Laguna Seca Preview
And just like that, the offseason is upon us. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that the IndyCar transporters were headed to St. Petersburg to kick off the season? It sure seems like it. We do have one more race to run before the NTT IndyCar Series hunkers down for a long winter’s nap.
For the past two seasons, the IndyCar series finale was staged at Nashville Superspeedway. While everyone still has the memories of this year’s fiasco where the Nashville race had to run on Monday, I thought last year’s finale was a great way to close out the season. I’m not sure if Nashville was moved to July to take advantage of the World Cup lead-in, or if there were other reasons.
I realize the fact that we live in Nashville leads one to think I am biased – but I felt like Nashville was a very good place to wrap up the season and the championship celebration for sponsors as well as fans. Because of the rain fiasco in July, I fear that the oval is in danger of not coming back – just because of the bad memories from a couple of months ago. My hope is that the oval will keep coming back until the new Nissan Stadium is completed, and the old stadium is demolished – in order to create a new street course layout that is hopefully better than the previous one. I would also like for whichever Nashville venue is used, that they will make Nashville the season-finale again.
For this year, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is back as the finale. In most people’s minds, Laguna Seca is the traditional season finale for IndyCar. You might be surprised to learn that this Sunday will only be the twelfth time that IndyCar has concluded the season at Laguna Seca, since they first started racing Indy cars there in 1983. Considering that was 43 years ago, I would have doubled that figure.
This is not my favorite track to watch an IndyCar race from on television, but this past weekend in Milwaukee, I had more than one person tell me that Laguna Seca was their favorite track to visit. These are people I know and trust. They are also known to have visited Road America several times, which many people will list as their favorite track. Since I’ve never been to Laguna Seca, who am I to say they are wrong?
If you are like me, the first image that comes to mind when you hear Laguna Seca mentioned is the world famous corkscrew – the Turns 7, 8 and 8a complex at the top of the hill that follows the Rahal Straight. This weekend, this famous stretch will be re-named the Zanardi Corkscrew, in honor and memory of Alex Zanardi. It was Zanardi who made The Pass, overtaking Bryan Herta in the last lap of the 1996 race, circumventing the two corners pretty much out of control. But he completed the pass and won the race. That move is no longer legal today, But it is a fitting and deserved tribute to the beloved driver who passed away in May.
The championship has now been officially decided, but I think most people knew that Alex Palou was going to win his fifth title in six years a couple of months ago. Last week, he just made it official. The thing is, he is the favorite to win the race this weekend. Palou has won three of the past four races at Laguna Seca. Now that the pressure is off, I fully expect him to win again on Sunday. That would give him seven wins for this season, to go with the eight wins he earned in 2025. That would also give him fifteen wins out of thirty-five races run in the past two seasons. That’s beyond impressive.
Just because the championship is decided, does not mean that Sunday’s race is meaningless. There is an extremely tight battle for second-place. Positions two through four are separated by only four points. Christian Lundgaard is currently second with 507 points. Kyle Kirkwood is in third, right behind Lundgaard with 505 points. Pato O’Ward has vaulted up to fourth in points, after sweeping the double-header at Milwaukee this weekend.
David Malukas was bouncing between second and third for most of the season, but he has fallen off here late, despite finishing second in Race One at Milwaukee. He is currently only nineteen points behind O’Ward and twenty-three behind Lundgaard. Positions two through five could change dramatically after Sunday’s race at Laguna Seca.
After Sunday, we enter into another offseason. Only about a third of the 2027 schedule has been released. There are a few changes but nothing major, except that Phoenix will be night race on Saturday night, while still running in conjunction with NASCAR. I liked having eighteen races this season, but I wasn’t crazy about the last third of the schedule being crammed into August. I hope that they can spread things out a little more evenly for next year.
With the series back on the west coast, all track activity is late for those of us in the Eastern and Central times zones. Friday’s practice starts at 5:00 pm EDT on FS2. Saturday morning’s Practice Two gets underway at 1:00 pm EDT on FS2. Qualifying will begin at 4:30 pm EDT on FS2, with a Final Practice Saturday might at 8:00 pm EDT on FS2. That takes the place of a Sunday morning warmup, presumably because of fog that normally engulfs that track each morning. Sunday’s race coverage begins on Big FOX at 2:30 pm EDT.
Who is going to win? I won’t even mess around. It will be Alex Palou winning his seventh race of the season. We’ll see.
George Phillips
September 4, 2026 at 8:24 am
With the title wrapped up, perhaps someone other than Palou will surprise us. Lundgaard would seem the most likely candidate. If we get a mess of race like in 2023, maybe we’ll see Dixon close out his time at Ganassi with one more for the road.