IndyCar Notes- New Car, Schedule News

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Photo: Alex Palou celebrates his win at the Thermal Club

There is now a target date for a new Indycar, although it is still quite a way off from racing. On Saturday, during qualifying at Road America, IndyCar sent a press release outlining the features of the new machine, and a proposed timeline for preparation.

If you missed the release, you can find it here:

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Prepares To Introduce Innovative New Car for 2028

I like a lot of what is proposed on the new car, especially the lower weight and more power. The car should have a sleeker profile with an integrated aeroscreen.

I found the timing of this announcement strange. It emerged as the teams were preparing to qualify, and there were no drawings of the design. It appears to the public that this project is still an abstraction.

IndyCar seems to be moving forward assuming that Honda will stay beyond 2026, when their current contract ends

If the series is going to announce something as major as its next generation racer, I would think they would have a prototype on site and present it during the pre race show when the most eyeballs could see it.

I hope we will see what the car looks like before the end of the season. Surely there is a mockup or a car or two in production right now.

Thermal Out, Mexico City In?

News broke a couple hours ago that Thermal will not host an IndyCar race in 2026. I cannot help but wonder if this opens a spot for the long anticipated race in Mexico City.

Club owner Tim Rogers told KESQ in Coachella Valley that he hopes the race can return in 2027. IndyCar had an exhibition race at the club near Palm Springs, California, in 2024, and a points paying grand prix on March 23 this year.

I am glad the race will not return. The venue does not present an image of a major league sporting event. The price point of n early $500 held attendance to only about 3,000 fans.

It’s a fine facility for Spring Training, but that is as far it goes.

As far as the race in Mexico City, it would make sense to slot it in March just before the Grand Prix of Arlington in Texas. With the season opener vat St. Pete scheduled for March1, it looks like the early season gap might be filled in.

Road America Wrap Up- Palou Flies Solo

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The air was hot, the track was hot, and t5he action was hot. Teams played Pit Stop Roulette, but in the end, we saw the same result.

The fuel save master just missed, and the tire master came out on top again. In an entertaining, action packed race at Road America where the winner wasn’t decided until the last three laps. Alex Palou won his sixth race of the year after Scott Dixon fell two laps short on fuel.

Some thoughts:

The chaotic start with eight laps of caution in the first 12 laps led to a wide mix of pit and tire strategies, which in turn led to a lot of on track battles. From my view in turn 5, I’m surprise there were only five caution periods. Drivers were pushing each other to the outside with lots of contact. I have never seen so much dust kicked off at the exit of the turn as I did yesterday.

I had a good view of Sting Ray Robb’s incident. he was fortunate that he scrubbed off some speed on the concrete barrier before he hit the tire wall. It appeared he couldn’t brake. It seems I say this every race, but hats off to the safety design features of this chassis. Robb stopped in a place where the AMR safety stations a truck, but still it seemed as if they were headed to Robb before he came to an abrupt stop.

Great Drives

Santino Ferrucci finished third after starting 18th. Scott Dixon finished ninth from 25th on the grid, and he had a chance to win because of pit strategy. Rinus VeeKay started 22nd and finished 10th, overcoming three penalties.

David Malukas started seventh, went off track on lap 1, and roared back to end the race where he started. Malukas complained of the heat affecting him. While no other driver mentioned it, I’m sure heat was a factor for many.

Penske’s Lost Year

For the last two races, I have thought that Team Penske would begin a comeback to being a factor. At Gateway the trio of Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, and Josef Newgarden qualified first, second, and fifth. None finished the race.

Yesterday the team started fourth, eighth, and 10th. They finished 12th, 14th, and 25th. Josef Newgarden has four results lower than 20th and is 17th in points. McLaughlin and Power are still in the top 10 in points, but ypoun have to wonder for how long?

Even before the organizational shakeup in May, the team seemed not quite up to their usual standards. It is sad to see a team decline as rapidly as they have.

MSR Rising

Felix Rosenqvist finished second as he continues to quietly stay in the top five in points. Rosenqvist is now fourth in the standings, and teammate Marcus Armstrong’s fifth place result has him standing 11th for the year.

MSR has thrived in their relationship with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Foyt Ascending

It ius ironic that A. J. Foyt Racing is doing better tha the team they have atechnical alliance. The association with Team Penske has yielded marked improvement for one of the smallest teams in the paddock.

