IndyCar Preview: Phoenix 250
- Dan Jones
- Mar 6
- 9 min read
We may have had to wait six months for IndyCar action to return, but there's not much waiting to do to start the 2026 season! Yes, slow season starts are now certainly a thing of the past with IndyCar heading straight back to the race track just six days after the Streets of St. Petersburg kicked off the 2026 season. And what better way to do it than duelling it out in the desert as Phoenix Raceway hosts its first IndyCar race since 2018. Unbelievably, Race 2 of 18 is already upon us amidst the very fast start to 2026.
What happened in St. Petersburg?
We may have had to wait six months for cars to be out on track competitively, but the season opener at St. Petersburg was certainly worth the wait.
It may have been a new year, but there is one thing we've established that certainly is not new in 2026. Álex Palou's brilliance.
After qualifying a circuit-best fourth, Palou quietly stayed in third before jumping to the lead after the opening round of stops. From that point onward, the Spanish driver dominated proceedings on the Floridian streets to take his second consecutive win in St. Petersburg and put an ominous statement to the rest of his opposition.
It had been a six month question of 'how could Palou raise the bar even higher?' but he answered the question in superb fashion as he claimed the largest ever winning margin at St. Petersburg. He has set the gauntlet for anybody else to stop him winning a fourth consecutive series championship and a fifth in six seasons. It is certainly a 'catch me if you can situation' - even after just one round!
His closest challenger was Scott McLaughlin who took a second consecutive pole at St. Petersburg but was no match for the imperious Palou. A second place finish was McLaughlin's best in 18 months though as he kick-started what Team Penske hope to be a rebound year.
Christian Lundgaard's impressive 2025 form showed early signs of continuing as he rounded out the podium in a methodical Sunday drive ahead of Kyle Kirkwood and Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O'Ward.
Marcus Ericsson showed signs of his former self with a front-row qualifying spot and a sixth-place finish at St. Petersburg. The weekends' other standout performers were Dale Coyne Racing with series returnee Romain Grosjean qualifying sixth and finishing eighth and rookie Dennis Hauger qualifying third and finishing 10th on debut.
FOX Sports averaged viewership figures of 1.4 million - matching the number they earned in their first race covering the series 12 months ago.
You can read the full race report here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.
After the first race, the championship standings are those of the top 10 finishers at St. Petersburg, they are as follows:
Palou - 53
McLaughlin - 42
Lundgaard - 36
Kirkwood - 32
O'Ward - 30
Ericsson - 29
Newgarden - 27
Grosjean - 24
VeeKay - 22
Hauger - 20
All you need to know about Phoenix
IndyCar's race at Phoenix will mark the first at the venue since 2018 when it shares the track with the NASCAR Cup and O'Reilly Series (no relation to DIVEBOMB's very own Archie..... we think?). Double-header weekends are not uncommon to both series having previously shared the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course between 2021 and 2023 in the Autumn.
Phoenix's re-introduction to the calendar comes after the Iowa doubleheader was dropped from the schedule for 2026 after the loss of a major backer and poor attendance in 2025. Phoenix has filled in the gap for one of those races, with Milwaukee hosting a second race later on this season. It also marks the first oval race prior to the Indianapolis 500 since Texas in 2023.
IndyCar's previous visit to Phoenix was before a major re-configuration occurred in 2018, which saw the start/finish straight moved to the opposite end of the circuit and the introduction of 'the Dogleg' - a portion of track which sees NASCAR drivers commonly cut on restarts in order to make marginal gains. Don't expect to see the Indy cars use that though with much higher speeds, lower ground clearance and the fact that it has been banned by the series.
Since the series' last visit, the car itself has also seen a significant weight increase with the introduction of both the aeroscreen and the hybrid, making it an extremely different challenge to what drivers experienced on their last visit to the Arizona desert.
Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Will Power are the active drivers to have competed in an IndyCar race at the venue. Newgarden is in fact the defending winner at Phoenix after he made a late-race move on Robert Wickens. In the American's three visits to the venue, he has never finished outside the top 10.
Given the combination of Dixon's longevity and success, there is also no surprise that he finds himself on the roll of honour at Phoenix after finding Victory Lane in 2016. The New Zealander was also fourth in 2018, fifth in 2017 and came second in 2004.
Although winless at Phoenix, Power has also shown well at the mile-long oval with a second-place finish in 2017 and a third-place in 2016. Rossi's best finish at the track was in 2018 when he finished third behind Newgarden and Wickens, whilst Rahal's best result was fifth in 2016.
Ahead of the series' return to the circuit, multiple phases of testing have taken place. Rossi and Dixon were first to hit the track with a tyre test in November before Newgarden and Power visited in early January. A full field test was held last month over two days which saw David Malukas top the times on the opening day with Rossi leading the way on day two, in an Ed Carpenter Racing 1-2.
The series will host practice and qualifying on Friday whilst the 250 lap race will take place on Saturday to accommodate the Cup Series race on Sunday. Drivers will be able to utilise 10 sets of primary tyres with one additional set available for the high-line session. Unlike what has been seen at other ovals, Firestone will stick to a single compound rather than introducing an alternate tyre.
What to look out for in Phoenix
This weekend is one of significance for Palou who hits the century mark for IndyCar races. It is an unbelievable testament to Palou's success that within those 100 races that he has achieved four championships, 20 race victories, including that of the Indianapolis 500 and 45 podiums.
It may have taken 80 races for him to do so, but Palou also feels like a driver who is now competitive in his own right on ovals after winning the unofficial oval championship in the series last year. In addition to winning the Indianapolis 500, Palou also won at Iowa and had dominated proceedings at Milwaukee until Christian Rasmussen's late-race charge.
