Some quick thoughts on a spectacular, wild, chaotic race at Markham:

Heartbreak, drama. pit strategy gambles, and a drive for the ages were all on display at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy today. The race had all the elements of a great race, with timely and untimely cautions, changing pit strategies, passing, collisions, and a charge for the le4ad in the closing laps.

Heartbreak– Louis Foster’ lap 32 crash while dominating the race is the day’s biggest heartbreak. After his first pitstop, I said that that the race was his to lose. Unfortunately, he proved me correct. What a tough break for Foster and the RLL team.

Drama- Marcus Ericsson waited and waited to pit. Romain Grosjean pitted a bit early and tried to hang on. Grosjean nearly succeeded, but Ericsson had the fastest car on track, His seven second margin at the end was astounding.

Like during yesterday’s qualifying, contenders and potential contenders fell out of the race. Power and Kirkwood ran through the field from the back with relative ease and became players mid race.

Pit Strategy– What was the correct strategy? It varied at every point of the afternoon. It turns out two stops were sufficient thanks to the seven caution periods. The top four finishers made stopped twice.

Today’s win was arguably Ericsson’s finest drive in IndyCar. I believe it is the first time he won a race in which no red flags stopped the action. His ability to drive past anyone at will, his move to get by Alex Palou late in the race, and t5he way he ran away from Grosjean after taking the lead was a racing master class.

“We were the fastest car all day, I thought,” he said. “Obviously, there were a lot of (cautions), so we had to stay out (longer on the final sequence). I wanted to show the pace and open a gap, so we gambled on staying out. I had the pace and we were lapping so quick (after coming out of the pits on Lap 69) seventh. It was a lot of work to get through the leaders.”

Will Power also had a lot of speed, and he fought through many adventures on an Odyssean run to the podium.

Andretti cars were the class of the field. At one point the Power, Ericsson and Kirkwood were running second, third, and fourth. Kirkwood’s crash spoiled what could have been a team podium sweep.

Romain Grosjean earned his sixth career second place. Like today, he was in contention for the win.

Markham is the third race of 2026 where Palou did not lead a lap. The points leader appeared to be catching leader Grosjean late in the race, but he bobbled in a turn. Ericsson and Power both got past him.

Rinus VeeKay fought a car with a broken front wing to a seventh-place finish. VeeKay has been a regular member of the Fast Six, and he has backed up his starting spot with consistent Top 10s.

Graham Rahal earned his fourth Top 10 of the season. RLL has shown great improvement in qualifying tin 2026, and I look for a big jump from them next year.

The Hairpin– Turn 5 saw a lot of wild action. I think some modification might take place in 2027, but I hope not too much. Making the corner faster might help, but I really liked the madness that ensued.

All is Forgiven– After Friday’s track build fiasco, the new Mar4kham track produced two days of great IndyCar action, including one of the best street races I have ever seen. I wish we could run there again next weekend.

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