IndyCar
Helio Castroneves wins a record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 mile race
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Helio Castroneves is joining elite company after winning a record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 mile race Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Castroneves passed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou for the lead for good with two laps-to-go and took the twin checkered flags first to join A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears as the only 4-time winners of ‘The Greatest Spectacle In Racing’.
“This is absolutely incredible,” said Castroneves. “From the beginning we were so comfortable. The car was incredible. I knew it was good. This is unbelievable.”
Castroneves other victories came in 2001, 2002 and 2009 when he drove for Team Penske. Sunday’s victory came driving for Meyer Shank Racing and was that organizations first NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory.
Castroneves and Palou started trading the lead back and forth with 17-laps remaining after most of the front runners made their final pit stops. Palou passed Castroneves on the front stretch with three laps-to-go and Castroneves tucked right behind Palou and followed him through turns one and two and then down the backstretch before pulling the same move on Palou.
Castroneves benefitted from a number of cars who were trying to make it to the end without pitting when he hit the backstretch on the final lap. Castroneves smartly used the draft from those cars to maintain his gap ahead of Palou, who tried to draft Castroneves but the gap was too great at that point.
“My strong corners were two and four and it was just a matter of the right opportunity,” said Castroneves. “I saw that traffic, because I needed that traffic to get away, so I decided I wasn’t going to wait.”
“It just hurts a little bit because I wanted this win really bad,” said Palou. “For sure the traffic didn’t help. I was doing everything I was doing to catch him but he was catching the tow from the traffic and I was not able to close up.
Palou may not have won but since the Indy 500 pays ‘double points’ towards the series championship he did take over the series points lead, so he while he was disappointed he couldn’t win, Palou was positive after the race.
“I’m living a dream driving a fast car for the best team in the paddock,” said Palou. “I’m super proud of what we’ve been doing but we’ve got to keep working.”
Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud finished third in the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in fourth.
“We got caught up on the first yellow and had to make an ’emergency pit stop’ and got sent back to the back of the field,” explained Pagenaud. “We had to fight back over 156-laps and I really think we had a car that could’ve won.”
Pagenaud said that prior to the race he told Castroneves if he couldn’t win the race, he wanted Helio to get his fourth.
“It’s great that we have a guy from our generation (Castroneves) going into the 4-club,” said Pagenaud referring to the 4-time Indy 500 winners. “I hope he comes back to go for five!”
Stefan Wilson brought out the first caution flag of the race when he spun entering pit road during the first round of pit stops and struck the wall ending his day.
The closure of the pits to clean up the Wilson accident cost pole-sitter Scott Dixon and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi dearly. The pair had yet to pit and were low on fuel and eventually ran out on pit road while making an ’emergency pit stop’. Both cars had to be re-fired and ended up losing a lap in the process.
Dixon got his lap back a little over halfway through the race and battled for an 18th place finish but ended up losing the series points lead in the process. Dixon sits in second place, one point ahead of third-place O’Ward.
The next race for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the ‘Duel in Detroit’ on Belle Isle, June 12-13, in Detroit.
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing are celebrating their 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Championship following the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Palou started eighth and finished second in Sunday’s race after clinching the title following last week’s 10th place finish in the second race at The Milwaukee Mile.
“One for the thumb,” said Team Owner Chip Ganassi, referring to Palou’s fifth championship ring in an obvious homage to a familiar football refrain around Pittsburgh.
“Incredible,” Palou said. “I owe everything to this team. So proud of this team. It is great to have another championship and ready for the next one.”
Palou’s title is his fourth straight, matching a feat for the team from 1996-1999.
“I’ve been saying it for years now, I cannot still believe the position I am,” said Palou. “The opportunity to start every single year with the chances and the best team around me and best partners to fight for wins and championships.”
Palou finished the season with 6-wins, 8-poles, 7-podiums, 12-Top 5’s, 15-Top 10’s and 631 laps led.
“Last year was magical,” reflected Palou. “I thought it could not be repeated. We did not repeat it, unfortunately, but we were close. We were like really, really close. Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship. If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane. Was so fun.”
CGR Team Manager Barry Wanser, who has been with the team for over 25-years, talked about what makes Palou a special talent.
“I just think his ability to constantly learn and take advantage of the resources that we have at Chip Ganassi Racing,” said Wanser, who credited the men and women behind the scenes at CGR. “Alex can’t perform as well as he does without such a great team behind him. The engineering department certainly has knocked it out of the park again with some great cars. Certainly in the pits has been amazing this year. Alex is just impressive. Very awesome.”
