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INDIANAPOLIS – The 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 is set for Sunday. Here are 33 things to know about the race:
1. With Robert Shwartzman not being in this year's race, it will mark the first time since 2005 that the previous year's pole winner isn't competing. Buddy Rice, who won the pole and the race in 2004, was not cleared to race after crashing and suffering a concussion and back injury in practice in 2005. Shwartzman won't be in this year's race as Prema Racing's IndyCar program has paused due to a lack of financial backing. Shwartzman will be the 17th pole winner to not make the next race, and five of those instances came due to a driver's death before the next race.
2. Alex Palou will be this year's pole sitter, which he accomplished for the second time in his career. Palou has won three poles and three races this year, as he leads IndyCar's championship race and looks to four-peat as an IndyCar champion and repeat as the Indy 500 champion.
3. The six drivers starting on the front two rows represent six different teams: Chip Ganassi Racing (Alex Palou), Ed Carpenter Racing (Alexander Rossi), Team Penske (David Malukas), Meyer Shank Racing (Felix Rosenqvist), AJ Foyt Racing (Santino Ferrucci) and Arrow McLaren (Pato O'Ward).
4. Pato O'Ward remains in search of his first Indy 500 win as he enters his seventh race, all with Arrow McLaren. The Mexican fan favorite has finished on the podium in three of the last four years, including devastating 2nd-place finishes in 2022 and 2024. O'Ward is yet to be on the podium this year.
5. Katherine Legge is back in the Indy 500 after not securing a ride for last year's race. Legge will attempt 'The Double' on race day, driving in the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day. Legge will drive for HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing in the Indy 500, and she'll enter the Coke 600 with Live Fast Motorsports. Both cars are Chevrolets.
6. Andretti Global is still in search of its first Indy 500 win since Takuma Sato in 2017. Sato's win capped a run of Andretti Global (then Andretti Autosport) winning the race three times in four years, as Ryan Hunter-Reay won in 2014 and Alexander Rossi in 2016. As the team transitions in its second season under the ownership of TWG Motorsports and the first year of Will Power's multiyear deal as a driver, it will look to capture the Borg-Warner trophy again.
7. With Marco Andretti, who retired after last year's Indy 500, no longer in a seat for Andretti Global, this will be the first Indy 500 since 1957 without an Andretti, Foyt or Unser in the race. A.J. Foyt IV's last race was in 2009 and Al Unser Jr.'s last was in 2007. The three families combined for 196 starts and 14 wins in the Indy 500.
8. Will Power enters his first Indy 500 with Andretti Global. The 2018 Indy 500 champion hasn't finished inside the top 10 since 2019, when he placed 5th. Power had seven top-10 finishes in his first 12 Indy 500 starts. The 45-year-old will look to reverse his fortunes in the race back to what they were to start his career.
9. Kyle Kirkwood enters his fifth career Indy 500 and fourth for Andretti Global. Kirkwood is in the midst of his best and most consistent IndyCar season, as he trails only Palou in the championship standings. Kirkwood, who started 23rd last year, had his best on-track finish (6th) in the Indy 500 last year before a post-race technical inspection bumped him and teammate Marcus Ericsson to the bottom of the official results.
10. Marcus Ericsson's Andretti Global tenure has been less than ideal. The 2022 Indy 500 champion hasn't finished top 10 in the championship in his first two years with the team, and he currently sits 12th after exiting the last two races with mechanical issues.
11. Mick Schumacher will be the first driver representing Germany to race in the Indy 500 since 1923, when a trio of Germans — Max Sailer, Christian Werner, and Christian Lautenschlager — started in the race. Sailer had the best day of the three, finishing 8th. Jochen Rindt, who was German-born but represented Austria, drove in 1967 and 1968. Schumacher was born and raised in Switzerland but has German citizenship through his parents.
12. Fellow rookie Dennis Hauger will be the first driver representing Norway in the Indy 500. Nicknamed the "Norwegian Nightmare," the 23-year-old is 19th in the standings and leads the IndyCar Rookie of the Year race this year. Norwegian-born driver Gil Andersen raced in the first six Indy 500s from 1911 to 1916, but Andersen had dual citizenship and represented the United States.
