Palou and NTT Indy Car highlights and Story Below
By Roy J. Akers –www.skyviewsports.net
The opening weekend of the NTT/NXT Indy Car Racing series is a welcome sight as this combination weekend with NASCAR provided a shot in the arm for both signature US series. Dario Franchitti (27th) and James Hinchcliffe (10th) both raced, and the crossover into the NASCAR CUP series was a cherry on top of the cupcake bonus for fans of both series. Scott McLaughlin is your pole sitter. With Alex Palou right behind him on the grid, and the defending race champion, is any lead ever safe?
Dropping the Green Flag – Laps-1-33
The opening lap brings a crash with Mick Schumacher, Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb all taking damage with the first two out. Marcus Armstrong moves up three spots. Scott McLaughlin leads the first 36 laps of the race. Scott Dixon and others short the field by shedding themselves of one of two red sets early. Will Power hits the wall twice this weekend end goes out of the race with rear wing damage. The front three stay the same with McLaughlin, Armstrong and Palou 1-2-3.
Mid Race (Laps 34-66)
McLaughlin pits on lap 36. Armstrong takes the lead and is promptly passed by Palou. The field is taking one of their two stops with no advantage on either the red scuffs or their primary tires. Scott Dixon has moved into second by lap 38. Dixon passes Palou on lap 39 with contact. With drivers finishing up their first pit stops, Dixon pits and not all of the lugnuts are on and loses his right rear tire bringing a full course caution. Several drivers are caught short, but not Palou. He is once again, your race leader. Midway through the race, its Palou, Ericsson, McLaughlin running 1-2-3. Palou is not only leading the race but also running the fastest laps. The soft red tires are creating handling problems for some of the field and Palou is will run on them at the finish unless he pits again giving up the lead. McLaughlin passes Ericsson on lap 65 to take second. Honda’s are taking 6 of the top ten spots.
Final Laps (Laps 67-100)
Christian Lundgaard is making up spots to start lap 67 as Ericsson is losing spots. Palou elects to pit for the fourth time to finish with hard tires and drops to 7th. McLaughlin is your race leader. Kyle Kirkwood is running the fastest laps of the race and is now 12th. With drivers pitting, we are cycling to our 7th race leader.
Taking the Checkered Flag
Alex Palou leads 59 of 100 laps and finishes with a podium finish for the 52nd time in 99 Indycar starts. He is the three-time defending champion and has four Series titles in his career. Congratulations. What do you make of the day? ALEX PALOU: “Incredible. I mean, I don’t know what to say from this team anymore. It’s been a long offseason. I was sad last year that the season ended. I just wanted to continue going, because I knew it was so magical and so tough to get such a great car, such a great team behind me. Yeah, this team has done it again here for this weekend. It’s very early on, but still, I think that shows all the preparation they did, and I had by far the best car today.”
P2 and P3
McLaughlin is off to a great start in 2026 and knows that finishing 13+ seconds behind Palou is not bad when AP was the class of the field. Christian Lundgaard led only one lap on Sunday and drives his Arrow McLaren to a P3 finish.
They Said It…
McLaughlin on the race. “Yeah, anyway, it was a good day overall, and I felt really
good. My driving was good, and it was, yeah, solid execution. “
Lundgaard on his 2026 Start: “Yeah, I feel like we very much left where we picked off in Nashville last year. I think next week will be very interesting for us with obviously Moyer on the stand, which feels very funny now sitting next to Scottie here.”
Tale of the Tape Final Results
There were eight leaders in the race with six of them happening on pit stops by a majority of the field.
Better Luck in Phoenix
David Malukas started the race in P5, but finishes 13th. He is one of three drivers starting in the Top-Ten to slide out of position.
NTT/NXT races next week in Phoenix on the Saturday of a NASCAR doubleheader.
Roy J. Akers covers Indycar for www.skyviewsports.net