If Palou is to emulate those successes in Phoenix this weekend, it will be yet another damning reality check for his competitors and will likely leave significant head-scratching into what can be done to beat the defending champion. Palou by his own admission said he was unhappy at the results of the Phoenix test, but was third in the timesheets.
If anybody is to stop Palou from winning a fourth title in a row, preventing the Spaniard from having a fast start to the season like he did in 2025 is absolutely imperative. Although still very early days, a victory this weekend will leave the rest of the field with significant catching up to do.
His main opposition is likely to come from Team Penske based on their short oval prowess in recent seasons. The team went 14 races winless to start 2025 but Phoenix poses a great chance at preventing the same streak from occurring in 2026 in what many expect to be their bounce-back season.
Newgarden is already renowned for his oval ability and is the defending winner at the venue. He also comes off the back of being second-quickest at the test and has generally been the go-to pick for short oval victories in the last half-decade.
The track's unique configuration means that the radius and banking of either ends of the track are vastly different hence comparisons to Gateway. Those comparisons might mean people favour Malukas heading into his first Penske oval weekend, especially after topping the times on the opening day of the full-field test.
It would be unfair to count out McLaughlin too who showed signs of his former self at St. Petersburg and has raised his oval benchmark to one that is similar of Newgarden's. He was the slowest of the three Penske drivers last month but..... it's only testing.
The irregularity of the opposing ends of the race track provide quite the setup dilemma for all 25 drivers. Turns 1 and 2 are banked at nine degrees (similar to that of Milwaukee) whilst Turns 3 and 4 are banked at 11 degrees. Frontstretch banking is at nine degrees whilst it is just three degrees on the backstretch.
That setup challenge is usually driver preference, whether they want a car more suited to Turns 1 and 2 or one more suited to Turns 3 or 4. Drivers can also try and find a happy medium if they wished to.
It was a topic Malukas expanded on further when asked by DIVEBOMB last month: "I think it differs driver-to-driver. You can get it either set up for [Turns] 1 and 2 or for [Turns] 3 and 4 and try to match the difference, or you can try to fight for something in between.
"I think that's why I enjoy that game so much, because it's do you want to find more time in [Turns] 1 and 2 or find more time in [Turns] 3 and 4 or maybe try to go in between and be a little bit slower in both, but overall it might be better? It adds to this game.
"I just have a fantastic time. I don't know. It's like a big game of chess trying to figure out where do we want the setup. With all these great minds at Team Penske, it makes it a lot more fun."
The other major question about the venue is how the track is going to race and if multiple lanes will be able to be utilised in Saturday's race. Early indications from testing suggest that it may be a single groove race but as is the case on many ovals, the series will be running a high-line session.
It was a question posed by DIVEBOMB to Felix Rosenqvist at the end of the test: "I don't know, it's a good question. I think probably similar to most short ovals the last two years. After we started running the high line, it seems like it could appear in the middle to the end of the race. I think when everyone starts on new tyres, it's going to be hard to make anything work unless people start running it immediately.
"But I think as the race goes on and you have people on different strategies, as I said, if there's a two-second delta, you're going to have so much more speed than other guys, so you pretty much have to make the other line work, especially in [Turns] 1 and 2, I think. [Turns] 3 and 4, I'm not sure. It's kind of like a 90-degree, so it kind of messes up your radius by going wide. But yeah, I think [Turns] 1 and 2 we'll probably be able to.
It may be worth keeping eyes on Ed Carpenter Racing this weekend. Rossi was fastest of anybody at the Phoenix test and Rasmussen was the standout driver on ovals toward the end of the season in 2025. The team did not start the season well in St. Petersburg and Phoenix represents an excellent chance for them to bounce back well.
The inter-team battle at Arrow McLaren between O'Ward and Lundgaard has been captivating and this weekend will pose another test. O'Ward has had the upper edge on Lundgaard on ovals and don't be surprised to see O'Ward compete for victory at Phoenix, but Lundgaard continued to close that deficit throughout 2025. Nolan Siegel is also in need of a big result of a disastrous St. Petersburg.
Andretti Global's oval form was particularly hit-and-miss in 2025 but Kirkwood secured victory at Gateway - the oval with the most comparison to Phoenix. Kirkwood was seventh in testing times and has continually improved on ovals over the last two seasons. Power's first oval race at Andretti could be a significant one too when considering the oval expertise he brings from Penske. It was something Power highlighted pre-season that he could bring extreme value with to the team and we will see if that is shown this weekend. It'll be an important weekend for Marcus Ericsson who'll aim to continue his encouraging season start from St. Petersburg.
Other names to watch out for are both Meyer Shank Racing cars who had an underwhelming St. Petersburg result and will be looking to bounce back this weekend. Santino Ferrucci always brings fireworks on the ovals and could be a dark horse for a strong result this weekend. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's oval form has been perilous over the last two seasons but the introduction of Gavin Ward to the team was in order to cut the oval losses they were experiencing. The first test of that will be this weekend.
Hauger blew the first punch in the Rookie of the Year battle in St. Petersburg but ovals are a very different kettle of fish. Hauger, Caio Collet and Mick Schumacher will all embark on their first IndyCar oval race, the latter doing his first oval race in any series.
Timings
Practice: 08:00 MT (15:00 GMT) Friday
Qualifying: 12:05 MT (19:05 GMT) Friday
High-Line Session: 14:30 MT (21:30 GMT) Friday
Final Practice: 15:10 MT (22:30 GMT) Friday
Phoenix 250: 13:20 MT (20:20 GMT) Saturday
After eight years away, Phoenix is back! Can Palou have a landmark result on his century race? Can Malukas claim a first victory in his first Penske oval race? How will Phoenix race as venue? With the circuit far from guaranteed to return in 2027 and creates a tantalising prospect this weekend.
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis. The final question that remains is who will come out on top in the desert?
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