For the first time in 623 days, somebody other than Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou is leading the NTT IndyCar Series championship standings, ending an all-time record streak.
Palou opened up the 2026 season on top with his second consecutive victory on the streets of St. Petersburg. That win gave him nine wins in 18 races going back to the start of the 2025 season, a season which saw him become the first to lead the standings from wire-to-wire and win the Indy 500 in the same year since Johnny Rutherford pulled it off in 1980.
But an early incident at Phoenix Raceway, ironically with longtime on-track nemesis Rinus VeeKay, knocked him out of the race, and the 24th place finish with which he was credited effectively ensured that he would fall out of first place for the first time in 29 races, regardless of the eventual race result.
Alex Palou loses IndyCar points lead
He did indeed, and he fell to fifth. Team Penske's Josef Newgarden is the new points leader after winning Saturday afternoon's Good Ranchers 250.
Newgarden had most recently led the championship standings in 2024 after he won the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg and finished fourth in the season's second race on the streets of Long Beach, California, but he was retroactively stripped of that lead when it was discovered that Team Penske had cheated in the season opener.
Newgarden had not officially led the standings since winning in Long Beach back in April 2022, which was now 67 races ago. The two-time series champion had won 10 races, including two Indy 500s, since then, prior to his Phoenix victory.
The win was the 33rd of his career, good for 10th on the all-time IndyCar wins list. He also won at Phoenix when IndyCar had most recently visited the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) Avondale, Arizona oval back in 2018.
Here are the updated IndyCar championship standings, featuring a name other than Alex Palou at the top for the first time in 89 weeks. The four drivers above Palou have all recorded back-to-back top eight finishes to start the season.
IndyCar championship standings after Phoenix
Rank | Driver | Points | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet | 78 | 0 |
2 | Kyle Kirkwood, No. 27 Andretti Global Honda | 73 | -5 |
3 | Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet | 66 | -12 |
4 | Pato O'Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | 63 | -15 |
5 | Alex Palou, No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | 59 | -19 |
6 | David Malukas, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet | 56 | -22 |
7 | Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | 54 | -24 |
8 | Marcus Armstrong, No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda | 50 | -28 |
9 | Marcus Ericsson, No. 28 Andretti Global Honda | 43 | -35 |
10 | Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet | 42 | -36 |
11 | Dennis Hauger, No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda | 36 | -42 |
12 | Felix Rosenqvist, No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda | 36 | -42 |
13 | Scott Dixon, No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | 35 | -43 |
14 | Kyffin Simpson, No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda | 35 | -43 |
15 | Graham Rahal, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | 34 | -44 |
16 | Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet | 30 | -48 |
17 | Romain Grosjean, No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda | 29 | -49 |
18 | Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet | 28 | -50 |
19 | Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet | 25 | -53 |
20 | Louis Foster, No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | 24 | -54 |
21 | Caio Collet, No. 4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet | 24 | -54 |
22 | Will Power, No. 26 Andretti Global Honda | 23 | -55 |
23 | Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet | 20 | -58 |
24 | Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet | 18 | -60 |
25 | Mick Schumacher, No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda | 17 | -61 |
Race number three on the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series schedule is the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, which is set to be shown live on Fox from the streets of Arlington, Texas beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 15. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss the inaugural running of the event!