St. Petersburg, Fla. — INDYCAR is officially back!
Drivers get on track Friday for the first time in the 2026 INDYCAR season as they prepare for the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Sunday’s race (Noon ET on FOX) will be the first time Will Power drives for Andretti Global after 17 years at Team Penske. That will be one of the storylines to watch. But there’s plenty more.
Here are 26 storylines for 2026:
26. Scott Dixon going for seventh title
Can Scott Dixon win a seventh title? He sure will try. Does he need to win a seventh title? He certainly does not. He will still be a legend. As he told me, it’s about the people. It is, but it’s also about Dixon and just how incredible it is that he has raced at such a high level for more than 20 years. Dixon told me this on three-time reigning champion Alex Palou’s dominance: “Some of us have been lucky enough to be a part of those years where everything justs not your way or luck or anything like that, but you have a head of steam and it rolls and it was a hell of a year. I think he’s definitely got a target on him.”
Scott Dixon has eyes on an elusive INDYCAR seventh title in 2026.
25. Ryan Hunter-Reay at McLaren for Indy 500
For its extra Indy 500 car this year, McLaren isn’t going with a driver from another series who would generate buzz. Instead, they have a driver who has generated buzz at Indianapolis by winning the sport’s biggest race. Ryan Hunter-Reay nearly won last year for a part-time team racing a car that had been used in the shop for pit practice. He gives McLaren another threat — but maybe even bigger, he potentially gives the team’s drivers some additional insight into what can work or what to try at Indy. RHR told me: “I really look forward to contributing here. I want to come in here, I’m not just on the receiving end. I want to give. … My years of experience at Indianapolis will hopefully allow that to happen.”
24. Will INDYCAR get Mexico race approved for 2027?
It appeared that INDYCAR was well on its way to solidifying a Mexico City race for 2026, but the deal never got done. Blame the World Cup, blame one side or the other, but it’s not on the 2026 schedule. INDYCAR needs to return there, especially at the height of Pato O’Ward’s popularity.
23. The return of Romain Grosjean
Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean is back in the series driving full time for Dale Coyne Racing after not having a ride in 2025. He is known as an aggressive driver and he’s late in his career, so he’s not going to back down for any reason. Grosjean told me: “I never doubted I would be back in INDYCAR because I felt like what I did was pretty good, and there was always going to be an opportunity — and I’m glad that it’s happening with Dale Coyne Racing that I love profoundly. It sucked watching from the sideline.”
22. Development of new car for 2028
A new INDYCAR is coming in 2028, a year or two later than many hoped, but at least there’s a timeline to get the new car out on the track. Testing of the car should start in earnest later this year. Weight distribution, safety elements and improved ability to race are all goals. INDYCAR President Doug Boles told me: “The thought is we’ll do some baseline testing of it this summer, get the manufacturers their cars so they can start testing. The idea is we can get enough testing in by the time we get to next summer. And next summer is the time when we’ll start rolling those cars out to teams, and then the team testing will begin.”
21. Get out of the way!
INDYCAR has increased the number of laps from the finish where lapped-down cars will restart behind lead-lap cars. That could mean more restarts where those in the middle of the field have a chance to pass.
20. How does Colton Herta do in F2?
Colton Herta isn’t racing in INDYCAR anymore, but he carries the hope of the paddock that he runs well in Formula 2, proving to any doubters that INDYCAR drivers have talent to succeed overseas. If he makes a successful transition, it could also open the door — for INDYCAR being seen as a place where top drivers can race and not close their F1 hopes and also for the best in INDYCAR to maybe get a serious F1 look.
19. Is ECR on the rise?
Is Ed Carpenter’s organization on the rise? Alexander Rossi posted the fastest speeds in the test at Phoenix. Christian Rasmussen won a race last year. The team has had an influx of investment from Ted Gelov and is building a new facility. Rossi told me: “I think that the team has grown a lot over the past 14 months, and there’s been a lot of change in terms of the way that we go about things, the structuring of the organization. Starting the year off on the right note, and then continuing that especially through May is critical.”
Christian Rasmussen is expected to lead ECR’s revival.
18. McLaren-Ganassi dynamic after Alex Palou trial
Do you think Chip Ganassi Racing is happy that it has to pay a $12 million judgment that McLaren obtained against Alex Palou in British courts (CGR agreed to pay the damages in the breach-of-contract case)? Probably not. These two owners are far from friends and it will be interesting to see if this spills on to the track. Palou told me: “I have no issues with any McLaren drivers, or McLaren in general, in particular. It’s more a personal thing, but it’s in the past. Stuff that happens outside the track, honestly, doesn’t really motivate me to be like, ‘Oh yeah, now I’m going to try and be this guy, that guy, or finish in front of him, I don’t really care. I just want to win for my team, myself, my family, and I love to drive. That’s what motivates me.”
