The IndyCar Afterburn: Indianapolis GP 2026

Today’s theme music: “Black Cat” by Janet Jackson

After opening the Month of May with heavy hearts, the second Saturday brought the on-track start of IndyCar’s most wonderful time of the year. As has become tradition in racing years, it began on the Brickyard’s road course with the Indianapolis Grand Prix, where we got chaos from the jump, several drivers reaching new heights, and an overdue victor at race’s end. Without further ado, let’s get into the ups, downs, and all arounds from the year’s only roval race and see how it sets the scene for the biggest day in racing.

Lundgaard’s long-awaited win

Christian Lundgaard has proved worthy of his McLaren ride since the day he arrived at the team, but last year, he was the ultimate bridesmaid, scoring six podiums and a pole with no race wins. He was poised to do well anyway with his track record of success at the IMS road course, but this time, the stars truly aligned. Not only did the first two yellow flags both help him, but in a race where the key strategic ingredient was knowing when to pit and executing those stops correctly, the #7 crew pitched a gem on all fronts. With the heat in his tires and the fates on his side, Lundgaard made a brilliant overtake on David Malukas for the lead, and after having already led two laps on strategy, the Dane ran off like a thief in the night with the remaining 18 to finally take the win that he’s deserved for quite some time now.

With this second career IndyCar win, Lundgaard breaks the tie with Christian Rasmussen to become the winningest Dane in American championship open-wheel history. He’s also the first driver not named Pato O’Ward to win at McLaren, and the first since James Hinchcliffe at the 2018 Iowa Corn 300 once we factor in the team’s previous incarnation as Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. It also means that we’ve got four winners from four different teams just a third of the way through the season, and hopefully, there’ll be even more variation as our trip down the National Championship trail continues.

Malukas takes silver himself

At last year’s Indianapolis 500, post-race penalties elevated David Malukas to 2nd place, and this year, he got it on the road course all by himself. In his best performance since Phoenix, Malukas once again led the most laps, with 27 to his name, but the #12 crew delayed that last stop a lap too long. Despite a great pit stop once Malukas did come in and blending out with the lead still in his hands, Lundgaard had far more push-to-pass, which enabled the daring race-deciding overtake that soon followed. However, Malukas still has plenty to be proud of, as this marks his best finish at his new team, and if he can go one place higher next time out, he’ll be immortal.

Add in a 4th-place finish for Josef Newgarden, his best finish at a road course since taking 3rd at Portland in 2024, and Scott McLaughlin surviving all sorts of car damage to finish 16th, and you’ve got an overall strong day at Team Penske.

Rahal, RLL fly high

If there’s one thing Rahal Letterman Lanigan always get right, it’s this circuit, and today, Graham Rahal was the primary beneficiary. After fumbling the win away last year, the veteran ran well all day and ultimately took 3rd for the second road course race in a row. The one at Barber was a shock, but the one here shows the gains the team as a whole have made. It also clinches a renaissance year for Rahal himself, who hadn’t scored multiple podiums in a season since 2020 and will be a guaranteed man to watch at all road courses going forward.

It was also a banner day for Louis Foster, who, after failing to crack the top 10 all season long in his rookie year, converted a P6 start to a 7th-place finish, demonstrating much-improved racecraft in the process.

Finally, on a more mixed note, Mick Schumacher was running 12th with three laps to go, putting on course for far and away his best finish yet, and in a battle to take 11th from fellow ex-Haas F1 associate Santino Ferrucci. However, in a bit of a disputed incident, with Schumacher claiming Ferrucci brake-checked, the German punted Foyt’s leading man in the infield. That cost The Mick a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, dropping him down to 20th, but the incident also made Schumacher more popular on the Internet, so there’s at least a silver lining.

Ganassi’s stars in recovery mode

Going into the race, everything looked set up for Álex Palou to convert the Indy GP pole to a win for the third running in a row. It would have been completely in character for him, given his knack for road course racing, but after escaping the day’s first yellow unscathed and leading the first 23 laps, fate conspired against him for once. The next yellow caught him out in the middle of the pit cycle, booting him all the way down to 19th, and the one after that forced Palou to run deep into the infield grass to avoid getting collected. However, King Kong was too good to let that fully keep him down, and he climbed his way back up the field to finish 5th and thereby extend his National Championship lead.

Meanwhile, Sir Scott Dixon had a recovery drive of his own, going from tangled with Caio Collet and needing repairs to his suspension after the first turn to 6th place by the day’s end for his fifth consecutive top-ten finish.

Hauger goes up, Grosjean goes to Fight Club

It was a tale of two cities at Dale Coyne Racing this week. Romain Grosjean initially looked poised for a strong day, emerging 5th after the opening crash, but engine problems left him 21st and a lap down. He ended his day at the track by getting into a shouting match with Marcus Armstrong that required the two’s crews to keep them separated.

