Random Thoughts on Laguna Seca
The NTT IndyCar Series ended its 2026 season on Sunday. It was a season with a lot of highs, and a lot of twists and turns – both on and off the track. But if I told you the season ended on a high note, that would not exactly be truthful. As usual, the IndyCar race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a snoozer.
The Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey provided some beautiful shots of shiny race cars underneath brilliant sunshine with a very scenic backdrop. But if you were looking for some intense racing action with a thrilling ending, you might have done better to go watch a replay of the race at Markham, Ontario from a month ago.
To beat an old drum left over from my post on Friday, I don’t mind watching IndyCar races at Laguna Seca. I just think there is are better places to stage the season finale, than a tight road coarse that offers very few passing opportunities. The series made great strides this season with TV ratings. On a weekend that saw the full kickoff of college football, this race was slotted against almost no head-to-head sports. Chances are, a lot of people were going to tune in. I would think the series wanted them to noty decide by Lap 25 that they had seen enough.
The argument for ending the season at Laguna Seca, or Sonoma before that, is that sponsors like to go there. I get that. Without sponsors there is no series. I’m not suggesting to end the season at remote locations like Mid-Ohio, Pocono or even Road America. Although I like those locations (disclaimer – I’ve never been to Mid-Ohio), I will admit the luxury accommodations and fine dining options are limited. I will sound like a biased homer, but I still think my hometown of Nashville is an excellent location to host the season finale – whether it is on the oval that is almost an hour away, or back on the streets of Nashville once they complete the construction of the new stadium and the demolition of the old one.
I think so long as a suitable location is found, the sponsors will be happy. It’s the TV viewers I’m worried about. I consider myself a die-hard, and I found it hard to stay awake during yesterday’s IndyCar race.
For the record, Scott McLaughlin drove a near-perfect race to take the victory. They chose the right tire strategy and won from the pole, leading 87 of 95 laps. The race was filled with strategic moves and little else.
The lone caution came on Lap One, when Sting Ray Robb punted Dennis Hauger from behind and ended his day and season in Turn Six of the opening lap. Hauger was chasing Rookie of the Year as well as the $1.7 Million payout that comes with being in the Leaders Circle (top twenty-two in entrant points in the final standings) for Dale Coyne Racing. Robb put Hauger and Coyne in jeopardy of losing out on both, but Hauger did secure Rookie of the Year, and he also finished twenty-second in points, guaranteeing Coyne for use of that money towards next year’s budget.
The main storyline for the race beyond who might win, was the three-way battle for second-place, separated by only four points between Christian Lundgaard, Kyle Kirkwood and Pato O’Ward. Kirkwood finished second in the race, while Lundgaard finished sixth. After a poor pit stop, O’Ward finished a disappointing eleventh. So Kirkwood leapfrogged Lundgaard and finished second in the championship. Lundgaard, O’Ward and David Malukas rounded out the The Top-Five in points for the season.
McLaughlin snapped a thirty-five race winless streak and ended up sixth in points. Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus VeeKay filled out the lower half of the Top-Ten.
TV Coverage: I feel like FOX has really hit their stride in their second full season of covering IndyCar. Kevin Lee and Georgia Henneberry have always done excellent work covering the action in the pits, but Jack Harvey is now up on their level. If you’ll recall the St. Petersburg race in 2025, which was Harvey’s first race as a pit reporter, he was a little shaky – and that’s being kind. But he improved a lot by Race Two at Thermal. Since then, we’ve seen him improve as he started allowing his sense of humor to shine through. In my opinion, he completes the trio in the pits.
It used to be I found Townsend Bell tough to listen to. He came across as arrogant and boastful as he talked down to the audience and even his booth partner James Hinchciliffe. I found that off, since Hinchcliffe has six wins, eighteen podiums and is an Indianapolis 500 pole-winner; Bell on the other hand has no wins and zero podiums combining both his CART and IndyCar history. But Bell has toned it down this season and it has improved his likeability in the booth.
I’m getting used to Will Buxton like one gets used to a toothache. If you ignore it for a while, it gets bearable. I still cringe when he goes over the top with all of his exclamations and annunciations about every. single. thing. But I’ve grown tired of criticizing his every phrase.
FOX brings Chris Myers in to host the big IndyCar events. He was at Laguna Seca yesterday. I guess he was scheduled on the chance that the title fat would come down to the last race. That usually doesn’t happen when Alex Palou wins the championship. Still, it was good to see Myers serve as the emcee for the trophy presentations.
Based on what I read on social media, I’m afraid that FOX doesn’t get enough credit for what they do for the series. I would hate to see where things would be if we were still scheduling a couple of races per year on Peacock.
Big Improvement: Remember back in the first half of the season, when Andretti Global kept shooting themselves in the foot with egregious errors on pit lane? Everyone, including myself. Was real quick to pile on and make them a punchline whenever Andretti pit stops were mentioned. It was justified.
However, none of those same people have acknowledged a job well-done now that the team has fixed their woes in the pits. I’m not sure about this, but I’m not sure they have had a bobble in the pits for the second half of the season. Therefore, I’ll acknowledge it – Job well-done!
