only twice in his career has he had consecutive top five finishes, in 2021 at Mid-Ohio and Nashville and in 2022 at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Ericsson will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 21st).

Josef Newgarden finds himself on the outside of row eight. This is the third consecutive race Newgarden is starting outside the top ten, and he has started outside the top ten on all six street course races this season. Newgarden has finished 25th or worse in the 15th race of the season the last three years. He had seven consecutive top ten finishes in the 15th race of the season prior to that with two victories, both coming at Gateway. 

Alexander Rossi takes 17th on the grid, the fifth time in the last six races Rossi will start outside the top ten. After suffering a gearbox failure at Markham, it was the second time this season he has gone four consecutive races without a top fifteen finish. Four retirements is tied for his most in a season. Rossi retired from four of 14 races in 2020.

Louis Foster goes from starting on pole position last week to Markham to 18th on the grid for Washington, D.C., however, the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver on the grid in both instances. This is the 12th time Foster has started outside the top ten this season. Only once in Foster's career has he retired from consecutive races. That was last year at Detroit and Gateway, two races where he was in accidents.

Rinus VeeKay hit the barrier early in the first round of qualifying, and VeeKay takes 19th on the grid after only being able to complete three laps in the session. With finishes of fourth and seventh in the last two races, VeeKay is attempting to get his third consecutive top ten finish. He has had at least one run of three consecutive top ten finishes in four of his first six seasons in IndyCar.

Mick Schumacher rounds out the top twenty on the grid. Schumacher has finished outside the top twenty in four of five street course races this season. His best street course finish was 17th at Long Beach, a race where he started 21st. His accident at Markham was only Schumacher's second retirement of the season. The other was St. Petersburg, where he was caught in an opening lap incident. (Update 8:08 a.m. ET - Schumacher will take a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change and start 24th).

Romain Grosjean occupies 21st on the grid. This is the fifth time this season Grosjean has started outside the top twenty. Grosjean picked up his sixth career runner-up finish at Markham last week. He is now tied with Geoff Brabham with most second-place finishes without a victory. Only Vitor Meira has more with eight runner-up results but no victories.

Graham Rahal was the slowest driver in the first qualifying group and this places Rahal in 22nd starting spot, the fourth time Rahal has started outside the top twenty this season. He has not finished better than 18th when starting outside the top twenty in 2026. In the first eight races, Rahal had three podium finishes and five top ten finishes. His ninth at Markham was his first top ten finish in the last six races.

Sting Ray Robb slides into the 23rd grid position. It is the tenth time this season Robb is starting outside the top twenty. In 66 career races, this is the 53rd time he has started 21st or worse. Robb has finished in the top fifteen in the last two street course races, 14th at Detroit and 11th at Markham.

Kyffin Simpson was set to advance from the second group in round one, but Simpson clipped the barrier on the outside of turn six, bringing out a red flag and deleting Simpson's two best laps. He will start 24th. Simpson has finished on the lead lap in nine consecutive street course races. This is his worst starting position of the season.

A six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change drops Santino Ferrucci to 25th. Ferrucci was going to line up 22nd prior to the penalty. Last week, Ferrucci was tenth at Markham. He has not had top ten finishes in consecutive street course races since he went sixth and tenth at the 2021 Belle Isle doubleheader while driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Fox's coverage of the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. begins at 11:30 a.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 147 laps.

Track Walk: Washington, D.C. 2026

The 15th race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season features the series third inaugural event of the season with the Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. It joins Arlington and Markham as the other debut events this season, all three being street races. The race will take place on a 1.7-mile street course that will race pass the United States Capitol Building, along Pennsylvania Avenue and around the National Mall. This is the first time IndyCar has raced in the nation's capital. 

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday August 23 with green flag scheduled for 1:13 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

Saturday:

First Practice: 9:05 a.m. ET (75 minutes)

Second Practice: 1:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 5:00 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:15 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:13 p.m. ET (90 laps)

Palou's Championship Hopes

In IndyCar's historic race in Washington, D.C., it could see history made beyond the location of the event. Álex Palou will enter this race with a chance at clinching his fourth consecutive championship and the fifth in his career. 

Palou increased his championship lead in Markham with a fourth-place finish while all his nearest competitors suffered retirements. The Catalan driver left Canada up 133 points on Kyle Kirkwood and 137 points clear of David Malukas. Christian Lundgaard is 139 points back in fourth. After the 14th race last season, Palou had a 121-point championship lead. 

