In tribute to George Barber. May he rest in peace.
IM101, it’s been too long. Actually, I’m lying, it’s been about as short an off-season as I can ever remember… unless you’re an IndyCar fan! Welcome back to The Haters’ Guide, where I, Dre “Buc Nasty” Harrison, preview everything important heading into the 2026 season. A calendar guide, changes to the series, and a team-by-team breakdown of the grid. So without further ado, here we go:
A Calendar Change
So, IndyCar’s added an 18th race to the 2026 schedule at the 11th hour – A race around Washington D.C’s Capitol building, The Freedom 250, celebrating the 250th anniversary of America, is official for August 23rd.
It now means that IndyCar finishes its 26’ season with a QUINTUPLE header, and six races in its final five weeks, given Milwaukee is a double-header across the weekend. Even with IndyCar’s lighter domestic-only schedule, that is going to be teams bolting across the country on the road for over a month straight. Not fun.
And then there’s the political nature of it. For those people who seem to insist that Sports and Politics don’t intertwine, well… What do you call this shit? I’ve had no problem for years saying that IndyCar is more Republican politically than many care to admit. From the Andretti family’s donations, to Rahal, Ferrucci, Alex Rossi and others all making statements directly and indirectly via social media. I get it, no-one’s going to speak ill of the money when IndyCar is a small domestic series that needs all the publicity it can get. I mean, how many non-500 viewers does it have on average? About 900,000?
But when Roger Penske (A huge Trump/Republican donor and majority owner of a series now 1/3rd owned by FOX), is writing open letters that could easily be described as bootlicking a deplorable, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic President ordering the gunning down of innocent civilians via frozen water, while being the clubhouse leader in the Epstein Files, it’s a horrendous look from a series that desperately needs to read the room. IndyCar fans are the most devout and loyal in all the Motorsport fandoms I regularly watch, and yet IndyCar continues to do a stellar job in alienating that small audience.
Borrowing some thoughts from my 2025 Season Review here:
- Good move to frontload March. I wouldn’t normally say “open the season with a Triple Header”, but they had to do something to counter the lull after the opening round in early March, it was a complete momentum killer for the series. April now only has one race with Long Beach on the 19th, but better that than taking a month out for the sodding Thermal Club. Gonna be weird watching Barber in March, mind. Earliest it’s ever been. Also, the GP of Arlington makes its debut in March. IndyCar street tracks don’t do much for me but I hope to be proven wrong.
- Phoenix is back for Round 2 on March 7th, and it’s going to be a Saturday Night race as they’re doubling up with NASCAR’s Cup Series over the weekend. I’ve never been sure what twinning with NASCAR does for IndyCar itself specifically besides giving fans a better deal? It always feels like NASCAR throwing IndyCar a bone than vice versa. And did anyone really ask for Phoenix back? From what I remember of its last time out, it was a bit of a damp squib for actual action.
- Was there any good reason to swap Nashville and Laguna Seca to make the latter the finale again? Iowa has also been scrapped, which was no real surprise; it never recovered from HyVee moving to partner NASCAR instead alongside the horrible lack of regional promotion work. On the contrary, Milwaukee’s done pretty well since coming back, so it made sense for them to go back to doubling up. Toronto’s also moving their race over to Markham permanently after the Exhibition Centre is busy hosting the 2026 World Cup. A real shame such a staple part of the calendar and the only race outside of the US right now is moving.
Indy 500 Part-Timers
We’ve already got some confirmed names for the Indy 500 in May as part-timers. McLaren has announced the big one so far with Ryan Hunter-Reay moving into the Papaya and Black for the month of May. DRR-Cusick have retained Jack Harvey in the #24 car, but we’re not sure if it’ll be just one entry or two. Ed Carpenter is back for another run in his #33 car. Helio Castroneves has confirmed he’ll also be back with his part-owner Meyer Shank #06 car, he’ll be two weeks into his 52nd year of life by the time the green flag flies.
There’s strong talks that Colton Herta is trying to put together a programme so he can run the 500 in the #98 Andretti car given there’s no F2 races in May but nothing confirmed yet. Katherine Legge is also trying to put a programme together, but no firm plans yet. So as it stands, we’re at 31 entries, so no bump day, and with one team’s presence very much up in the air, we’re due for a grid that doesn’t contain 33 cars for the first time since 1997.
Honda’s Back? Honda’s Back!
