The IndyCar Afterburn: Markham 2026

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Today’s theme music: “Rockin’ the Suburbs” by Ben Folds Five

It was certainly an eventful weekend in open-wheel racing. The highest stakes took place at the London ePrix, where a two-race, nine-way battle ended with Pascal Wehrlein winning the Formula E world title for the second time in three years. As that series’ Gen3 chapter closed, another began here in IndyCar, where circumstances brought an abrupt end to the Indy Toronto and the beginning of its suburban replacement, the Indy at Markham.

This Canadian clean slate unfortunately came with teething problems, as the promoters and city lagged in building the circuit, compressing the planned three-day weekend into two. However, after an absolutely wild qualifying, race day gave us a memorably madcap affair with a refreshing cast of contenders, a flood of crashes and cautions, and a very deserving seventh different race winner this season. The track earned its place on the National Championship trail, and the race as a whole was an instant classic on par with this year’s Indianapolis 500. So while the vibes are still good, let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds from up north and see what it all means with four more races to go.

Ericsson explosive for the win

The Marcus Ericsson redemption arc has been one of 2026’s most consistent throughlines going all the way back to St. Pete, and this weekend, the big payoff finally arrived. The big knock against him until now was that, despite consistent access to top-tier equipment and a brilliant Indy 500 win in 2022, all his other victories had been more about luck than skill. That was not the case today, as after qualifying 4th, Ericsson and his Andretti #28 Honda were stupidly fast all day. By the second half, he was the undisputed fastest man on track and starting to rack up his 21 laps led, and his strategists gambled that he could stay out on the long-lasting tires, take a huge overcut on his final stop, and use that raw speed to claw back to the front. Sure enough, the last third of the race was the biggest green-flag run of the day, and after putting down the fastest lap of the day, then blending out in 5th and initially dropping places, the Swede was able to blitz up the order, muscle past everyone with perfectly-timed passes, and snatch the lead halfway through lap 86 before absolutely flying away to win by 7.5 seconds.

This makes it five career IndyCar wins for Ericsson, as well as his first at Andretti and first since 2023, when he won at St. Pete with Chip Ganassi Racing. That contract extension he signed after Nashville looks exponentially better with every passing week, and whatever follows, he’s guaranteed himself a magnificent season to look back on.

Grosjean’s gamble almost hits jackpot

Something about Canada brings out the best in Dale Coyne Racing, and Romain Grosjean benefitted from that big time. After a frustrating qualifying where he never got to put down a clean lap, the Swiss-Frenchman took it all out on the field, unleashing his pace and capitalizing on opportunities to lead 28 laps on the day and stretch his fuel numbers. That enabled a well-timed stop right before a caution at the end of lap 53, which put him in prime position to make it home and lead in the endgame. However, despite a brilliant last stint in the lead where he fended off Scott McLaughlin and Álex Palou for the lead, once Ericsson caught back up, the Swede’s raw pace was too much, and Grosjean had to settle for 2nd.

Still, bittersweet as the ending was, Grosjean got to taste podium champagne for the seventh time in his IndyCar career and his first time since Alabama 2023, when he was at Andretti. On top of that, he gave Coyne its second Canadian silver in as many years. If he was hoping to stay in the #18 next year, then this result all but guaranteed it for him.

Power back in bronze from dead last

After an underwhelming qualifying and an engine change penalty, Will Power had to start this race in dead last. But his lone lap led doesn’t nearly do justice to his performance, as the Australian sliced and diced his way up the field throughout. Even when Ericsson shoved Power out of the podium places in the home stretch, Power recovered from the initial rattle and hunted down Álex Palou, denying the Spaniard a podium while scoring the #26’s fourth bronze of the year.

Pato matches his number

While not the strongest qualifiers, McLaren were effective on race day, making the most of things despite their Chevrolet engine’s inferior performance compared to the Hondas. Multiple Chevy-based podium contenders sank hard in the final laps, including Juncos Hollinger’s Rinus VeeKay, who made it to 7th despite a damaged front wing and somehow managing to dislocate a rib in the simulator during the week, and Scott McLaughlin, who fell from 2nd to 8th. However, the twin stars at McLaren held firm where others crumbled, as Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard came home 5th and 6th, respectively, to contain the damage in the Manufacturers’ Cup fight and keep their individual National Championship pursuits in decent shape. O’Ward’s was particularly impressive, given that he started all the way down in 23rd.

Miscellaneous Misfortunes: Armstrong, no! What was that?

After weeks of mechanical issues plaguing Marcus Armstrong, the fates cut him a break and let him suffer a completely different set of problems. On lap 31, Sting Ray Robb shoved the young Kiwi offline as the two rounded the hairpin, and Armstrong spun his #66 trying to get back on. Armstrong then poured salt in his own wound by ignoring the AMR safety team, trying to start back up and rush ahead of the impending pace car, and instead getting stuck again on track, nearly causing a wreck and forcing everyone to tiptoe around him. The stewards did not look kindly on this, and the stop and hold he received for failing to follow directions helped ensure that Armstrong would finish a lap down in 16th.

Quick to capitalize on that was Nolan Siegel, who inherited the lead from Louis Foster under that yellow thanks to an alternate strategy similar to Romain Grosjean’s and held it for eight laps before Grosjean got past on pure pace. Siegel, meanwhile, faded into the background, resurfacing only to hit Josef Newgarden in the hairpin on lap 59 and cause the final caution of the day. Siegel would surprisingly finish ahead, coming home 12th to Newgarden’s 13th, but had to serve an avoidable contact penalty along the way.

