The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series schedule is out and has several surprises, with a return for a third attempt at a former tentpole facility, two new street courses and another doubleheader.
Like 2025, there are 17 races, with the season kicking off for the 15th time at St. Petersburg on March 1.
“Our growth is industry-leading and will only accelerate faster as we continue our powerful partnership with FOX Sports and increase investment in our events,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President and CEO Mark Miles said in a statement. “The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series schedule provides a dynamic showcase for our sport and its stars, blending fan-favorite race weekends with incredible showcases at exciting new venues. We cannot wait for 2026.”
Gone are doubleheaders at Iowa Speedway in June, races impacted by sponsor Hy-Vee pulling out in 2024, and a road course at the Thermal Club in California, which was a private club circuit.
New is the addition of a second unique doubleheader between the NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar at Phoenix Raceway March 7 and the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys supported Grand Prix of Arlington a week later (March 15).
The doubleheader at Phoenix returns the 1-mile oval that had long been a mainstay on IndyCar schedule dating to 1964, and is being revived for a third time, the last race run in 2018. This will be the first time a NASCAR Cup/IndyCar doubleheader is done at an oval, two years after the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course weekend concluded. Like at IMS, IndyCar will run on the same day as the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
With the two new races, both in March, IndyCar will maintain momentum early in the season with a full month of racing.
“We’re going to kickstart the season in fitting fashion, with four races in five weeks,” INDYCAR President J. Douglas Boles said. “Our joint weekend in partnership with NASCAR and FOX at Phoenix Raceway will be a can’t-miss for motorsport fans across the country and a truly special celebration of fast, fearless racing across the motorsport landscape.”
Absent from the calendar is Mexico City, which was in contention to making the final cut, but INDYCAR announced on Saturday (Sept. 13) that a deal could not be reached for 2026. Instead, the series is bringing back a doubleheader at Milwaukee to reach the desired 17-race benchmark after doing similar in 2024.
Other changes include the previously announced move of the Toronto Indy from downtown to the suburb of Markham. Nashville Superspeedway loses its valuable season finale slot but is now inserted into the primetime window following Fox’s broadcast of the World Cup Final on July 19. In its former place, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca returns to its season finale position like it was in 2022 and 2023.
The Sunday primetime World Wide Technology Raceway event returns on June 7, joining Nashville as night races.
All races will once again be aired exclusively on Fox.
| Date | Venue |
| Sunday, March 1 | Streets of St. Petersburg |
| Saturday, March 7 | Phoenix Raceway |
| Sunday, March 15 | Streets of Arlington |
| Sunday, March 29 | Barber Motorsports Park |
| Sunday, April 19 | Streets of Long Beach |
| Saturday, May 9 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course |
| Sunday, May 24 | The 110th Indianapolis 500 |
| Sunday, May 31 | Streets of Detroit |
| Sunday, June 7 | World Wide Technology Raceway |
| Sunday, June 21 | Road America |
| Sunday, July 5 | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course |
| Sunday, July 19 | Nashville Superspeedway |
| Sunday, Aug. 9 | Portland International Raceway |
| Sunday, Aug. 16 | Streets of Markham |
| Saturday, Aug. 29 | Milwaukee Mile Race 1 |
| Sunday, Aug. 30 | Milwaukee Mile Race 2 |
| Sunday, Sept. 6 | WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca |
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.
Glad to see Thermal is off the schedule. Annoying seeing very few seating areas, and the few attendees being the rich people who own and live around the track.
If the racing had been exceptional, I’d be fine to overlook the surroundings, but it was boring.
Clearly, this track was designed so the entitled folk can play with their vehicular toys without possibly damaging cars or Darwining themselves. As such, the track is a soulless bore, with zero character.
I don’t begrudge people their success, but I also don’t care to see poor quality racing, with only the top 1% in attendance.
Have you seen pricing for an F1 weekend? I digress, at least F1 has seating and tickets available for us plebians if we manage to scrape up enough to purchase them. lol
Joking aside, it is a shame what happened at Iowa. I didn’t necessarily need a double header there, but usually the racing was decent. My preference would have been to keep one Iowa race (properly market it and get fans back) and only one race at Milwaukee. Guess I’ve never been a big fan of double-header weekends. Not sure why.
I hope Phoenix with NASCAR doesn’t have the same result they had at Texas – where NASCAR track prep / rubber interfered with the performance of the Indycars.
Totally agree about F1 pricing. I looked into it last season, and eventually thought “nope”. Way too many fun things I could do with that sort of cash. I will say it’s a little different, as F1 seems to sell out every race, whereas Indycar is begging for fans, and is comparatively a great deal.
I even got excited for the Vegas race, as one of the casinos offered me a package at a steep discount. (My bride and I enjoy casinos, but always within our means, and never exceed our fun money budget.) But even that was pricey, and the track view would have been like watching bumblebees through a mail slot. Plus, Vegas would have been a mad house for that week. Pass.
I’m sad about Iowa as well. I have in-laws near the track, and had considered rolling a visit to them in with an Indycar race. Alas, it is not to be. I thought racing at Iowa was always good as well, and it’s telling how attendance fell off a cliff when promoting the race fell from HyVee to Penske. Not a good look for Penske.
Maybe one of these days they’ll have an event at VIR, which is an easy day trip for me. That track is amazing, and I think Indycar would put on a good show there, if they beefed up the infrastructure a bit to support it.
I actually like doubleheaders, though to watch on TV, not attend. More racing? Yes, please! I’m glad F1 added more sprint races for next year, though I know most drivers hate it.