Ganassi, whose team ran off four straight title with Jimmy Vasser (1996), the late Alex Zanardi (’97 & ’98) and Juan Montoya (’99), refuses to take credit for the team’s success, which starts with the team mantra, ‘One team, One goal’.
“When I started the team, I wanted to have a team that I would want to drive for,” explained Ganassi. “That’s kind of always the way I looked at it. It takes a lot of people to make this stuff happen. It’s one team. We all work together. We’re all trying to win. It’s open book with us all the time across the board with all the drivers, all the teams.”
Palou’s four titles in a row by a driver match the only other driver to do it, Sebastien Bourdais.
“We’re in the midst of a generational thing here, a generational driver,” said Ganassi. “Four in a row has been done before, but five out of six hasn’t been done before. That’s something that’s kind of unprecedented. We’re in the midst of that right now. It’s not over!”
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet are back in Victory Lane following a dominating performance at the Mission Foods Monterey Grand Prix at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
McLaughlin, who started on the pole position, ended a 2-year win drought leading 87 of 90-laps en route to his 8th-career NTT IndyCar Series victory.
“Really proud to get our first win together on a road course where the last couple years we probably struggled at the most,” said McLaughlin of his new engineer Raul Prados. “What a great way to end the season. We have a lot of hard work to do over the off-season to come back stronger, combat against the 10 (Alex Palou).”
Palou started second in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda that paid tribute to CGR Champion and Alum, the late Alex Zanardi, who passed away earlier this year. Palou settled in behind McLaughlin but couldn’t match the pace or tire wear of the No. 3.
“We started on used alternates and we kind of survived, but then we went on an another used alternates,” said Palou, who finished eighth. “We, like, killed ourselves there.”
Despite the eighth place finish Palou, who clinched his fifth Series Championship in six years last week at Milwaukee, says he is as lucky as they come.
“Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship,” explained Palou. “If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane.”
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished second in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda to clinch second place in the Series Championship.
“We played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship,” explained Kirkwood. “We made all the decisions based on that. Probably could have had a go at Scottie at the end on the first few laps on reds. The number one goal was to make the tires last. That’s what we did. Came home with a second, which is something to be proud of.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi came home third in the No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet. The podium finish ended a drought as well for Rossi and was his first in two years at ECR.
“It’s no secret that this has been a pretty terrible year for myself and the whole ECR team with the litany of issue, some out of our control, some in our control,” said Rossi. “Really ever since the Indy GP, there’s been a huge amount of emphasis and effort behind the scenes to kind of dig out of that hole. This is a great result to kind of reward that effort, just rebuild the confidence in everyone that we’re capable of doing this.”
Despite finishing last in the 25-car field due to the incident with Robb, Hauger hung on to win series Rookie of the Year honors. He finished with 228 points, 15 ahead of Mick Schumacher of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the rookie race.
The 2027 NTT IndyCar Series season opens Sunday, March 7 with the Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
MONTEREY, CA (September 5, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey after blasting to a quick lap of 1-minute, 9.1363-seconds in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevy in Firestone Fast Six qualifying at the picturesque permanent road course.
“I felt like from the jump this weekend, we’ve come with a philosophy we’ve been working on the last, I don’t know, four months or something like that, basically since our Mid-Ohio test,” explained McLaughlin. “Been feeling better and better. Put it all together today.”
McLaughlin edged Alex Palou, whose lap of 1-minute, 9.1540-seconds in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, was a mere o.o177-seconds off the top spot.
“It’s so tough to put a lap together, especially at this place,” said Palou. “I think it’s so great to see that we’re all so close. I’m sure that Scott feels like he could have got another 10th if he puts like a perfect lap. I feel the same way.”
Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist clocked in third fastest at 1:09.1931 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Nickelback Honda.
“Good qualifying for us,” said Rosenqvist. “We’ve been in the top three in every session, so I think we would have been disappointed if we didn’t end up in the top three. Always tough to get through with all of the sand and traffic. I missed it a bit in the corkscrew, so maybe there was a pole in there. I’m not sure.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi lines up fourth after a fast lap of 1:09:3247 in the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet.
“The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet has been through a lot this season so it’s nice to get a decent qualifying on the books before the year comes to a close,” said Rossi. ““Road courses have been a big struggle for us, really all season. At a test we had a couple of months ago, we really understood something we hadn’t prior to that and have just been building off of it.”
Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard will start fifth and Team Penske’s David Malukas will start sixth as Chevrolet took four of the Fast Six qualifying spots en route to it’s 250-career IndyCar Series pole.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyffin Simpson will start 9th in the No. 8 Sunoco and Scott Dixon will start 17th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. The race will be the last for Dixon at CGR after 25-years with the team.
Live coverage of the 95-lap race starts at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.
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