Top News

The 2026 IndyCar field is rapidly discovering just how punishing the new Markham Street Circuit can be, after three multiple IndyCar Series champions ended their qualifying runs in the barriers on Saturday evening.

Qualifying for IndyCar was moved later into the evening after both practice sessions were added to the afternoon timetable because of delays in building the circuit at Markham.

With the sun dropping low on the approach to Turn 10, just before the split pit lane, the conditions proved costly for Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Alex Palou.

In both Group A and Group B qualifying, a late red flag meant several leading runners were left needing one final all-out lap. In Group A, Alex Palou managed to drag himself into the Fast 12, but his nearest title rival, Kyle Kirkwood, was unable to do the same in Group B.

During Group B qualifying, Kyle Kirkwood had still not recorded a lap quick enough to progress, having been delayed by traffic when his Andretti Global team-mate Will Power crashed at what is fast becoming the circuit’s most notorious corner, Turn 10, just before the entry to the split pit lane.

Kirkwood improved to eighth on his final attempt, finishing the lap before a second red flag was triggered in the session when Josef Newgarden crashed at the same high-speed section where Power had gone off.

That opened the door for an unexpected Fast 12 line-up, featuring the entire RLL trio of Louis Foster, Mick Schumacher and Graham Rahal, along with Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger.

An even bigger twist came in the second qualifying round after the setbacks for Power and Newgarden in Group B, when championship leader Alex Palou made an error on entry to the same corner. He clipped the inside wall, bounced across to hit the outside wall, and spun, bringing his qualifying run to an end. He will start P2, the furthest back he has started all season, while David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood still retain a faint chance in the championship battle heading into the final four races. Palou has not started outside the top ten since 2024. The champion is not concerned about where he starts, confident that he has both the car and the race distance to fight back towards the front.

“We have a really fast car, so that’s good,” Palou told Kevin Lee of IndyCar on Fox. “That’s the positive. Yeah, it’s going to be tough. It’s definitely a different race. But the race is very long, and having a fast car really helps. So yeah, the focus will first be on not crashing and then trying to make up some positions.”

Foster had already shown strong pace in Practice 2, and with track conditions and temperatures remaining stable, he carried that form into qualifying. He eventually delivered the quickest lap of the day, a 1:13.2383, which also stands as the new track record because this is the inaugural race.

Foster took his second career pole and his first of the season using scrubbed red tyres, which means he will have two sets of fresh red tyres available for Sunday’s race.

Foster and the No. 45 RLL Honda crew were prepared to sacrifice a possible pole position in order to gain a tyre advantage for the race, but Foster’s lap ended up giving them the ideal result on both fronts.

“We had the issue last year of pushing ourselves too hard in qualifying to get a good result and then hurting ourselves a little bit in the race,” Foster told IndyCar on Fox. “So yeah, we felt pole was probably out of reach; maybe something like P3 was the best we could hope for. But yeah, I’m happy with [the pole].”

McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard will line up on the front row alongside Foster. Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson will start from the second row, while Dennis Hauger secures his best starting position in fifth, next to Rinus VeeKay.