However, Dennis Hauger had quite the opposite story. After qualifying a dismal 24th, the Norwegian Nightmare got off to a brilliant start and stayed hot all day long to finish a career-best 8th while making the biggest climb of anyone in the field. His hype coming in is paying off, and his connections over at Andretti have to be loving it.

Andretti curse strikes early

Speaking of Andretti, their infamous bad luck at the Brickyard got a head start this year. Kyle Kirkwood started well, climbing from 9th to 2nd in the early going, and throughout the first half, it looked like the big battle of the day would once again be him versus Palou. However, he got caught out by the same yellow that shuffled Palou backward in the field, and a disastrous pit stop with two dropped wheel nuts on Kirkwood’s next stop set the Floridian back massively. Ultimately, Kirkwood wound up right back where he started in 9th, missing the top five for the first time all year.

Meanwhile, Will Power seemed poised to overcome an uncharacteristically shoddy qualifying, taking advantage of the opening yellow to devise an alternate strategy that let him lead 15 laps across two stints out front. However, on his last stop, he locked up exiting pit lane and crossed the white line, earning him a drive-through penalty. Thus, on a day that could’ve ended in a record-extending sixth win on this circuit, the Australian had to salvage 13th place instead. Suffice to say, everybody at Andretti will be hoping that they've gotten the bad luck out of their systems early so that good fortune finds them in a couple weeks.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: Rossi rage quits, but for good reason

This was a nightmare of a race for Ed Carpenter Racing. The problems started early with Christian Rasmussen, who developed gearbox troubles not long after the first restart and had to limp into the pits.

However, he must have gone out and run some more laps when no one was looking, because 25th officially went to his teammate Alexander Rossi. A hybrid unit failure on the front stretch left Rossi’s car stopped right past the bricks on lap 21, but bizarrely, race officials only threw a local yellow, even though they had that and two large pieces of on-track debris in the infield to justify a full-course caution. When the safety team didn’t come down, Rossi had a frankly justified outburst and simply abandoned his car to run across pit lane, thereby forcing race control to throw the yellow. 

Felix Rosenqvist had an absolutely disastrous day and could’ve easily been the first man in the Guide. He locked up into the first corner of the race and caused a massive crash that ended with his own P3 start wasted, Pato O’Ward’s shot at winning thrown away, and Scott Dixon tangled up with Caio Collet. Amazingly, nobody wrecked out of the race there, but Rosenqvist wouldn’t be so lucky the next time. On lap 28, Sting Ray Robb ran into Pato O’Ward in the infield, bounced off Pato like a bullet off Superman’s chest, and spun out, collecting Kyffin Simpson and subsequently Rosenqvist, whose car launched up and over Simpson’s. The other two got away to finish the race, but the #60 was too far gone and bowed out.

Finally, Marcus Ericsson got another breakdown he didn’t need, as a late clutch failure handed him his second straight mechanical DNF. His promising start is derailing fast, and he’ll need a big day in a legal car at the 500 to get himself back on track.

Championship Collage: USA! USA!

Our top three drivers in National Championship remain Álex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood, and David Malukas, with Palou managing to extend his lead by 10 points to 27. Christian Lundgaard climbed up to 4th with a win, while Pato O’Ward slid three places to 7th behind Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon. Scott McLaughlin also fell behind Dixon to wind up 8th, but the silver from St. Pete gives him the tiebreaker over Graham Rahal. Finally, Marcus Armstrong jumped three spots to round out the top 10.

Dennis Hauger took another big step towards Rookie of the Year honors, as his career-best finish brought him up to 100 points exactly. Caio Collet and Mick Schumacher trail behind with 70 and 54 points, respectively.

In the Manufacturers’ Cup chase, Chevrolet stopped the bleeding with their best result yet, posting a 1-2 and holding Honda to a 3-5. That shaved dozens of points off the deficit, but Honda still leads 506 to 450. With such a gigantic haul of points on offer for the 500, the next couple weeks could make or break both engine suppliers’ seasons.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, we find the day’s lone lead change. After losing the top spot to Spain at Long Beach, the United States is back in front with a 10-point lead. Denmark also reaped massive rewards from Lundgaard’s win, and it now stands a single point off the podium behind New Zealand. Meanwhile, at the back, France are the biggest losers, falling behind both the United Kingdom and Brazil, while Germany waits on Japan to arrive at the rear later this month and take the indignity of last place away.

Future Flames: time for trials

For the rest of this month, 33 drivers will quite literally live at the racetrack as they gear up for the 110th Indianapolis 500. The Brickyard absolutely requires the level of preparation and practice it receives every year, and the field will get their first chance to show what they’ve learned next weekend in the two-day time trials, which will set the grid for the 500 proper.

Even without any Bump Day drama on the back row, this will be the most important qualifying of the year. Starting 11th here pays more points than the pole at any other track on the schedule, and a pole here with a crash at the starting line will still get you as many points as finishing 13th does on a standard weekend. For those fast enough to partake in this year’s National Championship fight, a high four-lap average next weekend could mean everything down the stretch.