13. Caio Collet, the third full-time rookie in the field, will start in 32nd after he and Jack Harvey failed post-qualifying tech inspections for modifications made to Dallara's Energy Management System (EMS) covers. Collet was on track to run away with the Indy 500's Rookie of the Year award, but now it's back up for grabs.
14. Jacob Abel, the fourth and final Indy 500 rookie, will make his debut in the race after being the lone bumped driver in 2025. Abel, a Louisville native, is driving a one-off for Abel Motorsports, the full-time Indy NXT team owned by his father, Bill.
15. Palou is the betting favorite to win the race. Palou will try to follow Josef Newgarden's back-to-back victories with his own repeat. Newgarden was the first to repeat since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. Palou would be the seventh driver to win the race in consecutive years. After Newgarden captured BorgWarner's $440,000 rolling jackpot following 2024, the jackpot reset, meaning Palou's prize would be $40,000.
16. Scott Dixon is set to tie Johnny Rutherford and Gordon Johncock for the fifth-most starts in the Indy 500 (24). Only A.J. Foyt (35), Mario Andretti (29), Al Unser (27) and Helio Castroneves (25 going on 26) have more. If Dixon wins his second Indy 500, the 18-year gap between his Indy 500 victories would be the longest ever.
17. Helio Castroneves continues to chase history with Meyer Shank Racing, for whom he is a minority owner. At 51 years and 14 days old, Castroneves would be the oldest driver to ever win the Indy 500, passing Al Unser, who won it as a 47-year-old in 1987. Castroneves would break his tie with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Unser by getting a fifth win.
18. Newgarden was surprisingly slow in qualifying, as he was the worst of the Team Penske cars. When Newgarden started 32nd last year after failing post-qualifying technical inspections, he worked his way toward the lead before a fuel pressure issue ended his day. Newgarden will look for a similar start to this year's race as he chases his third Indy 500 win in four years.
19. David Malukas will start his first Indy 500 with Team Penske on the front row. The Chicago native has never won an IndyCar race but he's been Team Penske's most consistent driver this season with two podium finishes and just one race outside of the top 10. Malukas sits 3rd in the IndyCar standings.
20. The third Team Penske entry belongs to Scott McLaughlin. McLaughlin said he's looking to go from "zero to hero" after crashing on the race's parade lap last year and not even making it to the green flag. McLaughlin's best Indy 500 finish came in 2024, when he finished 6th after winning the pole.
21. Believe it or not, Santino Ferrucci is the first driver in the history of the Indy 500 to finish in the top 10 in each of his first seven career starts. Ferrucci finished 5th last year, and his best finish came in 2023 when he finished 3rd. The pilot of the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet has made up 62 positions over seven races.
22. Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen will continue to be a factor on any oval IndyCar travels to. Rasmussen placed 6th in his second Indy 500 last year, and he went on to get his first career IndyCar win at the Milwaukee Mile in August. Rasmussen was in position to compete for a win at IndyCar's first oval of the year, Phoenix Raceway, before he and Power made contact that ended both drivers' shot at victory.
23. Ten years removed from winning the 100th Indy 500 as a rookie, Alexander Rossi will start 2nd, the best starting position of his career. Rossi hasn't finished on the podium in the Indy 500 since 2019.
24. Rasmussen and Rossi's boss, Ed Carpenter, will make his 23rd straight start in the Indy 500. Should Carpenter not win the race, he'd break a tie with George Snider for the most Indy 500 starts without a win.
25. Conor Daly enters his 12th Indy 500 with the highest starting position of his career. Driving for Dreyer & Reinbold, a one-off team, Daly looks to capture his first Indy 500 win. The Noblesville native would be the first Hoosier to win the race since Wilbur Shaw in 1940.
26. Graham Rahal enters Memorial Day weekend with the best momentum he's had since 2021, but a poor qualifying may keep him from having a chance to win his first Indy 500. Rahal has finished in the top 10 in four of the six races so far this year, including podium finishes on the two road courses. Rahal, who hasn't won a race since 2017, will be at a major disadvantage in his 19th Indy 500 start.
