Extended Race Highlights | 2026 INDYCAR at Road America

Alex Pillow will take this field to green, will get us racing, we have the green, we have racing of Road America. And Pillow immediately moves to defend, and look at Armstrong up and on the inside of David Maloukas. Forcing the issue, straight down on the run down into Turn 1. And Armstrong up to second, barges his way past Maloukas, who runs wide along with Scott McLoughlin. One of the McLarens is off, and I think that is Christian Lundgaard who has damage to his front wing. And that's David Maloukas falling another position back as Rosenquist gets on the inside of Turn 3. I think that was Will Power dropping wheels on the exit there. That's going to hurt his momentum on this run down to 5. Huge opportunity. Maloukas pulling back out to try to claim third back. Deep on the brakes goes David Maloukas, the young American, making it work on the Indy 500 winner, Felix Rosenquist. Now Rosenquist going to challenge back. They go side by side under the bridge. Oh, and Rosenquist very squirrelly on exit there as he puts the power down. And McLoughlin will want to have a piece of him. That is the difficulty around this track. If you get a little wayward through a corner, you can lose not just one place, but potentially four, five, six, especially on these opening laps as Santino Ferrucci and Christian Rasmussen do battle. And all this battling behind is allowing Alex Pillow to steadily pull out a lead up front. And look at that outside move from VK in the carousel on New Garden. We've seen him pull that move off before. Saw him do that his rookie year. Very brave move once again from VK. And Collette isn't letting Ericsson go either. Collette in the Brazilian colors. The white, the blue, the green, and the yellow. We ride on board with Ericsson now. You can't see his wing mirrors, but if you could, they would be full of the rookie's AJ Foyt racing car. Up on the Delaware live camera there looking ahead at Scott McLoughlin. He got a great run off of 14. Collette not as good a run. He's going to be under threat now from Paddell Ward. And if you are Marcus Armstrong and you are sitting second, you cannot let Alex Pillow build up a gap. You cannot let him escape up the road as Kiffin Simpson defends from the Dale Coyne racing car of Dennis Haugen. No racetrack penalizes a challenge gone bad more than Road America just like this. Kyle Kirkwood there in that blue and black car poked his nose in there. It didn't work, and now he's starting to lose the draft and maybe fall victim as we ride on board the nose cam thanks to Sam's Club here. You've got to be so careful and strategic about when you time your move because the penalty for getting it wrong can be several positions. And Kirkwood has only made one place up on that opening lap, and it's because of the damage to Christian Lungard. Look at him right in the middle of the track there, and he just runs into the back of Scott Dixon in the orange and blue Ganassi ahead of him. Here we are on board with him. Watch that front right. Well, watch Scott Dixon move over to defend there in the brake zone, and Kevin, it looked like Christian Lungard was expecting more room. And he also has damage. He's in the pit box right now changing to a set of softs and also changing the front wing. He told me yesterday we've been on the struggle bus, but today they figured it out, had a lot of confidence. Now he's going to need a caution soon to catch back up to the field or a chance that a result has gone away. A caution. He's going to need a miracle. But was not happy with his race car. Here we go. Here we go. Rosenquist gets past Malucas finally on those hard tires. I was watching David Malucas the last couple laps really struggle to hang on to his Verizon car, the back end on those soft tires, just all over the place, getting crazy loose, slow corners, fast corners, doing everything he can. Doing great. One of the fastest car on track to get into a rhythm. We'll finish this out. Three or four more to go. But Malucas knows his willpower makes his first stop. David Malucas knows that Felix Rosenquist will have to run the soft tires at some point. So that's the give and take of this sport. Reminding yourself of the situation you find yourself in. Don't overdrive. Don't force a mistake. It might come back to you later. So power on pit lane. Louis Foster on pit lane. The early stoppers here as we run lap 12 at 55. That's going to make their afternoon a lot longer if they don't get some yellow to help out with that mileage. But guys, what this is telling us is after warmup, drivers