That final lap of the Indianapolis 500 will simply live forever. Felix Rosenqvist took the green flag sitting in third place behind Marcus Armstrong and David Malukas, immediately locking into a wild, side-by-side battle with his Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian teammate, Armstrong. Watching the in-car camera of Rosenqvist is an absolute trip, revealing just how breathtaking the chaos really was. Rosenqvist eventually cleared Armstrong through Turn 4, hunted down Malukas in the draft, and swept around the outside to secure the closest finish in event history by a razor-thin margin of .0233 of a second. Rosenqvist rightly called the move "gnarly" and described his driving as an out-of-body experience, cementing an all-time Indy moment that will be replayed for decades.
Yet the racing on the track was only half the story, because the paddock endured a silly season of seismic proportions. Scott Dixon stunned the racing world by leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after twenty-five years, a staggering departure considering he earned fifty-eight of his fifty-nine victories and all six of his championships with the squad. Just a week after that July announcement, Dixon was confirmed as joining Arrow McLaren.
That same McLaren announcement dropped another bombshell by confirming that Felix Rosenqvist would join Dixon at Arrow McLaren. Rosenqvist's exit from Meyer Shank Racing after such a stellar year sent shockwaves through the grid, leaving Christian Lundgaard—a top-three driver all season who took two victories—strangely without a seat as marquee names scrambled everywhere.
Beyond the driver market chaos, the calendar itself expanded with three brand-new events that shook up the championship. Arlington set a brand-new benchmark for what an INDYCAR street race ought to be by delivering a massive Texas-sized spectacle in a major market. Markham showed genuine promise as a solid replacement for downtown Toronto’s Exhibition Place, while the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., turned into an unforgettable experience for everyone in attendance.
Amidst all the movement and new venues, Alex Palou simply continued his total domination of the series. Claiming his fourth consecutive series championship and his fifth in six years, Palou pushed firmly into the foothills of the sport's Mount Rushmore. He stands proudly as the youngest five-time champion in the century-plus history of INDYCAR SERIES racing, turning the conversation away from whether he is a legend and straight toward when he enters the greatest-of-all-time debate.
With the current rules package remaining in place until the new IR-28 car arrives for the 2028 season, nobody looks likely to stop him soon. His No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing team has mastered the technical and strategic puzzles of this generation of machines better than anyone else, setting the stage for what could easily become a record-setting fifth straight title and sixth overall in 2027.