The championship could be clinched in Washington. All it would take is Palou leaving with at least a 162-point championship lead. 

Palou would clinch the championship this weekend with a maximum points victory, 54 points, with Kirkwood finished eighth or worse with no bonus points, Malukas finishing sixth or worse with no bonus points and Lundgaard finishing fifth or worse with no bonus points.

Clinching the championship with three races remaining would be the earliest since Cristiano da Matta sealed the 2002 CART championship with three races remaining. It would be the 13th time since 1946 an IndyCar championship would be claimed with at least three races remaining. Palou would join Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Sébastien Bourdais as the only drivers to have clinched the championship early on at least three occasions. 

This would be the first time the championship did not go to the wire in consecutive seasons since Bourdais claimed the Champ Car title with a race to spare in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Palou would match Bourdais' record streak of four consecutive titles from 2004 to 2007. Palou's fifth title would place him into third all-time in championships behind A.J. Foyt's seven and Scott Dixon's six.

Eight other drivers remain mathematically alive for the championship. 

Kirkwood is 133 points back, but he is coming off only his second finish outside the top ten this season when he hit the barrier in turn three at Markham. Finishing 21st is Kirkwood's worst result since he had an accident in the first Iowa race last season and was 26th. Malukas was 17th in Markham, his second consecutive result outside the top ten. It is the first time Malukas has gone consecutive races without a top ten finish at Team Penske. 

Lundgaard is fourth in the championship, and he has finished in the top ten in six of the last seven races. The only road or street course Lundgaard has not finished in the top ten this season is Long Beach, where he was 20th. Patricio O'Ward round out the championship top five, 157 points behind Palou. 

Josef Newgarden is sixth, 190 points behind Palou, with Newgarden's Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin 197 points back. Felix Rosenqvist is a point behind McLaughlin. 

Marcus Ericsson's Markham victory kept him alive for the championship. The bad news is Ericsson will be eliminated as soon as Palou starts in Washington, D.C. Even if Ericsson were to win with the maximum 54 points, Palou finishing with only five points, the minimum for starting an IndyCar race, would put Palou 164 points ahead of Ericsson with only 162 points remaining on the table over the final three races. 

With six victories, Palou holds any potential tiebreaker over almost all remaining championship rivals. Only two drivers could end this season tied drivers in victories with Palou, Christian Lundgaard and Josef Newgarden. Lundgaard would theoretically hold the tiebreaker as he has two runner-up finishes to Palou's one while Newgarden also has one runner-up finish, and Newgarden and Palou each have one fourth-place finish this season, but Palou has finished fifth in three races while newgarden's next best finish is seventh. In all likelihood, the championship will not come down to a tiebreaker. 

Not All These Drivers Can Win This Season

The championship is becoming clear, but what remains unclear is who could win the remaining four races.  With Ericsson's triumphant in Markham, seven drivers have won a race this season, leaving 18 winless. Not all 18 can win a race. In fact, at best at least 14 of the 25 full-time drivers will be winless when this season is all said and done. 

A fair number of notable names have yet to win this season, and it is getting late early for all of them. 

David Malukas is the top driver in the championship without a victory. Malukas is third in the championship, but his first career victory remains out of his grasp despite a few promising runs earlier this season at Phoenix, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis 500 and Nashville. A winless driver has not finished in the top three of the championship since Hélio Castroneves was third in 2016 despite failing to win a race. Castroneves' best finish that season was second on two occasions. The championship runner-up has not gone winless since 1998 when Davey Hamilton was second in the championship behind Kenny Bräck.

The next best driver in the championship without a victory is another Team Penske driver. Scott McLaughlin has not won a race in 32 starts, dating back to the penultimate race of the 2024 season. The most recent full-time Team Penske driver to go winless in consecutive seasons is Hélio Castroneves, who went winless in 2015 and 2016. Team Penske has not had a season where a majority of its full-time drivers went winless since 2011 when Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe each went winless. Will Power did win six of 17 races that season. 