17. Tire rules changes for street courses
For street courses, teams will have to use at least two sets of the soft tires and at least one set of the primary tires. This will increase strategy. Pato O’Ward told me that it could mean that if the caution comes out at an inopportune time, a driver might not feel as if he had no chance as he did with the previous rule of needing to use at minimum one of each type of tire. Penske driver Scott McLaughlin said the new “soft” tire is more durable so he’s not sure how much change it will have. Mclaughlin told me: “We might actually see a red [soft tire] race.” When will he know for St. Pete? “Not until morning warmup. Maybe Practice 1, we’ll see how they feel and how they drop off. It will be interesting how it races.”
16. Will Indy 500 field get to 34 cars?
Right now, there are 25 full-time entries and 29 announced drivers for the Indy 500 with Ryan Hunter-Reay (McLaren), Ed Carpenter (ECR), Jack Harvey (Dreyer & Reinbold) and Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank) confirmed. Andretti Global will add a fourth car and Dreyer & Reinbold will add a second car. So that’s 31 and other teams could add another car. It could come down to whether Prema returns and fields a car or two. There are drivers who are looking (including Jacob Abel, who got bumped out a year ago) but Chevrolet likely needs to wait and see whether it needs to allocate an engine to Prema. INDYCAR president Doug Boles told me: “When you think about the Indianapolis 500, there’s things that are central to our DNA, and one of them is 33 cars. So we have to at least have 33. Bumping has made qualifying exciting, even though it’s been one car. So to the extent we can have bumping, it’d be fantastic. The most important thing is getting to getting the 33. Obviously, there’s some unknown about where Prema ends up this year, and that’s two cars that we counted on last year that got us to that 34 number. So we’ve got some work to do there.”
15. Prema uncertainty
Prema isn’t on the entry list for the first race of the season at St. Pete and the earliest race they could get to, if they can solidify the funding, is likely Long Beach. But the longer this goes, the more skeptical people get as they also would need to re-staff, which would be much tougher as the season goes along. Funding issues typically are a constant battle for teams at the back of the grid, so whether any changes happen with other teams throughout the year or after the 2026 season also remains to be seen.
14. Phoenix doubleheader with Cup
The March 7-8 race weekend at Phoenix will be a spectacle as INDYCAR and NASCAR’s O’Reilly Series (formerly Xfinity) race in a doubleheader March 7, followed by the Cup Series cars a day later on March 8. Seeing the open-wheel cars and the stock cars on an oval during the same weekend will be fascinating with the different speeds and styles. INDYCAR president Doug Boles told me: “[Phoenix] is a track that has a lot of history in INDYCAR racing, so I’m excited to be back here for that for sure. Certainly the opportunity to race on a Cup weekend. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for the INDYCAR guys expose ourselves to a different fan base.”
Things will heat up in the desert as INDYCAR returns to Phoenix Raceway in a few weeks.
13. A new track at Markham
There are three new street courses this year and Markham is one of them. The Toronto suburb is the new home for the race as the Expo Centre course was potentially not usable because of World Cup preparations (not to mention the worn streets). Markham is paving the streets that will be used for the circuit, so it should be interesting. INDYCAR president Doug Boles: “From the moment we started talking to the folks in Markham, they’ve been so excited about having us — the big investment that that community is making to make sure the racing surface is the kind of racing surface we want to see. And they started right away in terms of resurfacing and getting things ready. The Markham project is on course.”
12. New officiating structure
In hopes of creating an arm’s length relationship between Penske and the officials, a new independent officiating board will oversee inspection and race control. The board still has to hire a managing director of officiating, and that person will answer to the board, not Penske. So far, there have been no major changes as far as race control (Kyle Novak is still race director) and technical inspection (Rocket Blanch remains overseeing tech). But additional personnel have been added. Whether the board — former Ford exec Raj Nair, former NASCAR crew chief and owner Ray Evernham and the FIA’s Ronan Morgan — sees a feel for more changes will be a talking point throughout the year, at least in the paddock. Nair told me and other reporters: “We have a high degree of confidence in the existing team. We’ve spent a lot of time with them, and have really, truly been impressed. But we know they need some incremental resources for help, and there are definitely some areas for continuous improvement in those areas that specifically were called out in these last two years and issues.”
11. Scott McLaughlin’s return to Indy
It is hard to forget what happened to McLaughlin at the Indianapolis 500 last year when he wrecked out on the pace laps. That’s something most wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy. Until he takes the 2026 first lap under green, that thought will be in the minds of everyone who couldn’t believe what they witnessed in 2025.
Scott McLaughlin is aiming to put an embarrassing moment at last year’s Indy 500 behind him.
10. David Malukas’s debut season with Team Penske
Replacing Will Power won’t be easy, and Malukas will need to focus on his own development. But beyond any obvious comparisons, it will be more whether Malukas is running at about the same level as his teammates. Being fastest on the first day of testing at Phoenix was a start. Malukas told me: “No matter what the name may be or what it is, there’s pressure — it’s Team Penske, right? It’s 110 percent, they’re the top of the top. And I grew up watching them, and I think no matter what driver you ask or who’s going to be, it’s going to be the same answer. I’ve had different pressures throughout my entire career, and this one’s going to be no different. So very excited to tackle it and see what we can do.”
