Here is the thing about numbers: they do not lie, and the statistics coming out of the 2026 NTT IndyCar SERIES season tell a story of absolute health, incredible competitiveness, and massive growth. From the track action to the television ratings, this campaign delivered on every single front.
Let us start with what happened on the tarmac, because the field was remarkably balanced. All 10 full-time teams led laps, and every single one of them managed at least one appearance in a Firestone Fast Six qualifying round on road and street tracks. Nine teams stood on a podium. Eight different drivers won races, which is the most since 2022, and eight claimed NTT P1 Awards as top qualifiers. Sixteen drivers finished in the top three, tying the highest mark since 2015, while the 25 full-time starters represented 14 nations.
Then came the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, which provided a finish for the ages. Felix Rosenqvist took a record-setting margin of victory of .0233 seconds over Team Penske’s David Malukas. That stunning gap shattered the 1992 mark of .043 of a second set when Al Unser Jr. held back Scott Goodyear. This Indianapolis 500 featured a sellout for the second consecutive year and a race-record 70 lead changes, ranking as the third-highest total in IndyCar SERIES history. Fourteen of the 33 drivers led the race, with Rosenqvist pacing the field for 25 laps while Palou led 59, Scott Dixon 32, and Malukas 30. A record total purse of $30,906,400 was distributed at the end of it all.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou put on a masterclass that defined the championship chase. Palou won five poles in a ruthless seven-week stretch between the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, including the NTT P1 Award for the Indianapolis 500. During that run, Palou gained 43 points on second place, building the foundation to secure his fourth consecutive series title and fifth overall. Palou finished the year leading both categories with eight poles and six race wins, boasting a peak lead of 133 points before settling on an 86-point final margin. At 29, Palou became the sport’s youngest five-time series champion.
That success also rewrote the record books for team ownership. Few could have predicted Team Penske’s total of 17 IndyCar SERIES championships would ever be surpassed, but Chip Ganassi Racing did it by capturing their 18th series title. Remarkably, all of CGR's titles have come since 1996, when Jimmy Vasser scored the organization’s first, whereas Team Penske has won eight in that same span. Palou’s five championships all came with CGR, putting him just one behind Dixon’s career total, which was also earned entirely as a Ganassi driver. Dario Franchitti won three season titles with CGR, Alex Zanardi two, and Vasser and Juan Pablo Montoya added one each.
Finally, the fans tuned in in droves. The NTT IndyCar SERIES reached its largest television audience in nearly two decades, averaging 1.68 million viewers on FOX across the 18 races. Viewership jumped more than 23 percent over the 2025 season and more than 57 percent against 2024, marking one of the most impressive growth curves in sports. Nine races averaged at least 1 million viewers, the most since the 2008 season. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. pulled in an average of 3.28 million viewers, marking the most for a series race other than the Indianapolis 500 since 1995. Meanwhile, the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America averaged 1.8 million viewers, standing at the time as the highest non-Indy 500 race since 2011, with all 18 races plus four additional events airing live on network television.
