The IndyCar Afterburn: Arlington 2026

Today’s theme music: “Texas” by BigXthaPlug

Ever since its announcement in late 2024, the Grand Prix of Arlington has been earmarked as a potential marquee event. With Texas Motor Speedway no longer an option as IndyCar’s Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex stop, the series opted to try and create the Miami to Long Beach’s Monaco by racing around Arlington’s three biggest stadiums, with the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers standing to benefit as co-promoters.

However, unlike F1’s annual influencer parade in a Florida parking lot, Arlington backed up its marketing budget with actual on-track substance. A signature game of chess on wheels broke out, with multiple strategies paying big rewards, and it all culminated in yet another sign that this will be a competitive six-month slugfest for the National Championship. So let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds from Jerry World and see who came out looking best. 

Andretti shine with high-wire act

Andretti Global were on full display, for good and for ill, in this one. The ill came in the pits, where all three drivers got at least one bad stop, but on the actual track, the cars were bouncing like Niko B’s Yaris, and that always plays right into their hands.

That started to show on Saturday, when Marcus Ericsson, perhaps helped by the new one-at-a-time format of the Fast 6 round of qualifying, shocked the paddock by scoring his first ever pole position in a championship-level racing series. The Swede hung onto that lead for the first fifteen laps of the day before a dropped wheel nut on his first stop fumbled control away, but he made the most of his machinery and managed to finish 4th, his best result since his silver in Detroit nearly two years ago. If this keeps up, he’s on track for his best season at Andretti at a point where he needs that desperately to keep his career on track.

Ericsson’s stop put Will Power in front for the first of several stints, and after two unlucky outings, the Aussie finally got the dominoes to line up. Power was the absolute tire whisperer of the field, making his red soft tires last longer than anyone by quite a ways, and that allowed him to lead 16 laps while only needing two stops to get to the checkered flag. He even overcame nearly running right into Louis Foster, who entered his own pit box right as Power was exiting on the first stop. While ultimately not fast enough to stay in the final fight for the win, Power paralleled Lewis Hamilton’s Chinese Grand Prix result from hours earlier by finishing 3rd and taking his first ever podium for his new team.

Of course, someone at Andretti still had to stop Álex Palou, who led 16 laps of his own and threatened to restore the status quo with another win. Despite wheel nut drops from the crew on two out of three stops, Kyle Kirkwood proved to be the man for the job. The street-fighting Floridian knew he had a quick car under him, and he exploited it to great effect. Power provided the initial assist, keeping Palou in dirty air to delay the Spaniard from retaking the lead, and after Kirkwood used that to close in, the #27 pounced in turn 14, catching King Kong lacking with a daring, but clean pass. Kirkwood proceeded to lead the final 16 laps, earning the two-point bonus for the most led on the tiebreaker, and would have won by a massive length had the late cautions not regrouped the field.

By any margin, though, Kirkwood now holds six career wins, putting him on par with the great Takuma Sato, and has once again announced himself as a title contender at race number three of the season. The question now is if he can sustain it longer than he did last year.

Prime Time Pato has a streak going

In a pre-race panel interview, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Johnson gave high praise to Pato O’Ward, comparing the McLaren top gun’s “controlled intensity” to that of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders. While Pato didn’t challenge for the win, he put on a prime performance, running well all day and placing best among the Chevys in 5th. That makes three straight top-5 finishes to start the year, and with this level of focus and skill, it’s only a matter of time before he starts translating it to trophies, champagne sprays, and another National Championship challenge.

Rosenqvist throws disastrous pick

With a Texas A&M livery to give him some local support from Aggies fans, Felix Rosenqvist made his presence known in the early and middle stages. Meyer Shank’s lead Swede spent seven laps in first place, and he certainly seemed poised for a strong points finish. However, as the field geared up for a last-lap shootout, Rosenqvist turned into Marcel Reed in the worst way. He dove inside on David Malukas to snatch 6th place, but did so before the white line that signals where it’s legal to make passes. That meant a post-race penalty that booted Rosenqvist 14 places down to the back of the lead lap, as well as several places down in the championship. It’s still early, and there will be chances to recover, but if he gets any sort of title challenge going, this will haunt him the whole way.

Dixon gambles his way up

No one in IndyCar is quicker to pull the trigger on unorthodox strategies than Scott Dixon, and after a rough qualifying, he lived up to his reputation. Both he and teammate Kyffin Simpson started on softs and pitted early to go red-to-red, but Simpson roped Dixon’s car into a game of tire hockey, earning Island Boy a race-ruining penalty. That left the Kiwi knight on his own, and even without the kind of flood of yellows that would normally pull him up, Dixon fought his way up the field on sheer pace, posting the fastest lap of the day. It wasn’t enough for the Biggest Mover award, which went to Scott McLaughlin for starting last and finishing 11th, but Dixon did climb 12 spots to finish 8th.