were kind of on the fence. They weren't quite sure which was going to be the preferred tire throughout the weekend. Different teams have been saving different sets. You can see that the philosophy in each team was maybe a little bit different. What I'm seeing on this racetrack right now, with the exception of Pelot, who's really, really making those softs work out in clean air, it does look like the primaries, the black sidewall hard tire, is going to be the preferred tire for a lot of these teams, especially this guy right here, Felix Rosenquist. He is on fire right now. You heard the team say one of the fastest cars on the racetrack last time by. Yeah, but still not as fast as Alex Pelot. And that's the absurdity of Alex Pelot's talent, is his ability to just make the tires work where everyone else just seemingly can't. So how do you beat Alex Pelot? It might come in this round of pit stops on the in-laps, the out-laps, as this battle between McLaughlin and Kyle Collette continues to develop. Very nearly got through. Collette starting to force the issue and goes around to try around the outside. Yeah, it's a tough defense move there for McLaughlin. You see he's going driver's left into turn five, bit of a drag race. Who's going to play chicken the best on the brakes here? And then Kyle tries to line him up. And here's the thing, McLaughlin goes a little bit delayed to the defense, but then cutting back in front here as Lydie's taking him up a little. Lines him up again and slides it up the inside of Scott McLaughlin. That's been coming for a lap or two. Kyle Collette, but McLaughlin tries to get past and does get past again. The over-under demonstrated in brilliant fashion. And look who is joining the party, the Mexican of Pato Award, who runs in eighth right now, his McLaren starting to come alive. Pato's really struggled for pace all weekend long. The McLaren's outside of Nolan Siegel, not really where you expect him to be, but Pato's really seeming to come alive already. Look at Kyle Collette working the high side through the carousel. That's dangerous, though, because of all the spent rubber. Pato Award has a massive run. If he can stay flat through the kink. Great run, great run. Moves to the outside. Under braking, heavy braking for Canada Corner. And Award gets that move done on the rookie. That is the benefit of experience and knowledge in this series. And guys, that pass started in Turn 5, executed in Turn 12. That's what's so important at this racetrack. And the leader pulls the pin. Alex Pillow comes in with over four seconds of lead and will come down to Jack Harvey. Thanks, Will. There is quite a long climb at Road America. Huge pit stop time loss for all the drivers this weekend. Catching up with Barry Wonser, they are going to make a small front wing adjustments. But, Will, the bigger thing, they're going to go with that hard black tire. They believe that this is a hard tire race. Alex Pillow does things on the black tire that we have no idea how. So, Pillow is in. Armstrong has come in as well. So, too, has Malukas and McLaughlin. And, crucially, for all those cars, they made it to lap 14. So, saving that fuel allowed them to get to this 14-lap window. If they can keep that up, they can shorten the final stint and burn full fuel to the finish. Fascinating question now. Issues here for Roman Grosjean. Watch out! And his teammate had to take avoiding action. Move around the outside, and the ECR car of Rasmussen takes advantage and gets past him, too. Will Power on the move and pounces. Dennis Hauger there in that Namo car had no choice but to avoid his teammate and swerve right into oncoming traffic. I thought that was going to be a little dicier. I'm glad everybody was able to avoid the madness. Let's take a look here. You see that car in front just struggling to get going. Bit of an issue there for Roman Grosjean. And then, yeah, I mean, not really anywhere for Hauger to go. Straight onto the racing line. You're supposed to give priority to the car on track if you are exiting pit lane. That's an emergency situation, though. However, if you are Christian Rasmussen and Will Power, that would have given them very big eyes in that moment. So, Rosenquist, Ericsson, Award, Siegel, Dixon, Ferrucci, all those drivers, they have all started on the hard tire. They stay out on the hard tire. Oh, except for Rosenquist now chooses to pit in now, and a wheel has come off Grosjean, and that's why he was slow coming out of pit lane. Must be a full course caution. Full course caution is out, but crucially, those drivers got into the pit just in