Three races. Three winners. Three points leaders.
Following a season where Alex Palou led the entire year and captured five of the first six races, INDYCAR has enjoyed a little more parity to start 2026.
If someone other than Palou, Josef Newgarden or Kyle Kirkwood leads the points after the race Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, it would be only the second time since 1996 that the points leader has changed hands after each of the first four races.
Palou has consistently said that 2025, a year in which he won eight of the 17 races, was a magical season that he doesn’t envision repeating.
Alex Palou said he doesn’t envision repeating his magical 2025 run in 2026.
But after three races, is there more parity as Palou (St. Petersburg winner), Newgarden (Phoenix winner) and Kirkwood (Arlington winner) have earned victories?
This year, 10 drivers have a top-five finish and seven of those have been podium (top-three) finishes. Of the 25 full-time drivers, 16 have had a top-10 finish.
After three races in 2025, nine drivers had top-five finishes, with seven having been podium. And 16 drivers had top-10 finishes. So almost identical numbers except there were two more drivers last year than this season.
Palou was involved in a wreck early in the race at Phoenix, so a first and a second this year have him second in the standings.
“He’s the one setting the standard,” Will Power said about Palou when speaking Tuesday during a virtual news conference. “That’s kind of what everyone’s trying to get to.
“He is consistently there no matter what track.”
Will Power (pictured) said that Alex Palou is the “standard.”
And that’s the key.
Andretti Global has thrived on the street courses in recent years. Team Penske has made it the team to beat on the short ovals. And Ganassi has been the one on the road courses the last couple of years (much thanks to Palou).
“If you have a weakness, if you’re not good in quali [qualifying], he will get you,” Energy stated. “Particularly, when you’re not good within the race — there’s race tempo, technique, pit stops — you possibly can’t have a weak point merely.
“That is the one method you are going to beat that machine, that 10 Ganassi machine [of Palou]. The motive force, the crew, the technique, the entire thing. I can’t decide a weak point of theirs.”
Will there proceed to be new winners? The beginning of the season with probably the most parity got here in 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 when there have been seven winners within the first eight races.
The drivers with the perfect probability of profitable at Barber embody former winners Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward and Energy.
Can Pato O’Ward have success at Barber in 2026?
Energy joined Andretti World this yr, and that group seems a bit stronger general with its efficiency because it put three vehicles within the top-four at Arlington.
“They have been actually, actually quick, actually robust on all these three races that we have performed to this point,” Palou stated in his post-Arlington information convention.
“It is not simple. I used to be pushing as a lot as I may. There was nothing on the automotive. I used to be not having any dealing with points. Usually you can not drive since you can’t brake or one thing. I used to be simply flat out. I used to be proud of my automotive. Simply … they had been slightly bit happier than us.”
Andretti drivers are first (Kirkwood), eighth (Marcus Ericsson) and eleventh (Energy) within the standings. Different organizations have had slightly bit stronger general begin. Crew Penske drivers are third (Newgarden), fifth (McLaughlin) and sixth (David Malukas).
O’Ward (tied with Newgarden for third) and Christian Lundgaard (seventh) have proven related velocity to final yr.
Whereas Palou has confirmed his energy, Scott Dixon (twelfth within the standings) and Kyffin Simipson (tied for fifteenth) must keep away from the errors which have plagued their Ganassi groups.
“INDYCAR racing is so aggressive, the smallest variations have the most important impression on the outcomes,” TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss stated as a part of the Andretti World profitable proprietor information convention following Arlington.
“We’ll proceed as a crew to out-work everyone, to proceed to work on these particulars and attempt to management the issues which can be in our management to place these guys in the perfect place to win as a result of we all know we’ve got a few of the finest drivers within the sequence.”