As not6ed earlier, Santino Ferrucci and David Malukas both had top 10 results yesterday. Ferruci is now ninth in points and Malukas is 12th, a far cry from the years when this team hovered on the brink of missing out on the Leaders ‘Circle.

After seven rather mundane races, IndyCar has produced two very good, exciting races with lots of passing, position battles, and doubts about who would win until near the end of the race. I hope this trend continues when the series goes to Mid-Ohio in a couple of weeks.

Results

Race Day at Road America

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Today’s schedule: All Times Central Warmup and IndyNXT on FS!; IndyCar race on FOX.

Good morning from an already warm Road America. The temperature should be around 91 degrees by the green flag. If you’re at the track, remmeber to hydrate early and often.

There will actually be a third race today, as many fans from Indianapolis will be racing home to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals. I will be among them, so there will be a very brief post race report. Go Pacers!

As for the featured race, could this be a very good day for Louis Foster? He has looked strong all weekend. Alex Palou looks to be in position to shake off his post 500 funk and return to victory lane. Kyle Kirkwood starts right behind Palou, and the two title contenders might have an interesting battle today.

Tire strategy will be key this afternoon. Graham Rahal ran the Fast Six on primaries, so he has plenty of alternate tires to se in the race. Other drivers used scuffed alternates. We will have a better idea of tire plans when the starting tire compounds are declared after warmups.

I will be back with warmup results and starting tire choices later. stay safe out there today.

Road America- Birthplace of Rookies on Pole

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Louis Foster took the pole for tomorrow’s XPel Grand Prix in the car that he crashed last Sunday night. It was the second straight year that a rookie has won the pole at Road America. Linus Lundqvist won the pole in 2024.

Foster earned the first pole for RLL Racing since 2023 in Portland when Graham Rahal started at the point. Rahal was also in the Fast Six today, and he will start sixth.

RLL drivers have flirted with the pole before in 2025. Rahal nearly started first in the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS.

With Robert Shwartzman winning the pole for the Indianapolis 500, two rookies have poles halfway through the season. I am sure someone will find another time that this has occurred.

Notes

It was not the day Team Penske hoped for. Scott McLaughlin was the only driver to advance to the Fast Six while Will Power will start eighth and Josef Newgarden will start 10th. Newgarden got intom the second round when Scott Dixon received a penalty for impeding another driver.

Points leader Alex Palou starts second and Kyle Kirkwood, thiSaturday usually draws a large rd in points, starts third. Second place Pato O’Ward starts 11th.

Today’s attendance was arguably the largest Saturday crowd I’ve seen here. I watched qualifying from the top of hte hill at turn five. The area looked like it normally does on race day.

Results

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Prepares To Introduce Innovative New Car for 2028

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From IndyCar:

 INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, June 21, 2025) – INDYCAR is providing a status update on the new race car the series will introduce and implement for the 2028 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, which was also shared with team owners today at Road America. Extensive planning and collaborative design work continues for the new chassis, with thorough on-track testing scheduled for early 2026.
Dallara will produce the chassis, which will feature a look designed to appeal to a new generation of fans while keeping styling cues recognized by all as an INDYCAR SERIES car. Dallara has produced chassis for the series since 1997 and has been the series’ exclusive chassis supplier since 2008.
“The time has come for a new NTT INDYCAR SERIES chassis,” INDYCAR President J. Douglas Boles said. “The DW12 served the series so well, as it provided a combination of phenomenal, wheel-to-wheel racing and critical enhancements to safety. But recent significant updates to the car – from the aeroscreen to the hybrid power unit – have helped advance the need for a completely new car. We are pleased by what our engineers and Dallara have collaboratively designed and believe it will appeal to the fans and paddock while also upholding our standards of safety and enhancing INDYCAR’s on-track competition well into the future.”
Three areas – competition, powertrain development and safety – are pillars of the engineering, design and development of the new car.
The new car will enhance the ultra-competitive nature of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES by being even better suited for racing on all four types of circuits the series visits – superspeedways, short ovals, street circuits and permanent road courses. Evolution of the new chassis has included work by Dallara and recently developed simulation technology, aimed at enhancing overall raceability.
Working in tandem with Dallara and other component suppliers, the overall car design includes a projected weight reduction of 85-100 pounds compared to the current INDYCAR SERIES chassis.
Plans also include a move a 2.4-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 internal combustion engine, which is expected to provide more torque and power over the current engine formula.Xtrac, an exclusive supplier for INDYCAR since 2000, will continue to provide transmissions for the new chassis. Development for 2028 includes a gearbox that will shed 25 pounds from the currently used unit and one that will share components with a future INDY NXT by Firestone gearbox – streamlining components for teams also involved in INDYCAR’s development series.
Low-voltage hybrid engine technology, introduced to series competition with a successful launch in July 2024, will continue to evolve in the new car with longer deployment, more horsepower gain and overall improved performance.
Performance Friction Corporation (PFC) once again will be the exclusive supplier of brake system components for the series, as it has since 2017.Safety also will continue to be a focus of Dallara’s design, in close collaboration with INDYCAR technical and medical response officials.
The new car will bolster safety to new benchmarks with an ergonomic driver cockpit to improve seating position, an integrated aeroscreen and a new roll hoop. The existing chassis was retrofitted with the aeroscreen upon that revolutionary safety device’s introduction in 2020.
Renderings and more information about the new car, along with additional partners, will be announced at a later date.This new car update and plan continues the upward trajectory of North America’s premier open-wheel series.
Recent milestones include FOX viewership results of a 27% year-over-year gain while averaging 2 million viewers for the 2025 season, a partnership renewal with longtime tire supplier Firestone, the announcement of the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Arlington in partnership with the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and city of Arlington, Texas, starting in 2026 and the acquisition of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach by Penske Entertainment.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR. Coverage of Round 9 of the 17-race 2025 championship begins at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, June 22 on FOX, FOX Deportes and the FOX Sports app. Coverage also available via the award winning INDYCAR Radio Network on SiriusXM channel 218 and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA. 

Road America Saturday- The Heat is On

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Today’s schedule all sessions on FS. Times Central

9 am- IndyNXT Practice 2

10 am- IndyCar Practice 2

12:30 pm Indy NXT Qualifications

1:30 pm IndyCar Qualifications

Weather from @Indycar_Wxman

if you are at the track, please stay hydrated. Although there is a breeze, it may n ot provide much relief. Stay safe, fans.

Temperatures for practice will not be too bad, but at qualifying time things could change. How will the cars react to very different conditions from yesterday/ Will the hybrid units have any issues?

I could see a second straight Team Penske front row lockout today. They were very strong Friday and at Road America the team is usually quite good.

The most puzzling result yesterday was Colton Herta in 23rd. Herta usually does well here, and he won the pole two years ago.

I plan to watch practice from turn 7. I’m unsure of my vantage point for qualifying, assuming I go outside for it. I will be back after practice with results and qualifying groups.

Nothing New at the Front

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Kyle Kirkwood turned the fastest lap in today’s only practice session for Sunday’s XPel GP at Road America. Kirkwood edged Devlin deFrancesco by0.1533 seconds and Will Power by 0.1914 seconds. Kirkwood has won the last two races, but he faces a stiff challenge from the Team Penske cars this weekend. All three Chevy powered drivers were within three tenths of a second or less of Kirkwood.

Two red flags interrupted practice. Santino Ferrucci went off course and needed a tow in. With less than five minutes remaining Alexander Rossi sopun in turn 1 and ended up in the sand trap. Less than a minute remained when the green was thrown.

In a post practice media availability Newgarden showed no ill effects from his crash at Gateway last Sunday. he attributed it to bad timing.

“I had nowhere to go,” he said.

Newgarden said that if fans want to see what an IndyCar can do, IMS and Road America are the two tracks that show the performance of the cars.

Notes

Team Penske cars looked very strong, finishing today third, fourth, and sixth.

The new bridge is very nice and much safer than the old tunnel. I have said since my first trip here in2016 that the tunnel was dangerous and needed to be either all pedestrians or all vehicles. It is now pedestrians only.

Heatb will be a factor tomorrow and Sunday. Some teams had hybrid issues in the heat at Thermal. Both Newgarden and Felix Rosenqvist don does not anticipate any issues this weekend.

Results

That will do it for me for today. Thanks for following along. I’ll be back tomorrow with morning practice results and qualifying groups. All sessions are on FS1 tomorrow.