time. The likes of Rosenquist, Siegel, Dixon, Ferrucci, by the skin of their teeth, they made it in before the pit. Dixon hasn't got in in time. His team's having to go back. Dixon will have to pull through pit lane and not get serviced. Felix Rosenquist is currently leading, and this is how it all played out. Full course caution comes out, and Rosenquist has taken service and leaves pit lane. Now, you'll see Alex Pillow passes him on track, but critically, this is the angle. That is the line by which the order is taken. Rosenquist crosses it, then Pillow comes through behind, and so Rosenquist takes over the lead of the race. Ready for Rosenquist to take us back to green into the restart zone, punches it now. Alex Pillow behind him, then Ericsson and Armstrong, O'Ward and Siegel. That's your top six. Rosenquist, the only driver in the top ten on the soft tire, and has to make them work early. That soft tire should fire up a little bit quicker, and here got a nice launch off of 14. Looks like O'Ward, Armstrong, having to defend from O'Ward. Here comes Alexander Rossi, taking a look at Graham Rahal. Fairly orderly. On exit, though, from Armstrong. That'll give Pato O'Ward a little sniff on the run down the hill. Indeed it does. Pato O'Ward has used a ton of his push to pass so far, but maybe backs off a little bit there, decides this is not the right time for a lunge on Armstrong. And remember, guys, push to pass active on the restart there. Contact. Contact between the two. And now we're side by side with Lungard and Kyle Kollett. These are all the cars at the back of the field that feel unlucky on that last pit exchange, including Kyle Kollett. His A.J. Voigt team could not get fuel into his race car. These restarts are an opportunity for fast cars to go forward, but you have to be so careful. Lungard now in the carousel. He runs in 19th. Grosjean, 18th, ahead of him. Dragging that car back to pit lane. Such a play from Grosjean, who was able to get serviced and carry on. As Kirkwood has a look at his teammate, will power ahead. Rahal now defending, both from Rossi and Dennis Hauger. And Alex Pillow, when we talk aggressive, is taking an aggressive strategy and is on pit lane from second place. Jack, you're standing by, waiting for the championship leader and the man from P2. I am, Will. That is a very aggressive play. Remember in St. Louis, the team were aggressive. Why? They just want to win races. They're not going to change the approach this weekend. It's a new set of hard tires, Will, and he's a run away. And they are in range now to make it on one more stop. This puts Felix Rosenquist on the hot coals. He needs a wicked fast lap, and I think he should pit to cover. But wait a second. We are hearing a rare mistake from the number 10. Pit lane speed limit violation for your championship leader, Alex Pillow. That just blew this race wide open. And the championship. Alex Pillow with a rare mistake. And James, you've got a feel that's on the brakes coming to the line. We don't know for sure, but Barry Wanzer delivering the information calmly to his driver. Side by side with Grosjean. Little bit of contact up the hill. And all this is doing is costing Alex Pillow even more lap time having to defend. He knows he's got to come through to drive through one of the longest pit lanes that we have in the IndyCar season. He's on cold tires, too, trying to find that temperature. But a big opportunity here for Rosenquist and Meyerschenk Racing, who should come to pit lane right now to stay out of the danger zone. I'm looking out the window, though. And is Felix Rosenquist coming in? No, he's going to take one more lap. A little bit risky, I feel. Well, the thing at the moment is the play is no longer against Pillow. The play for Rosenquist is against Ericsson and Award and Siegel behind as Grosjean slides back up the inside of Alex Pillow. These two fighting it out on track. Why do I get the sense nobody communicated to Grosjean that Pillow's about to pit for a drive-through? Because if you just burn five, ten seconds of your push to pass, to pass someone that you don't have to... I'm not sure with Grosjean that would have made a difference. And Grosjean's coming in anyways, along with Pillow, to serve that penalty. So how much time will Alex Pillow lose here under green flag conditions? Rosenquist... And this is where it's fascinating, guys. Rosenquist is now starting to pull away from Ericsson. He's pulled that gap up four seconds over Award. It's 4.9. Siegel, 8.5. So Rosenquist's battle is no longer with Alex Pillow. Rosenquist's battle and the battle for the