Rossi runs well again

With the title sponsor’s car in his hands, Alexander Rossi had a little extra weight on his shoulders, especially after his snark on the radio that Palou would auto-win pole didn’t pan out. To his credit, though, the Nevada City native made good use of the hard tire start, running in the podium places in the early stages, keeping his rivals behind him down the stretch, and ultimately taking 9th after Rosenqvist’s penalty. Add in ECR’s planned upgrade to their street package, which should arrive next month at the most important street race of all, and there’s plenty of reason to be excited about this team’s upside.

Clean Collet catches on

Brazilian rookie Caio Collet has had a quiet start to his IndyCar career, getting basically no TV time, but keeping his nose clean all the while. In team owner A.J. Foyt’s home state, Collet took his first steps towards the spotlight, staying out of trouble and one step ahead of his old Indy NXT rival Dennis Hauger all day. By the end, Collet broke away and into a genuine fight for a top-10 and ultimately came home 12th, four spots ahead of Hauger and five ahead of teammate Santino Ferrucci. If Collet can get the snowball rolling from here and keep building on the strengths he’s shown so far, who knows what he might evolve into?

Schumacher, Newgarden play pinball

For nearly the entire race, it was nothing but green flag laps, but it wasn’t for lack of trying, as several incidents nearly brought out a yellow. The first came early in the race, when Mick Schumacher punted Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard recovered well, ultimately fighting his way back up to 7th, but Schumacher took a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

In the midgame, Josef Newgarden took a costly hit in his backup car, specifically an accidental hip-check from teammate David Malukas. That brought Newgarden to a brief stop, costing tons of time and ultimately dooming the championship leader heading into this weekend to finish 15th.

The two stories of woe converged late, as Schumacher ran wing-first into Newgarden, who tanked the hit while the Swiss-born German spun around. Schumacher got his one chance to aura farm by pulling a 180 to get going again, but it’s no surprise he finished a lap down.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: last-second Lone Star livery smash-ups

The yellow flag finally made an appearance with just a few laps to go, as Christian Rasmussen lost power right at the exit of pit lane. His car had to be pulled back by the safety team, setting up what should have been a daring last-lap shootout for all the marbles.

However, right as that was getting underway, the rich kids started fighting, as Kyffin Simpson whacked Nolan Siegel and ran off, leaving the McLaren #6 sideways. Romain Grosjean, who’d been slipping hard in the final laps, paid the price, as the Frenchman had nowhere to go and ran right into Siegel. That gives Grosjean a second straight DNF that isn’t really on him after such a promising start two weeks ago. Simpson, meanwhile, appears to have skated on this one for the time being.

Championship Collage: a new man on top

After three races and three different winners from three different teams, Kyle Kirkwood leads the National Championship for the first time in his career. He leads Álex Palou by 26 points, while Josef Newgarden’s earlier win at Phoenix gives him the tiebreaker for 3rd over Pato O’Ward. Behind them are the other two Penskes of Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas, followed by Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Ericsson. Rounding out the top 10 are Marcus Armstrong and Alexander Rossi, the two most consistent midfielders thus far.

In the Rookie of the Year race, Dennis Hauger took his first real blow, as Caio Collet simply outdrove the Norwegian Nightmare. That shrinks Collet’s gap to Hauger down to 8, while Mick Schumacher continues to struggle and limp behind the pair.

The Manufacturers’ Cup saw its first truly lopsided result, as Honda machines took the pole on Saturday and swept the top four on Sunday. Chevrolet, with their weaker power on long straights, could only scrape out a 5-6. That means it’s wings up and bowties down once again, with Honda holding a 28-point lead.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, the United States paired its World Baseball Classic and Paralympics performances with a second straight race win to extend its lead here to 36 points. Spain jumped up to 2nd, passing New Zealand and putting Mexico off the podium, but the big winner here is Australia, which surged up 6 places to get out of the basement and into the top half of the leaderboard.

Future Flames: close shave at Barber

Next weekend is a break for some, but a long shift for others. That’s because IMSA will hold the 12 Hours of Sebring, the most prestigious race of its length in the world, and several of IndyCar’s best will take a detour from the National Championship trail to try and conquer its infamously rough roads.

One way or another, though, everybody’s going east, because in two weeks it’ll be time for the Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Barber Motorsports Park will play host to our first road course race of the season, and given his dominance in last year’s edition, it’s natural to see Álex Palou as the favorite. But Team Penske still holds a win percentage of .533 at this event, and Scott McLaughlin will try to match what Josef Newgarden did in the late 2010s by winning here for the third time in four years. Add in previous Alabama winners Scott Dixon, Will Power, and Pato O’Ward, and you’ve got a stew of intrigue going. But the secret ingredient might be Dale Coyne Racing, who’ll bring 2023’s polesitter and runner-up Romain Grosjean, as well as a long history of making noise at this track. If either of their drivers gets a run going, look out.