Three races. Three winners. Three points leaders.
Following a season where Alex Palou led the entire year and captured five of the first six races, INDYCAR has enjoyed a little more parity to start 2026.
If someone other than Palou, Josef Newgarden or Kyle Kirkwood leads the points after the race Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park, it would be only the second time since 1996 that the points leader has changed hands after each of the first four races.
Palou has consistently said that 2025, a year in which he won eight of the 17 races, was a magical season that he doesn’t envision repeating.
Alex Palou said he doesn’t envision repeating his magical 2025 run in 2026.
But after three races, is there more parity as Palou (St. Petersburg winner), Newgarden (Phoenix winner) and Kirkwood (Arlington winner) have earned victories?
This year, 10 drivers have a top-five finish and seven of those have been podium (top-three) finishes. Of the 25 full-time drivers, 16 have had a top-10 finish.
After three races in 2025, nine drivers had top-five finishes, with seven having been podium. And 16 drivers had top-10 finishes. So almost identical numbers except there were two more drivers last year than this season.
Palou was involved in a wreck early in the race at Phoenix, so a first and a second this year have him second in the standings.
“He’s the one setting the standard,” Will Power said about Palou when speaking Tuesday during a virtual news conference. “That’s kind of what everyone’s trying to get to.
“He is consistently there no matter what track.”
Will Power (pictured) said that Alex Palou is the “standard.”
And that’s the key.
Andretti Global has thrived on the street courses in recent years. Team Penske has made it the team to beat on the short ovals. And Ganassi has been the one on the road courses the last couple of years (much thanks to Palou).
“If you have a weakness, if you’re not good in quali [qualifying], he’s going to get you,” Power said. “In particular, if you’re not good in the race — there’s race pace, strategy, pit stops — you can’t have a weakness simply.
“That’s the only way you’re going to beat that machine, that 10 Ganassi machine [of Palou]. The driver, the crew, the strategy, the whole thing. I cannot pick a weakness of theirs.”
Will there continue to be new winners? The start of the season with the most parity came in 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 when there were seven winners in the first eight races.
The drivers with the best chance of winning at Barber include former winners Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward and Power.
Can Pato O’Ward have success at Barber in 2026?
Power joined Andretti Global this year, and that organization appears a bit stronger overall with its performance as it put three cars in the top-four at Arlington.
“They’ve been really, really fast, really strong on all those three races that we’ve done so far,” Palou said in his post-Arlington news conference.
“It’s not easy. I was pushing as much as I could. There was nothing on the car. I was not having any handling issues. Normally you cannot drive because you cannot brake or something. I was just flat out. I was happy with my car. Just … they were a little bit happier than us.”
Andretti drivers are first (Kirkwood), eighth (Marcus Ericsson) and 11th (Power) in the standings. Other organizations have had a little bit stronger overall start. Team Penske drivers are third (Newgarden), fifth (McLaughlin) and sixth (David Malukas).
O’Ward (tied with Newgarden for third) and Christian Lundgaard (seventh) have shown similar speed to last year.
While Palou has proven his strength, Scott Dixon (12th in the standings) and Kyffin Simipson (tied for 15th) need to avoid the mistakes that have plagued their Ganassi teams.
“INDYCAR racing is so competitive, the smallest differences have the biggest impact on the outcomes,” TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss said as part of the Andretti Global winning owner news conference following Arlington.
“We’re going to continue as a team to out-work everybody, to continue to work on those details and try to control the things that are in our control to put these guys in the best position to win because we know we have some of the best drivers in the series.”
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