Mid-season performance grades are so in the past. With July starting up, let’s give the teams of the NTT IndyCar Series grades on how they’ve done at the midway point of the calendar year.
Yes, I know that 10 of 18 races have taken place. Look at the calendar, folks. Not mid-season, mid-calendar.
Now, let’s look at our full season IndyCar teams in alphabetical order and grade them on their performance so far in 2026.
AJ Foyt Enterprises: C+
With the Team Penske technical alliance continuing in 2026, it’s easy to think that the team would continue their 2025 form. Instead, Santino Ferrucci‘s had a pair of eighth place finishes to go along with a ninth and is 17th in points. Caio Collet had a strong run going at both Indianapolis and at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway but mechanical failure took the rookie out of the hunt from a near-certain top-10 finish.
The flashes of brilliance have been brief but they need to be sustained for better results.
Andretti Global: B+
The fact that Kyle Kirkwood is the only Andretti Global driver to have a win in 2026 shouldn’t be a surprise, but Marcus Ericsson‘s return of form has been a good surprise this season. It’s uncertain if that will be enough to keep the Swede with the Andretti stable in 2027, but only time will tell.
For Will Power, however, 2026 has been a roller coaster. A pair of thirds and an eighth are the only bright spots for the two-time IndyCar champion as all of his other results are 12th or worse. The Australian has been the bug more often than the windshield this season and will be looking for more in the final eight races to move up from 14th in points.
Arrow McLaren: B
Through 10 races, Christian Lundgaard is the only Arrow McLaren driver to be on the podium with two wins, a second and a third. Yeah, I don’t blame you for going to Wikipedia to fact check that last sentence before continuing to read, but it’s true.
Pato O’Ward has six top-five finishes split evenly between fourth and fifth places and is fifth in points, but good fortune has escaped the Mexican racer at the end of races in 2026. As for Nolan Siegel, another year of frustration continues as the California native has one top-10 finish so far and was looking good for another top-10 at Road America before being taken out on the last lap by Josef Newgarden.
O’Ward has won at Mid-Ohio before, maybe a podium is on the cards this coming weekend.
Chip Ganassi Racing: A
In numerical order, Kyffin Simpson has been okay as the third driver at Chip Ganassi Racing. The Cayman Islands native has a fourth at Road America paired with a ninth and two 10th place finishes to be 16th in points. That position likely would be higher had he not run out of fuel at Gateway in June and didn’t get towed back to pit road.
Scott Dixon is 10th in points, his cause not helped by having one top five finish all season so far with a third at Long Beach back in April. As for Alex Palou, the championship leader has a 60-point cushion on David Malukas in second place, and based on the tracks remaining on the schedule, it might not be a bad idea to start engraving the Spaniard’s name on the Astor Cup.
Dale Coyne Racing: C-
Romain Grosjean and Dennis Hauger started off the 2026 IndyCar season well at Dale Coyne Racing with a double top-10 result for the Chicago-based squad. That’s about as good as it got for the team through 10 races. Grosjean failed to start at Phoenix while Hauger failed to start at Gateway. Grosjean got taken out at Arlington and Detroit while Hauger got a pit road speeding penalty at the Indianapolis 500 that took him out of Rookie of the Year contention.
Time will tell if things can get better for the fighting minnows.
Ed Carpenter Racing: C+
Four top 10 finishes for Alexander Rossi doesn’t tell the whole story of the No. 20 Chevrolet. After qualifying in the middle of the front row at Indianapolis, a crash in the post-qualifying practice session injured the California native’s foot enough to require crutches. Despite that, a sixth place finish at Road America to go along with his other three top-10 finishes was a great reward after qualifying shotgun on the field.
Christian Rasmussen is an interesting story. Mechanical failures sidelined the Dane at Arlington, both Indianapolis races and Road America while a crash at Detroit had a similar effect. Finishing third at Gateway was a great result to salvage from a massively unforgiving part of the season, but there always will be the one win that got away in Phoenix after late race contact wounded the No. 21 Chevrolet.
Juncos Hollinger Racing: C
Rinus VeeKay‘s fourth-place finish at Gateway to go along with his sixth-place finish at Indianapolis have been the major highlights for the team co-owned by Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger. VeeKay is currently 13th in points for a team that hasn’t yet been able to make the push to get closer to the front of the field.
As for Sting Ray Robb, he’s currently last in points with a best finish of 14th in Detroit. Not much to write home about.
Meyer Shank Racing: A
An Indianapolis 500 win will do a lot for a team’s morale, and after losing at Long Beach in such heartbreaking fashion, Felix Rosenqvist gave the team a lot of momentum heading into the second half of the season.
Wait, what’s that news coming in? Oof, Rosenqvist is leaving the team after the 2026 season is over. There are a couple of suitors out there for the Swede’s services, so we’ll see where he winds up.
As for Marcus Armstrong, the Christchurch, New Zealand native has had a better season than his 11th place position in points would indicate. Armstrong led at the white flag this year at Indianapolis but finished fifth and a near-certain podium at Road America was dashed away when his engine failed within the race’s final three laps.
Armstrong is a Chip Ganassi Racing employee racing for Meyer Shank Racing as the teams have a technical alliance but it’s unknown if Armstrong will remain with the Meyer Shank team for 2027.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: B-
Graham Rahal was about three quarters of a mile away from his fourth podium finish of the season. Instead, a crash put the Ohio native against the wall at Canada Corner. Putting it bluntly, this is the best season Rahal’s had for a long while. Louis Foster scored the first top-10 finish of his career at the Indianapolis road course in May and backed it up with another seventh in Detroit.
Mick Schumacher hasn’t had the best time in IndyCar so far, but there was a flash of brilliance at the Indianapolis road course before a late collision with Ferrucci earned the Swiss-born German a drive-through penalty, dropping him from a near-certain top-10 result.
Team Penske: B
Josef Newgarden doubled his win total from 2025 before July began, but four finishes of 14th or worse have the Tennessee native mired down in eighth in points. Scott McLaughlin has two podiums and is one point ahead of Newgarden in points, but hasn’t won an IndyCar race since the second race of the Milwaukee doubleheader in 2024.
David Malukas has been the star of the team despite not winning a race. He is second in points despite not winning a race. Four podiums and eight top-10s so far have put the Team Penske newcomer in a good position heading to Mid-Ohio, a track Malukas has had good days at before.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
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