As I was writing this section on February 10th, Marshall Pruett of Racer.com reported that both Chevrolet and Honda have agreed to continue on as engine suppliers for the series beyond 2026. While the contract length is unknown, general knowledge has it down as a three-year deal, which will take them into 2028 and their new car, and a new 2.4 litre twin-turbo hybrid V6.
Penske Entertainment had to throw Honda a big ol’ bone for them to stick around (Both they and Chevy are spending somewhere between 13 and 17 million dollars a year on their programs), and they’ve given both them and Chevy charters to stay in the series. It means they can have an additional entry on the grid for themselves, or in tandem with another team that doesn’t have three cars already on the grid. So potentially, that means ECR, Meyer Shank, AJ Foyt Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing could all help run a factory team in the future.
For Penske Entertainment, that’s an inherently huge amount of value they’ve tossed out there, but it probably had to be done to make sure Honda stayed. If Honda goes, the series is in serious trouble. Call it a necessary evil for the greater good.
Code: An Indy 500 Victory 🏆 / A Series Title ⭐/ Rookie 🔰 / Brackets = 2025 Championship Position
Prema Racing?
As I write this on February 13th 2026, Prema Racing is no longer a team listed on IndyCar’s website. Their entire status as a team has been up in the air since Christmas, and it’s come down to fans and journalists to piece together what’s happened given Prema across the board has put out no public statement about anything in regards to their sketchy status.
Here’s what we do know. Deborah Mayer, head of Prema’s parent company, DC Racing Solutions, was in severe debt in 2025 to the point they were selling old showcars. Why? They couldn’t afford to throw money at racing anymore. This, with rumours swirling she tried to buy the Racing Bulls and Kick Sauber F1 teams at certain points, and that she was prepared to lose $50m a year on an IndyCar program after F1 kicked her to the kerb.
Iron Dames, their all-women racing team is effectively dead, amongst other scalebacks. Last month, the Rosin family, who co-founded the team back in 1983, left the company.
According to Marshall Pruett, the team has been effectively living hand-to-mouth since last May, and DCRS have shut off all funding. CEO Piers Phillips has been trying since November to get new ownership at a discount or find ways of raising funding, but they’ve seemingly fallen on deaf ears. And seemingly, they’ve now missed the deadline to pay for their 2026 engine leases. It feels like it’s game over.
There’s talk that someone has bought the leftovers and will be converting the team into a one-car entry. Callum Illot has another full-time gig lined up with Wright Motorsports as one of their GTD Drivers already, but we don’t know what this means yet for 2025 Indy 500 polesitter Robert Schwartzmann.
The whole thing is just saddening, and it goes hand-in-hand with an IndyCar management move that made investing in the series virtually impossible.
I said from Day 1 that only having 25 charters for a potential 27-car field was the series’ polite way of telling folks to sod off unless they were prepared to be guaranteed to lose money. Prema pushed on regardless, but unless someone else was prepared to sell theirs, it was always going to be a question of “when” rather than “if”. This is the state of IndyCar, and keeping the boys club afloat has become its priority.
Dale Coyne Racing
#18 – TBA Romain Grosjean (17th in 2024 Season)
#19 – Dennis Hauger 🔰 (2025 IndyNXT Champion)
Would it be a Hater’s Guide to the 2026 IndyCar Series without opening with Dale Coyne and seeing a TBA next to where you’d expect a Driver’s name?
Let’s get the classic DCR tropes out of the way. Dale’s been chipping away with his team for some time now. He finally had a stable driver lineup in 2025 with Rinus Veekay and Jacob Abel, but they still couldn’t avoid back-to-back Indy 500 bumpings, and Abel was delightful in the paddock but ultimately poor. To make matters worse, Veekay left the team at the end of the year, wanting to aim bigger… but ended up at Juncos.
So Dale has to start again, and he’s snagged a big hitter on the up-and-up. Dennis Hauger, last year’s IndyNXT champ and the next European who didn’t quite make F1. He won six times in NXT in 2025 and only finished off the podium three times, ahead of Caio Collet and Lochie Hughes. It also comes with an Andretti technical alliance, which could help with setups to bridge the gap for a team that’s struggled just about everywhere, especially on ovals.
The other seat? Up in the air. It’s not helped that their new main sponsor is crypto-lover Todd Ault, whose reputation is sketchy when it comes to actually ponying up. It seems to be holding off on the sport’s worst kept secret, that Romain Grosjean is coming home to finish what he started, but it still isn’t official.