The only other driver ranked in the championship top ten without a victory is Rinus VeeKay in tenth, but VeeKay has finished in the top ten in four of the last six races. VeeKay is also attempting to win with a team that has yet to win in its IndyCar history. Washington, D.C. will mark the 101st for Juncos Hollinger Racing in IndyCar. The team has a combined one podium finish and eight top five finishes. It has been 92 races since VeeKay's only IndyCar victory in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Will Power has finished third on four occasions this season. That is the best Power has done in his inaugural season with Andretti Global. Combined with eight finishes outside the top ten, these results leave the Australian outside the championship top ten, only three points behind VeeKay. 

Then comes Scott Dixon, a driver who has won a race in 21 consecutive seasons dating back to 2005. Dixon has finished outside the top ten in eight consecutive races. He has not finished in the top ten since he was sixth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Through the first 14 races, Dixon has led 78 laps, but 64 of those laps were between the Indianapolis 500 and Gateway. He has only led two laps this year on road or street courses, and that was two laps in St. Petersburg. The last time Dixon did not win one of the first 14 races in a season was in 2014. He won the 15th race at Mid-Ohio and then won the 17th race of that season at Sonoma.

Graham Rahal will enter Washington, D.C. on a 155-race winless streak, the longest in IndyCar. A victory would surpass Rahal's own record for longest winless streak in IndyCar history. He went 124 starts between his first career victory at St. Petersburg in 2008 and Fontana in 2015. 

Searching for Redemption

A few drivers left Markham wishing for something greater. 

Louis Foster likely thought he was on his way to victory in Canada. Foster scored a surprising pole position and he led the first 32 laps. Though shuffled out of the lead due to the pit cycle, Foster was passing drivers and looked poised to race back to the lead and back in control of the race. Instead, Foster clipped the inside barrier of turn three while passing Marcus Ericsson, careening Foster into the outside barrier and ending his race after completing 42 of 90 laps. 

Instead of having his best day in IndyCar, Foster wound up with his sixth consecutive finish outside the top ten. He dropped to 19th in the championship as well. Foster led more laps in Markham than he had in his first 30 IndyCar starts.

While Foster was heartbroken in a bad way, Romain Grosjean was brought to tears over near glory. Using an unconventional strategy, Grosjean found himself leading in the final stint from Markham, but also saving fuel as he was attempting to go 38 laps on the final stint. While Grosjean was able to go the distance, he was not able to have the pace to fend off all comers, and Marcus Ericsson passed the Frenchman without much issue. Grosjean was able to claim second, but over 7.5 seconds off the race winner. 

It was Grosjean's first top five finish of the season, and his best finish since he was second to Scott McLaughlin in the 2023 Grand Prix of Alabama, but it now means Grosjean has gone winless in his first 77 starts in IndyCar. Only nine drivers have taken more than 77 starts to earn their first career victory. 

Foster and Grosjean may have been close to something special and are hoping Washington, D.C. will see them obtain what was within their grasps, a number of drivers would settle for a good day.

Marcus Armstrong's engine lasted until the checkered flag in Markham, but Armstrong's spin and stall cost him a promising result. A subsequent penalty for disobey orders from the officials when Armstrong attempted to spin his car around as the pace car was approaching, a move that did not work and only made the track blockage worse, cemented Armstrong's status a lap down. It was the fifth consecutive race Armstrong has finished outside the top ten, four of those being results outside the top fifteen. 

Alexander Rossi has finished 20th or worse in four consecutive races, and he has finished outside the top fifteen in eight of the last nine races. Rossi was in the top ten in two of the first three street course races this season, he was ninth in both Arlington and Long Beach. He has not finished in the top five on a street course since he was fifth in the 2024 Detroit race.

Dennis Hauger has now gone eight races without a top ten finish, and it was a missed opportunity after Hauger started fifth in Markham. Even after a disastrous restart after the first caution of the race saw Hauger drop 15 laps in a blink, he was still competing for a top ten finish in the closing laps until an incident on the last lap ended his race early.

Christian Rasmussen was caught in another accident, and Rasmussen has now finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive races and in eight of 14 races this season. Rookies Caio Collet and Mick Schumacher each had incidents in Canada. Collet was 19th, completing 67 laps. Schumacher was dead last after his clipped the inside barrier in turn four. These three drivers are all competing for the final Leader Circle spot. Rasmussen holds a six-point advantage over Collet with Schumacher a further seven points on the outside. 

