One of the most anticipated and most controversial races is here, welcome to Washington, D.C.! What screams star spangled freedom more than 25 IndyCars racing around the nations capital!? It’s a celebratory 250th event, note to everyone please leave the politics aside and enjoy the race. I’m interested, new circuits always throw up some chaos, see Markham. It’s different it’s a new city, one-off. It’ll br a spectacle for sure, hopefully the racing is half decent.
The standings
Alex Palou is up by 133 points, this weekend will be his first go at match point as if he wins and Kirkwood finishes worse than 12th, Palou becomes champion for a 5th time and the 4th year in a row. All eyes after that will switch to the intense battle between Kirkwood, Malukas, Lundgaard all separated by 6 points to see who becomes the vice champion. O’Ward is in that conversation as well, same with Newgarden thanks to the schedule featuring their strengths of a Milwaukee double. It’ll be a fascinating watch as the season draws to a close over the next few weeks.
Street Fatigue
I’ll be interested to see what happens here, 2 brand new street races, several teams with massive repair bills after Markham, final races all together. Will we see teams/drivers begin to have no choice but play it safe. Or in fear of running out of extra parts, especially if we have more monstrous shunts in DC.
My Pick to win: Will Power
I’m gonna stick with Power, Andretti are always the team to beat, they finished 1-3 last weekend in Markham, Power has some momentum if he can just keep it clean he’ll be there.
A Darkhorse: Louis Foster
I’m happy with Foster here as well, he was so quick in Markham, small mistake devastating result. How sweet would it be if the next week on such a grand stage to right that wrong and emerge victorious in DC? The RLL team is always quick on the streets and if Louis takes to Washington like he did Markham, watch out.
Pressure is on: Kyle Kirkwood
Markham was a major missed opportunity, simple mistake but the king of the streets can’t afford them as he tried to maintain vice champion status. Confidence wise as well two bad weekends to close out the 2026 street schedule would hurt a lot.
Steer clear: Josef Newgarden
Newgarden’s gonna be one of the fan favourites as people want an american to win, but unfortunately I don’t see it being even remotely possible. His performance in Markham was painful I felt like he was simply there in the back never really competing with anyone. I wish we saw something in Markham.
written by Carlos Faria // Media Credit: Penske Entertainment