If that is the lineup, it’s a strong one for likely the bottom-ranked team on paper going into St Pete with potential to grow. I want it to be a stable one for DCR. Rinus Veekay had some exceptional performances there in the short-term that proved it can be done, but Hauger seems destined for the #28 Andretti to replace Marcus Ericsson if he has a decent rookie campaign, and just how long is Grosjean going to keep racing full-time, given he’s entering his age-40 season?
…I’ll edit this paragraph if it’s anyone other than RoGro in the seat. Keep expectations low and be consistent and that would be enough for me out of DCR. At least they probably don’t have a Bump Day to worry about this time.
Update on February 13th: HA, knew it!
Juncos Hollinger Racing
#76 – Rinus Veekay (14th)
#77 – Sting Ray Robb (25th)
Juncos were somewhat one-trick ponies in 2025. Conor Daly was a Top 10 driver in the series… on ovals. He had four Top 10 finishes on them last season, but was also one of the worst drivers in the field on tracks that turned left. He gave it the big one about his teammate head-to-head, but the lack of funding and underwhelming overall results meant he’s gone.
Juncos gave it the big one that he didn’t want to have to rely on paying drivers anymore, and he made a big snag of Rinus Veekay after the Dutchman left Dale Coyne in another surprise move. I’ve said before that RvK is a really solid driver who a bigger team should take a punt on, but I worry that Veekay won’t land on a good enough team to convince those places to take a chance on him. We saw Callum Illot manage Top 5’s at his best on road courses with Juncos, and we saw that they were really strong on ovals last year, Veekay’s speciality. Put it all together, and there’s potential for a Top 10 campaign here, in my opinion.
Sting Ray Robb is also here. Juncos seemingly tried to wiggle out from underneath his two-year deal but failed to do so. Look, he’s a paying driver who doesn’t take himself seriously, but he now might be the slowest driver in the series. It is what it is. Juncos are clearly having to bite the bullet on that, which is a shame.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
#15 – Graham Rahal (19th)
#45 – Louis Foster (22nd / 2025 Rookie of the Year)
#47 – Mick Schumacher 🔰 (16th in World Endurance Championship in 2025)
RLL had another really messy year in 2025. Jay Frye took over as team CEO after a decade as IndyCar’s President, and the team slid further down the pecking order. They weren’t quite as poor at ovals, but their road and street game just wasn’t there besides the usual flash in the pan at the Indy Road Course, and Louis Foster’s admittedly impressive pole position at Road America.
They no longer run the BMW Hypercar team in IMSA (That belongs to WRT now), so there’s really no excuse for the amount of resources they have, and have brought in for 2026, including ex-Prema Driver coach Ryan Briscoe. You’ve got three cars, and three high upside drivers, they should not be peaking at 19th in the standings.
Graham Rahal has never gelled with the hybrid IndyCar’s extra weight and he’s been on a six-year skid in terms of Championship position. While I think his continuation in the series is ultimately his choice, it’s hard not to speculate as to where his career is going.
Louis Foster’s form I think was actually stronger than his results showed. That Road America pole went nowhere due to other people’s driving rather than his own, and I think he’s Top 15 level with a bit more seasoning, but it’s an important season to see where he’s at overall as a driver.
And then there’s the new boy – Mick Schumacher. The former Haas F1 and Alpine WEC Driver was desperate for a return to single-seater racing, and the opportunity presented itself. Mick was really starting to look great at Alpine, so I’m disappointed he was so quick to depart (He really didn’t want to be there, from what I’ve been told), but that begs the question as to just what Mick is at this point in his career. Adapting to IndyCar is often tricky; he’s never raced ovals, and let’s be frank, this is not a good team. I think Leader’s Circle and making the 500 would be a very solid rookie target, even if it isn’t sexy.
RLL needs to give me something to have me stop thinking this is still a rebuild. Anything. Please, god fuc-
Ed Carpenter Racing
#20 – Alexander Rossi 🏆 (15th)
#21 – Christian Rasmussen (13th)
ECR x Splenda Daddy Racing had a… pretty mediocre 2025 given the rebrand, big hype about selling half their charter for more investment and signing Alex Rossi with the extra cash. Rinus Veekay was jettisoned for finishing 14th in the standings too many times and in 2025 they averaged…14th. Ah.
