Even with Alex Palou securing five NTT IndyCar SERIES championships in the past six years, this field remains an absolute shark tank. Yet, the 2026 season saw race weekends where single drivers and teams simply demoralized the paddock. Chip Ganassi Racing led the charge, but Arrow McLaren, Andretti Global, and Team Penske all had their terrifyingly fast days.
Palou’s march to an 86-point advantage was built on pure speed. His masterclass in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park was arguably his finest drive of a six-win year, taking the NTT P1 Award and leading 79 of the 90 laps (87.8 percent) to win by a season-high 13.2775 seconds over Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard. He also dominated the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg by leading 59 of the 100 laps to finish 12.4948 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, secured a pole-to-win effort in the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit by leading 71 of the 100 laps, and rattled off five consecutive poles from the Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway through the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.
Arrow McLaren delivered the most significant team beatdown of the season at The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward combined to lead 86 of the 90 laps (95.6 percent) at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Lundgaard started from the pole and led the first 41 laps before O’Ward muscled past after Lundgaard drifted wide in Turn 2, ending an individual win drought that stretched back to his 2025 street race victory in Toronto. It was a stunning 1-2 finish for Arrow McLaren in the series.
Street circuits brought out the absolute best in Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood. At the new Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., Kirkwood qualified second behind Palou but snatched the lead on the opening lap and led 128 of the 147 laps (87.1 percent). His victory was helped by Palou's struggles and a crash by McLaughlin, who found the Turn 1 tire barrier on a Lap 129 restart. Kirkwood ultimately beat Lundgaard by 3.0906 seconds, adding to his earlier triumph at the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington where he edged Palou by just .3140 of a second. Meanwhile, teammate Marcus Ericsson also shone on a new street circuit, winning the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham by 7.5305 seconds over Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean.
Pato O'Ward pulled off an insane double win at the Snap-On IndyCar Weekend, sweeping both races at the historic Milwaukee Mile on the same Wisconsin day. The Arrow McLaren charger led 174 of the 500 laps across the doubleheader (34.8 percent), beating McLaughlin by .7916 of a second in the first bout and Team Penske’s David Malukas by 1.7535 seconds in the second. It marked the first doubleheader sweep since Josef Newgarden accomplished the feat at Iowa Speedway in 2023. Newgarden himself continued to own short ovals this year, taking both the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway and the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway to push his career oval win tally to 20.
Scott McLaughlin finally ended a 36-race win drought that lasted more than two years with a stunning run in the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey. Starting from the pole at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, McLaughlin controlled 87 of the 95 laps (91.6 percent) in a virtual wire-to-wire performance, though Kirkwood kept him honest right to the checkered flag with a final gap of just 1.3739 seconds.