9. Can Nolan Siegel keep his McLaren ride?
Maybe we’re making too much out of Tony Kanaan’s comments about Siegel needing to be a top-10 driver to keep his ride. It’s no secret after the documents that came out during the Alex Palou trial that Siegel brings funding to this ride. Last year was a little bit of a struggle, but he also had his moments. He’ll need more moments in 2026 to be there in 2027. Siegel told me: “I am always trying to get the best result that I possibly can for myself and for the team, and that doesn’t change based on other people’s expectations. I am going to put everything I have into it, as I would at any other time, and that doesn’t change based on what other people say the goal is.”
8. Andretti Global overall changes
Will Power as the driver of the No. 26 isn’t the only change at Andretti,and when looking at the team beyond Power, there are plenty of storylines. Former Team Penske executive Ron Ruzewski is now the team principal. Andretti also has another driver — Dennis Hauger — in the series but he’s been loaned to Dale Coyne Racing. If that doesn’t put pressure on Marcus Ericsson, who is in a contract year, then nothing else will. The veteran Ericsson has been through this before and knows he needs to rebound from a subpar 2025. Ruzewski told me: “I said it in front of the whole group, and I continue to live by it: Winning races isn’t terribly hard — it’s just a lot of hard work.”
7. Team Penske’s new leadership
This will be the first full season with Team Penske under new leadership with Jonathan Diuguid at the helm of the organization and Travis Law the new VP of competition. Can they do enough to spark the organization in finding its mojo back after a season of only two victories and no driver higher than ninth in the standings? We’ll see. McLaughlin told me: “There’s a lot of new faces and new positions in our team, and we had to do that halfway through the year last year, and having six months really to mesh everyone together and get ourselves a really strong team, I think it really puts us in a really strong position right now. We’ve got a lot of trust in the building. There’s a lot of just want to go out there and put ourselves back to where we think we belong. It’s going to be hard. But I think with the people that we’ve got, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Can Josef Newgarden and Team Penske regain their form in 2026?
6. Racing Around The Capitol
In a late addition to the schedule, a race on the streets of Washington, D.C., in the National Mall area will run on Aug. 23. A project that didn’t appear to get done ended up getting done thanks to a President Donald Trump executive order. Much of the access to the event will be free. It should be a spectacle of a weekend in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. INDYCAR president Doug Boles: “We’ve actually been working on that since late summer. So while the announcement of it just came a couple weeks ago, we’re a lot further along. We have a lot of work to do, though, in order to get that done. But we’ve laid out the course. Hopefully, we’ll get that announced in the next couple weeks. I’ve ordered the concrete, the fencing, all the things that we need for that. So I think we’re in pretty good shape. Just going to be a heavy lift.”
5. Racing in Arlington around Jerry World
The new race in Arlington is in just a couple of weeks (March 15) and will feature racing around the stadiums of the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers. This race has created a lot of buzz. Driver Rinus VeeKay told me: “I’m excited for that. So that’s that’s really just the big show with all the entertainment around, with all the stadiums, that’s just something. Big sports is America and is Texas, so I’m excited.”
4. Mick Schumacher brings a big name. Will he have big results?
Can Mick Schumacher be successful in a transition from European racing? Who knows. But everyone will be watching to see if the son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher can find success in INDYCAR, especially on ovals, where he has never raced before. Schumacher told me last week: “We’re all excited. We’ve been talking about it for so long now that they’re all very keen on getting going with the race weekend.”
Mick Schumacher is bringing his racing chops from F1 to INDYCAR in 2026.
3. Will Palou continue to dominate?
Will Alex Palou dominate and win his fourth consecutive (and fifth overall) title? It’s hard to imagine that he would win eight races again this year. But why not? Palou told me: “I think everybody knows that it’s pretty tough to win so many. Our 2025 season was just one of those seasons where everything came together.”
2. Josef Newgarden: Will he rebound or will he struggle?
The two-time series champion obviously was sour over the way 2025 went, and even a win at the Nashville finale wasn’t enough to make him feel good about the year, where he finished 12th in the standings. If he has a similar year, the question will be whether he will come back to Penske in 2027 or seek to make a move. Newgarden told me: “I don’t feel like anything [as far as momentum] from the last race. We’ll reset going into ’26 and nothing from last year is going to carry over right now. We’re going to have to just restart and be strong right out of the gates.”
1. Will Power move to Andretti
What else do you think it would be? Power was the storyline off the track last year as far as his saga and whether he would return to Penske. Obviously he didn’t. So how many races will he win and how fast will he get up to speed at Andretti? He thinks it won’t take long. Power tells me: “When I see their resources, the shop the engineering trailer, some of the stuff, I feel like they’re ahead in some respects — and behind a little bit in some of the basic stuff, which they’ve worked hard on the offseason anyway. I feel like Andretti will be better than what they were last year. I feel like they’ll take quite a step this year. And I feel like it puts them a pretty good position. That’s why I’m very interested to see where we stack up.”
Will Power moves to Andretti after a 17-year run with Team Penske.
2026 INDYCAR SEASON PREVIEW:
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