There were positives, Christian Rasmussen won the team their first race in over 4 years and his oval prowess was exceptional. A genuine ace in the hole weapon for the 500 in future. But once again, we’ve got to ask, is Alex Rossi good enough to lead a time in 2026? He salvaged his season a little bit towards the end of 2025, but 15th overall I’m adamant is a below-par expectation for a driver with his history in the series. No big money signing’s target is 15th.
Christian Rasmussen’s still a very raw talent, and while his oval game was super strong, you’d think given how good he is in an LMP2, road and street courses would be his strength here, an element he needs to improve. I’m not going to even talk about Rossi because I sound like a broken record talking about how he’s just not what he was, and he’s just *there* now, really. The aim should be beating Foyt and getting a car into the Top 10. Speaking of…
AJ Foyt Enterprises
#4 – Caio Collet 🔰 (2025 IndyNXT Runner-Up)
#14 – Santino Ferrucci (16th)
An interesting 25’ for Foyt’s team. David Malukas was about as good as advertised, hovering around the Top 10 in points all year and scoring an Indy 500 runner-up finish, continuing their strong form in May, but despite a hot streak in the same month by Santino Ferrucci, he slipped out of his breakout 24’ season to finish at the bottom end of the midfield. There were fears that Michael Cannon may have been carrying Ferrucci at the forefront of the team before he left for DCR, and now Santino needs to figure out how to get back up the standings again. Even if the IndyCar promoters insist for the sixth year in a row that he’s your American superstar.
Alongside him is IndyNXT runner-up Caio Collet. He did a couple of years in the series and was pretty good right from the start, and he’s earned an opportunity in the main series, funding chat be damned. The problem is, Foyt’s now good enough where there’s a genuine expectation. This is a Top 10-level team now. We’ve seen it the last couple of years with Ferrucci and Malukas scoring podium finishes and hovering around that area on overall points. This is a team that’s still on the up, so is a car hovering in the high teens going to be acceptable now?
Oh, and they should still be a 500 threat too. I think this is the most potentially volatile team on the grid. They could be brilliant. They could also suck. They could also be Chevy’s factory team. Going to be interesting.
Meyer Shank Racing
#60 – Felix Rosenqvist (6th)
#66 – Marcus Armstrong (8th)
Big fan of MSR putting together the sort of season they always had the potential to have. The cynics will quickly mention that yes, they did use Chip Ganassi setups via their technical alliance, but you still have to execute and MSR did that in spades. Felix Rosenqvist was the personification of that with that, a former race winner and guys who’s had top end speed but never had a full season at his best, and his 2025 was that. And Marcus Armstrong backed him up with improvement on ovals, and him treating the Top 10 like the floor for over half the season.
MSR tied Armstrong down to another extension in the off-season and they’re just running everything back for 2026, and so they should. There’s going to be a little bit of fear that they’ve hit the ceiling with CGR being their main competitors and on paper having two drivers but better, but I don’t think Michael Shank is going to mind semi-regular podiums and a car in the Top 6. The next step, win a race for the first time in 5 years?
One more thing to note, Honda’s made it pretty clear that MSR is their first choice for their factory entry… could this be a three car team in 2027?
Andretti Global
#26 – Will Power 🏆⭐⭐(9th)
#27 – Kyle Kirkwood (4th)
#28 – Marcus Ericsson 🏆(20th)
Don’t let the name fool you. Andretti is dead, long live the Towriss era. And it’s showing already with that ghastly TWG AI branding across their IndyCar, Formula 1 and Formula E teams. Eww.
But we all know what we’re here for. Colton Herta, their face of the franchise after seven years in the series is gone as he heads to F2 and chases his dreams with Cadillac. But Andretti immediately made a play for the best free agent on the board – Will Power walking away from Team Penske after 17 years of service. From every interview and piece of media I’ve seen from the man since, he seems hungry and keen to get going. Hard not to be somewhat amped when almost everyone on the grid was competing for his signature bar McLaren… who wanted to keep Nolan Siegel. *coughs*
Lucky for him, he’s joining an Andretti team in a decent place. Three wins last year on street tracks and the oval of Gateway, all via Kyle Kirkwood. This is still Andretti so they got tossed from the 500, but there signs this team was back to something near its best. And for what they may be losing in Colton Herta, they’ve gained in Kirkwood. At his best, he was one of the very few who could genuinely keep Alex Palou in check. He’s gotten better year on year since entering the series and was fourth in points and arguably should have been more given how his season had a mini-collapse in the final third. The goal should be simple – mitigate mistakes and challenge for the title.
