The 2026 IndyCar Series season starts this weekend. There are some really interesting changes, but also a controversial one.
Get your Google Calendars for the 2026 IndyCar season right here!
A Return And A Debut
After the traditional St Petersburg opener on 1st March, we see a completely revamped spring season. What used to be empty is now busy!
The first thing to spot is no more race at Thermal ‘country club’. It was only attended by a handful of rich folk at their private members club, which happens to be a racetrack. Barely any fans at all. The series was trying to make connections with some potential backers and get a pay cheque. Don’t know that a lot of sponsorship came of it. The optics of racing at an empty venue were not good, even if there was a business case. I will say the 2025 Grand Prix was a lot better than 2024’s heat races, it was more like a typical IndyCar Grand Prix at Barber or Mid-Ohio. But I don’t think many fans will be sad to see this go.
We now see two very different races fill the gap and they are in the two weeks immediately after St Pete.
The oval in Phoenix, Arizona returns with a really interesting twist in that it supports the NASCAR Cup Series. At IndyCar’s last visits in 2017 and 2018 there was poor attendance and very poor racing (no passing). Hopefully the link up with NASCAR helps the former, and pre-season testing indicates an improvement to the latter. We only have a couple of weeks before we find out. It’s also a very good thing to have an oval before Indy.
A week later there’s an exciting new race in Arlington, Texas. It is next to AT&T Stadium (Dallas Cowboys) and encircles Globe Life Field (Texas Rangers). The track map for this looks promising and I’m even hoping it might turn out to be Formula 1 grade, in the style of Miami Autodrome (which is based around the Hard Rock Stadium), rather than IndyCar’s usual collection of bumpy streets that haven’t even been resurfaced. There is a lot of promotion and potential for this one as well. I really hope it is a success.
The only downside to Arlington is that it effectively replaces Texas Motor Speedway, north of Fort Worth and only 30 miles away from AT&T Stadium. TMS has been a staple of IndyCar for years and can be a really interesting oval race. Unfortunately, the stands have been shockingly empty the last few years, which did not reflect the quality of the on track product. Arlington sits halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, everyone in the area should know the venue, so hopefully we see a crowd. You can see the large General Admission areas in the graphic.
Two weeks later they go to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. We then get a quiet 5 weeks where there’s only one race, Long Beach.
Month of May
Last year’s Month opened at Barber. This is an off week in 2026. The ‘Month of May’ opens with the IMS road course race, as per the new tradition. Then action moves to the IMS oval for days of free practice leading into Qualifications weekend. A week later on May 24th, is the 110th Indianapolis 500.
How time flies, it feels barely 5 minutes since we celebrated the Centennial Era, a whole decade ago.
A quirk of the calendar this year sees a fifth weekend in the month, we actually close out the month with the Detroit Grand Prix. I still dislike that we go to a street track the week after Indy. But we go back to the ovals a week later with the Gateway 500km.
For fans of both IndyCar and F1, as covered last week, Monaco and Indy don’t clash any more. Instead, it’ll be the Canadian GP and it’ll follow Indy. But we still get an IndyCar oval to enjoy after Monaco with the Gateway race later that day.
For the teams, going non-stop from loading in at Indy for practice on May 8th, until Gateway on June 7th, is a pretty intense month.
Summer
The next three races are in a steadier format, one week on, one week off for Road America, Mid-Ohio, Nashville. The change being Nashville Superspeedway moves to mid-July, forgoing the season-closer spot it’s held recently. That’s a real shame. It was a brilliant way to end the year. I enjoy the mix of street and road courses but it just felt right to finish on an oval.
After two weekends off, we’re into the second hectic month of the year.
From Portland on August 9th to Laguna Seca on September 9th, IndyCar will race every week and on one weekend they’ll do it twice. 6 races in 5 weekends. Great for us fans! Less good if you are a team truck driver.
From Portland (Oregon), Toronto, Washington D.C., Milwaukee (Saturday & Sunday races), then back across to Laguna Seca (California).
A smarter person than me can tell you why Oregon and California aren’t paired up. I know they are still a very long way apart North-South, but in my head the East-West journey is much longer and it makes sense to stay out West to do those races together.