27. Rinus VeeKay has finished below his starting position in five of his six Indy 500 starts. The Dutch driver will look to change that and get his first top 10 finish in the Indy 500. VeeKay sits 16th in the IndyCar standings in his first year with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
28. There are nine returning Indy 500 winners in this year's race: Palou, Rossi, Dixon, Sato, Castroneves, Ericsson, Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Newgarden. Of those nine drivers, the average age is 40.9 years old. The other 24 drivers averaged out at 28.8 years old.
29. Christian Lundgaard won IndyCar's most recent race, the Sonsio Grand Prix, on the IMS road course. The 24-year-old has not finished on the podium of an oval in his five full seasons in IndyCar, but he had his best Indy 500 finish last year, when he came in 7th.
30. In search of his second Indy 500 win 12 years later, Hunter-Reay could gain an advantage through his pit crew. Arrow McLaren has contracted NASCAR's Legacy Motor Club, owned by NASCAR legend and former Indy 500 driver Jimmie Johnson, to run pit stops on Hunter-Reay's No. 31 car.
31. Felix Rosenqvist will drive in the Indy 500 20 days after the birth of his daughter and first child, Stella. Rosenqvist will look to build on last year's 4th-place result, which he's done twice in his Indy 500 career.
32. Kyffin Simpson will start in the top 10 of the Indy 500 for the first time in his career. Simpson, who's in his third season at Chip Ganassi Racing, has one podium finish in his career.
33. The grandstands for the Indy 500 have sold out for the second year in a row. IMS sold out over 230,000 grandstand seats, which means that it has also lifted its local TV blackout for the race, which will be on Fox.
Zion Brown is IndyStar's motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar's motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to theYouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500 2026: 33 things to know about the Greatest Spectacle in Racing
Continue reading...
The front of the pack
1. With Robert Shwartzman not being in this year's race, it will mark the first time since 2005 that the previous year's pole winner isn't competing. Buddy Rice, who won the pole and the race in 2004, was not cleared to race after crashing and suffering a concussion and back injury in practice in 2005. Shwartzman won't be in this year's race as Prema Racing's IndyCar program has paused due to a lack of financial backing. Shwartzman will be the 17th pole winner to not make the next race, and five of those instances came due to a driver's death before the next race.
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2. Alex Palou will be this year's pole sitter, which he accomplished for the second time in his career. Palou has won three poles and three races this year, as he leads IndyCar's championship race and looks to four-peat as an IndyCar champion and repeat as the Indy 500 champion.
3. The six drivers starting on the front two rows represent six different teams: Chip Ganassi Racing (Alex Palou), Ed Carpenter Racing (Alexander Rossi), Team Penske (David Malukas), Meyer Shank Racing (Felix Rosenqvist), AJ Foyt Racing (Santino Ferrucci) and Arrow McLaren (Pato O'Ward).
4. Pato O'Ward remains in search of his first Indy 500 win as he enters his seventh race, all with Arrow McLaren. The Mexican fan favorite has finished on the podium in three of the last four years, including devastating 2nd-place finishes in 2022 and 2024. O'Ward is yet to be on the podium this year.
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'The Double' is back on the board
5. Katherine Legge is back in the Indy 500 after not securing a ride for last year's race. Legge will attempt 'The Double' on race day, driving in the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the same day. Legge will drive for HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing in the Indy 500, and she'll enter the Coke 600 with Live Fast Motorsports. Both cars are Chevrolets.
A new look at Andretti Global
6. Andretti Global is still in search of its first Indy 500 win since Takuma Sato in 2017. Sato's win capped a run of Andretti Global (then Andretti Autosport) winning the race three times in four years, as Ryan Hunter-Reay won in 2014 and Alexander Rossi in 2016. As the team transitions in its second season under the ownership of TWG Motorsports and the first year of Will Power's multiyear deal as a driver, it will look to capture the Borg-Warner trophy again.
