IndyCar Preview: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
- Dan Jones
- 19 minutes ago
- 9 min read
It is that month of the year that every IndyCar fan, driver or personnel has highlighted on their calendar. It is that month of the year where old traditions come to the fore. It is that month of the year that matters more than anything else. It is finally May and the IndyCar Series heads home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) ahead of this year's running of the Indianapolis 500. But before the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing', we must have the prelude - the Grand Prix of Indianapolis held on the IMS road course, Round 6 of 18 in the 2026 IndyCar Series season.
What happened in Long Beach?
There are not many things that Álex Palou has not accomplished in his IndyCar career. It has felt that across the last three seasons that he has continually checked the unticked boxes whilst retaining his firm grip over his competition. But maybe the one major box Palou had to tick was winning the longest running street race in North America on the Streets of Long Beach. That box was finally ticket this time around.
Felix Rosenqvist had taken a surprise pole position and had comfortably led the opening stints ahead of Palou. It was a quiet affair and with overtaking opportunities limited, it was quickly clear the race would be decided in the final round of stops. As the laps counted down toward the final phase of stops, a debris caution would through all anticipation out the window as it forced all 25 drivers to pit under yellow.
That is where the magic of Palou's No.10 team came to the fore. They were able to jump Rosenqvist in the final round of stops under yellow and there would be no catching Palou from that point who took his third win in five races to start off 2026. Rosenqvist took a comfortable second ahead of Scott Dixon who claimed his first podium of the year in third.
FOX Sports achieved an average of 1.269 million viewers, a 130% increase on the number they achieved in 2025, continuing the network's strong start to the season as they remain up 44% on the average viewership they achieved last year.
You can read the full race report here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.
Palou's Long Beach victory propelled him back into the lead of the championship standings, although a fifth top five finish in as many races keeps Kyle Kirkwood in the picture. Full top 10 is as follows: Palou - 205
Kirkwood - 188
Malukas - 142
O'Ward - 136
Lundgaard - 131
Newgarden - 130
McLaughlin - 127
Dixon - 120
Rosenqvist - 109
Rahal - 106
All you need to know about Indianapolis
Although the majority of the world's eyes will be on the 2.5 mile oval which will host the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 24th, with practice starting on Tuesday, the 2.439 mile (3.925km) interior road course will be all the drivers are focusing on this weekend.
With preparations to convert the circuit into oval form taking multiple days, this weekend will see a two-day format used, with practice and qualifying both held in Friday with the 85-lap race taking place on Saturday.
The main straight runs in the opposite direction to what drivers will on the oval on the longest straight of the season (if you ignore Arlington's curved back 'straight') which provides the best overtaking opportunity on the track at the tight right-hander at Turn 1. After a sequence of corners progressively increasing in speed, followed by a flat-out chicane, drivers will have another excellent opportunity on the brakes into Turn 7 - which has been a hub for chaos on opening laps previously. After a left-right-left-right sequence of corners, Turn 12 provides an opportunistic move for drivers before the tricky hairpin at Turn 13 leads back onto the main straight through the flat-out right-hander at Turn 14.
Palou's Long Beach victory saw him reclaim his championship lead and if the field thought this weekend would mark a likely opportunity for anybody to get back at the four-time champion, they would be very much wrong. Palou has won the last three May races on the road course and has done so in quite imperious fashion. Palou has also taken the previous two pole positions and has not been off a road course podium since Road America in 2024.
Although Palou is the triple-defending winner, he is not the most accomplished on the road course, that honour instead belonging to Will Power who has taken five victories at the circuit, having found Victory Lane in 2015, 2017, 2018 and twice in 2020.
Dixon has claimed IMS victories in both 2020 and 2023 whilst Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi won in 2020 and 2022 respectively. Rinus VeeKay's only career win to date came on the circuit in 2021.
Power, Palou, VeeKay, Felix Rosenqvist, Pato O'Ward, Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal are the active polesitters at the venue.
