Friday’s schedule:

IndyCar Practice 5 pm Eastern FS2

The 2026 IndyCar season once again comes to an all too early end Sunday with the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at Weather Tech Raceway. Alex Palou has once again wrapped up the title, but there are still three things to settle. It has been an interesting season, which I will discuss next week.

The battle for second– Second place in the strandings has been a revolving door4 all season, with Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas trading possession of the runner-up spot. Now, Christian Lundgaard has taken the position, and Malukas has fallen to fifth place.

Lundgaard leads Kirkwood by two points and his teammate Pato O’Ward is just four points behind. Malukas still has a chance, trailing by 23 points. Based on each drivers’ road course performances this season, I think Lundgaard has the edge. We’ ll see.

The fight for the last spot in the Leaders’ Circle is the same as the battle for Rookie of the Year. Dennis Hauger holds the lead in rookie points by 18 over Mick Schumacher. Hauger also holds the final Leaders'[ Circle spot. Caio Collet is 30 points behind Hauger

Look for Palou to win this race in a rout. He might as well. I always feel sorr4y for the winner of the season finale if it isn’t the series champion. The driver gets minimal recognition for winning the race, and I find it even sadder should coming home first happen to be that driver’s first career victory.

Rinus VeeKay is currently in 10th place, leading Will Power by 13 points. A top 10 finish by Jucos Hollinger would be quite an achievement for this team. VeeKay has far outperformed his equipment all year.

The track will be very busy as IndyNXT will settle its championship fight with a pair of races. Nikita Johnson leads Enzo Fittipaldi by just three points, and Tymek Kucharczyk is 29 points behind Hauger. It will be difficult for Collet to move up.

In addition to IndyCar action, today at 12:15 pm Eastern the corkscrew will be renamed in honor of Alex Zanardi, honoring the last exciting move made by a driver on the track. The clip of this pass is played constantly, and I look for FOX to run it at least 100 times this weekend, or so it will seem.

The one thing I do wish I were there to see is the historic car laps driven by legends of the sport. Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan are two drivers whim I would love to see on track.

The cars on display:

1911 National Model 40

1933 Rigling & Henning Wonder Bread Special

1951 Schroeder Blakely Oil Special

1953 Kurtis 500B — D-A Lubricant Special

1956 Kurtis Kraft 500C

1961 Watson Denver-Chicago

1962 Watson Bill Forbes Special

1966 Eagle Eagle 66

1967 Gilbert Cheetah

1967 Watson Watson 67

1968 Gerhardt Gerhardt 68

1979 McLaren M24B

1983 March 83C

1985 March 85C

1986 March 86C

1988 Ferrari PPG Pace Car

1988 Lola T88/00

1990 Lola T90/00

1994 Lamborghini Pace Car

1994 Lola T94/00

1996 Lola T96/00

1996 Reynard 96I

1999 Riley & Scott Mk V

2001 Dallara IR-01

2001 Reynard 01I

2003 Dallara IR03

2004 Lola B02/00

2007 Panoz DP01

2019 Dallara DW12

2022 Dallara DW12