7. With Marco Andretti, who retired after last year's Indy 500, no longer in a seat for Andretti Global, this will be the first Indy 500 since 1957 without an Andretti, Foyt or Unser in the race. A.J. Foyt IV's last race was in 2009 and Al Unser Jr.'s last was in 2007. The three families combined for 196 starts and 14 wins in the Indy 500.
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8. Will Power enters his first Indy 500 with Andretti Global. The 2018 Indy 500 champion hasn't finished inside the top 10 since 2019, when he placed 5th. Power had seven top-10 finishes in his first 12 Indy 500 starts. The 45-year-old will look to reverse his fortunes in the race back to what they were to start his career.
9. Kyle Kirkwood enters his fifth career Indy 500 and fourth for Andretti Global. Kirkwood is in the midst of his best and most consistent IndyCar season, as he trails only Palou in the championship standings. Kirkwood, who started 23rd last year, had his best on-track finish (6th) in the Indy 500 last year before a post-race technical inspection bumped him and teammate Marcus Ericsson to the bottom of the official results.
10. Marcus Ericsson's Andretti Global tenure has been less than ideal. The 2022 Indy 500 champion hasn't finished top 10 in the championship in his first two years with the team, and he currently sits 12th after exiting the last two races with mechanical issues.
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Rookies making history for their countries
11. Mick Schumacher will be the first driver representing Germany to race in the Indy 500 since 1923, when a trio of Germans — Max Sailer, Christian Werner, and Christian Lautenschlager — started in the race. Sailer had the best day of the three, finishing 8th. Jochen Rindt, who was German-born but represented Austria, drove in 1967 and 1968. Schumacher was born and raised in Switzerland but has German citizenship through his parents.
12. Fellow rookie Dennis Hauger will be the first driver representing Norway in the Indy 500. Nicknamed the "Norwegian Nightmare," the 23-year-old is 19th in the standings and leads the IndyCar Rookie of the Year race this year. Norwegian-born driver Gil Andersen raced in the first six Indy 500s from 1911 to 1916, but Andersen had dual citizenship and represented the United States.
13. Caio Collet, the third full-time rookie in the field, will start in 32nd after he and Jack Harvey failed post-qualifying tech inspections for modifications made to Dallara's Energy Management System (EMS) covers. Collet was on track to run away with the Indy 500's Rookie of the Year award, but now it's back up for grabs.
14. Jacob Abel, the fourth and final Indy 500 rookie, will make his debut in the race after being the lone bumped driver in 2025. Abel, a Louisville native, is driving a one-off for Abel Motorsports, the full-time Indy NXT team owned by his father, Bill.
History on the line
15. Palou is the betting favorite to win the race. Palou will try to follow Josef Newgarden's back-to-back victories with his own repeat. Newgarden was the first to repeat since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. Palou would be the seventh driver to win the race in consecutive years. After Newgarden captured BorgWarner's $440,000 rolling jackpot following 2024, the jackpot reset, meaning Palou's prize would be $40,000.
16. Scott Dixon is set to tie Johnny Rutherford and Gordon Johncock for the fifth-most starts in the Indy 500 (24). Only A.J. Foyt (35), Mario Andretti (29), Al Unser (27) and Helio Castroneves (25 going on 26) have more. If Dixon wins his second Indy 500, the 18-year gap between his Indy 500 victories would be the longest ever.
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17. Helio Castroneves continues to chase history with Meyer Shank Racing, for whom he is a minority owner. At 51 years and 14 days old, Castroneves would be the oldest driver to ever win the Indy 500, passing Al Unser, who won it as a 47-year-old in 1987. Castroneves would break his tie with A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Unser by getting a fifth win.
Can Team Penske recover from hectic 2025 Indy 500?
18. Newgarden was surprisingly slow in qualifying, as he was the worst of the Team Penske cars. When Newgarden started 32nd last year after failing post-qualifying technical inspections, he worked his way toward the lead before a fuel pressure issue ended his day. Newgarden will look for a similar start to this year's race as he chases his third Indy 500 win in four years.
