Media credit: Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski
IndyCar dropped the curtain on the 2025 season yesterday at Nashville, and the long winter begins.
It’s 181 days until the 2026 opener at St. Pete, but who’s counting? Yeah, I know, we all are.
Here’s what’s weird: it’s been more than 200 days since the Super Bowl, and the NFL season kicks off this Thursday night. Why does their off-season seem so short, and IndyCar’s so long?
Probably because the NFL is talked about every day of the year. Just like MLB and the NBA. Meanwhile, IndyCar goes almost completely dark. Off-season content, people, we’d eat it up.
Anyway, yesterday’s race was a lot like Milwaukee’s last week, one driver dominated a significant part of the race, but things got a bit exciting from there.
Last week it was Alex Palou dominating the race until being passed by Christian Rasmussen, who pulled away to capture his first IndyCar victory. Sunday, polesitter Pato O’Ward led 116 laps before crashing just after the midway point of the race.
From there on to the finish, seven different drivers led laps, with Josef Newgarden taking the lead at lap 205 and rolling on to his first win of the year.
Let’s recap.
Who impressed me
Newgarden. Up until yesterday, his season had been a disaster. It’s hard to believe he’d only had two podiums heading into the weekend, and had been eliminated from championship contention somewhere around the Indy 500. Sunday was vintage Newgarden on an oval as he won for the 11th straight year and 32nd time overall, moving him into solo 10th on the all-time wins list. The last two weeks were more the style of Team Penske, with Newgarden and teammate Scott McLaughlin (who finished third Sunday) finding the podium in both races.
Kyffin Simpson. After finishing third in Toronto, Simpson had three straight finishes of P20 or worse. Last week at Milwaukee, he looked lost and finished a lap down in 20th. Kyffin’s result impressed me, but what put him on this list was his late-race battle with McLaughlin, where they went wheel-to-wheel over the course of the closing laps. It was good, hard racing that left McLaughlin very complimentary of Simpson’s racecraft. Simpson, who finished fourth Sunday, scored 100 more points this season and moved from 22nd in the standings to 17th, so we’ll see what he has in store for Year 3.
Conor Daly. Conor did what he does best — puts on a show on an oval. His P5 result Sunday (after starting 24th) was his best of the season, and came a week after a disappointing P13 at Milwaukee, where he was in the mix up front most of the day. Not surprisingly, all four of his top 10 finishes this season came on ovals.
who struggled
Christian Rasmussen. Last week was the good as he won his first IndyCar race, and Sunday was both the bad and the ugly, as his race lasted all of about five seconds before he hit the wall in Turn 2. Still, he was much improved in season two with Ed Carpenter Racing, almost doubling his point total from last year and finishing 13th in points, two spots higher than teammate Alexander Rossi.
Will Power. I don’t know if the final decision has been made as to whether or not he will remain with Team Penske for 2026, but if it came down to the wire, his last two races didn’t help his cause. After being in the hunt before crashing out at Milwaukee and finishing P26, Power was once again running up front before blowing his race in the pits, hitting a tire and drawing a drive-through penalty, then stalling his car twice and losing three laps. I absolutely hate all of this for him, Power isn’t a good driver, he’s a great driver, and as I said a couple of posts ago, there isn’t a driver in the paddock on a mid-tier team that could take a promotion to the No. 12 car and do better. That’s absolute nonsense.
Graham Rahal. Qualified 22nd, drove in circles for 220 laps, and finished 21st. Finished 19th in points with seven finishes worse than P20, and 11 in his last 22 races. Yikes.
That’s a wrap on 2025, at least on track. I’m not done writing, and Abby and I have lots to say, we just can’t get our schedules together to say it! We’ll figure it out soon, but in the meantime, thanks for reading and listening!
Your INDYCAR Experience 