After more push-to-pass controversy at Long Beach, IndyCar has introduced a rule change to push-to-pass designed to negate any procedural glitches like seen last time out. Drivers will now have access to the button anytime during the race, once the car has passed the alternate start-finish line once the green flag has been displayed. Previously, drivers were unable to use the system on restarts, with a rule break of the policy seeing Josef Newgarden disqualified from victory on the Streets of St. Petersburg in 2024.
Drivers will still have access to the same 200 seconds as usual, whilst the maximum deployment remains at 20 seconds. The new policy has led many to suggest that drivers will save their push-to-pass for the end of races in case of late restarts, which will be a key storyline to follow throughout the rest of the season.
After using the updated Fast Six format in Long Beach, IndyCar will revert to the traditional running of the final qualifying segment like it will do at all other road courses this year. Drivers will have access to five primary tyres and five alternate tyres over the weekend whilst rookie drivers are permitted an additional set of primaries.
What to look out for in Indianapolis
As is the case at every race, the challenge for 24 drivers is 'how do you beat Palou?'. It is a question that is often unanswered and the road course provides one of the biggest challenges for anybody to do so. Palou himself will chase history this weekend as he aims to become the fifth drivers since 1946 to win four consecutive races at the same track - as well as the first since between 1988 and 1991 when Al Unser Jr. won four-in-a-row on the Streets of Long Beach.
It is easy to predict that Palou will always be challenging for victory, but it is much harder to predict who will be the closest to him, but Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) may provide the biggest threat based on previous history at the circuit. It was Rahal that challenged Palou for victory here last year and despite all of Graham's struggles in recent seasons, he has not finished outside the top 10 at IMS since 2022.
And that form in the team is not exclusive to just Rahal. Louis Foster qualified third last year with then-teammate Devlin DeFrancesco in fifth. The year prior saw RLL cars second, ninth and 10th and first, fourth and eighth in 2023. The team have struggled to identify why their IMS form does not translate elsewhere, but expect them to be quick this weekend, particularly in qualifying. Rahal has already matched his top 10 total from 2025 in just five races this season and this is as good of a chance as ever for either him, Foster or rookie Mick Schumacher to claim a headline result.
Lundgaard has often played second-fiddle to Palou on road courses over the last 18 months but his strong record at IMS stretches a lot further back than that, unsurprising given his time at RLL. Lundgaard made his debut at the track in 2021, where he qualified a staggering fourth and had since then never finished outside the top nine until last season. Highlights on Lundgaard's IMS resume have included a first top-10 2022, his maiden podium in the autumn race that same year, his first pole position in 2023 and another podium in 2024. Can he finally claim his first win in papaya this time around?
If Lundgaard does want to claim a first win in papaya he will face a tough inter-teammate battle. O'Ward finished second on the road course last season, adding to his runner-up finish in 2023. Like Lundgaard, he has also previously taken a pole position at the circuit and has four top five finishes to start off 2026 (although remains podium-less thus far).
Kirkwood has been the closest driver to Palou thus far this season but he heads to a track where Andretti Global have not excelled at in recent seasons. They have had no cars in the top five at the circuit since 2023 and Kirkwood himself has a best finish of just eighth. We have seen Andretti overcome poor track records at circuits several times this year already though, so don't be surprised if things do change.
You would imagine that could be bolstered given Will Power's successes at the circuit, also given that Power has stood on the podium in four of the last six races at IMS. Historically, it has been a very good track for Team Penske - who Power had all his IMS success with - including a streak of five-in-a-row between 2015 and 2019. David Malukas has impressed thus far in 2026 but still awaits a first IndyCar win whilst Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin will be looking to have strong results after inconsistent starts to the year.
Outside of Palou, expect the Chip Ganassi Racing team to be strong given both Kyffin Simpson and Dixon ran very well here last year. Their partner team in Meyer Shank Racing shone in Long Beach with Rosenqvist, with both him and Marcus Armstrong having several highlights from the circuit over the last few seasons.