19. David Malukas will start his first Indy 500 with Team Penske on the front row. The Chicago native has never won an IndyCar race but he's been Team Penske's most consistent driver this season with two podium finishes and just one race outside of the top 10. Malukas sits 3rd in the IndyCar standings.
20. The third Team Penske entry belongs to Scott McLaughlin. McLaughlin said he's looking to go from "zero to hero" after crashing on the race's parade lap last year and not even making it to the green flag. McLaughlin's best Indy 500 finish came in 2024, when he finished 6th after winning the pole.
21. Believe it or not, Santino Ferrucci is the first driver in the history of the Indy 500 to finish in the top 10 in each of his first seven career starts. Ferrucci finished 5th last year, and his best finish came in 2023 when he finished 3rd. The pilot of the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet has made up 62 positions over seven races.
Expect ECR in the mix
22. Ed Carpenter Racing's Christian Rasmussen will continue to be a factor on any oval IndyCar travels to. Rasmussen placed 6th in his second Indy 500 last year, and he went on to get his first career IndyCar win at the Milwaukee Mile in August. Rasmussen was in position to compete for a win at IndyCar's first oval of the year, Phoenix Raceway, before he and Power made contact that ended both drivers' shot at victory.
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23. Ten years removed from winning the 100th Indy 500 as a rookie, Alexander Rossi will start 2nd, the best starting position of his career. Rossi hasn't finished on the podium in the Indy 500 since 2019.
24. Rasmussen and Rossi's boss, Ed Carpenter, will make his 23rd straight start in the Indy 500. Should Carpenter not win the race, he'd break a tie with George Snider for the most Indy 500 starts without a win.
Familiar names and faces
25. Conor Daly enters his 12th Indy 500 with the highest starting position of his career. Driving for Dreyer & Reinbold, a one-off team, Daly looks to capture his first Indy 500 win. The Noblesville native would be the first Hoosier to win the race since Wilbur Shaw in 1940.
26. Graham Rahal enters Memorial Day weekend with the best momentum he's had since 2021, but a poor qualifying may keep him from having a chance to win his first Indy 500. Rahal has finished in the top 10 in four of the six races so far this year, including podium finishes on the two road courses. Rahal, who hasn't won a race since 2017, will be at a major disadvantage in his 19th Indy 500 start.
27. Rinus VeeKay has finished below his starting position in five of his six Indy 500 starts. The Dutch driver will look to change that and get his first top 10 finish in the Indy 500. VeeKay sits 16th in the IndyCar standings in his first year with Juncos Hollinger Racing.
28. There are nine returning Indy 500 winners in this year's race: Palou, Rossi, Dixon, Sato, Castroneves, Ericsson, Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Newgarden. Of those nine drivers, the average age is 40.9 years old. The other 24 drivers averaged out at 28.8 years old.
29. Christian Lundgaard won IndyCar's most recent race, the Sonsio Grand Prix, on the IMS road course. The 24-year-old has not finished on the podium of an oval in his five full seasons in IndyCar, but he had his best Indy 500 finish last year, when he came in 7th.
30. In search of his second Indy 500 win 12 years later, Hunter-Reay could gain an advantage through his pit crew. Arrow McLaren has contracted NASCAR's Legacy Motor Club, owned by NASCAR legend and former Indy 500 driver Jimmie Johnson, to run pit stops on Hunter-Reay's No. 31 car.
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31. Felix Rosenqvist will drive in the Indy 500 20 days after the birth of his daughter and first child, Stella. Rosenqvist will look to build on last year's 4th-place result, which he's done twice in his Indy 500 career.
32. Kyffin Simpson will start in the top 10 of the Indy 500 for the first time in his career. Simpson, who's in his third season at Chip Ganassi Racing, has one podium finish in his career.
Grandstands sold out again
33. The grandstands for the Indy 500 have sold out for the second year in a row. IMS sold out over 230,000 grandstand seats, which means that it has also lifted its local TV blackout for the race, which will be on Fox.
Zion Brown is IndyStar's motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar's motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to theYouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500 2026: 33 things to know about the Greatest Spectacle in Racing
Continue reading...
