Winners and Losers: Phoenix 250
- Morgan Holiday
- Mar 8
- 6 min read
Josef Newgarden pulled out his first win of the season at the Phoenix Raceway to take the win in the Phoenix 250, in a race that saw plenty of chaos and action. Let's take a look at the drivers who had great weekends, and the drivers who are coming away wanting.
Winner - Team Penske
Team Penske certainly looks to be recovering well from their disastrous 2025 season after the weekend in Phoenix, a weekend good enough to earn the team a spot in the winners column.
David Malukas took his first career pole position in his second weekend with the Penske team, putting on a good showing with the fastest speeds on Friday. Saturday’s race would be a disappointment for the young American driver as he dropped down to an eventual third place finish, but even though he missed out on the race win, a podium is certainly something to celebrate. After all, it was only Malukas’ fourth career podium, and being able to keep up with the frontrunners is a good sign for his time with Penske.
Josef Newgarden qualified in second place on Friday, giving Team Penske the first and second spots on the field for the start of the race. And it was Newgarden who stayed on top and came through to take the win, passing Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood with seven laps to go. Last year may have been Newgarden’s worst season in 10 years, but he ended 2025 with a strong statement win in Nashville and has started 2026 with a bang, finally bringing Álex Palou’s tenure as champion to an end as he jumped to the top of the standings after the race.
A little further down the field, Scott McLaughlin had a solid, albeit relatively anonymous weekend, starting fifth and finishing eighth. Still, all three drivers in the top five in qualifying and the top eight in the race is an excellent result for Penske, who heads into the rest of the season with all three of their drivers in the top six in the standings.
Winner - Mick Schumacher
Schumacher may currently be sitting at the bottom of the rookie standings, but he certainly made a statement this weekend in Phoenix.
The German driver made his IndyCar debut with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing last weekend in St. Petersburg, but his debut race lasted less than a lap after getting caught up in an incident in the opening stage of the race.
Coming into his second weekend, Schumacher would have been hoping for a better result, and he achieved that. He made a big splash in qualifying, shocking the rest of the field by setting a speed on Friday fast enough to put him fourth overall, less than 2mph slower than polesitter Malukas. Coming over from a European racing background, Schumacher’s oval experience was nonexistent before this weekend, so to make a statement like that this early on in his rookie year was beyond impressive.
The race proved ultimately disappointing as Schumacher dropped from fourth early on and finished the day down in 18th. He was, however, able to drive a clean race and stay in the middle of the field without incident or embarrassment, so even though the final result could have been better, Schumacher should be quite pleased with his performance throughout the weekend.
Winner - Kyle Kirkwood
The name of Kirkwood’s game this season has been improvement. After coming through the field in St. Pete from 15th to finish fourth, he had a similar performance in Phoenix to improve from his 11th place starting position to a second place finish.
Kirkwood was only fast enough on Friday for 11th place, where he started Saturday’s race from. But just like the previous weekend, he slowly but surely made his way through the field with a performance worthy of acknowledgement. With just 10 laps left in the race, Kirkwood had been running second behind Christian Rasmussen and was able to make the pass for the lead. As Rasmussen tumbled down the order, Newgarden was able to pass him as well and come up behind Kirkwood.
The Andretti driver wasn’t able to keep Newgarden behind, and lost the lead with just a few laps remaining, but held on for a solid second place finish that puts him second in the standings, just five points behind Newgarden.
Loser - Christian Rasmussen
Rasmussen is consistently a wild card in oval races and this past weekend’s race in Phoenix was no exception. The Danish driver finished fourth in practice before only managing 18th in qualifying. Despite the disappointing result on Friday, it’s clear from his record that no matter how far down he starts, you can never count Rasmussen out for a win on an oval track.
And sure enough, from the start of the race Rasmussen tore his way through the field, making contact with several drivers as well as the wall on his way to the lead of the race. It was looking like he was going to take his second career race win until 10 laps from the end when Kirkwood finally made the pass and took the lead from him.
From there, the day went rapidly downhill as a brush with the wall allowed Newgarden and then Malukas to get past as well. With damage he couldn’t recover from, Rasmussen dropped down in the final laps and finished his race in 14th place. It was a devastating result for a driver so close to the win. While Rasmussen’s tactics and aggressive driving on oval tracks certainly hasn’t endeared him to the rest of the field, it always makes for an entertaining race and his ability to almost always emerge from his battles unscathed is a highly enviable quality.
With the win in his grasp until it all fell apart, a disappointed Rasmussen will be coming away from Phoenix hoping for more as the season continues.
Loser - Álex Palou
Palou has been leading the IndyCar championship since June of 2024, midway through his run of achieving three consecutive titles. That all came to an end during the race at Phoenix as a crash early on took Palou out of the race.
After winning the opening race of the 2026 season in St. Pete, Palou came into the second round as unbeatable as ever. After qualifying 11th, he had a good start in the race and was quickly making his way through the field during the opening stages. He was running in fourth on Lap 10 when he first battled with Graham Rahal and then Rinus VeeKay. While the battle with Rahal was quick and painless (except for the RLL driver making a smooth overtake to grab the position), Palou and VeeKay made contact moments later as VeeKay was pushed into the wall trying to go between it and Palou to make the overtake.
VeeKay was able to continue but finished 5 laps down, while Palou was unable to complete the race after the contact, marking only his third retirement in the past four years. If his record of not retiring in more than one race per season (since 2021) holds true, Palou should be fine for the rest of the year. Still, early contact meant not only the end of his race but the end of his championship run. Palou now sits fifth in the standings.
Loser - Louis Foster
It was a tough weekend for Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Foster, who retired in the middle of the race after contact with the wall.
Foster, a driver who has been on pole position before but has yet to score a top 10 finish in an IndyCar race, qualified down in 16th. Not a terrible result for his record and the record of his team, but with his veteran teammate Rahal and his rookie teammate Schumacher sitting in third and fourth respectively, it certainly wasn’t a great look for the 22 year-old British driver.
Foster was running 19th in the race and a lap down when, on Lap 140, he hit the wall and sustained enough damage to his car that he was unable to continue. He was classified 23rd in the race, a step down from the 14th place he achieved last weekend in St. Pete.
While his teammates didn’t fare as well in the race as they had in qualifying, with Rahal finishing ninth as the only RLL driver in the top 10, it was rough showing from Foster who will be hoping for his first top 10 result to come soon.
Comments