What a Mess - IndyCar 2026 Round 14 Recap

I'm shocked we were even able to have a race this weekend. Of all the tracks on the schedule I thought were going to be a complete disaster, this was really far down on the list. IndyCar should be ashamed. How the hell did this happen?

The Markham Disaster

It's not a great way to start the inaugural weekend at a brand-new track with a track that isn't finished. Thousands of fans came to the track on Friday to see no racing action. Fanboys will justify it by saying that the Friday ticket was free, but that doesn't factor in people who missed work, made travel and lodging arrangements, and paid for parking to be there. For a series that considers itself a top-level motorsport, this is utterly unacceptable. This is the kind of fuck-up that can single-handedly kill an event, or even kill interest for an entire country.

IndyCar repeatedly threw Green Savoree under the bus for the issues. That's fair, since it was the promoter's fault. It's also not classy. Shit needs to roll uphill, and IndyCar can't simply pass all responsibility from themselves.

To make things worse, water stations regularly ran out throughout the course of the weekend, and the stations that were available had lines nearly an hour long. There were complaints from drivers about the layout of the concrete barriers, and there were also reports from volunteers of mismanagement and lack of direction. No one involved in this event seemed to have any idea what they were doing.

Like I said, I was expecting one of the two upcoming street courses to be a mess, but I wasn't expecting it to be Markham. What a joke.

Chaos In Qualifying

We had four red flags in qualifying, including crashes from Will Power, Josef Newgarden, and Alex Palou. Three championships of the sport having issues in qualifying speak to how difficult and technical this track is. I will say that I'm a bit surprised that IndyCar allowed the big bump in turn 10 to stick around for race day. Normally, especially dangerous bumps, such as one into a big braking zone for a technical sequence of corners, get flattened out somewhat in time for race day, and this bump definitely seems very dangerous.

I've also been thinking for a while that IndyCar qualifying sessions seem extremely short. That proved itself in this round of qualifying, with several drivers failing to move on because of fast laps invalidated by the red flags. I don't think the F1 approach of hour-long sessions with drivers sitting in the pit lane for most of them is correct either, but surely there's some kind of balance that can be struck to keep a single red flag from ruining an entire qualifying session.

The Markham Circuit

Frankly, the track at Markham isn't very good. After the initial start, there were no on-track moves for position anywhere within the top 15 until the first caution. After that, the drivers realized the only moves they could make were low-percentage, high-risk, low-IQ ones, and the entire field lowered its collective IQ accordingly. So much unnecessary contact leading to spins and crashes everywhere. Even one of the passes for the win involved Marcus Ericsson clattering into teammate Will Power in a way that should have copped him a penalty. I thought, after Arlington, that IndyCar had broken the new racetrack curse. Apparently I underestimated the stupidity of the current IndyCar field.

Good News for Andretti

Despite some questionable moves and even more questionable strategy, Ericsson managed to pick up his first win since moving to Andretti. I still feel like Andretti made things harder on themselves by staying out under caution when the rest of the field pitted. If they had stayed on the primary strategy, they would have cycled naturally back into the lead as the cautions fell. It worked out in the end, but I still feel like it was the wrong call.

Marcus Ericsson - Eliminated: A win doesn't save Ericsson from elimination. He's signed at Andretti through at least 2027, and he's shown some pace this season, culminating in this win. The consistency just isn't quite there yet. We'll see what next year brings.

As for Power, it was a podium finish after a start from the back due to his qualifying spin and an engine change. I still have to wonder if he could have finished better if he was on the traditional strategy, but 3rd place is respectable after the nightmare season he's had.

It's not all good news for Andretti, though. Kyle Kirkwood, despite showing strong speed, hit the wall around the halfway mark, taking him out. Mathematically, he's still in championship contention, but he has a much steeper climb if he wants to catch Palou.

Heartbreak for Foster

Louis Foster had the fastest car in the field and lost it with a huge nose-first crash. On one hand, I think I owe Foster an apology. He was strong all weekend, including his second career IndyCar pole, and he easily could have converted it to a win, despite the chaos messing with his strategy. On the other hand, he crashed going for a pretty low-percentage move that I'm still not convinced he would have pulled off, even if he hadn't clipped the wall at the apex of the corner. It's his second season, and he still has a lot to learn, but maybe he's improving more than I've given him credit for.

Another Penske Fumble

Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas were stuck on a fuel save at the end of the race that took them out of contention for the win. Additionally, Malukas hit the wall in the closing laps, losing him a shot at taking over 2nd in the championship. That's to say nothing of Josef Newgarden, who crashed in qualifying and spun in the hairpin during the race (although the latter wasn't his fault). It could have been a championship-salvaging day for Penske; instead, the team has nothing to show for it.

Scott McLaughlin - Eliminated: The good news is that McLaughlin has stopped crashing every week. The bad news: he's been anonymous for weeks. Even today, with a 3rd-place qualifying and a strong car, he comes away with nothing to show for it. The cars have pace; Malukas has been proving it all year. At some point, the buck has to stop at the driver.

Other Notable Drivers

Rinus VeeKay - Eliminated: The fact that VeeKay lasted this long is a testament to his talent. People have been giving JHR credit for giving him cars to compete, but it's more that VeeKay is just overdriving the equipment. Seriously, someone write this man a check. He deserves it.

Felix Rosenqvist - Eliminated: It wasn't a representative weekend for Rosenqvist, retiring with a fuel pressure issue, but MSR wasn't especially impressive this weekend anyway. The consistency for Rosenqvist is just all over the place. I guess we'll see if McLaren's gamble on him pays off next year.

Championship Standings

A 4th-place finish and issues for both of his rivals mean Alex Palou extends his championship lead. Kyle Kirkwood retains 2nd, but drops to 133 points back, with Davvid Malukas only 4 points behind him. Lundgaard is closing in on the top 3, 139 points behind Palou, while teammate Pato O'Ward retains 5th. Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin jump to 6th and 7th, while Felix Rosenqvist drops back to 8th. 9th and 10th still belong to Marcus Ericsson and Rinus VeeKay.

Sting Ray Robb, Mick Schumacher, and Caio Collet are the three sitting outside the Leader's Circle, with Christian Rasmussen 6 points above the bubble. Dennis Hauger is 31 points above Collet, and Nolan Siegel remains 37 points up. As for rookie of the year, Hauger has extended the gap on both Collet and Mick Schumacher, with Schumacher back to 38 points behind.

With four races to go, DC is liable to be more of the same of what we saw at Markham. The next two weeks could easily erase Palou's championship gap. For the six drivers that remain, keep in mind the golden rule: Don't get eliminted.