Going the Distance

The Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. will not only be historic because of where the race is being held, but at 147 laps around the 1.7-mile circuit, the race will have a scheduled distance of 249.9 miles, the longest road/street course race of the season, and one of the longest street races in modern IndyCar history. It is one of seven races on the 2026 calendar with a scheduled distance essentially of 250 miles or greater. 

Street courses have been long associated with IndyCar, but the first modern street course race in IndyCar history was not held until the 1983 Caesars Palace Grand Prix. If you want to get technical, the Grand Prix of Cleveland held at Burke Lakefront Airport was the first modern temporary circuit race, held for the first time the year prior in 1982. 

The first two Cleveland races were scheduled and run to 310 miles in distance, 125 laps around the temporary circuit. The inaugural Cleveland race was held on July 4, 1982 and Bobby Rahal took the victory ahead of Mario Andretti and Al Unser. Unser won the following year with Pete Halmser in second and Teo Fabi in third. The 2002 and 2003 Cleveland races were each 115 laps, 242.19 miles. Patrick Carpentier won ahead of Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy in 2002. The 2003 Cleveland race was held under the lights. Sébastien Bourdais won from pole position with Paul Tracy finishing second and Bruno Junqueira was third. 

The 2002 Road America race was longer than Cleveland that season, running for 60 laps, 242.88 miles. Cristiano da Matta won the Road America race with Alex Tagliani in second and Junqueira finishing third again. It was da Matta's sixth of seven victories that season. This is the most recent road/street course to exceed 240 miles in length.

The last time a road/street course race was run to at least the distance of this year's race from Washington, D.C. was IndyCar's final race held at Riverside International Raceway. On August 23, 1983, a 313.5-mile, 95-lap race was held at Riverside, a little over a month-and-a-half after the second Cleveland race. Bobby Rahal won that Riverside race. All six races held at Riverside between 1967 to 1969 and 1981 to 1983 were over 300 miles in length. Dan Gurney won the first two races before Mario Andretti capped off his 1969 championship season with a Riverside victory. Rick Mears won the 1981 and 1982 Riverside races.

At 147 laps, Washington, D.C. is the most laps for a street course race since the final Meadowlands race in 1991. Three of the final four races held around Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey were run to 150 laps on a 1.217-mile course. The 1989 race was scheduled for 150 laps but stopped five laps from the scheduled distance due to heavy rain.

With 147 laps scheduled, it opens the door for a driver possibly leading at least 100 laps, On 20 occasions has a driver led at least 100 laps in a road or street course race. Will Power is the most recent to do it. Power led 101 of 110 laps on his way to victory in the 2024 Portland race. On 17 of the 20 occasions has the driver leading 100 laps gone on to win the race. The most recent driver to lead at least 100 laps in a road/street course race and not win was Gil de Ferran at Long Beach in 1996. De Ferran led 100 of the first 101 laps before a turbocharger issue slowed the Brazilian, and it allowed Jimmy Vasser to lead the final four laps and take victory.

Fast Facts

This will be the 12th IndyCar race to take place on August 23, and the first since Takuma Sato won the 2020 Indianapolis 500, a race delayed nearly three months due to the global pandemic. 

The most recent road/street course event held on August 23 was the 2009 Sonoma race. Dario Franchitti led all 75 laps from pole position.

The pole-sitter has won only three of the last 12 street course races (Colton Herta at Toronto in 2024, Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach in 2025, Álex Palou at Detroit in June).

Eighteen consecutive street races have been won from a top ten starting position, 13 of those have been from a top five starting position. 

Five of 14 races this season have been won from the fourth starting position, the most proficient starting position this season. 

Fifth starting position has not produced a winner in the last 20 races. The most recent winner from fifth was Patricio O'Ward in the first Iowa race last season. Fifth starting position has not won a road course race since Will Power won at Road America in 2024, and it has not won a street course race since Scott Dixon won at Detroit in 2024, the race prior to Power's victory.

Honda has won 12 of the last 14 street course races, and Patricio O'Ward is responsible for the two Chevrolet victories. One of those was the 2024 St. Petersburg race, where O'Ward inherited the victory after Josef Newgarden was disqualified. The other was last year at Toronto where O'Ward won from tenth.

Dating back to 2023, Honda has won 17 of 19 street course races.

Honda has won three consecutive races. Neither manufacturer has won more than three consecutive races since Honda won 11 consecutive races stretching from the 2024 Nashville season finale through the first ten races of last season. 

