The demise of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series title hunt was greatly exaggerated.
Part of the reason was routine; part of it was shocking. It was no surprise that Kyle Kirkwood, a street course ace, won the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in dominant fashion.
What was surprising was that points leader, four-time champion and Freedom 250 polesitter Alex Palou allowed Kirkwood back into the championship fight, as a slow pit stop, pit road penalty and spin relegated Palou to a 20th-place finish and kept Kirkwood in the championship picture. Rather than clinching his fifth championship and a fourth straight in the nation’s capital, Palou had arguably his worst race of the 2026 season.
Kirkwood still has plenty of work to do to catch Palou. With three races left in the season, including a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis., this weekend, Palou still holds a commanding 91-point lead over Kirkwood.
But the door is open.
Opportunity afoot for Kyle Kirkwood to steal IndyCar championship
“I’m just going to go out there and try and win every single race and see where it goes from there,” Kirkwood said Sunday. “It’s starting to pan out. I can’t control what Palou does. Maybe in very small circumstances you can. In the sense of where he finished today or where he was going to finish today, there is no controlling that because you’re in the lead. We just had a very fortunate day in the points championship.”
Others on Kirkwood’s team echoed that sentiment.
“I think if we were sitting here 40 points out or something like that, it would be a different conversation,” said Ron Ruzewski, the team principal of Andretti Global. “It’s still 90 points out. I think to echo what Kyle said, we just have to go out there at this point and try to put numbers up on the board.
“That being said, the best thing we can do is put all three of our cars in front of Palou. That’s really what we’re trying to do, is not just have Kyle win races, but have Marcus [Ericsson] and Will [Power] on the podium or in front of Palou. That’s the only way we have a chance.”
It certainly won’t be easy for Kirkwood and the No. 27 team to claw their way closer to Palou. The four-time champ finished second at Milwaukee last season, and while ovals were once a chink in the armor for Palou and the No. 10 team, his win in the 2025 Indianapolis 500 and another victory at Nashville Superspeedway in July have made it clear that he’s a contender at every track on the circuit. Palou also went to victory lane at Laguna Seca, the site of IndyCar’s Sept. 6 season finale, last year.
Luck will have to be on Kirkwood’s side if he is to win his first championship. If he were to beat Palou for the title, it’d be one of the greatest comebacks for a championship in racing history.
All he can do is take things one lap at a time and hope Lady Luck deals him another good hand in Wisconsin.
Quotes provided by IndyCar Media.