IndyCar Preview: Grand Prix of Road America

Credit: Dominic Loyer

After a rare one-week break, it is time for the second half of the IndyCar season to begin in a stretch that will see the debut of two new street circuits, have another oval race under the lights and culminate in six races in five weeks to decide the 2026 champion. But before we wish the season away, let's turn our eyes to the on-track action this weekend, as IndyCar heads to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, home of the famous Road America circuit which plays host to Race 10 of 18 in the 2026 IndyCar season.

What happened at Gateway?

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Teams and drivers have had a well-deserved week off since IndyCar's race at Gateway, which was the series' fifth consecutive weekend of on-track action.

And despite an ongoing injury and doubts over his recent form, Josef Newgarden seized the opportunity and re-claimed his 'king of the ovals' title as he took his second victory of the season after holding off Marcus Ericsson after a race-long battle. Ericsson came home in second in his most impressive performance in his two-and-a-half years at Andretti whilst Christian Rasmussen repaid Ed Carpenter Racing's faith with a third-place finish, in the same week he signed a multi-year contract extension with the team.

Gateway proved to be a hit once again in a race that saw multi-lane racing and several different drivers and teams in contention for victory. The race had one of the latest finishes in recent memory, with the chequered flag flying just before midnight after multiple rain delays halted the action.

FOX Sports averaged 945,000 viewers during the 260 laps, a figure higher than expected due to the late finish and the race having started on FS1 due to UFL overtime. It was a 6.6% decrease on the number achieved last year, but the series remains 9% up on average viewership from 2025.

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

Gateway proved a difficult day for championship leader Álex Palou, who ran out of fuel on pitlane and stumbled to 17th, meaning his lead at the top of the standings has been cut back to under a race deficit. Top 10 are as follows:

Palou - 342

Kirkwood - 293

Malukas - 274

Lundgaard - 246

O'Ward - 239

Newgarden - 238

McLaughlin - 222

Rosenqvist - 221

Ericsson - 196

Armstrong - 196

All you need to know about Road America

Credit: Dominic Loyer

It has been a well-deserved week off for drivers and teams alike but the attention now turns to the series' third visit to a road course this year at the iconic Road America, a 4.014 mile (6.460 km) circuit located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. It marks the longest lap of the IndyCar season, at a track who's layout has not changed since its opening in 1955.

The circuit has become a fan favourite due to its old-school nature, its scenic elevation changes and multiple overtaking opportunities. Almost every corner on the circuit has its own storied history, with the Carousel at Turn 9 and the Kink at Turn 10 marking some of the most iconic corners on IndyCar's current schedule.

Watch out for overtakes after the long flat-out sections into Turn 1, Turn 5 and Turn 12, the latter more commonly known as Canada Corner. Opportunists have also pulled off moves into Turn 3, Turn 6, Turn 8 and Turn 14 in the past due to multiple lower-speed tight braking zones.

It provides one of the most unique challenges of the entire schedule hence being no surprise that many of the recent winners here have become modern greats.

It also comes as no further surprise that it has been a happy hunting ground for Palou in recent seasons, who has the most victories of any active drivers at the Wisconsin road course. Palou aims to defend his victory of a year ago this weekend as well as adding to his 2023 and 2021 success at the circuit. Palou also earned his maiden IndyCar podium at Road America in 2020, when he was racing with Dale Coyne Racing.

Will Power won on IndyCar's return to the venue in 2016 and added a further victory in 2024 to his Road America resume. That said, Power's recent Road America record is patchy, having either been on the podium or outside the top 10 in each of his last nine visits.

Like Power, Newgarden is also a two-time winner at Road America, winning in 2018 and 2022 whilst Scott Dixon also has two Road America wins to his name, having done so in 2017 and the first race in 2020. Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist round-out the active winners having found Victory Lane in 2019 and 2020 (Race 2) respectively.

Each of the last seven races have been won by Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske, currently lying 5-2 in Ganassi's favour. Since the circuit's return in 2016, Rossi's win for Andretti remains the only non-Ganassi/Penske victory.

The circuit has also seen two first-time polesitters in the last two years. Louis Foster took a surprise pole for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2025 whilst Linus Lundqvist took pole in wet-dry conditions for Chip Ganassi Racing the year prior. Newgarden has the most poles of anybody in the field at Road America having taken three, whilst Power, Rossi and Pato O'Ward have one each.

Interestingly, Palou has not taken a pole here but aims to make history by doing so this weekend as he embarks on a fifth-consecutive pole position.

Drivers will have access to 200 seconds of push-to-pass over the 55 laps that make up Sunday's race with six sets of primary tyres and five sets of alternate tyres available to each team. 13 drivers tested at the circuit shortly after Gateway, which included AJ Foyt Racing, Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren, Ed Carpenter Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

What to look out for at Road America

Credit: Dominic Loyer

It will come as no surprise that Palou is the driver to beat this weekend. The field will be desperate to break his qualifying streak on Saturday, as Palou aims to accomplish a feat that has not been done in the modern-day by taking five poles in a row.

That said, the majority of the points payout is on Sunday. An unfortunate caution timing caused Palou to finish fifth at Indianapolis in the last road course race, his worst road course finish since 2023. With the races ticking down and Palou's points lead so substantial, weekends like this are critical for anybody aiming to make a championship push, but it's already seen as a near-impossible challenge to knock Palou off his road course perch without him suffering significant issue.

