A Scorcher In Ohio - IndyCar 2026 Round 11 Recap

I might be a bit biased, but Mid-Ohio is one of the best tracks on the schedule. It has lots of exciting corners to race through and usually brings some drama. It also helps that it's a home track for me and is the only race track I've ever been to in person. On top of the race weekend, however, we also have some wild developments in the world of silly season. Let's start unpacking.

O'Ward's First Podium

Pato O'Ward hasn't exactly had a bad season, but he has been running behind his teammate, Christian Lundgaard, pretty consistently all year. Today, he finally grabbed his first podium with a decisive win at Mid-Ohio. He took the lead after taking advantage of a mistake by Lundgaard, then maintained it by making a critical pass on a lapped car toward the end of the penultimate stint. This was McLaren's first 1-2 finish in IndyCar and a strong showing from Chevy in Honda's backyard.

Kyle Kirkwood managed to salvage the podium for Honda with a 3rd-place finish. Critically, he finished two spots ahead of championship leader Alex Palou. It was a small points gain, but it puts him within striking range of the championship as the season winds down.

It was also an impressive run for Christian Rasmussen, who qualified 5th and ended up with a 7th-place finish. Rasmussen hasn't really shown much pace outside of the short ovals, so a top-10 on a permanent road course was impressive to see from him.

Chip Ganassi Racing

Before Road America, CGR was adamant that they planned to keep their current lineup for 2027 and beyond. Things have changed. Scott Dixon has informed the team of his desire to move on, turning down a multi-year contract to do so. Sources at McLaren say that the deal with them is already inked. Scott Dixon is certainly an incredible veteran, but his best days are clearly behind him, and he's in the midst of one of his worst seasons ever. A 22nd-place start leading to a 17th-place finish isn't really a great showing on the heels of the announcement. I just don't think Dixon has what McLaren is looking for anymore.

Meyer Shank Racing

Last week, Meyer Shank confirmed that Felix Rosenqvist was leaving at the end of 2026. All signs point, once again, to McLaren. An Indy 500 win means a lot, and he has talent, but the consistency still isn't where I would expect it to be this far into his career. If McLaren was only replacing one driver, it would be a reasonable move, but I have to question if it makes sense to pick him if you're replacing two.

Marcus Armstrong, meanwhile, has decided to stick with MSR for the 2027 season. Armstrong has been with the team under contract with CGR, so this seems to be a sign that Chip isn't interested in bringing Armstrong in to replace Dixon in the 9. Regardless, he's shown his potential several times this season, and he's had other teams interested in him, so MSR and CGR are probably both happy to have this deal locked down.

Arrow McLaren

With two drivers coming in, two drivers need to move on. Nolan Siegel and Christian Lundgaard are both out at McLaren.

Siegel was expected, but Lundgaard is a curveball. McLaren cites his oval performance. Ovals are certainly not his strong suit, but he does have five previous top-10s on them, including a month ago at Gateway. Also remember that Alex Palou won several championships before claiming his only oval win at last year's 500. To give up on the best-performing driver on the team currently sitting 3rd in the championship standings seems wildly short-sighted, especially right off the back of his win at Road America.

As for where Lundgaard could land, his options are limited. There have been rumors of a move to CGR, but sources say that deal is far from signed. Marcus Ericsson is in a contract year with Andretti, but there are rumblings that he could be retained. AJ Foyt Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing potentially have open seats, but both would be massive downgrades, and the now-open MSR seat would be a sidegrade at best if we're being extremely generous. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing could have an opening if Mick Schumacher isn't retained, and he's driven there before, but he didn't leave on the best of terms, and that would still be a downgrade anyway.

Lundgaard has talent; that much is unmistakable. The only question is if he can land a seat to actually let him showcase it.

Dale Coyne Racing

With how vocal Dan Towriss was on his excitement for Dennis Hauger, I thought he was a lock for next season; if not at Andretti, at least for a second season for DCR. Apparently he wasn't as excited as it appeared. Andretti has given Hauger permission to look for another contract elsewhere for 2027. Coyne has said he'd like to keep Hauger as long as possible, but his seat needs to be fully funded, which is a tall task on such short notice. The results also haven't been as impressive as they were at the start of the year, and he's no longer the most exciting rookie in the paddock. We'll see if someone else is interested in picking him up for his sophomore year or if he can find the funding to stay where he is.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

There's been a personnel shakeup at RLL. Todd Malloy, RLL's head of race engineering, is taking over as the race engineer for Mick Schumacher. Malloy comes with impressive credentials, including a 2003 Champ Car championship with Paul Tracy and a 2011 Indy 500 win with Dan Wheldon. People have been clowning on RLL for the revolving door of engineers, but it's important to keep in mind that both of his full-time teammates have multiple top-10 finishes this year, while Schumacher has yet to break into the top 15. Even Takuma Sato has more top-10s than him, and he's only run one race. Schumacher is expected to stay at RLL for 2027, so hopefully he's bringing funding, because he's definitely not bringing results.

Championship Standings

Alex Palou still leads the championship, but Kyle Kirkwood has cut the gap by 5. He jumps up to second, 56 points back. Christian Lundgaard's impressive performance puts him in 3rd, 65 points behind Palou, while David Malukas has dropped all the way back to 4th. Pato O'Ward hangs on to 5th, while Josef Newgarden had a solid day and jumped back up to 6th, dropping Felix Rosenqvist and Scott McLaughlin to 7th and 8th, respectively. Despite an awful day, Scott Dixon improves to 9th in the standings in front of Marcus Ericsson, who drops to 10th.

At the bottom of the standings, Mick Schumacher and Sting Ray Robb sit tied for last place in front of Caio Collet. Romain Grosjean now sits on the Leader's Circle cutoff line, 7 points in front of Collet. It was a surprisingly good day for Rasmussen, who improved to sit 11 points to the good, and Nolan Siegel managed to bring home a top-10 finish, 13 points above the bubble.

In the Rookie of the Year race, Dennis Hauger's run of poor form continues. Collet has cut the gap down to 16 points, while Schumacher only managed to make up 1 point, sitting 40 back.

Seven races remain. The gap is only two races big. Palou is managing, but the momentum seems to be fading. Can he continue holding the gap? Will Kirkwood overtake him? Or will Lundgaard jump them both as the sport's most valuable free agent? We go back to the ovals at Nashville in two weeks time as we continue our journey to find out.