The 2026 NTT INDYCAR season has kicked off in spectacular fashion, with plenty of strategy games, lots of hard racing, and chaos seen throughout the field.
Scott McLaughlin led the field to green on the opening lap, but the race was almost immediately neutralised after a multi-car incident further back in the pack. Contact between Sting Ray Robb, Santino Ferrucci and series debutant Mick Schumacher scattered carbon fibre across the circuit, prompting an early caution.
Ferrucci and Schumacher were both forced to retire, while Robb was handed an avoidable contact penalty. Amid the chaos, Marcus Armstrong capitalised on a superb start, surging three positions to fourth before the yellow flags flew.
During the caution period, Chip Ganassi Racing decided to bring Scott Dixon through the lane twice to clear off the ‘hard’ set of tyres that each team has to run. He would emerge at the back of the pack, with more fuel and free choice than those around him, allowing him to play the long game to move up the field.
When the race resumed on lap four, McLaughlin remained the leading Kiwi at the head of the field, with Armstrong running fourth and Dixon back in 21st.
By lap 10, McLaughlin had stretched his advantage to just over a second over Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson, with Alex Palou and Armstrong tucked in closely behind.
The field narrowly avoided another caution on lap 12 when Team Penske debutant David Malukas suffered a frightening front-right tyre delamination. Impressively, he kept the car out of the wall and limped back to pit lane, rejoining just before the leaders arrived and without impeding anyone.
As the race settled into a strategic rhythm, most drivers focused on extending their stints to hit fuel targets. Dixon quietly made progress, climbing to 17th by lap 18. A few laps later, Will Power endured a near carbon copy of his earlier practice crash, once again slamming into the outside wall at Turn 10.
On lap 27, chaos struck again when Dixon’s teammate Kyffin Simpson tipped Christian Rasmussen into a spin. Dixon capitalised, slipping through the disorder to move up to 13th.
At the front, McLaughlin continued to lead, but Ericsson was mounting serious pressure, closing to within half a second by lap 32. Opting to strike first, McLaughlin pitted on lap 36 in an attempt to undercut. It wasn’t enough.
Ericsson responded a lap later and emerged with the net race lead, the strength of the overcut becoming clear. Armstrong, seeing the shift in strategy, pitted a lap after Ericsson and vaulted ahead of both McLaughlin and Ericsson on lap 38. However, with Ericsson’s tyres up to temperature, the Swede quickly reclaimed the position, leaving Armstrong unable to defend.
Dixon made his stop on lap 40, but disaster struck in pit lane. An uncharacteristic error saw his right-rear wheel come loose on the run toward Turn 4, instantly turning him into a passenger as the car speared down the escape road. It brought his race to an early end and triggered the second caution period.
Racing resumed on lap 44 with Palou leading from Ericsson, McLaughlin and Armstrong. The order remained unchanged as the stint unfolded, until Palou broke the elastic on lap 65 — planting his foot and stretching the margin to more than 10 seconds over Ericsson.
Behind him, McLaughlin had been stalking the Andretti driver and finally made his move on lap 65, sweeping into second. Armstrong attempted to follow suit a lap later, launching a bold dive into Turn 1.
However, heavy defensive driving from Ericsson forced him onto the dirty side of the circuit. Armstrong locked up and ran deep, opening the door for Ericsson to fight back — and for Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard to slip through as well.
McLaughlin cycled back to the race lead on lap 68 when Palou peeled into pit lane for his final stop, with Armstrong diving in behind him. The Kiwi only held the top spot for one more lap before making his own final stop on lap 69, rejoining just ahead of Kyle Kirkwood.
On cold tyres, McLaughlin was immediately vulnerable. Kirkwood wasted no time, sweeping around the outside at Turn 4 with a bold move that demoted McLaughlin to third. Meanwhile, Armstrong’s strategy dropped him down the order, re-emerging from pit lane in 11th.
As the laps ticked down, McLaughlin carefully managed his fresh set of soft tyres, saving them for one final attack. That opportunity arrived on lap 93. Armed with more push-to-pass than Kirkwood, he launched a decisive move at Turn 10 to reclaim second place.
Up front, however, Palou was untouchable — stretching his advantage to more than 10 seconds by the chequered flag. Christian Lundgaard completed the podium in third, while Armstrong, after his early promise, came home 11th.
With the opening round of the season now complete, the Kiwi trio will now prepare for the first oval race of the season in Phoenix, with the first practice starting at 4:00 am NZST on March 7th.
Header Image: Penske Entertainment
