The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season ended with what was perhaps the series’ least exciting visit to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in many years.
There were 160 passes, the fewest since 2021. Of those, 146 were for position, the second fewest since 2021. Many on social media questioned the logic of ending the season on a road course where passing is quite difficult and not at an oval where action is more often than not more plentiful.
And quite frankly, that should be an aim for IndyCar to end their season on an oval that is ideally closer to their fanbase instead of on a road course that has few passing zones.
But given the events of this past weekend, maybe IndyCar needed a weekend where on-track calamity wasn’t bombarding people on social media.
Let’s look at what drew the most clicks on social media. There was a Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West Race on Saturday morning where Manuel Gil Del Real’s car had brake issues on the way to the newly-renamed Zanardi Corkscrew.
Porsche North America released a statement that said Gil Del Real was conscious after the accident and was in hospital being treated for his injuries.
If this were the Price Is Right, Rod Roddy would now tell Indy NXT to “Come on down!” as they had their own kerfuffle of the weekend in their second race at WeatherTech Raceway.
Josh Pierson’s car had an issue during an upshift as the field approached the starting line. The resulting multi-car accident knocked the Saturday Indy NXT winner and Niels Koolen out of the race.
If one thinks the chaos was limited to WeatherTech Raceway, think again.
At the Formula 3 Sprint Race portion of the Italian Grand Prix weekend, one car caught fire with mechanical trouble and another went briefly airborne in an accident in close proximity.
In Formula 2, Joshua Duerksen’s car caught on fire after winning the feature race, sweeping the weekend in Italy. The Paraguayan driver had good humor about the situation in Parc Ferme.
Looking into the dirt racing world, a sprint car driver named Randy Years had some light contact with another driver on the backstretch at Land of Legends Raceway that sent the No. 2 machine onto a collision course with an infield wall.
The variety of unusual accidents from around the racing world saw carnage become almost expected on social media. In IndyCar’s season finale, the 25 full-time drivers got away with one accident of note during the race and not much else.
IndyCar ended the season with six races in a five-week span, with accelerated turnaround times on crews putting more pressure on drivers to not damage their cars. A majority of the drivers had contact that damaged their cars at some point over the marathon run to WeatherTech Raceway, so in this case let’s be glad that the mechanics didn’t have more work to do after Scott McLaughlin won his first race in two years.
Let’s give everyone some well-deserved time off, shall we?
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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