More key IndyCar stories to follow in 2026

With most of the main IndyCar stories of 2026 to follow covered yesterday here, here’s a handful of additional insights to parse through as the season gets under way this weekend in St. Petersburg.

POWER PLAY

IndyCar’s 10 teams went wild trying to find lap time gains during the offseason and their intensity was matched by Chevrolet and Honda – with the Bowtie looking for the largest improvements – in their decades-long battle.

Honda blew everybody away with the edge it held as it won the first 10 races and added two more to own 12 victories from the 17 contests. The close to the season is where an encouraging note exists for Chevy fans; it won five of the last seven, including the final three, which suggests it drew down its deficit to Honda entering the six-month pause between seasons.

And Honda certainly didn’t dial back its development plans, so we should be treated to another epic war between brands during the penultimate season for the 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 formula. Chevy or Honda…which company comes out ahead at the first race?

WHAT COULD MOMENTUM DO?

Most modern IndyCar seasons have started with an early March opening at St. Petersburg and a decent pause until the next race is held, which has led to a running desire to fill the empty weekends with more races to help the series build momentum and better TV ratings.

Those desires have been answered with a schedule that packs the calendar with four races in a five-week span to fill March with event after event. There’s a welcome break afterwards with Long Beach a few weeks later, but then the momentum picks up in May and charges through the first weekend of July before the brakes are applied as FOX airs the World Cup.

Like the start to the season, it ends with a relentless run with five consecutive weekends and six total races, thanks to Milwaukee’s doubleheader. Except for the early April pause and the mid-July dip, 2026’s calendar is loaded with action. What will it do to lift IndyCar’s fortunes?

ALTERNATE FACTS

IndyCar has three promising rookies in 2025 Indy NXT champion Dennis Hauger at Dale Coyne Racing, his main NXT protagonist and championship runner-up Caio Collect at AJ Foyt Racing, and former F1 driver Mick Schumacher at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

All three have the talent to star at various times this season, but be mindful of the fact that, barring a miracle, the trio aren’t expected to feature at the opening race at St. Petersburg, or the third race on the streets of Arlington, or the fourth race on the permanent road course at Barber.

The reason why is a familiar one: It’s due to the bare minimum of pre-season testing rookies receive and, most of all, the total absence of mileage and experience using Firestone’s softer/faster alternate tires prior to the first street event and first road course event. All the testing they’ve done at the Indianapolis road course or Mid-Ohio or Sebring since last season closed has been on primary tires – in 2025-spec as well, except at Sebring earlier this month where two of the four new sets were 2026-spec street course primaries.

To be fair, none of the drivers headed to St. Pete have turned a lap on Firestone’s 2026 street course alternates, so the entire field will be learning the best way to bring them up to temperature, how hard they can push without killing their peak, and how long they offer maximum grip. But the veterans know that feeling-out process and have a strong understanding of what to expect from the new alternates and how to get the most from them.

Rookies are particularly up against it on street courses, because of their limited laps.Jake Galstad/Lumen via Getty Images

That’s rarely the case for rookies, who often struggle in qualifying at St. Pete and admit to under- or over-driving the alternates in their first street course qualifying session. The same goes for Barber, where they’ll get to sample the alternates in the opening practice sessions, then attempt to measure up to the veterans in qualifying and the race on relatively unfamiliar rubber.

And what if a Hauger, Collet, or Schumacher break through and reach the later rounds of knockout qualifying? Well, that would be another reason to be impressed by one of the stronger rookie classes IndyCar has assembled in many years.

SIX, SIX AND SIX

What a fascinating blend of tracks and challenges for IndyCar’s teams and drivers. With the late addition of the Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C., IndyCar’s schedule features 18 races with a perfect share of six oval contests, six road courses, and six street courses.

Compared to some other seasons which had a predominance of specific tracks that favored oval aces or road course experts, the new 6-6-6 schedule plays to the strength of many drivers who excel in certain settings more than others. The 12 combined roads and streets still dominate the calendar, and that could make it harder for Alex Palou to continue his domination of IndyCar.

He thrives on road courses where 15 of his 19 career wins have been produced, but hasn’t shown the same knack for winning on street courses (two) or ovals (two). Thanks to the steep rise in street courses, where many of Palou’s closest rivals – Kyle Kirkwood, Pato O’Ward, etc. – tend to shine, and the healthy ration of ovals where O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, and select others are a handful to deal with, the 6-6-6 calendar might be the thing that shifts some of the favor away from Palou.