The checkered flag has waved over the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500, and the Speedway has crowned Felix Rosenqvist her victor for 2026.
The looming threat of rain lingered over the weekend, but the race started on time. Polesitter Alex Palou launched into an early lead in his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, but second-placed Alexander Rossi (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing) kept him honest for the first 14 laps. The 2016 Indy 500 winner swept around last year’s victor heading into Lap 2, only for Palou to snag the slipstream into Lap 3. What followed was a dog fight, with both men trading the lead almost every single lap.
The first caution of the day came out on Lap 18 thanks to a collision between Katherine Legge and Ryan Hunter-Reay. RHR lost the rear of his car and collided with the wall, kicking up smoke that Legge couldn’t avoid. She smacked into the inside wall to avoid hitting Hunter-Reay. Both drivers were extricated unharmed, and the pit window opened under caution — a window that all but four drivers took advantage of.
The field went green again on Lap 27, but it didn’t last long because Ed Carpenter collided with the wall, the victim of a three-wide run into Turn 1 with nowhere near enough space. Romain Grosjean held the lead for the first time in his Indy 500 career.
As the race closed in on the 200th mile, another Palou dogfight ensued, this time with his No. 9 teammate Scott Dixon as the two traded the penalty associated with leading the race. The back-and-forth continued until a lengthy caution hit on lap 91. Will Power’s No. 26 Andretti Global Honda suffered a mechanical fault, slowing on the back stretch before coming to rest on the pit exit.
In the meantime, Rossi pulled into the pits with a smoking engine, nearly suffering a repeat of his 2025 pit stop fire. Thankfully, the driver with the injured right foot climbed safely from the car, though his effort at another 500 victory came to an end.
It took until lap 97 before the Nos. 26 and 20 were safely cleared from the track and racing surface; pit lane opened, with almost the entire field dipping in for a change of tires and/or a top-up of gasoline. Dixon won the race off pit road — and it was a good thing, too, because the race was red-flagged shortly after, on lap 106, as rain began to fall.
Race control gave the command to re-fire engines after just a few minutes, and the race went green again with 91 laps to go. Front-row starter David Malukas in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet launched into the lead, but once again, Palou made him work for it. Both men swapped the lead until race control threw another yellow for moisture, this time with Malukas at the head of the field.
The weather lifted again, and the field went green with 75 laps to go, but only for a moment. The No. 2 of Josef Newgarden shot almost directly into the outside Turn 1 wall at the restart after touching the curb and losing control.
More stops transpired under yellow on lap 130 before the race went green heading into lap 133. It was a four-wide restart that brought Conor Daly into the lead, but Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevy brought the fight to him, closely followed by Palou for a three-wide battle that lasted several laps. Daly dropped back on lap 140, putting Malukas in third to join the Palou v. McLaughlin fray. Malukas made the move for second on Lap 146, and he chased down Palou for the lead the following lap. But as has been the case all weekend, the battle was far from over, and the remaining Team Penske duo pulled into the pits; McLaughlin won that battle off pit road. Palou and Daly came in the following lap. The battle for the net lead continued with ample dicing.
Malukas cycled back to the lead with 33 laps remaining after the alternate strategy drivers cycled through the pits — and the battle with Palou continued in kind. McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five. O’Ward and Rosenqvist both believed they could run to the end, while the other three believed they may need to pit in order to make it to the end.
Malukas came in from the lead with 25 laps remaining, ceding the lead to Palou for just one lap before the reigning victor stopped for fuel. Then, it was O’Ward cycling at the front of the field, though he had less fuel to work with than Rosenqvist. Rosenqvist made the leap to the lead with 15 laps remaining, and he quickly began to gap the field thanks to his surplus of fuel compared to O’Ward.
With eight to go, we saw a yellow flag for a major crash by rookie Caio Collett of A. J. Foyt Racing neutralized the field — and brought out a red flag as a result of significant debris. The top five at the time of the red was Rosenqvist, O’Ward, Marcus Armstrong, Malukas, and Romain Grosjean.
Just over ten minutes later, race control gave the command to start engines, and the field went out to cycle the 2.5-mile track once again.
The field went green with four laps remaining, Rosenqvist leading a four-wide push. Armstrong snagged the lead just ahead of Malukas — and a yellow flag came out yet again, thanks to Mick Schumacher’s car brushing the wall and a restart under review. The green flag flew with one frantic lap to go, Armstrong leading.
Malukas made the pass on Armstrong, while Armstrong and Rosenqvist went side-by-side — but Rosenqvist made the pass on the front stretch for the win.
That win is the second for his Meyer Shank Racing team, which last snagged victory with Helio Castroneves in 2021.