Scott Dixon; Scott McLaughlin; and Marcus Armstrong. Photo / Getty Images
The opening round of the 2026 IndyCar championship at St Petersburg this weekend will set the scene for what could be a series for the ages, with Kiwi drivers set to shine.
Defending champion Alex Palou will be going for a record fourth straight IndyCar title (Sebastian Bourdais did four in a row but that was in the Champ Car World Series).
Team Penske had a tumultuous 2025 and no driver finished inside the top five, their worst season since the 2001 inception of IndyCar. New Zealander Scott McLaughlin finished 10th, his worst result since 2022. It’ll be interesting to see if he can replicate his “road to redemption” comeback as he did during the 2018 Supercars season.
“Professionally, it wasn’t the best year [2025] for me,” McLaughlin told Newstalk ZB. “I’ve been working really hard behind the scenes during the off-season and am feeling really good this year.
“I’ve got a new engineer and strategist [Tim Cendric the former Team Penske president] for this season and a lot has changed on my car and I think we’re in a really good spot. There will be some growing pains and we’ll know how it is when we hit the track.
“I’ve had some wheel-time racing at Daytona [24 Hour] and I bought a kart during the off-season. Some people may think driving a kart isn’t that good but it’s really helpful and very physical.
“I feel rejuvenated this year and I know what I have to do. I don’t have to change too much, just execute better.”
Team Penske’s year to forget included major senior role changes after numerous cheating allegations and the biggest driver change in decades. Will Power was let go after 17 years of being in the hunt for a championship with the team, delivering two IndyCar titles and being Penske’s best-placed driver in 2025.
Heading into his 25th consecutive IndyCar season, Kiwi Scott Dixon already has six titles and looks set to continue setting all-time records that will probably never be beaten. He has 23 seasons with at least one win and 21 on the spin, he has 419 race starts with 356 of them consecutive, 145 podiums, 216 top five finishes and 59 wins (second only to A.J. Foyt).
The 45-year-old still has the same passion for the sport as he had when he first arrived in the series and ruling him out of clinching his seventh IndyCar championship would be churlish.
“I’m very excited for 2026 with the No 9 PNC Bank Honda team. We had a big deep dive into the data this off-season,” Dixon said.
“There were lots of positives and we found some things we could have executed a little bit better on. For us, it’s all in the details. As a team, we’ve got to keep the momentum going, and I think this year should be big for all of us at Chip Ganassi Racing.”
This weekend, the now Sir Scott Dixon will be hoping to get a bit of a monkey off his back. He’s had 21 starts at St Petersburg and has yet to stand on the top spot, although he has finished on the podium seven times.
The third Kiwi in the field is Marcus Armstrong, who was a bit of a sleeper in 2025 after he produced his best season so far by finishing eighth with Myer Shank Racing.
He had his first podium with a third at Iowa and 11 top-10 finishes. With most of the paddock and fans watching the likes of Palou, Dixon, McLaughlin, Power et al, Armstrong could be the joker in the pack.
“At the risk of sounding boring, I’d have to say 2025 was consistent,” he said. “We were fast but I didn’t always execute perfectly, but we were always there or thereabout.
“It’s one of those where we’ve been in the game but haven’t really done what we wanted to do. The important thing is that we have been getting better every single race and that’s a real thing.
“Momentum is important going into this year and keeping the same team helps with continuity, which is very important and a fundamental part of doing well. This championship is so competitive and if you don’t do everything perfectly you’re going to P19 in qualifying.
“If you put it all together you can get right up there on the front row, and if you don’t get it right, you’re at the back.”