Finally, David Malukas had his bid for a sixth podium wasted in the closing stretch when he kissed the wall with six laps to go and had to pit for repairs. Instead of vaulting back to 2nd in the season standings, the Chicagoan came home a lap down in 17th.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: Foster bottles it as eight fall

Rahal Letterman Lanigan had plenty of reason for hope going into this one, as all three of their drivers made it to at least the second round. That included Mick Schumacher, who needs strong results more than ever, as it’s all but confirmed that he’s the casualty of RLL selling one of its charters to Dreyer & Reinbold. Unfortunately, the German racing royalty didn’t make much of a case, as he wasted his P10 start with a crash on lap 15 to cause the first of six full-course yellows. He’d soon be joined by Felix Rosenqvist, who survived only a fifth of the race before bowing out with a fuel pressure issue.

On lap 36, Christian Rasmussen became a victim of the accordion effect in turn 8. Scott Dixon got squeezed and spun the wrong way trying to go side-by-side with Dennis Hauger. That left the Dane with nowhere to go, and the #21 took the worst of it, as Rasmussen’s day ended immediately. With a DNF rate of 50% this deep into the season, it’s getting very hard not to call him “Crashtain Crashedagain.” Meanwhile, Dixon aura farmed with a spin to get back going, hit the pits for repairs, and finished six laps down in 18th.

The big game changer, though, takes us back to RLL. Louis Foster entered Sunday as the man to beat, having torched the field on used softs the day prior to score his second pole in as many seasons. For the first half of the race, Foster backed that up, leading his entire opening stint for 32 laps, the most of the day, and looking like he belonged there the whole time. Even after pitting, Foster was primed to slice his way up the field and looked on to regain the lead on raw speed. But on lap 43, he overcooked his outside-in pass on Marcus Ericsson for 3rd by just a hair, touched the inside wall of turn 3, and got sent nose-first into its outside wall. That ended the Brit’s day in tears, and it handed Ericsson the baton to go do exactly what Foster had been doing in the second half of the proceedings.

Eleven laps later, Kyle Kirkwood would prove Foster wasn’t just making young gun mistakes, as the Andretti driver made the exact same mistake at the same turn all by himself. This second such crash was huge for Romain Grosjean, setting up the Frenchman’s run to the front and likely handing him the win had Ericsson not been so blazing fast.

No one else would wreck out from there, but we did have a few quieter retirements. Alexander Rossi completed another hard weekend for Ed Carpenter Racing, getting bullied out of the top 10 repeatedly before a mechanical failure put him out. Meanwhile, Caio Collet suffered a flat tire immediately upon starting the race, and the damage he suffered circulating back to the pits took 17 laps to repair. Through sheer attrition, the Brazilian grinded his way up to 19th before retiring the car.

Finally, Dennis Hauger completed an ignominious day for this year’s rookie class. He qualified incredibly well to start from 5th, but yo-yo’d up and down the field all day. A horrid restart early sent him all the way out of the top 20, but he clawed his way back on sheer speed and looked primed to at least finish just outside the top 10. Unfortunately, the Norwegian instead ran out of fuel and had to stop in a runoff on the last lap of the race, only receiving 15th over the drivers genuinely a lap down because of his own higher average speed.

Championship Collage: huge boost for Honda

With a 4th-place result and all his immediate National Championship challengers finishing behind him, Álex Palou was able to extend his lead to 133 points and could conceivably clinch next week if he wins while Kyle Kirkwood, David Malukas, and Christian Lundgaard all melt down and wreck out. Those three stand 6 points apart, with Pato O’Ward rounding out the top 5. Behind him, Josef Newgarden leads a tight triangle dance for 6th against Scott McLaughlin and Felix Rosenqvist. Finally, by winning this race, 9th-place Marcus Ericsson just barely stayed above the cut line, while Rinus VeeKay, Will Power, and Scott Dixon all suffered mathematical elimination from the hunt.

In the Rookie of the Year race, the whole class flunked today’s test, and that plays right into Dennis Hauger’s hands. He extended his lead over Caio Collet to 31 points, while Collet’s sheer attrition staved off Mick Schumacher to make it seven points between them for 2nd.

In the Manufacturers’ Cup chase, Honda once again dished out a beating, taking pole and sweeping the top four positions to hold Chevrolet to a 5-6. Combined with the annual late surge of bonus points from the Indianapolis 500 finally arriving, Honda now lead this battle 1,225 to 1,056, and it’s looking like it’ll soon be Christmas in August for the defending champs.

Finally, in a wacky day for our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, nine different countries fill the top 9, with Graham Rahal posting 9th for the leading United States. That allowed reigning champs Spain to close the gap to just 15 points, and it would be hilarious timing if they take the lead back at next week’s race, given where it is and what it represents. Meanwhile, Sweden consolidated power over the bronze with the race win, and France vaulted past both the UK and Norway into 10th.

Future Flames: oh, God, we’re really going to DC, aren’t we?

Against all good judgement, a bad idea sprung late onto the schedule via executive order will come to fruition next Sunday. The Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. will go ahead, complete with an extensive Fox pre-show certain to be filled with Chris Myers mumbling, politicians fighting over the spotlight, and a whole heap of pro-Trump slopaganda. Given the slapdash nature of the planning and a 1.7-mile track layout that prioritizes cramming in local landmarks over enabling good racing, all signs point to a shameful day in the history of our sport, and that’s without considering the surprise last-minute extension to 250 laps.

With 425 miles of ground to cover at the hottest, muggiest, most miserable time of year to be in DC, this race will be a battle for survival above all else. The safe bets are the Andretti trio, who’ve produced two different winners on the two new street circuits this year, and Ganassi’s cerebral duo of Palou and Dixon. However, as we just saw, things are wide open for an unexpected team to get the setup right and make tons of noise. Let’s just hope whoever wins doesn’t put their foot in their mouth afterwards.