After 40 years at Exhibition Place, the Honda Dealers Toronto Indy moves to Markham. When this was announced I saw a lot of complaints from Canadian fans including those who live in Toronto. I don’t know anything about the new location so I’ll take my lead from them. What I do know is Exhibition Place is both a) iconic, and b) carnage. The amount of crash damage that track has caused. It has provided a lot of fun over the years as well as some good races. I’m sure the layout there could be changed to be better.
I love that Milwaukee Mile gets two races. They are some of the best of the year, in any series.
Laguna Seca will never be my choice for a season finale. The gravel runoffs cause Safety Cars. It’s hard to overtake. The race should always be on the calendar, I would just prefer a different last race of the year. But I get it. A warm Californian weekend and some good wining and dining for the end of season banquet.
Again the season ends on the first weekend of September, purely to avoid the American sports behemoth of the NFL. NASCAR is big enough to get away with it. It doesn’t seem to trouble the US F1 races. Yet this plan seems to work for IndyCar.
Iowa does not return this year. A real shame for a super-fast short oval that often creates exciting races.
Controversy
The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington is being run to ‘celebrate the 250th Birthday of the United States’. In normal circumstances under most other Presidents this might be a celebratory event. That’s not the case with this President, one of the most divisive in history whose approval rating is tanking.
It was enough to see some die-hard IndyCar fans I know decide they are not going to watch that race, and even some of them saying they will not watch the series at all this year. I have thoughts on this that may follow here in a few days.
Politics aside, there’s also the logistical challenge. The race was only announced a few weeks ago. It is scheduled for August. Streets races don’t just happen with 8 months notice. It normally takes over a year of planning, with track design, permit approvals, road closures, everything you need to get the local authorities lined up, police, medical, etc., not to mention sourcing the barriers, grandstands, food vendors and portable toilets. This guy thinks he can sign an executive order and it’ll just happen.
This is not like calling Watkins Glen or COTA where you could probably book it at a months’ notice and make a serviceable, if not perfect event out of it.
There’s a danger this event will be so rushed it could be an embarrassment. And then you wonder who will turn up. Will it be like Trump’s vanity military parade that was a ghost town?
Summary
A perfectly balanced season! 6 ovals, 6 permanent road courses, 6 temporary street circuits (if you count Arlington as such). I feel like IndyCar has wanted this ratio forever.
There’s one potentially great addition in Arlington and that should’ve been the big story. I hope Phoenix works this time.
They’ve avoided a date clash with Le Mans. Last year Gateway was on LM24 weekend. As it happens, moves in team and driver rosters are likely to mean IndyCar drivers won’t be going this year either, but it’s good to have the option and maybe there’ll be a surprise.
There are a lot of later-season changes I either don’t care for, or outright don’t like. Losing Iowa, moving Nashville out of the season finale spot.
And I just feel the whole Washington debacle has put a real downer on everything.
2026 IndyCar Calendar
You can add the 2026 IndyCar schedule to your calendars here!
| Date | Race | Location | Comment |
| 1 March | Grand Prix of St Petersburg | Albert Whitted Park | |
| 7 March | Good Ranchers 250 | Phoenix Raceway | With NASCAR Cup. Last raced in 2018. |
| 15 March | Java House Grand Prix of Arlington | AT&T Stadium | New race. |
| 29 March | Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix | Barber Motorsport Park | Moved from May. |
| 19 April | Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach | Long Beach | With IMSA. |
| 9 May | Sonsio Grand Prix | Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Road | |
| 24 May | 110th Indianapolis 500 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Oval | |
| 31 May | Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix | Detroit Street Circuit | With IMSA. |
| 7 June | Bommarito Automotive Group 500 | Gateway | |
| 21 June | XPEL Grand Prix at Road America | Road America | |
| 5 July | Honda Indy 200 | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course | |
| 19 July | Music City Grand Prix | Nashville Superspeedway | Moved from August season finale. |
| 9 August | Grand Prix of Portland | Portland International Raceway | |
| 16 August | Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham | Markham | Moved from Exhibition Place in July. |
| 23 August | Grand Prix of Washington | Washington D.C. | New race. |
| 29 August | Milwaukee Race 1 | Milwaukee Mile | |
| 30 August | Milwaukee Race 2 | Milwaukee Mile | |
| 6 September | Laguna Seca | Laguna Seca | Moved from July. |
I Watch Too Much Racing 