Three new venues — two already announced — highlight the changes in the 2026 INDYCAR schedule.
Oh, and a different season finale as well. Kinda.
The 17-race season — with each race televised on FOX — begins March 1 on the streets of St. Petersburg and then goes to Phoenix Raceway on March 7, which will be a Saturday race the day before the NASCAR Cup Series event on the same 1-mile oval.
Phoenix is one of three new venues. The other two — a race on the streets of Arlington (March 15) around the complex that includes the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers stadiums and a race on the streets of the Toronto suburb Markham (Aug. 17) to replace the event at Toronto’s Exhibition Centre — already had been announced.
The season ends at Laguna Seca, where the series finished its season in 2019, 2022 and 2023. The race at Nashville moves to July.
In other schedule notables:
–The Indianapolis 500 — the 110th running of the world’s most notable automobile race — is set for May 24.
–The season kicks off with three consecutive race weekends (St. Petersburg, Phoenix and Arlington), takes a weekend off and then goes to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. That gives the start of the season four races in a five-week span, compared to 2025, where the first four races were spread across 10 weeks.
–The Nashville race will be a night race and will follow the World Cup final July 19 on FOX. The race distance will increase from 300 miles to 400 miles. It is one of at least two night races as the race at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) also will run at night.
–The event at Milwaukee is a doubleheader weekend with races Saturday and Sunday, Aug 29-30.
–Four events are not returning to the calendar: The Thermal private road course, the Iowa doubleheader weekend (two races) and the race in Toronto that moves to Markham.
–While INDYCAR did try to schedule a race in Mexico City, the deal did not get done for 2026.
–The breakdown on types of tracks are six ovals (Phoenix, Indianapolis, WWTR Gateway, Nashville and Milwaukee doubleheader), six permanent road courses (Barber, Indianapolis, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Portland and Laguna Seca) and five street courses (St. Petersburg, Arlington, Long Beach, Detroit, Markham).
–There is no race on the Aug. 2 weekend, which also is a full off-weekend for the three NASCAR national series as well as the National Hot Road Association, a rare summer weekend where none of the three major U.S.-based racing series will be off that weekend.
The 2026 INDYCAR Series schedule:
March 1: St. Petersburg streets
March 7: Phoenix (oval)
March 15: Arlington streets
March 29: Barber (Birmingham)
April 19: Long Beach streets
May 9: Indianapolis road course
May 24: Indianapolis 500
May 31: Detroit streets
June 7: WWTR Gateway (St. Louis)
June 21: Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wis.)
July 5: Mid-Ohio
July 19: Nashville (oval)
Aug. 9: Portland
Aug .16: Markham streets (Toronto)
Aug. 29: Milwaukee-1
Aug. 30: Milwaukee-2
Sept. 6: Laguna Seca
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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