Good morning from what is for now a fairly quiet Road America. The USF 2000 race has just started, and a full morning of on track action will culminate with the IndyCar XPEL Grand Prix.

Today is a picture perfect day for racing with high temperature of 71 degrees under sunny skies. The temperature is predicted to drop during the race.

Today’s schedule: Central times

Anyone in the top five starting spots has a chance today. We could see another Alex Palou beatdown of the field, or we could see a career first time IndyCar vwinner, either David Malukas or Marcus Armstrong.

Malukas has improved on road courses this season. He said in the post qualifying press conference that he worked hard over the winter on sims and video study to get better on non ovals. The work seems to be paying off.

Armstrong has been close to securing his first win.He wa strong if Friday’s practice, and with a couple of breaks, he could get Meyer Shank’s second win of the year.

Pato O’Ward has been pretty upbeat this weekend, which usually means he thinks he has something. It is going to be difficult to move forward from ninth, however.

Is this the weekend Nolan Siegel breaks through with a top 10 result? The McLaren driver has had one of his best weekends in his career so far. he has been near the top in every session and starts seventh today.

Marcus Ericsson has been having a much better season than he did in 2025, and I look for him to earn a podium today.

Make or Break for Kirkwood?

Kyle Kirkwood starts 18th today. He came into the weekend trailing Palou by 49 points. He has already lost another point to the points leader, and will probably lose one more should Palou lead a lap. Kirkwood needs to move up to as high as possible min the top 10, or any remote hope of catching Palou may evaporate.

Kirkwood is also in a tight battle for second place with Malukas, who could move into the runner-up spot after today. I hope we don’t see another second half fade from him as we saw last season.

Strategy

Tire strategy will be key today. The cooler temperatures may lessen tire falloff, and if the race is caution free, pit stop timing could determine the final outcome.

While Palou is heavily favored, keep in mind that he has won just once from the pole in this five pole streak. I look for David Malukas to get his first win at the neendd of the day.

I’ll be back with warm up results and starting tire selections around 11:30. Enjoy the race.