End of an Era? No, I’m not talking about Scott Dixon leaving Chip Ganassi Racing after twenty-five years. I’m talking about something else that could have a profound effect on a couple of drivers. One item that got mentioned on Sunday’s telecast, but barely – was news that was released last week that IndyCar will be raising licensing standards for drivers in the series.
It appears to be aimed at drivers that come with big budgets, but little or sometimes no talent. This is nothing new. There have been ride-buyers since the 1940s and even before. Did you ever hear Donald Davidson talk about the infamous Joel Thorne? He had enough money that he tried to buy the entire field one year. He bought his way into the Indianapolis 500 more than once, before he was asked to no longer participate.
Two current drivers that come to mind are Sting Ray Robb and Nolen Siegel. Robb has a collection of wealthy backers who believe in him. For a while, I defended Robb, but he seems to have regressed in the last couple of years. Siegel comes from a very wealthy family. I think he has the tools to eventually become a decent IndyCar driver. In fact, he has improved a lot this year – but I still don’t think he’s there yet.
Of course, it could be said that Kyffin Simpson is a ride buyer. He is. The thing is, he has taken this opportunity that was bought for him and made the most of it. He has improved dramatically ever since he joined the series in 2024. While he isn’t threatening to be a title contender in 2027, he has proven he belongs and has earned his place in the series – regardless how he got there.
While I get the sentiment behind this new policy, it’s a double-edge sword. Yes, you only want fully qualified drivers to be racing. No drivers want to be passing a driver that has no business being in a race car. However, there are some drivers that are right on the cusp of being considered good or “qualified” drivers, but they need a little more refining. But the budget they bring to a team can mean the difference between making the grid or not. Is it better to have a full field with a few drivers of questionable talent, or eighteen cars with fully competent and proven drivers? You tell me.
Busy Week of the Offseason: Don’t expect IndyCar to slip quietly into the offseason this week. There are still a lot of seats to be filled. Some already have been filled, and we will probably hear about them this week. Some were announced this weekend, with Mick Schumacher confirmed for the ride vacated by Felix Rosenqvist at Meyer Shank Racing and Conor Daly at Dreyer & Reinbold. We expect to hear that Christian Lundgaard will be confirmed at Chip Ganassi Racing to replace Scott Dixon. We also expect for Rinus VeeKay to return to whatever the new name for Juncos Hollinger Racing will be.
But there are several drivers unconfirmed for 2027, and some will likely still be standing without a chair when the music stops. Neither Dennis Hauger of Romain Grosjean are set to return to Dale Coyne Racing. One, none or both could return, but we probably won’t know that for a while. Most are not expecting Sting Ray Robb to return to the JHR team. Quite honestly, I think Robb has pretty well worn out his welcome and will not return next season.
Louis Foster is still under contract to Rahal Letterman Lanigan. After seemingly being lost in the abyss for about a year, Foster seemed to get his act together in the second half of the season. He will be back with RLL next season, as they scale down to two cars. From what I’m hearing, Santino Ferrucci will return to AJ Foyt Racing, but his employment there is tenuous. If he has another season like this one, I suspect he will be replaced mid-season in 2027. His teammate in the No.4 is still TBD, but it wouldn’t shock me if Caio Collet ends up there again. He brings a lot of budget, but he needs to stop tearing up equipment. I suspect Nolan Siegel will be in the seat vacated by Sting Ray Robb. There will be less pressure there than at McLaren, and he can get the time to develop properly.
Overall, I don’t expect any surprises this week, meaning there will most likely be one. It’s not a surprise if you’re expecting it. All of my guessing could be dead wrong, and probably will be. Notice I did not mention any Indy NXT drivers that might find employment. Regardless, I think we will learn a lot of who is going where this week, and possible by the time you read this.
What a Save! Regardless of how qualified he might be, Nolan Siegel had the Save of the Day. On Lap 68, Siegel went off course and went about as close to hitting the barriers without doing so, as I’ve ever seen. It looked as if he was certain to slap his right sidepod into the tire barrier, but he managed not to. Replay showed that instead of hitting his brakes and losing control, he kept his foot into it and maintained enough control to miss the barrier and get back onto the track, preventing a potentially race-changing yellow flag.
Drive of the Day: Although this track does not offer a lot of passing opportunities, several drivers were able to improve their situations throughout the day. Santino Ferrucci had a quite day. You would never know that he moved from twenty-first to twelfth, if you hadn’t looked at the box score, But he had some slow cars in front of him initially, and they were easy to get past. I almost went with Christian Lundgaard, who had a grid penalty for an engine change.
But I decided to go with Marcus Ericsson. Like Ferricci, he had a quiet afternoon. But late in the ace, he was able to move up from his fourteenth starting spot to finish ninth and earn another Top-Ten finish, good enough for seventh in the championship and the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day.
All in All: If I’m scrounging, the best thing I can say about Sunday’s IndyCar finale is that it was a safe race and we got an eighth winning driver for 2026. Also, there were shiny race cars racing around a picturesque setting in competition – something we will not be seeing for another six months. As I said earlier, I don’t mind watching IndyCar races at Laguna Seca, I just don’t think they need to be the finale. The series should go out with a bang at the end of the season, not a whimper. Sunday was just a little anti-climactic for my liking.
George Phillips
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