The 2026 Indianapolis 500 (branded as the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge for sponsorship reasons) was an IndyCar Series race that took place on May 24, 2026, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race was the seventh round of the NTT IndyCar Series season. The month of May activities formally began with the Sonsio Grand Prix on the combined road course on May 9. The race was televised on Fox. This was the first "500" since the Fox Corporation acquired a one-third stake in IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway parent company Penske Entertainment in August 2025.
Practice began on May 12, and Time Trials were scheduled for May 16–17. The first day of qualifying, however, was rained out. Carb Day, the traditional final day of practice took place on May 22. The annual Pit Stop Challenge, however, was halted and cancelled due to rain. A full-field open test was held April 28–29, which included rookie orientation. Álex Palou was the defending winner, and three-time defending IndyCar Series champion. Palou qualified for the pole position, his second career Indy pole. The Carb Day practice event on Friday, May 22 honored the late NASCAR driver Kyle Busch – a two-time winner of the Brickyard 400 – who died from complications with pneumonia on Thursday, May 21. Dale Coyne Racing further honored Busch by decorating Romain Grosjean's No. 18 car with the same number font Busch used throughout his NASCAR career. Later that evening, Busch was also remembered at the Coca-Cola 600.
Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing started 4th and ran in the top ten nearly all day. Executing an alternate fuel strategy, he took the lead for the first time on lap 154 (of 200). Two late-race cautions set up a one-lap shootout to the finish. With the green and white flag waving for the final lap, David Malukas of Team Penske grabbed the lead from Marcus Armstrong, with Rosenqvist third. Rosenqvist and Armstrong raced side-by-side for nearly the entire final lap, while Malukas pulled out to a small lead. Coming out of turn four, Felix Rosenqvist made a strong run and beat David Malukas to the finish line by 0.0233 seconds, the closest margin of victory in Indy 500 history. It was Rosenqvist's first Indy 500 victory, and the second for Meyer Shank Racing (2021, 2026).
Several race records were broken, including 70 lead changes, the most in Indy history. The previous record was 68, set in 2013. The previous closest finish came in 1992 when Al Unser Jr. beat Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds. Álex Palou and Scott Dixon traded the lead a record-breaking 26 times. The previous record of lead changes between the same two drivers was 18, between James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay (2016). Santino Ferrucci also completed the full 500-mile distance for a record-breaking eighth consecutive year. 2026 marked the fifth time in Indy 500 history that the lap leader on the final lap (David Malukas) failed to win. Felix Rosenqvist became the first 34-year-old to win an Indy 500 since Helio Castroneves did so in 2009.
For the third year in a row, a driver attempted to complete "Double Duty", as Katherine Legge attempted to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. After a crash attempting to avoid a spinning Ryan Hunter-Reay on Lap 18, Legge reached Charlotte and raced the Coca-Cola 600, finishing the latter 12 laps behind the winner and in 31st place, last among cars still in the race.
Race background
The Indianapolis 500, commonly called the Indy 500, is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a paved oval. First held in 1911, it is currently a points-paying race of the NTT IndyCar Series. The event is contested by "Indy cars", a formula of professional-level, single-seat, open cockpit, open-wheel, purpose-built race cars. The race is the most prestigious event of the IndyCar calendar, and one of the oldest and most important automobile races in the world. The race traditionally has a field of 33 cars.
Track improvements According to Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles, track maintenance crews have been investigating bumps in Turn 2 since 2019. During track evaluations prior to the 2025 race, the Turn 2 bump in question was considerably higher than in the past. The pavement was pressed in an attempt to reduce the severity. In July 2025, during the Brickyard 400, the severity of the bumps in Turn 2 were reported by drivers and crew chiefs during the track walk and all sessions.
On September 23, 2025, construction crews excavated the section of track in question. It was determined that bricks originally installed in 1909 (that had been paved over by asphalt in 1937) had expanded and split due to moisture, which raised the pavement. The damaged bricks were removed and a new base was applied. The section of the track was repaved, followed by diamond grinding to blend the new section with the adjacent asphalt. The track was allowed to cure for four weeks before the late October Speedway tests for Firestone.