Palou's closest challenger remains Kyle Kirkwood, who remains a near-full race distance off the championship leader at 49 points. There's been no secret that road courses have been troublesome for Andretti in recent seasons , with Kirkwood yet to earn a road course podium in his career. That said, Kirkwood has earned a top five finish in each of his last two races at Road America, and this weekend may prove his best chance to turn that statistic around.

But history proves that Team Penske are expected to be Palou's closest challengers. Road America maybe Newgarden's strongest road course of the season, having had three runner-up finishes in addition to his two victories. That said, Newgarden is still nursing his leg injury from the Indianapolis 500, with Felipe Nasr on standby once again.

It has not been as strong of a venue for Scott McLaughlin, who has a solitary podium at Road America when Penske took a 1-2-3 in 2024. It has been a very inconsistent season for McLaughlin who aims to build from his top-five finish at Gateway. David Malukas is still hunting for his maiden career victory and has been the strongest Penske driver on road courses this season. Road America has not been a strong venue for Malukas, but he earned a seventh-place finish 12 months ago.

2026 has proved a challenging year for Arrow McLaren but Christian Lundgaard has excelled on road courses and they have valuable data from when they tested at the track just a week ago. Lundgaard won the last road course race at Indianapolis and remains an outside contender of the championship, albeit will start needing to gain big points on Palou each weekend.

O'Ward is currently on the longest podium-less streak of his IndyCar career, albeit has had eight top-five finishes in that time. That's a record he will be pretty keen to turn around by replicating the podium that he achieved in 2023.

Both Rosenqvist and Santino Ferrucci took surprise podiums behind Palou 12 months ago and could be outsiders for a strong result this weekend. RLL have also proved their strength in recent seasons, most notably with Foster's pole. Graham Rahal also took podiums at both road course races earlier in the season and will be aiming to continue that run of form.

Looking at the Rookie of the Year battle, Dennis Hauger continues to hold a comfortable lead over Caio Collet, albeit Collet closed the gap slightly to just 34 points following Gateway. Mick Schumacher lies a further 10 points back after his best finish of the season last time out. Collet led Hauger over the line at Road America last year in the Indy NXT race.

It is expected to be a wet weekend, so all eyes on the forecast in what could be IndyCar's first wet road/street race in four years.

Indy NXT Preview

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Like IndyCar, Indy NXT also embarks into the second half of their season at Road America this weekend. The series will hold two races, as has been the case at both other road course races at Barber and Indianapolis.

The series was also present at Gateway, which saw Myles Rowe complete one of the all-time great Indy NXT drives, as he went from last on the grid to Victory Lane in a stunning performance, which saw him re-establish himself as an outside championship contender. Alessandro de Tullio claimed his second podium of the year in second place, whilst Josh Pierson earned his first podium of the season as well as his first on an oval in third place.

It was a difficult day for a lot of the championship contenders, with Enzo Fittipaldi having to start from the back after a mechanical issue, with Nikita Johnson and Tymek Kucharczyk in just seventh and ninth respectively, which has seen the gap between the top three shrink to just five points. The full top 10 are as follows (driver with an R are eligible for Rookie of the Year):

Johnson (R) - 285

Fittipaldi (R) - 283

Kucharczyk (R) - 280

Taylor - 258

Rowe - 212

de Tullio (R) - 211

Hughes - 206

Correa - 172

Murray - 166

Missig - 160

Almost the entire field has competed at the circuit at some point in their junior careers, the major exceptions being series rookies Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk. Lochie Hughes is the top-returning finisher from last year, having finished third behind Hauger and Collet.

Six of the last seven winners, as well as 12 of the 14 Indy Lights/NXT winners at Road America have reached IndyCar, with Kirkwood, Malukas, Rasmussen, Collet, Rinus VeeKay and Nolan Siegel being Indy NXT victors who will complete in IndyCar this weekend - good news for any potential winners this weekend.

It will also be a significant weekend into the ever-tightening championship picture. Rookies Johnson, Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk have been the runaway three for several rounds now, however Andretti Global's Max Taylor certainly remains in the picture just 30 points behind. For Rowe, de Tullio and Hughes, it marks an important weekend for them to close the large gap at the top and keep them as outside championship contenders.

This weekend will mark the return of Nicolas Stati who sat out the Gateway race due to personal issues. Yuven Sundaramoorthy, who stepped in for Stati, has since been confirmed as the reserve driver for Cusick Morgan Motorsports.

Drivers will compete over 20 laps on Saturday and 18 on Sunday, and have access to 65 seconds of push-to-pass in both races. Qualifying will once again be important, as drivers have once session to set two quick lap times with their quickest lap setting the grid for Race 1 and their second-quickest setting the grid for Race 2.

Timings

Indy NXT Practice: 14:00 CT (20:00 BST) Friday

IndyCar Practice 1: 15:05 CT (21:05 BST) Friday

Indy NXT Qualifying: 09:00 CT (15:00 BST) Saturday

IndyCar Practice 2: 10:05 CT (16:05 BST) Saturday

Indy NXT Race 1: 11:36 CT (17:36 BST) Saturday

IndyCar Qualifying: 13:05 CT (19:05 BST) Saturday

IndyCar Warmup: 10:05 CT (16:05 BST) Sunday

Indy NXT Race 2: 11:06 CT (17:06 BST) Sunday

Grand Prix of Road America: 13:27 CT (19:27 BST) Sunday

Can anybody stop Palou at Road America? Will Penske and Ganassi continue their Road America winning runs? Can Arrow McLaren turn around their difficult 2026? Will we see IndyCar race in the rain? There's plenty to keep an eye out for this weekend with stories up and down the field.

DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis as the series enters the second half of 2026.