As for Marcus Ericsson – Give Andretti a reason not to let you go at the end of the season. 2025 was a disaster, compounded by his runner-up finish at the Indy 500 being taken away via technical disqualification. All he’s done at Andretti is prove Chip was right to back his guy initially and not pay the man what he thought he deserved. Ericsson’s definitely better than 20th in IndyCar, but he has to aim to get back into the Top 10 or else he might not be coming back.
But a lot of their season may hinge on not just Year 5 of Kirkwood, but the fair question – Just what is Will Power in his Age 45 season?
Team Cheaters Penske
#2 – Josef Newgarden 🏆🏆⭐⭐ (12th)
#3 – Scott McLaughlin (10th)
#12 – David Malukas (11th)
Penske are coming off arguably their worst season this century. Just two wins on the year, an embarrassing 500 including an attenuator being illegally tampered with, Scott McLaughlin crashing out of the race before it even started, having zero influence on the title whatsoever, and then forgetting to sign Will Power until he was so fed up he walked away.
Oh and remember Tim Cindric? He was fired from the team as a result of his second cheating scandal in as many years… only for the team to re-hire him as McLaughlin’s strategist in the off-season. Absolutely bizarre scenes.
With Will Power gone, it turns out the rumoured path to Penske was true, with David Malukas coming in from AJ Foyt to take his place. Malukas is an interesting hire. For all the talk about Kirkwood being the golden prospect of the Road to Indy, Malukas did run him close in NXT, and he’s always been a high upside prospect, especially on ovals. And he showed that once again in 2025 with a second place at the Indy 500 and challenging for the win in Iowa. Looked a little better on tracks that turned right too, he was good value for his league position. But this is a huge step up and Penske is going to be expecting him to be a Top 6 level title contender. I’m not fully convinced that Malukas has that big a step in him just yet, and I hope the team gives him time to bed in. Walking into a house with Newgarden and McLaughlin in it is no joke. At least in theory.
As for the fixtures, this is a hugely important year for Newgarden, in the last year of his contract and has been on a skid for three years now. Last season was easily his worst as a Penske driver and probably his worst pound-for-pound since his rookie year. Yes, there were elements of poor luck, such as being famously caught up in Louis Foster’s wreck in gateway, and of course, his 500 going to crap. But there were almost as many unforced errors, uncharacteristic for a driver of Josef’s quality. Will Roger Penske keep Josef around if it’s another year in the fringes of the Top 10?
I’m less concerned about McLaughlin but last year was a big step back from an IndyCar career that was growing from strength to strength. Scotty Mac was unlucky not to win the title in 2024, sinking to 10th was not the agenda. He still had some solid results, but that top-end punch that won him races in years past just wasn’t there. If his embarrassing 500 taught me anything, I think he just needs to get out of his own head and trust himself again. I watched his video blogs, it was a man who was very jokey and charismatic but also self-critical and hard on himself when the errors happened. A bit of that is healthy, too much might be spiralling. I’m no mental health expert, but it’s a theory I have.
At any level though, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think Penske was a midfield outfit given their driver line-up and 2025 results. Roger is not here for that shit. 2026 HAS to be better… right?
Arrow McLaren
#5 – Pato O’Ward (Runner-Up)
#6 – Nolan Siegel (22nd)
#7 – Christian Lundgaard (5th)
After years of McLaren cock-teasing their fans, 2025 was finally a season they could build on. Pato O’Ward looked the most complete he’s ever looked as an IndyCar driver, winning twice in Iowa and Toronto with really intelligent, measured drives and backing it up with solid results just about everywhere. It was very Scott Dixon-esque, where even if the Qualifying wasn’t great, or there was a setback, he didn’t panic like in years past, got his head down and next thing you know, he’s in the Top 10. It was a Championship level season, if Alex Palou didn’t exist. It’s hard to ask Pato for much more really – Keep doing what you’re doing and hope the opportunities come.
McLaren also finally got backup in Christian Lundgaard living up to the billing as the big money move from Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Fifth in the points, could have easily been third and everything but a win, including the fight of the year with Alex Palou at the Thermal Club. A win would be nice to go along with more of the same superb consistency, remember that no-one else at McLaren has since Pato’s become the guy.
