IndyCar Preview: Gateway 500

Credit: James Black

Although the 'Month of May' has officially come to an end, IndyCar's packed race calendar certainly hasn't as the series embarks on its fifth consecutive on-track weekend. And what better way to round out that stretch with some frenetic, high-paced oval action, as the show hits Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois, Race 9 of 18 in the 2026 IndyCar season.

What happened in Detroit?

Just one week after the closest Indianapolis 500 finish in history, the show was back on the road as the series hit downtown Detroit and the city streets provided its usual chaos. But as has become so inevitable, Álex Palou rose to the challenge majestically, earning his third consecutive pole position on three different track types before making his fourth visit of the season to Victory Lane on Sunday.

Unlike other Palou victories this season, this one did not come without challenge. Palou had been overtaken by Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Christian Lundgaard in the opening stint, until the No.10 team did their usual magic on strategy which vaulted Palou back into the lead ahead of pre-race favourite, Kyle Kirkwood.

And despite having to navigate restart-after-restart, Palou held off his challengers on the preferred black tyre in the final stint to claim a third street course win of 2026 and open up his championship lead to over a race's margin. Kirkwood's challenge faltered as he finished second with Graham Rahal earning his third podium of the season after his stars aligned on strategy.

FOX Sports achieved 1.167 million viewers, a 10% increase on the viewership figure from 2025. The network remains an average of 12% up on their 2025 average figures, with a 35% increase on non-Indy 500 races.

You can read the full race report here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.

Palou's fourth victory of the year extended his championship lead past the all-important 54 point mark, whilst Kirkwood re-claimed second in the standings after David Malukas endured a difficult weekend. Top 10 are as follows:

Palou - 327

Kirkwood - 265

Malukas - 248

Lundgaard - 226

O'Ward - 220

Rosenqvist - 205

McLaughlin - 192

Newgarden - 187

Rahal - 186

Armstrong - 174

All you need to know about Gateway

Credit: James Black

Let's shift our attention back onto this weekend's action at World Wide Technology Raceway (commonly known by its previous name of Gateway Motorsports Park), a 1.25 mile (2.012 km) oval on the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri under the backdrop of the Gateway Arch.

The oval hosted IndyCar between 2001 and 2003 and returned to the calendar in 2017 where it has stayed ever since. The oval has the unique feature of the opposing corners having a different radius and banking, meaning that teams have a setup challenge to try and perfect two corners with vastly different characteristics. Turns 1 & 2 feature a banking of 11 degrees but has a shorter corner radius, whilst Turns 3 & 4 reach nine degrees in banking.

The team that have nailed that setup challenge the most? Team Penske. The Captain's team has taken six victories in the 10 races since the oval returned to the schedule as well as the last five pole positions. That has been spearheaded by Josef Newgarden who has won five times at the venue, finding Victory Lane in 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024. He was also in contention last season before being involved in a major accident with Louis Foster. Will Power being the other Penske winner in 2018.

Scott Dixon is the other active multi-time winner at Gateway having been victorious in 2020 and 2023 whilst Kirkwood is the defending winner coming into this weekend, having taken Andretti's first oval victory anywhere since 2018.

A lot of eyes will be on Malukas though, who has starred year-on-year at Gateway since his first IndyCar race at the track in 2022. Malukas took his first two career podiums at the venue during his time at Dale Coyne Racing and was in victory contention in both 2024 and 2025 when racing for Meyer Shank Racing and AJ Foyt Racing. He will be a firm favourite heading into this weekend with Team Penske.

The series will once again host the race under the lights, after a successful first scheduled night race last year, with the green flag flying after 21:00 ET.

Coming into the weekend, longtime IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch announced his retirement from the sport after 23 years in the series. Nick Allen, who was previously the technical inspection manager for IndyCar Officiating, has since been confirmed to take up Blanch's role starting from this weekend.

Sunday's race will take place over 260 laps totalling 325 miles (523 kilometres).

What to look out for this weekend

Credit: James Black

Given their historical record at Gateway and the oval strength that all three of their drivers hold, there's no doubting that Team Penske come into this weekend as the team to beat.

Gateway has been Newgarden's most happy hunting ground in recent seasons and he won the other asymmetrical oval at Phoenix earlier on this season. Newgarden struggled in Detroit with a right foot injury suffered after crashing at the Indianapolis 500, but the smoother nature of an oval and the lesser stop-start nature may give Newgarden a chance to return to winning ways.

Despite his record here though, he may not come in as the favourite given Malukas' prowess at the circuit. Malukas still awaits his first career victory, but many pinpointed Gateway as the expected venue where he would earn his first this season. Expect Malukas, Penske and Gateway to be a driver, team and track combination that will be very difficult to beat.

But don't count out Scott McLaughlin either who has his best chance to snap his 26 race winless streak at a venue he also goes very well at. McLaughlin has taken pole twice at Gateway and has always finished inside the top five when he has seen the chequered flag - the outlier being a mechanical failure when competing for victory last season.

The biggest challenger to Penske may come from Pato O'Ward, who has continually been a thorn in their side on ovals over the last several seasons. Like all three Penske drivers, O'Ward holds an incredibly strong Gateway record having finished runner-up four times, third a further time, with fourth being his lowest finishing position at the venue. That record could have well been improved further too if not for a mechanical failure when running in the top five in 2024.

It is rare we get this far in a preview without talking about Palou but the evidence suggests this may be his trickiest race of the season. Palou has never finished on the podium in Gateway, with a best finish of fourth, but he has finished within the top 10 in each of his last four attempts. Would it not be the most Palou thing to claim an unexpected victory this weekend?