A strong Long Beach has saw Dennis Hauger extend his Rookie of the Year lead to 17 points over Caio Collet, with Schumacher a further 15 behind. Hauger won the Indianapolis race in Indy NXT last year and will look to bolster his advantage. Schumacher on paper is the one disadvantaged considering he has never been to the track before, but given RLL's record at the road course, this could well be Schumacher's most impressive IndyCar weekend to date.
Indy NXT preview
After not being present during IndyCar's Long Beach weekend, Indy NXT returns this weekend with the second of five double-header weekends.
This year's first double-header happened last time out at Barber, which saw Nikita Johnson steal victory after race leaders Alessandro de Tullio and Max Taylor collided when moving through traffic in Race 1. De Tullio was frustrated after Taylor's optimistic move, but the Argentine would make amends in Race 2 as he claimed the first victory of his young Indy NXT career.
Taylor's effective no-score in Race 1 saw him drop out of the championship lead, with Johnson picking up the pieces, with the full top 10 being as follows (drivers with an R are eligible for Rookie of the Year):
Johnson (R) - 168
Taylor - 145
Kucharczyk (R) - 135
Fittipaldi (R) - 129
de Tullio (R) - 108
Correa - 97
Hughes - 92
Missig - 92
Rowe - 87
Murray - 86
The series hosted the annual Chris Griffis Memorial Test at the end of last year on the road course, giving teams access to plenty of data ahead of this weekend. Sebastian Murray topped the times ahead of Andretti teammates Taylor and Josh Pierson. Johnson and de Tullio finished the top five at the conclusion of the test.
The opening four races have seen the same five drivers dominate proceedings. Johnson, Taylor, Kucharczyk, Fittipaldi and de Tullio have shared all 12 podium spots between them and have been in the top five 15 out of 20 times. De Tullio has taken three of four poles to start the year, with Taylor having taken the other.
Pre-season favourites Lochie Hughes and Myles Rowe have suffered challenging starts to the year, neither of whom having finished in the top four so far this year. However, both drivers finished on the podium in both IMS races last year, Hughes having done so by winning Race 1. Cape Motorsports' Matteo Nannini is also an Indy NXT winner at IMS having done so in 2023 with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Recent IndyCar alumni who have won at IMS in Indy NXT include Hauger, Foster, Jacob Abel, Linus Lundqvist (x2), Malukas, VeeKay, Colton Herta (x2), Jack Harvey and Marco Andretti.
Drivers will compete over 35 laps on Friday and 30 laps on Saturday, with the field unchanged from Barber. Like was the case in Barber, drivers will need two quick laps in qualifying as their fastest lap will set the grid for Race 1 whilst their second-fastest lap will set the grid for Race 2.
Timings
Indy NXT Practice: 08:00 ET (13:00 BST) Friday
IndyCar Practice 1: 09:05 ET (14:05 BST) Friday
Indy NXT Qualifying: 12:00 ET (17:00 BST) Friday
IndyCar Practice 2: 13:05 ET (18:05 BST) Friday
Indy NXT Race 1: 16:06 ET (21:06 BST) Friday
IndyCar Qualifying: 17:35 ET (22:35 BST) Friday
Warm-up: 11:40 ET (16:40 BST) Saturday
Indy NXT Race: 2 14:31 ET (19:31 BST) Saturday
Grand Prix of Indianapolis: 16:47 ET (21:47 BST) Saturday
Can the Palou party at the IMS road course be stopped or will the Spaniard claim four-in-a-row? Will the push-to-pass rule change make a significant difference to the racing? Will RLL continue their impressive IMS form? Who will take the bragging rights into the rest of May?
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis as the Month of May gets underway.
All photos in this article were taken by DIVEBOMB Photographer, Dominic Loyer. You can find Dominic's work on Instagram (@dominicloyer_photography)
