3 IndyCar tracks removed from the 2026 schedule

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season is scheduled to underway with the traditional season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida this Sunday, March 1, and thanks to a recent development involving the White House, it is set to feature 18 races, something that hasn't been true since 2014.

The 18-race 2026 schedule looks quite a bit different than the 2025 schedule. Three new tracks have been added, one old track has made a long-awaited return, and one track has been given a second race date after losing one of its two doubleheader races after 2024.

Unfortunately, three tracks have had to be removed from the schedule to make way for the new additions.

3 tracks wiped off the 2026 IndyCar schedule

Thermal Club, which debuted on the calendar as the host of an exhibition race in 2024, hosted its first points race in 2025, but that experiment appears to have been a one-off. Phoenix Raceway, which hasn't hosted an IndyCar race since 2018, is set to take Thermal Club's spot as the host of the season's second race on Saturday, March 7.

Iowa Speedway, which was brought back to the schedule as the host of a doubleheader in 2022 after being left off the calendar in 2021 for the first time since it debuted on the schedule in 2007, has lost both of its races after hosting two in each of the past four years.

This was not a huge surprise after Iowa drew consistently poor attendance, lost its outstanding race weekend promotion from Hy-Vee, and clearly began to prioritize NASCAR following the track's Cup Series debut in 2024.

To make up for the Iowa loss, the Milwaukee Mile, which returned to the schedule in 2024 for the first time since 2015, is set to host a doubleheader again. Milwaukee hosted a doubleheader in 2024 but was stripped of one of its two races in 2025. Those races are scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30.

Additionally, IndyCar is set to debut a new street race in Arlington, Texas. That race, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 15 to cap off a rare season-opening tripleheader, is set to take place on a temporary street circuit that winds around Globe Life Field, the home of MLB's Texas Rangers, and AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys.

The other straight-up schedule swap came north of the border, with the Canadian race set to move from the streets of Toronto at Exhibition Place to the streets of Markham on Sunday, August 16.

This race remains the series' lone international race, even though there have literally been rumors of the series being "close" to adding another for the past decade and a half.

Aside from its absence from the schedule in 2008 and then in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19-related restrictions, Exhibition Place had hosted an IndyCar race each season from 1986 to 2025.

Then there is the much talked-about addition of a street race in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, August 23, a race that became a late addition to the calendar as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump and an ongoing collaboration with IndyCar, Penske Entertainment, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

Because of the addition of this race, there are set to be races on five consecutive weekends to wrap up the season, with a total of six races scheduled to take place across a stretch of just 29 days in August and September.

Here's a full breakdown of the IndyCar venue changes from 2025 to 2026.

2026 IndyCar schedule changes

All 18 NTT IndyCar Series races are set to be shown live on Fox in 2026. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action from the street of St. Petersburg this Sunday, March 1 at 12:00 p.m. ET!