How IndyCar 2026 looks at its halfway point

Hard to believe, but early June marks the halfway point of the 18-race IndyCar season. One thing hasn’t changed in 2026: Alex Palou has won the most races and comfortably leads the championship. What’s different is that IndyCar’s presence and presentation has improved greatly over recent years.

The well-executed Arlington Grand Prix is the best case in point, as the first-year event that was a joint production between Penske Entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys, and Texas Rangers exceeded expectations in all ways. The grounds were packed for the other urban street races (St. Petersburg, Long Beach, and Detroit) and the only real blemish was a 0.5-million drop in television viewers for the sold-out Indianapolis 500.  

While Palou still is out front, the championship battle is much closer this year. The Spaniard has won ‘only’ four of nine races and enjoys a 49-point cushion over Kyle Kirkwood (the Arlington winner) and 68 points over first-year Team Penske man David Malukas. Christian Lundgaard, Pato O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, and Scott McLaughlin are all within 120 points of Palou, unlike a year ago when the Ganassi driver led by 72 points midway before pulling away to a modern-era record 196-point bulge by season’s end.

The question, therefore, is whether anyone can step up to match or exceed Palou and the No. 10 Ganassi team’s consistent level of excellence and execution. Kirkwood, Lundgaard (Indianapolis GP), Felix Rosenqvist (Indianapolis 500), and Josef Newgarden (short oval victories at Phoenix and Gateway) have all won races this year, but their glory days are still fewer and farther between than Palou, whose only apparent Achilles heel is the occasional propensity to run into other cars in the tight confines of bullring ovals.

Kirkwood continues to demonstrate that he’s the real deal. A championship winner at every level of the American open-wheel ladder, he’s been the most consistent driver in 2026 with six top-five and eight top-10 finishes. With Will Power replacing the mercurial Colton Herta in the No. 26 car, the entire Andretti team is consistently performing at a higher level this year. Power suffered a frightening brake failure at the Barber road course and has had no luck whatsoever to lie 17th in the standings, but Marcus Ericsson’s form and fortunes have improved greatly as he drives for a new contract. The Swede was in position to win at St. Pete and Gateway.

Team Penske has no reason to believe they were wrong to jettison 45-year-old Power for 24-year-old Malukas, who led out of the final corner in the Indianapolis 500 only to lose out in heartbreaking fashion to Rosenqvist in the closest finish in the 110-year history of the classic race. With the might of the Penske organisation behind him, it’s clear Malukas will be winning races soon and often.   

Felix Rosenqvist won this year's Indy 500

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

In fact, Malukas has emerged as the Penske team leader in a year when Newgarden has experienced mixed fortunes and McLaughlin has fretted about not tasting victory since August 2024. Newgarden is clearly the king of the short ovals, and an obvious favourite for the upcoming contest in his hometown of Nashville and the Milwaukee doubleheader. But he’s only qualified in the top 10 twice for road races, and rumours persist that he is unhappy and seeking a way out of the Penske camp.

Zak Brown continues to mould the McLaren IndyCar team in his own persona, hiring former drivers Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay as Team Principal and Sporting Director. Lundgaard often runs at the very front on road and street courses, but in his fifth full year of IndyCars, he admits that he’s still getting to grips with oval racing. O’Ward’s season has been curiously muted; he’s never looked in position to win a race on pace (other than the Indianapolis GP, where he qualified on the front row but was taken out at the first corner), finishing a representative fourth or fifth in seven of nine starts. Nolan Siegel’s driver-funded seat in the No. 6 McLaren is viewed as a potential landing spot for Newgarden.

Winning the Indianapolis 500 in such dramatic fashion has locked Rosenqvist in as an IndyCar legend for life and only Palou’s brilliance denied him another win at Long Beach. Rosenqvist’s Meyer Shank team-mate Marcus Armstrong felt hard-done by the orchestration of the Indy 500 finish through red and yellow flags, but the Kiwi is undoubtedly a future race winner and is likely to slide into the No. 9 Ganassi car when the record six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon decides to retire.  

What’s also likely ahead is another championship for Palou, which would be his sixth in seven years. It’s a form of statistical dominance never seen before in IndyCar racing

Dixon ranks 12th in the standings at the halfway point, and his frustration was evident when he suffered a hybrid system failure at Detroit. After two years, hybrid technology remains a polarising topic for IndyCar and a fair number of constituents would be delighted to see it eliminated from the 2028 chassis and engine package that is still in development.

Rinus Veekay (Juncos Hollinger Racing) continues to show he deserves a shot with a top team, Christian Rasmussen (ECR) remains a force on ovals, and Graham Rahal has led a resurgence of the family RLL team with a pair of podium finishes. RLL team-mate Mick Schumacher encountered a rough baptism to IndyCar, an injured wrist sustained in a first lap crash not of his own making in the St. Pete opener making the transition to heavy and physically demanding cars extra difficult.  

On tap for the second half of the campaign is a new street race in the Toronto suburb of Markham that could permanently replace the long-running event near downtown where the Exhibition Place circuit is increasingly encroached by site development. There’s also the controversial Freedom 250 on the streets of Washington DC, where all eyes will be on IndyCar, for perhaps not all the right reasons…

What’s also likely ahead is another championship for Palou, which would be his sixth in seven years. It’s a form of statistical dominance never seen before in IndyCar racing; still to celebrate his 30th birthday, he’s probably yet to reach his peak. 

Palou is set to move to within one of Dixon's title record

Photo by: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images