win today no longer includes this man. Certainly for the time being, it's Rosenquist and Ericsson. Award, Siegel, McLaughlin, Lundgaard, Kirkwood, Colette, Ferrucci, Viquet, the top ten. That is the battle. And this is the leader. And Rosenquist has such a comfortable lead right now. Again, I'm a little surprised that it would have stayed out to take the risk as the call comes now for Felix Rosenquist to come to pit lane. The call comes in. Oh, and that is Rasmussen. And that is slow. Oh, if he doesn't get going quick, this could cause a yellow. That would close the pit lane. Before Rosenquist gets there. He's coming to 14. Rosenquist is exiting. Oh, it's a full course cushion. That helps Alex Pillow big time. Rosenquist has to stay out. Ericsson, Rosenquist, Award, Siegel, all going to suffer. Armstrong's going to be the big winner here. Do not discount the man in third. Alexander Rossi had his day of days at this track. One of the greatest wins that he's ever had in the IndyCar Series. He started today last. He's now sitting in a podium position and will be fighting for the win. Armstrong takes us back to green. Malukas runs with him and it's Rossi in power. Rahul and Simpson, that's your top six. There's the green flag and Malukas gunning for Armstrong. Rahul has to defend from Simpson. Schumacher, big lock up and almost into Grosjean ahead of him. Nice save though. Good ability to get off that brake pedal. Now Grosjean defending against Ericsson. Outside of three is a tough place to pull it off. Going to try the over-under. Rosenquist already through and this is what we've been talking about from lap one. If you have a mistake or a squirrelly moment in one corner, it's not just one place you lose. It's two, three, four and look at how aggressive Pillow is taking a look at the back of Louis Armstrong. Somehow Alex Pillow, from looking like he would be at the back of this field as Grosjean and Ericsson run wide and Ericsson throws it all away. You got to know who you're racing. There was a zero percent chance Grosjean was going to let him hang on. This is just not what Marcus Ericsson needed. Not what he should have done. And this is what we talk about here. Every single corner at Road America and there's damage to Marcus Ericsson. You can see he's left hand down the steering rack. Askew, as now Schumacher's not done and oh boy, Felix Rosenquist, you're out on those marbles. Be careful. Oh, he's wide, he's wide, he's wide, he's wide, he's almost off. That's one place, that's two places, that's three places for Felix Rosenquist. Not going to stop there, guys. Here goes Torquid. It's four, it's five, it's six. Dropping like a stone though and that is full course yellow for Daivery. They will have to pull into line. What a wild restart. When the chips fall, they always somehow seem to fall in favour of Alex Pillow who, despite having that drive through, still sits in the top ten. We're back to green, we're back to racing. Great restart from Armstrong over Malukas and Rossi. Power though, a lovely jump. I tell you what, Graham Rahall's come to fight. Up on the inside of Will Power, Rossi defends and Rahall will have to kick back in line. And Alex Pillow already up one spot, now in seventh position. As you see, push to pass remaining for the top three. It's Alexander Rossi who has precious 33 seconds remaining. On board with Rahall. As Collette and Ericsson do battle and let's not forget Ericsson picked up damage. Old radio there from Christian Rasmussen from a while ago as we go back to side-by-side action. Pillow on his teammate, Kiffin Simpson. Simpson isn't ducking out though. Simpson keeps track position. Wonder what they might be telling Kiffin Simpson about racing his teammate as Alex Pillow desperately wants to get back to the front. Armstrong has pulled out one second lead from David Malukas. Rossi sits three quarters of a second behind Malukas. Rahall and Power, not a lot between them. And there's Simpson and there's Pillow. Of the top seven cars, Alex Pillow also has the advantage of the most push to pass remaining. He sits at 92 seconds. 