The Worst Track on the Schedule - IndyCar 2026 Round 8 Recap

Personally, I think that razing the entire city of Detroit to the ground and nuking the remains from orbit would be a worthy sacrifice to ensure that IndyCar never has to have a race there again. It's a narrow mess with nothing but low-speed 90-degree corners and no quality passing opportunities. Let's take a look at the stories we can take away from this miserable race.

Tire Confusion

During the first practice session on Friday, teams were confused when they put on the red sidewalled tires and found themselves posting slower lap times than they did on the harder black tires. Likewise, on Saturday, Alex Palou was posting lap times on 12-lap-old blacks that were faster than the fastest time on sticker reds. With temperatures changing massively between practice 2 and qualifying, teams were left unsure what the strategy was going to be. Qualifying didn't make things too much more clear, with drivers on the primaries running as fast as, if not faster than, those on the alternates. Add to that the street course rule requiring two sets of reds to be used during the race, and you have the perfect recipe for chaos.

Ultimately, in the race, the reds did come in and show speed, although they also fell off the way you would expect them to. The blacks were still the preferred tire, but it was a little confusing just how sensitive to track temperatures the alternates seemed to be throughout the weekend.

That Damn Spaniard

Starting from the pole, it was looking like a good day for Alex Palou. He lost the lead early, but managed to get it back after the first round of pit stops. In the second stint, he lost time to Kyle Kirkwood, but had the advantage of finishing on the blacks while Kirkwood needed to make his reds last to the end of the race.

The powers that be gave Palou a gift to make his job even easier: the first of a string of late-race cautions came between Palou's and Kirkwood's pit stops, putting Kirkwood a bit behind.

While he did have to hold off Kirkwood's red tires, with cautions helping extend their life, Kirkwood ultimately didn't really have anything for Palou. He, Kirkwood, and Graham Rahal rounded out an all-Honda podium on Chevy's home turf.

The cosmos have decided. Alex Palou is inevitable. Do not resist.

More Mixed Results for Penske

David Malukas, suffered his first major crash since his move to Penske, relegating him to 25th and last. He got lucky with one of the late cautions, putting him in podium contention, before he was taken out by Mick Schumacher. He would ultimately finish 18th.

Scott McLaughlin, meanwhile, had the best qualifying result of the team, starting 3rd. He ran up front on pace most of the day, but got into a shoving match with Will Power that ruined both of their days. Race Control, for some reason, didn't give McLaughlin a penalty, but karma caught up with him, and he finished 19th.

Josef Newgarden didn't have an especially impressive qualifying, although he was partially affected by a late red flag in Q1. Trying to power through a foot injury he suffered during his crash at Indy, he found himself starting 21st. He didn't look impressive at any point in the race, but backed into a 10th-place finish thanks to the chaos at the end of the race.

A top-10 finish is good, but a top-10 due to sheer dumb luck isn't a great look for the captain.

Chevy Engine Woes?

Rinus VeeKay and Christian Lundgaard both had engines fail in practice 2, and Sting Ray Robb had an engine change as well. This comes after several Chevy-powered cars had engines fail leading up to qualifying for the Indy 500. Chevy did acknowledge the issue, and GM President Mike Reuss, who was a guest during the morning warmup, said that they had resolved the issue. We'll see how the Chevy engines do throughout the rest of the season.

The Full-Course Yellows

In the aftermath of the Indy GP, IndyCar announced that they wouldn't be taking into account pit strategy when choosing whether or not to call a full-course yellow. They also seemed to be pretty twitchy on the button, calling the FCY for several incidents that cleared themselves very quickly. Fans are annoyed when yellows are called too quickly. Fans are also annoyed when yellows aren't called for the exact same incident. This fanbase is utterly unpleasable. There's no winning for Race Control.

Conclusion

If you like crashes and low-IQ passes, this was for you. If you like actual quality racing, this wasn't it. The only thing Detroit contributes to the IndyCar calendar is broken carbon fiber. At least Belle Isle looked nice.