Domination Station: Five Most Punishing Performances of 2026

Even with Alex Palou winning five NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships in the past six years, this field remains the most competitive group in motorsports.

Yet, there were race weekends where drivers and their teams dominated. Often, that was Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing, but not always.

Arrow McLaren had some of those events. Andretti Global and Team Penske did, as well.

Obviously, Palou had the most convincing victories, and stacking them together helped mount an 86-point advantage at season’s end. His drives in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (led 59 of the 100 laps and finished 12.4948 seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin) merited consideration for one of the best five of the season, as well as his winning effort from the pole in the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit (71 of 100 laps led).

Palou also had a streak of five consecutive poles from the Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway through the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, and that run of speed in qualifying was demoralizing to several of his challengers.

But Palou wasn’t the only driver who had a convincing weekend. One that didn’t make the season’s top five was Marcus Ericsson’s winning run for Andretti Global in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham, a 7.5305-second finish ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean on the new street circuit.

Only one performance on an oval track made the top five – more on that below – but it’s worth noting that Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden continued his prowess on shorter tracks, winning both the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway and the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Newgarden now has 20 oval victories in his INDYCAR SERIES career.

The top five most dominating performances in order of when they occurred during the year:

Alex Palou, Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix

This drive at Barber Motorsports Park was arguably the best of Palou’s efforts in a six-win season that resulted in a fifth championship. He won the NTT P1 Award for the first of what would be eight times during the year, and he effectively led the race wire to wire.

Palou kept the lead at the green flag, leading the first 43 laps before pitting. He then relinquished the lead a second time on Lap 65 when he scooted to pit road for fuel and tires, and in each instance, he only dropped to third place before quickly cycling back to the front as others pitted.

Palou led 79 of the 90 laps (87.8 percent).

Palou’s margin of victory over Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was a season-high 13.2775 seconds. Palou’s advantage at the end of the St. Petersburg race was the second-largest margin of the season.

Arrow McLaren, The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

Pato O’Ward and Lundgaard combined to lead 86 of the 90 laps (95.6 percent) at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the most significant beatdown by a single team during the season.

Lundgaard, who edged O’Ward for the pole, led the first 41 laps before O’Ward snuck past through a thrilling side-by-side battle set up by Lundgaard drifting wide in Turn 2. O’Ward effectively led the rest of the way, relinquishing the top spot briefly to pit.

Newgarden led Laps 49 and 50 while Andretti Global’s Will Power held the top spot on Laps 66 and 67.

The 1-2 finish was the first for Arrow McLaren in this series, and it was the first win for O’Ward in nearly a year since he won the 2025 street race in Toronto.

Kyle Kirkwood, Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.

Kirkwood delivered a masterful performance in the massively important new street race in the nation’s capital.

The Andretti Global driver qualified second behind Palou but jumped the reigning series champion on the opening lap en route to leading 128 of the 147 laps (87.1 percent).

Kirkwood’s domination was aided by the struggles of Palou and the accident of McLaughlin. While trying to hold the lead, McLaughlin hit the Turn 1 tire barrier on the restart at Lap 129.

Kirkwood’s margin of victory over Lundgaard was 3.0906 seconds. Kirkwood also won another of the season’s first-year street races, the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, although his lead at the finish of that race was only .3140 of a second over Palou.

Pato O’Ward, Snap-On INDYCAR Weekend

O’Ward won his second and third races of the season on the same Wisconsin day.

The Arrow McLaren driver combined to lead 174 of the 500 laps in the doubleheader (34.8 percent). His two margins of victory were .7916 of a second (over McLaughlin) and 1.7535 seconds (over Team Penske’s David Malukas).

The two wins gave three for his career at the historic Milwaukee Mile.

The last driver to sweep a doubleheader was Newgarden at Iowa Speedway in 2023.

Scott McLaughlin, Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey

McLaughlin saved his best for the last race of the season, and the virtual wire-to-wire victory at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca earned him his first victory in more than two years. His drought had been 36 races.

McLaughlin led a season-high 87 of the 95 laps from the pole (91.6 percent), although his margin of victory over Kirkwood didn’t necessarily reflect that dominance. It was only 1.3739 seconds.