Last Week in IndyCar (9/15-9/21/25)

While last week wasn’t quite the explosion of IndyCar news that we got right when the season ended, we still saw some key pieces fall into place for next year and some fun side stories along the way. Before we dive into the final full week of September, let’s look back at what the last seven days have brought us.

Lil Dave’s big break at Penske

IndyCar’s worst-kept secret is finally out in the open. As officially announced Thursday, Indianapolis 500 runner-up David Malukas will take the reins of the Team Penske #12, replacing the Andretti-bound Will Power. It’ll be a tall order replacing the Australian great, but it is worth remembering that, the last time Penske wanted to add a plucky young fan favorite with a knack for ovals, they signed Josef Newgarden. Given what a titanic force Newgarden became after joining, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Malukas have a similar evolution, even if he’ll have to grow into this new team.

With the top four teams on the grid all set, Malukas’s old spot in the A.J. Foyt #4 now becomes the most valuable open seat in the paddock. As of this writing, Rinus VeeKay seems the likeliest candidate to get it, and if he does, it’ll fully link a chain of moves connecting his old Dale Coyne ride to Cadillac’s F1 team.

Full 2026 schedule unveiled

We may not have gotten a Mexico City race this year, but on Mexican Independence Day, we did get the full schedule for the 2026 season. The series will once again visit 16 different tracks and run 17 championship races, but with a bigger schedule shakeup than we’ve had in some time.

In terms of track selection, the big news was already out there. Arlington will debut, Phoenix will return, Thermal and Iowa are off, and Toronto moved to the suburbs and became Markham.

The real revelations here are in the order of events. For starters, Barber has moved from the race after Long Beach to the race before, ensuring that we still have a road course race in March. It also means that Long Beach will be our only race in April.

Looking to the other end of the trail, Laguna Seca has effectively swapped places with Nashville, returning to season finale status for the first time since 2023. In exchange, Nashville will become a 400-mile night race set to air immediately after the FIFA World Cup final.

On top of that, in a move we can all appreciate, the Milwaukee Mile gets its Saturday race back, meaning that we once again have a doubleheader championship eliminator to look forward to. If Álex Palou cooperates and doesn’t destroy the whole field in advance, we could be in for an extremely thrilling final stretch of the season.

Hinchcliffe in the Haas

In the youth-focused world of Formula One, it’s extremely rare for a driver to get their first ever ride at age 38. However, IndyCar commentator James Hinchcliffe is about to do just that. The 2017 Grand Prix of Long Beach winner confirmed in an interview that he’ll be testing for Haas at an upcoming session at the Mugello Circuit in Florence, Italy, where he’ll drive the team’s 2023 car. Obviously, we’re in no danger of Mayor Hinch leaving the booth to drive for Haas full-time, but it’s still a fun little surprise, and it could prove an effective warmup before he co-pilots Pfaff’s plaid Lamborghini at the Petit Le Mans next month.

IMSA intrigue at Indy

Speaking of IMSA, that series rolled up to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the six-hour Battle on the Bricks, and a few names on the IndyCar fringe got the chance to try and boost their resumés on the road course while setting the scene for that series’s season finale.

In the LMP2 class, Rahal Letterman Lanigan reserve driver Toby Sowery came painfully close to hardware. With the last stint in the Algarve Pro #04, he personally held the class lead with 20 minutes left and was still looking at a podium after a splash-and-dash. However, with nine minutes to go, the Englishman lost control and wrecked, making it much harder to use this performance as evidence he deserves a promotion to a full-time ride.

Meanwhile, in the flagship GTP category, Romain Grosjean had his most valiant run of the season. The much-maligned Lamborghini SC63 is on the brink of extinction, but it received an extremely helpful late-season upgrade package, and over his two stints, Grosjean put it to effective use and ran in the top five most of the day. While a sloppy weave from a desperate Felipe Nasr punctured the Lambo in the final hour, dooming Grosjean to finish 10th, the Frenchman looked better here than he had all year, and that could boost his odds of returning to IndyCar next year.

Finally, in the shorter term, Scott Dixon and Álex Palou found out for certain that they’ll be playing for a little extra when they head to Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans. Dixon, as a defending overall winner, always had something on the line, but thanks to the way Indianapolis played out, Acura are in prime position to steal the GTP Manufacturers’ Championship from Porsche. If they pull it off, it’ll be the sports car heist of the year, but it’ll take ten hours of planning, coordination, and execution between Dixon’s #60, Palou’s #93, and everyone in between at Meyer Shank Racing to get it done.