However, if Palou does struggle that could give an opportunity for Kirkwood to make some much needed inroads on Palou at the top of the championship standings. Andretti's oval package has significantly improved in the last 18 months and that peaked with Kirkwood's Gateway victory last year. Kirkwood admits that a lot of things went Andretti's way that day, but he also impressed with a run to second earlier this year at Phoenix.

The arrival of Power only bolsters Andretti's short-oval programme and the Australian has taken five Gateway poles since the oval returned to the calendar. A retirement in Detroit only compounded what has been a miserable year thus far for Power but Gateway represents one of his best chances to turn that around.

And being a short oval, expect Christian Rasmussen to excite once again. Rasmussen earned his first career podium this time last year with several bold, on-the-edge overtakes that has since become a trademark on short ovals. Rasmussen backed that performance up with last years' victory in Milwaukee and looked the favourite for victory in Phoenix until an unfortunate collision with Power.

It has been a big week for Rasmussen, who has agreed to a multi-year contract extension with Ed Carpenter Racing after rumours were beginning to circulate about his future. A dismal May saw Rasmussen retire from all three races, and he lies just one point off the bottom of the standings meaning Gateway comes at a very important time in his season.

In the Rookie of the Year picture, Dennis Hauger's lead over Caio Collet has extended to 38. Mick Schumacher now lies bottom of the standings, a further 15 points behind Collet after a difficult Detroit weekend. Hauger was the top performing rookie in Phoenix, although Collet earned a podium at the track in Indy NXT last season.

However, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing showed a much improved short oval package in Phoenix, a race where Schumacher qualified in fourth. This will be a very telling test though to see if that package is as successful at other ovals, with Gateway being a venue they have not finished inside the top 10 at since 2022.

Indy NXT Preview

Credit: Karl Zemlin

Indy NXT follows its parent series this weekend to Gateway, the first of three oval races for the series this season. It will mark the first visit to the circuit for all the series rookies, although they have some circuit familiarity with the venue having hosted a full field test in April.

The series also followed IndyCar to Detroit, which saw the most chaotic race of the season thus far. Despite significant damage sustained at Turn 1, Enzo Fittipaldi found himself in Victory Lane for the second time in as many weekends, making the decisive move when Myles Rowe and Tymek Kucharczyk tangled in the Turn 3 hairpin. Rowe recovered for his best finish of the season in second whilst Kucharczyk finished third.

The race had a big impact on the standings, with Fittipaldi vaulting to the top of the standings, with other championship contenders suffering problems as Alessandro de Tullio was taken out of the lead for the third time this season. Max Taylor was also involved in the incident and had made a good recovery to ninth after restarting at the back, before he crashed at Turn 1. The full top 10 are as follows (driver with an R are eligible for Rookie of the Year):

Fittipaldi (R) - 266

Johnson (R) - 259

Kucharczyk (R) - 258

Taylor - 228

Hughes - 176

de Tullio (R) - 171

Rowe - 159

Correa - 156

Murray - 148

Missig - 140

This weekend will be a significant one in the championship picture, being the first opportunity to assess where the field stack up on ovals.

What only adds to that intrigue is that all the drivers who won an oval race in 2025 will be participating this weekend, all of whom having suffered more difficult starts to the season than many had anticipated.

Hughes is the defending winner at Gateway, having taken an incredibly victory last season when he braved the high line in the closing stages to take the rest of the field by surprise. Hughes, who was one of the pre-season title favourites, only has one podium in seven races this season and is in need of a big result to re-vitalise his season.

Rowe won at both Iowa and Nashville last year and is expected to be the benchmark for the rest of his competition this weekend. Rowe was runner-up to Hughes last season at Gateway and will be looking to continue his momentum from Detroit and like Hughes, remind people why he was considered a pre-season title favourite.

Salvador de Alba lies just 15th in points, but the two-time NASCAR Mexico Champion has never finished lower than fifth in his eight career oval races in Indy NXT, with five of those being podium finishes. Neither of those have come at Gateway though, with de Alba having finished fourth on both his previous two visits but he did win the USF Pro 2000 race in 2022 at the circuit. Expect his 15th place in the standings to significantly improve this weekend.

This will mark a first career oval race for Fittipaldi, a third for Johnson and a second for Kucharczyk (who's first was two weeks ago at Indianapolis Raceway Park).

This weekend will also see the return of Yuven Sundaramoorthy after a year absent from the series as he replaces Nicolas Stati at Cusick Morgan Motorsports, with Stati missing the race due to prior commitments. Sundaramoorthy finished on the podium the last time he raced at Gateway in 2024 and a similar result could be very important into opportunities for further races. The team have re-affirmed that Stati will be back racing in Road America.

This weekend will see just a singular race, with drivers competing over 75 laps on Sunday.

Timings

IndyCar Practice: 11:30 CT (17:30 BST) Saturday

Indy NXT Practice: 14:05 CT (20:05 BST) Saturday

IndyCar Qualifying: 15:35 CT (21:35 BST) Saturday

Indy NXT Qualifying: 17:05 CT (23:05 BST) Saturday

IndyCar High Line Practice: 19:05 CT (01:05 BST Sunday) Saturday

IndyCar Final Practice: 20:00 CT (02:00 BST Sunday) Saturday

Indy NXT Race: 16:35 CT (22:35 BST) Sunday

Gateway 500: 20:25 CT (02:25 BST Monday) Sunday

Will Penske continue to prevail at Gateway? Will a first victory finally come Malukas' way? Will Rasmussen produce his usual fireworks? Can Kirkwood close the championship lead to Palou? There's stories up and down the field heading into Gateway.

DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis as the series hits the halfway mark of 2026.