18 to go, folks. This isn't over as Pillow makes the move on Power and moves up to sixth. Power comes back at him. Tries to keep it side-by-side. Tries to take that place back. Will do so. There's contact between the two. And maybe some front wing damage for Pillow. It looked light to the right front wing of Alex Pillow. Hopefully no damage there. And he has a huge run right back on Power. And Power being very, very defensive. Going on the outside of turn five doesn't always work. But Pillow has enough of a late braking move. Can he slow it down? Yes, man. He is absolutely determined to clear the 26th. Well, that was decisive in the end from Pillow. Late and hard on the brakes. And up into sixth. Trying to understand risk. And here we go. Here we go. And Pillow is in with the lead group. Rossi is in. Simpson is in. Pillow is in. And Georgia is standing by, ready and waiting for the number 20 of Alexander Rossi. Is this a race-winning call? Alexander Rossi leads this group that just came to pit lane. We have to remember, he is injured. And he started this race 25th, but he zoomed into pit lane. He was third. They're going to make their last pit stop of the day. Put those Firestone hard tires on. Fill it up with fuel to make it last until the end. Jack. Alex Pillow has also come in, G. This is a full fill of Shell 100% renewable fuel. A very rare mistake by Alex Pillow. But Cool Carbon Collective is helping this damage limitation. Oh, it was a slow stop from ECR. Rossi and Pillow side by side. Pillow will have the inside line. Rossi goes wide and is punted off. He had already lost the position to Kiffin Simpson, who he came in in front of. And then there was the drag race off with Pillow. But you saw the time. Over 10 seconds for the 20 crew. 7-something for the Ganassi number 10. Meanwhile, just like the last round of stops, Meyer Schenck Racing decides to stay out with Marcus Armstrong. Where are they on the track? Just exiting the kink. So they are almost home to be able to pit and cover. What that will allow Armstrong, Malukas, and Rahal to do is go full rich, max power to the finish. Meanwhile, these drivers, Simpson, Pillow, Rossi, going to have to save a little fuel. This will be fascinating to see if Alex Pillow can still make the magic work today. Armstrong has pulled out almost a three-second lead over David Malukas. Does he stop this lap? Yes, he does. You have to. He has peeled in, I believe. Oh, yes. Top five are all coming in. Georgia, Armstrong, coming to you. And speaking of top fives, Marcus Armstrong has seven top fives in the NTT IndyCar Series but searching for his first win. This pit stop is going to be everything if he wants to get back out and take that lead to try to win this race. He's going to finish this race off. The fire is still on. Hard tires, shell fuel, and it looks like no front wing change. Jack? David Malukas is also now in his box. The tires are going on. Hard set. He's been working on a new nickname. Chef Dave is what he's trying to cook up for his first win. And here we go. There is Armstrong. Malukas behind him. Where are the other cars? Armstrong has maintained that lead with ease. With ease. But this battle will continue as Siegel comes out and tries to get ahead of Kiffin Simpson. Simpson gets around, and so does Alex Pelot, who heads over the very wide, bounces over the curbs. Oh, my word. That's aggressive from Pelot. You can see how much he wants this. Now comes in. Now dives into pit lane. This is a crucial stop. But with only 10 to go across the line, they can put a little less fuel in. It's going to be quick if the 7 crew can get it done. 11 to go. It will be 10 to go as it crosses the line. Lungardin for what will be his final stop. But where does it bring him out in relation to everybody else? The fuel hose goes in. The tires go on. It's a fresh set of sticker reds for Christian Lungardin. That's a very clean stop for Lungardin. Let's see where he exits in relation to Armstrong, in relation to Malukas, in relation to Rahul. Can he take this fight to them for the win? Look to the right. There's Armstrong. On your left is Lungardin. He'll punch it now. Armstrong will get ahead, but Lungardin should exit. Possibly second. Possibly third. It is second. And the fight is on for the win. Except David Malukas on hot tires here. And this will be a handful for Lungardin as they head to turn five. Malukas needs a great exit. Way wide at turn three for Christian Lungardin. Both drivers have about the same number of push-to-pass seconds remaining. It was 30 coming off of turn three. Malukas is almost off. Two wheels on the grass to force the issue and make his way through. But Lungardin will have the better tires. The softer tires. The faster tires with ten to go. That was an impressive move from Malukas. Decisive. Trying to go to the inside. Lungardin thought he'd done enough to block him, but he was not afraid. That Penske hold. It's handling well on the grass. Hey, guys. Meanwhile, Marcus Armstrong with a good three-second lead here as we get another replay. Hey, this is his home track. He's saying, this is my grass. I