Nine different countries were represented in the top nine at Markham (Sweden, France, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and United States).

Washington, D.C. becomes the second nation's capital to host an IndyCar race. The first was Mexico City. Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez hosted eight races spread over 1980 to 2007.

This is the first time IndyCar has had consecutive street races since the 2024 season opener with St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Prior to that, excluding doubleheader weekends, IndyCar has not had consecutive street race weekends since the 2017 season opened with St. Petersburg and Long Beach.

There have been 99 races since the last time a driver led every lap in an IndyCar race. That was Will Power in the second Harvest Grand Prix race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on October 3, 2020.

The first three street course races of the season featured two cautions or fewer, and none of the races had more than 7% of its laps run under caution. The last two street races have featured at least five cautions, and each race had at least 23% of its laps run under caution. 

Marcus Ericsson has scored fastest lap in the last two races. It is the first time a driver has scored consecutive fastest laps since Álex Palou did it last season at Barber Motorsports Park and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

The most recent driver to have at least three consecutive fastest laps was Sébastien Bourdais, who had six consecutive fastest laps during the 2007 Champ Car season (Houston, Portland, Cleveland, Mont-Tremblant, Toronto, Edmonton).

Eight drivers have finished third-place this season. Four of those drivers, who are responsible for nine third-place finishes in the first 14 races, are ranked outside the championship top ten (Will Power, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Christian Rasmussen).

Predictions

Álex Palou, but if it isn't Álex Palou, you know damn well Team Penske is winning the race Roger Penske spent $35 million to organize. No offense to Scott McLaughlin, a naturalized United States citizen, but it will be one of the natives. Sure, let's give it to David Malukas. Doesn't that add up? Basically a child, first career victory in a race that will likely never be held before, in what will be Malukas' 76th career start, coinciding with the celebration of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence. That tracks. There will be at least five cautions for at least 30 laps, but the longest green flag run will be greater than 50 laps. At least one driver will run all 147 laps on three stops. Of the six drivers that have finished in the top ten of at least the last two races, four of them will not finish in the top ten in Washington, D.C. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.

Track Analysis: Washington, D.C.

IndyCar has wrapped up three consecutive race weekends to open the 2026 season, and while we have seen three different winners from three different teams with each of those race winners leading the championship, there has been more than just the championship going on in IndyCar circles.

During this busy start to the season, IndyCar has also revealed the track layout for the inaugural Washington, D.C. race, which is scheduled to happen on August 23. The event was added to the schedule in late-January, a little less than eight months from the announcement to the green flag. It took a little more than a month , but a course layout was made public prior to the Grand Prix of Arlington weekend. 

The track will use part of the National Mall with the start/finish line in front of the United States Capitol building before using Pennsylvania Avenue and a combination of streets to complete the 1.7-mile track. 

It is not the most technical course. Of the seven turns, six are left-hand corners. It is a pretty condensed circuit. The longest straightaway is about a half-mile. It looks like a racetrack that was designed at the last minute and constricted to a very tight area. Some have expressed a lack of enthusiasm with the course design. We do not know how this track will run though, and just because it is not inspiring on paper does not mean it will not produce competitive racing.

We have seen enough street races in IndyCar that we can use the dimensions of the Washington, D.C. course and compare it to other tracks to set expectations. 

For starters, let's use the longest straightaway. Running from turn one to turn two, this part of the track will also host the pit lane on the inside. It is list as 0.4 miles in length. For context, the main straightaway at St. Petersburg is about 0.4 miles in length before a tight right-hand corner. This straightaway is nearly a mirror image of the opening part of the St. Petersburg course. That part of St. Petersburg generates a good amount of passing, but that is coming from a slower hairpin corner and this straightaway in Washington will follow a less tight corner, which could help carry more speed and allow cars to get a better run into the corner. 

After turn two, the course becomes pretty choppy. The run from turn two to turn three on 9th Street and the run from turn three to turn four on Constitution Avenue will each be a tenth of a mile in length. It is unlikely we will see much action there. A comparable section would be Toronto from turn four through turn six. It is a 90-degree left-hander between two straightaways that are each around a tenth of a mile in length. We saw passes in turn five of Toronto though not a crazy amount. This part of the Washington, D.C. course could see some action, though it is not likely.

