Early-season races displaying depth of IndyCar team strength

Ganassi got the first. Penske got the second. Andretti got the third. Alex Palou won, then Josef Newgarden, and now Kyle Kirkwood. This is proper fun.

So far, the 2026 IndyCar Series championship is everything the 2025 season was not as the lead in the drivers’ standings has changed three times and each of the three different winners were dominant on their respective days.

The revolving door of excellence is all thanks to Chip Ganassi Racing’s rivals taking unprecedented steps during the offseason to try and catch the team that’s won three championships in a row and five of the last six.

Leaving Arlington, Andretti Global’s Kirkwood has punched out to a healthy lead of 24 points over Palou and 33 on Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward. Team Penske’s Newgarden, on the heels of a rough weekend, fell to fourth, 34 back from Kirkwood, and from there, the rest, led by Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in fifth with a deficit of 42 points, are almost a full race of maximum points – after just three races – or more to IndyCar’s street racing king.

Arrow McLaren is the only title-contending team to go winless so far, but the season is also less than a month old. Meyer Shank Racing has shown strong form, and while their finishes haven’t been as spectacular as both drivers have run in the races, ECR with Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen has taken a major leap forward in its quest to become an every-race threat to the field.

Altogether, it’s been refreshing to see the new season get off to a most unpredictable start.

Variety at the sharp end wasn't much of thing last year but in 2026, there have been plenty of different names at the front. Perry Nelson/Lumen via Getty Images

“I think already the last couple years they've been really, really strong,” Palou said of Andretti Global. “Especially last year. If you look at Kyle's results, Colton [Herta]'s as well, they were both really, really strong. Had couple of issues on strategies, incidents or pit stops.

“You could know that the pace was right there. If you add in Will [Power, who replaced Herta], probably the knowledge that he has from so many years, how he has done things, I think you can improve the team. There you go. They've been really, really fast, really strong on all those three races that we've done so far.”

Palou won last year’s race at Barber, which will close the a busy month of four races in five weekends when the action resumes on March 29. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Palou run well at the Alabama road course, but he also knows the runaway championship lead he built in 2025 after taking five of the first six wins to open the season is not likely to reappear.

“I think last year it was just something out of the norm that we had,” he said. “I think some people struggled. I think Penske struggled quite a lot, maybe not taking wins until the last race of the season, made that look a lot (better) for the 10 car and CGR. It's always been this competitive. It's not that suddenly it's more competitive.”

Power concurred.

“The series is very tough,” the new Andretti driver said after landing on the podium. “I felt like I did a perfect race today. It was not the perfect strategy, obviously. I'm third. I always thought at Penske anytime we did our job, we'd end up close to the podium. I feel the same in this team now. You've got to be very versatile. Very hard to win in all disciplines.”

Very hard, but not impossible like it felt last year. Bring on Barber.