Rule changes A new entity, titled IndyCar Officiating, Inc. has been created, tasked with governing over the IndyCar Series and Indy NXT. It includes a three-person Independent Officiating Board (IOB) consisting of: Ray Evernham, Raj Nair (Ford), and Ronan Morgan (FIA). Scot Elkins will serve as Managing Director of Officiating. The move separates race control and technical inspection from Penske Entertainment, which owns INDYCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in an effort to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest. In 2025, Team Penske was penalized for technical infractions during Indy 500 qualifying, resulting in two cars being moved to the back of the grid, monetary fines, and points deductions. The controversy led to the dismissal of team president Tim Cindric, and widespread calls for officiating reform. In January 2026, Team Penske revealed that Cindric had returned to the team as a strategist. Tire ramp flaps were mandatory on all cars. The flaps were designed to deploy in a spin and/or during rearward movement in order to reduce the likelihood of lift, preventing the car from becoming airborne. The flaps are similar in concept to the roof flaps introduced in NASCAR in 1994. Each entry was permitted 31 sets of tires for the entirety of the event, plus 5 additional sets for use during the Open Test. This is down from 32 sets and 8 sets, respectively in 2025. During the Rookie Orientation Program/Refresher Tests session, drivers taking rookie tests receive three additional sets, and drivers taking refresher tests receive two additional sets, for use during that session only. A modified qualifying format was announced on May 11, due to a lack of entries to necessitate the Last Chance Qualifying session that had been featured in previous years. During Saturday qualifying, those qualifying positions 1–15 would advance to Sunday qualifying sessions, while positions 16–33 would be locked in to their positions. During Sunday qualifying, the drivers qualified positions 10–15 on Saturday would participate in a "Final 15" session, in which the fastest three cars advance to the Top 12 session later in the day, while positions 13–15 would be locked in to their spots. The remaining session would proceed as in previous years; the fastest six cars in the Top 12 session moved on to the Fast Six, while positions 7–12 were locked. The Fast Six session would then determine starting positions 1–6. During the final 60 minutes of practice each day, drivers were permitted to practice entering the pit area off of turn four. This simulates the method of entering the pits used on race day. At all other times, drivers were still required to enter the pits at the warm-up lane in turn three – with exceptions only for emergency service. Previously, pitting off of turn four (during practice) was only allowed during Post-Qualifying Practice (Monday) and on Carb Day.
Sponsorship Online financial services company Gainbridge signed an initial four-year deal for presenting sponsorship of the Indianapolis 500 from 2019 to 2022. A multi-year extension was signed in 2022. On November 6, 2025, Gainbridge signed another multi-year contract extension. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
2026 IndyCar Series
The 2026 Indianapolis 500 was the seventh race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. Four different drivers won the first six races of the season. Álex Palou won the season opener at St. Petersburg. Josef Newgarden won at Phoenix, and Kyle Kirkwood won at Arlington. Palou won for the second and third time this season at Alabama and Long Beach. The Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was won by Christian Lundgaard. It was the final race before the "500". Palou held a 27-point margin over Kirkwood in the championship points standings going into the Indianapolis 500 - the fourth year in a row Palou has led the points standings going into the "500".
Points standings (top 5) entering Indianapolis 500 Pos Driver Pts 1 Álex Palou 237 2 Kyle Kirkwood 210 3 David Malukas 185 4 Christian Lundgaard 182 5 Josef Newgarden 162
Race schedule Race schedule — April/May 2026SunMonTueWedThuFriSat26 27 28Open test29Open test30 1 2Mini-Marathon3 4 5 6 7 8Sonsio G.P.9Sonsio G.P.10 11 12Practice13Practice14Practice15Fast Friday16Time Trials17Time Trials18Practice19 20 21 22Carb Day23Parade24Indianapolis 50025Memorial Day26 27 28 29 30 Source: Color Notes Green Practice Blue Time trials Silver Race day Red Rained out* Blank No track activity * Includes days where trackactivity was significantly limited due to rain
Entry list
All entries utilized a spec Dallara DW12 chassis with the UAK-18 universal aero kit and the 2020-adopted aeroscreen. Honda (HRC US) and Chevrolet (Ilmor) are the engine providers. Firestone was the exclusive tire supplier. This was the second year of hybrid energy recovery system powertrains at Indianapolis.
The official entry list was released on May 11, with 33 confirmed entries. The list included 25 full-time IndyCar Series entries, and eight one-off or "Indy-only" entries.
Andretti Global was planning to run a fourth car, in an "Indy-only" entry, with the #98. Colton Herta, who is competing full-time in Formula 2 in 2026, was the likely driver. The original Formula 2 calendar had no races scheduled for May, which would have allowed Herta to compete at Indy. However, due to the Iran war, which resulted in the cancellation of two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the Formula 2 schedule was revised with the addition of races in Miami and Canada, the latter of which was scheduled for the same day as the 500. Herta was therefore no longer available due to the scheduling conflict, and Andretti Global thus elected to not run the car.
PREMA Racing had two Chevrolet engine leases for the 2026 IndyCar Series season, but was undergoing an ownership shake-up which left the team in limbo regarding competing in any of the 2026 events. On April 10, it was announced PREMA would not enter at Indianapolis. As a result, their two engines were released to other teams.
This was the first time since 2022 that no bumping took place. Devlin DeFrancesco, who raced full-time for RLL in 2025, and Stefan Wilson, who last competed in 2023, were two drivers who aggressively pursued rides before the last entry was filled by Legge.