The only saving grace could be if a car can hold the outside of turn two and turn three in Washington, D.C. it could form an advantage of having the inside of turn four. The cars will likely be going slow enough that it could stick. We saw drivers at Toronto be on the outside of turn three and have it turn into an advantage of being the inside of turn five. The difference though is turn four at Toronto was a slight left-hand corner and not a 90-degree left-hander like turn three in Washington, which should make it tougher to stick such an outside move.

The next portion of the course opens up, and the run from turn four to turn five, 7th Street, will be about 0.3 miles, not the longest run on the track, but not short either. At St. Petersburg, the straightaway from turn three to turn four is about a quarter-mile in length, and we see passes there, though they are less plentiful. They happen but we also know that part of St. Petersburg is not long enough that we constant passes there. Will the Washington, D.C. course benefit from that extra 0.05 miles heading to turn five? Maybe.

The next straightaway, Independence Avenue, is also about 0.3 miles in length from turns five to turn six, but the issue is turn six is barely a turn and it leads to what is barely a straightaway. Maryland Avenue is a blink from turn six to the final turn on the course, turn seven. It is less than a tenth of a mile in length. 

Think of Long Beach and the section exiting the fountain to the right-handed turn four or that brief straightaway at St. Petersburg from turn eight to turn nine. The only difference is at Long Beach and St. Petersburg there are slow corners leading to those brief straightaways while at Washington, D.C. it will come after a proper straightaway. I imagine cars will be lifting and coasting onto Maryland Avenue before having to brake for the final corner of the circuit, the left-hander onto 3rd Street.

It could be an active section where if the inside is open, a driver would have the opportunity to dive into turn seven to get a spot. It is also a portion of the track that is currently occupied with a fair amount of road furniture. There is a complete traffic island in the middle of the street that likely will need to be cleared. In its current configuration, it is not practical to race on, and it would be purely single-file. Turn six would be an actual corner if the island is still there, but there is no way two cars could fit side-by-side. A pass would need to be completed before corner entry. Any accident there would cause a red flag for track blockage. 

Outside of the island currently in the middle of turn six on Maryland Avenue, the only other street furniture that will need to be seriously addressed is a much smaller island in the middle of turn two. There are bollards and traffic lights that will need to be removed on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is likely a hassle and will require re-instillation after the race, but those will not require jackhammers and paving equipment. The work in turn two and turn six would require that. 

Taking what we see and know from the Washington, D.C. course and comparing it to similar elements on other recent IndyCar street courses, what can we expect?

There is possibly one good passing area and another decent one, but outside of that, it could be tight and lead to less action. 

Turn two and turn five are where we will likely see passes. Everyone thinks turn two is the one part of the course where drivers can make moves. Turn five will be another spot where it would not be surprising to see passes. We could see some type of passes attempted in turn six or turn seven depending on the road work that is done. The straightaway on Independence Avenue is long enough that someone could make an attempt, but the issue is how quick turn six will be and how tight will that section of the course be. If the island is cleared and paved over it could widen the track significantly enough that turn seven becomes a possible passing area. We must wait and see on that. 

It is a track that is probably most similar to St. Petersburg, minus the longer section of the course with the kink between turns nine and ten. The shorter straightaways are something basically every street course has in common. The difference is the combination of corners and what leads to those straightaways. 

Turn two through turn four will likely be slower and one of the slower sections of a track in IndyCar. The concern is that section of the course funneling everyone into a single-file line and it becoming more difficult to get a run to pass someone into turn five. If everyone is going 45 mph or slower for nearly a quarter-mile, the speed is not going to be great enough heading into turn five for a pass to be attempted. If you cannot make a pass there, you are likely not getting another chance at position until you are entering turn two again on the next lap. 

It is March and IndyCar is just about to have its first off-weekend of the season. There is still a long time between now and then, and we would think over the next few months we will see progress made toward setting up this event. They aren't going to start tomorrow. If you think about most street courses, the construction doesn't start until about two months prior to the race. Long Beach's course is constructed in 50 days. Long Beach is also an event with 50 years of history and has developed a rhythm. 

We shouldn't start wondering about progress and track construction until the start of June. With this race being thrown together so late and IndyCar's involved as it is essentially another series-promoted race, I don't think the ball will really get moving in Washington, D.C. until after Detroit, another series-promoted race. 

Based on what we know, we can set some sort of expectations. We reserve the right to adjust those based on how things are developing as we get into summer and closer to the actual race weekend.