can do what I want. David Malukas hanging it all out to run second. On this strategy. How about this? Look at Lungardin. Soft tires. Full fuel. About to make a move on Malukas. Have to go the long way around. Late on the brakes. Malukas has it covered. Oh, yeah. But Lungardin will get on the power early and have to run up the hill. Will have the inside line. Will have the position. Perfectly timed. That's the best cross-up we've seen in turn five. Squaring it up. Soft tires. Early to throttle. As his girlfriend, Gabriela, looks on. Shaking, screaming, smiling. All of the emotions. Lungardin's got a shot at the overall win, I think, at this point. And look at this. Look at this. Does Armstrong have a problem? Yes. He must have a problem. Yeah, that's not a mistake. I mean, this is a massive mistake. You can hear it. It sounds raw. It sounds off. It's sick. And Lungardin has the lead. You've got to be kidding me. It sounds like a bag of bolts. They're saying red 3, making an adjustment to the engine maps. But that engine is poorly. And how gutting is that for Marcus Armstrong? He's been so strong this weekend. Flawless today during the race. All smiles on the 7 box, but all frowns on the 66 stand. Marcus Armstrong's time will come. Keep going here. Keep going. He'll push and try to make the flag. The car sounds horrible. We'll wait until it comes past our commentary box and tell you just how bad it does sound. It's blowing up. You can see the smoke. Oh, it's gone. It's gone. Copy that. It's not over yet, then, with three to go. If it gets back running again for one final lap. If Marcus Armstrong can find a safe place to get this behind the wall, we might see the green in a restart with one to go. And now is that time. Into the restart zone. Lungard through 14. Malukas goes with him. Rahul a little twitch out of that final corner allows Will Power right onto the back of his rear wing as they rise up the crest. Over the top of the hill. Down the other side and into turn one. Rahul defending from power. Malukas is right with Christian Lungard. And power gets third. The leaders both burned almost all their push to pass. They're only going to have enough for this run down to five, but there's still the run to Canada Corner coming up. Does that leave David Malukas open to the threat from Will Power behind? Lungard is running away. Will Power is driving like a man possessed, chasing the young American that replaced him at Team Penske. As McLaughlin goes to put the move on Alexander Rossi, Lungard's already through. Leading them up the hill. We got to spin. Nolan Siegel's around in turn five. We stay green. The race is still going. Everyone somehow avoids it. The race continues up front. Rosenquist fighting with McLaughlin. McLaughlin trying to make his way past Rossi. But up at the front, Malukas is down to zero push to pass seconds. Power runs wide. Rahul runs through. That podium streak on and off continues as power now being hounded by Kiffin Simpson. And Power will have dirty tires here. Desperately trying to clean them up through the fastest corner on the track. Right here, the kink. Meanwhile, for Graham Rahul, maybe another podium, but here comes Power. He's on the button. He's pushing that push to pass. He's right with him. We'll have to go around the outside. Going back. Rahul's into the wall and out. Full course caution has to come out here. But it's Lungard. Lungard, who will record his second victory on road courses this year. He is the man on road courses. The absolute king of the road course in 2026. A second and two victories from last place at the end of lap one. Lungard brings home the win. How did we do that? It was the story of the weekend. Always being behind and sticking with it and making it work. Thanks, guys. This was not a dominant win. He had to fight every single one of those 55 laps to take this victory. And none will have tasted as sweet. Back-to-back winners on a road course. Your second of the season. Christian, at the end of lap one, did you think you'd be standing here today? I knew we had a chance. I knew how this race panned out last year. And I knew it was all about just sticking in the race. Which I didn't last year. I made a bunch of mistakes there that spun ourselves around last year. I wanted to make up for that. We've just been on the struggle bus all weekend. To turn this around, I've got to thank the team for that. You've catapulted yourself firmly back into this championship battle. Simple question. Can you and your team go and win the whole thing? We're going to give it a shot, Jack. Yes, you are. Congratulations.