Why IndyCar's new runner cannot arrive soon enough

Five days after blazing around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course at a pretty fair clip in the 2028 Dallara IR-28 IndyCar prototype, Alex Palou put on yet another clinic in the familiar old IR-18. A relatively unchallenged victory in the Portland Grand Prix (Palou’s sixth of the ’26 season) over Felix Rosenqvist put him an almost insurmountable 110 points up on fifth-place finisher Kyle Kirkwood with five races remaining.

Headed toward his fifth IndyCar championship in six years, Palou has proven all but unbeatable in a Honda-powered Dallara IR-18 prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing. The introduction of the IR-28 therefore can’t come fast enough. IndyCar finally revealed renderings of the new car in late July and trusted the first shakedown laps 1-4 August at IMS to IndyCar veterans Palou and Alexander Rossi, representing engine manufacturers Honda and Chevrolet.

After turning around 60 laps over the course of two days at IMS in wet and dry conditions before he jetted off to Portland, Palou already seems comfortable in the new car. His best lap unofficially timed at 1m10.55s was less than a second off his pole lap of 1m09.75s from the Indianapolis GP in May set on softer alternate compound tyres.

The IR-28 prototype driven at IMS by Rossi and Palou is running a generic 2.4-liter V-6 provided by Ilmor (Chevrolet), ballasted to simulate the weight of the spec energy recovery systems not fitted to the car. Claims that the new car will break existing track records – including on the Indianapolis oval, where Arie Luyendyk’s one- and four-lap qualifying benchmarks set in 1996 still stand – don’t seem far-fetched this time around.

For a new car rollout, it all went very smoothly – in part, because despite claims of a being a clean-sheet design, the IR-28 is very much a development of the IR-18 concept, with many carryover parts. Dallara has done a nice job integrating the safety and technological advances that were incorporated over the long lifetime of the IR-18 (IR-12, in reality) like the Aeroscreen to create a sleeker and more cohesive design. If there is one criticism that can be levelled at the IR-28, it’s hard for anyone other than a trained expert to identify it from an IR-18 – especially at speed.

In short, if you like the Dallara IR-18, you’ll love the IR-28.

“It was actually very good, and we’re using a set-up for the previous car,” Palou told Autosport. “We don’t have the hybrid – we’re carrying the weight, but we don’t have any power at all from the hybrid. We’re running very good lap times, I think, with the primaries [tyres] and it being a green track. I think it’s going to be very fun for everyone to watch, and also for the drivers. I feel we’re going to break a lot of track records, which is going to be good.”

The Dallara IR-28 is scheduled to replace the IR-18 in IndyCar in 2028

Photo by: IndyCar

It's an extremely positive sign that Palou was able to extract a lap time from the new car at such an early phase of its development. But it’s also a glimpse into the psyche of the man who has set the standard for IndyCar racing in the 2020s.

“As a driver, I come with a mindset of not pushing at all and just trying to give feedback and be relaxed,” he said. “But then I’m like, ‘I can go and do more,’ and by the end…it’s never like qualifying, but I like to push. That’s how I feel good with myself and the car.

“The car felt great,” he later added. “There are some areas where the car is so much better than the current one, and there are some areas that we need to work on it. But as soon as we did some set-up changes, we got it somewhat close. The car started to come alive, so it’s good. It’s super nice when you drive a car that is not very well set up, but it already drives so much better.”

The Dallara IR-28 could be ready to race right now, which is why it’s so frustrating that a full 19 months will pass before it makes its competition debut

If we’re generous, the IR-28 project is at least five years into its gestation. But thankfully, it’s a car that came out of the oven fully baked – unlike the Dallara IR-12, from which the IR-28 traces its roots. That tail-heavy car scared the likes of Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan as they struggled to top 205mph in early tests on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in late 2011 but eventually provided the IndyCar Series with some competitive and entertaining racing – and a basic chassis still in use today.

The rollout of the IR-28 created a wave of excitement in the IndyCar fan base. If only it were the IR-27. Longtime observers of the series fondly remember the days when three or four chassis manufacturers and three or four engine manufacturers routinely cranked out new product every year, albeit supplying only a portion of the grid rather than a full field of 25-33 cars. Given modern thought processes and economics, the IR-28 is pretty much all we could have hoped for.

In the modern spec-car era, the announcement of a new IndyCar is a big deal.

It looks and sounds like the Dallara IR-28 could be ready to race right now, which is why it’s so frustrating that a full 19 months will pass before it makes its competition debut at St. Petersburg in March 2028. Can anybody solve the puzzle of beating Palou in a Dallara IR-18 between now and then?

Fans will have to be content with watching Palou dominate in the IR-18 - but who is to say he won't rule in the new car?

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Lumen via Getty Images