AllRacing

How IndyCar’s 2026 calendar builds toward the future

Arlington and Phoenix are in. Iowa and Thermal are out. And Mexico…oh, Mexico.

The newest IndyCar Series schedule isn’t perfect, but it’s filled with a number of improvements that address shortcomings that blighted recent championship runs. The long pause between the season opener and the second race has been rectified; IndyCar launches with three straight weekends of racing next March, takes a weekend off, and packs a fourth race in before the arrival of April.

The season also comes to an end with a healthy pacing of four events and five total races with the return of Milwaukee’s doubleheader from August 9 through September 6.

The middle portion of the season is where the real gains have been made. The unrelenting speed of the calendar from late April through July has been a big burnout factory for the men and women who run the cars; arriving at the Indy 500 in May with large portions of the paddock facing physical or mental exhaustion has been the norm.

July would have the same effect, and August also added to the general weariness, but spacing between races in 2026 has emerged as a genuinely positive development in many cases. Busy stretches remain, no doubt, but the volume of punishing back-to-back-to-back runs have been reduced.

The question is whether it will be remembered as a one-time occurrence with next summer’s World Cup forcing IndyCar and FOX to clear the series off weekends it normally fills, or if the team-friendly approach to scheduling will extend beyond 2026 when the World Cup isn’t a factor.

On Mexico, IndyCar’s most popular driver will continue to wait for the day when he can race in front of his highly partisan fans in Mexico City, and for now, Pato O’Ward will need to focus on 2027 and the next opportunity to race in from of a home audience.

“We worked hard at it,” Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles said. “We really regret that we aren’t there in ’26. We were quite close to getting that done.”

The series pointed to the World Cup as a roadblock that prevented adding Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to the 2026 schedule. RACER also understands that separate from the World Cup, conducting negotiations with those who did not represent OCESA and CIE – the track promoters – could have complicated matters.

Minus a middleman, negotiating directly with those in charge of the road course that hosts Formula 1 and other marquee events is where the next phase of the conversation will continue.

“I think we’ve made this clear: The World Cup and its effect on the economy, the business environment in that summer and next year, really caused us to be more cautious.” Miles said. “We’re going to stay on it. I’ll be in Mexico in the next month, and we will be dealing with the people at OCESA and CIE and looking for the opportunity, and we want to be back there as soon as we can.”

Another race that falls into the not-right-now category is Washington, D.C., where IndyCar co-owner and broadcaster FOX has an interest in creating a street race in the nation’s capital.

“I would say it’s complicated to imagine having a street race in Washington, D.C., because of the obvious logistical and other considerations – kind of a long putt,” Miles said. “But again, frankly, this was an idea that I think maybe first surfaced from FOX. We’ve had meetings and discussions, and [it’s] impossible to handicap the probability of it happening, but it’s intriguing, and it would be an exciting development if there was a way to pull it off.”

IndyCar aims to reconjure the magic of its finale at Laguna Seca. Chris Owens/IMS

Had Mexico come to pass, it was meant to take the last weekend in July, which was held last season by WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. With pre-existing plans to move Laguna Seca to a different spot on the calendar, the proposed repositioning was to return the event to its former place as the season finale.

Despite the absence of Mexico, the series moved ahead with closing its championship at the California road course, just as it did many times in the CART IndyCar Series era and when today’s IndyCar arrived in 2019, and again from 2022-’23.

“The intention is for it to be multi-year,” Miles said of Laguna Seca. “Maybe everybody is aware of this, but the leadership that now operates the Laguna Seca facility, there’s been some changes there, and we think they’re terrific people with real vision and ability to invest. They are going to be investing in the venue, so we’re looking forward to taking advantage of that.

“Look, it’s about the fans first. But it’s also true that Monterey is a place a lot of people want to be, and I think with the leadership of the race, now with FOX, we can make it an incredible celebration of the year. It’s a great place. The Monterey Peninsula is iconic in and of itself, in addition to the importance of the Laguna Seca track. So we think we can take that event as the finale to a whole new level.”