The elephant in the room here is Nolan Siegel. He was arguably the worst driver in the series pound-for-pound in 2025 given he was in a McLaren. Yes, it’s only his second season and he has elite competition in his own backyard, but he needed to show something to get me excited and he just… didn’t. Just two Top 10’s across the year.
This was the alleged “can’t miss talent” that Tony Kanaan said he’d sack himself for if it didn’t work out, over David Malukas, Theo Pourchaire, Callum Illot, and rejecting the chance to sign Will Power. And TK knows he’s in hot water, saying publicly that Siegel has to finish Top 10 in points this year or else he can’t save him. Asking any driver in IndyCar to be tracking there after 20 career starts is a big ask – Only Scott McLaughlin of recent times has managed that, and we all know he’s a freak talent.
McLaren, now from Andretti’s old building, have all the tools and resources to challenge and win on all fronts. Now’s the year to sign the cheque. And if not, you gotta get a third quality driver in the #6.
Chip Ganassi Racing
#8 – Kyffin Simpson (17th)
#9 – Scott Dixon 🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3rd)
#10 – Alex Palou 🏆⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Champion)
And now, the reigning Champions, who have also retained their lineup from 2025, and why wouldn’t they? Everything came up “Milhouse” for CGR with their first Indy 500 win since 2022, and a season where they could ride Alex Palou home in what was arguably the greatest individual IndyCar season ever – 8 wins, 6 poles, and a record 711 points.
Kyffin Simpson’s finishing position of 17th was only a marginal gain over 2024, but it was a congested midfield in the series last year, and he did show flashes of greatness towards the end of the year, with his first podium in Toronto, and Top 6 finishes in Detroit, Road America and Nashville. If he can get his “floor up” and score Top 10’s a little more often to compliment that, he’ll be fine. He’s definitely shown enough for me to say: “Sure, another year can’t hurt.”
And that’s because of their main two hitters. SIR Scott Dixon is 46 in July, and Year 26 as a full-time competitor in top-tier American single-seaters. Between CART, Champ Car and now, he’s at 414 career starts, a remarkable achievement. Remarkable. And he still finished third in the points last season despite just one win and some ropey Quali results by just mitigating mistakes and driving smartly. He’ll never admit it, but I think he accepts he’s the #2 driver in the team now and is just going to drive until he doesn’t enjoy it anymore, and honestly, that’s okay. Dixon is a CGR lifer and as long as the wheels don’t completely fall off, it’ll work. I think Dixon’s final career target, if he has one left – Is a second 500 win. If he gets that, is he truly the GOAT?
And then there’s Alex Palou. Who’s having arguably the greatest five-year stretch that IndyCar’s had since Dario Franchitti, and he was a decade older at the peak of his powers. There’s not much to say here. He’s the best in the series, maybe the best in the world, he has no real weakness in his game anymore, and he can point you with consistency and beat you over the head with key victories when he needs to. Just tell him to keep doing what he’s doing and there’s every chance he doubles up again.
Again, CGR has everything on point. Downsizing from five to three cars last year did them the world of good and let them focus on what mattered, and they have a strong all-round setup where only short ovals are even a small weakness (And Palou even won there too). If Kyffin trends in the right direction, there’s nothing this team can’t do.
Dre’s Picks:
Breakout Star of the Year: Louis Foster – I’ve been keen on Louis from his rookie year in Indy NXT and even though RLL isn’t in a great place, his pole at Road America for me was a sign that he has serious speed to unlock and I think a second year there, with a three-year extension under his belt will give him the security to cut loose.
Indy 500 Winner: Pato O’Ward – It HAS to be his time by now, surely? As said, McLaren’s had a car capable of winning this race from Day 1. Pato has always had the speed to win it, but lacked the racecraft and nous, but I really think he’s turned a corner this year and become a more well-rounded driver. This is the one, right?
Astor Cup Winner: Alex Palou – Until I see evidence suggesting otherwise, it’s Palou’s to lose. He’s just one of the best drivers in the world, point blank and can win any race put in front of him.
Remember, the season starts on March 1st in St Pete, and it’s being shared with NASCAR who are running Trucks. James Hinchcliffe will be in one of them too, ain’t that nice. See you then and check back next week for the next Hater’s Guide – MotoGP.