That said, the 2026 season brings massive questions for Andretti Global as the NTT IndyCar SERIES approaches. Curt Cavin points to the obvious headline of Will Power moving to a new team for the first time since 2009. But the real focal point might just be Kyle Kirkwood.
Kirkwood collected three wins last year, a tally second only to series champion Alex Palou and his eight. When Kirkwood has been good, he has been an absolute beast. Five of his six career podium finishes landed him on the top step, with the lone exception being a finish behind Colton Herta in Toronto in 2024. He also took pole in three of those wins, including two in Long Beach. Yet consistency remains the hurdle for his fifth season in the series. A strong first half of last year included those three wins and a solid Indianapolis 500 run before a post-race penalty dropped him to 32nd, followed by a rough final stretch averaging a 14.0 finish across the last eight races with no top-fives and only nine laps led.
Eric Smith turns our attention to the team's perplexing struggles on natural road courses. For a long time, ovals were the weak point, with zero wins between September 2018 and Colton Herta's victory at the 2024 Nashville Superspeedway finale. But as oval form recovered, natural road course success plummeted. Since 2023, all seven wins have come on ovals or street circuits. The last natural road course victory dates back to July 2022 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Alexander Rossi, and the last road-course win away from IMS was Herta at Laguna Seca in September 2021. With six of the 17 races (or 35-percent of the schedule) slated for natural road courses this season—including the finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca—balancing performance across all track types is essential for title contention.
Paul Kelly shifts the focus to Marcus Ericsson, who faces a make-or-break year to salvage his Andretti tenure. The Swede finished 15th in points in 2024 and 20th in 2025 without a single victory, a sharp decline from his days with Chip Ganassi Racing where he finished sixth in points in both 2022 and 2023 with a win each year, including the 2022 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. Since the team, its people, and its processes are no longer new to him, it is shape up or ship out time.
Finally, Kelly notes questions surrounding the team's identity. Owners Mark Walter and Dan Towriss took ownership control from Michael Andretti in 2024, and TWG Motorsports branding has already appeared on cars during testing, raising questions about whether the Andretti name will stick around.
