Honda‘s 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season ended the way a lot of competitive seasons do: with a points total that tells a cleaner story than the final race did. The FOX Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta closed the TCR calendar today, and Honda finished second in the Manufacturers’ Championship with 3,140 points, 210 behind Hyundai Motor America, which took its seventh consecutive TCR title at 3,350 points.
The #93 MMG Honda Civic Type R TCR of Karl Wittmer and LP Montour was the team most likely to improve Honda’s position late in the race. Wittmer qualified on pole with a lap that set a new TCR track record at Road Atlanta, giving Honda a second consecutive front-row lockout in TCR qualifying. MMG controlled the opening stint, leading throughout while the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Honda held third. A caution with 70 minutes remaining tightened the field and turned the back half of the race into a fuel conservation contest. MMG came out of the pit cycle having lost a couple of positions, with TMR inheriting second. That order held near the front until the closing minutes, when TMR suffered a puncture and pitted with seven minutes left, ending its podium chances.
Then MMG’s race ended with two laps remaining. A GS-class competitor made contact with the #93 on the front straight, and Wittmer and Montour were done. They are listed 12th in the final results, noted as not running at the finish. Pegram Racing’s #72 Honda Civic Type R TCR of Riley and Larry Pegram survived its own late drama, taking a fuel splash with five minutes left and finishing sixth for a season-best result. The #8 HART Honda of Chad Gilsinger and Tyler Chambers came home eighth; the TMR car, after its puncture stop, classified 11th.
Despite the messy finale, MMG secured third in both the TCR Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships with 2,620 points. Honda’s qualifying pace held throughout the year, with seven poles across the season, and today’s front-row lockout at Road Atlanta followed a similar result from the previous round.
Hyundai’s seventh consecutive manufacturers’ title is the more durable number from this weekend. Honda’s runners-up finish confirms the Civic Type R TCR as a genuine front-runner in the class, but Hyundai has now held the manufacturers’ crown every year since 2020 and did so again here with podium finishes at every IMPC round this season.
For Honda, the 2026 motorsport calendar has been a study in contrasts. On ovals and street circuits, Alex Palou clinched his fifth IndyCar title and Honda swept all three NTT INDYCAR SERIES crowns, capping a dominant open-wheel campaign. The TCR program produced strong qualifying speed and consistent points finishes, but Hyundai’s depth across the full field proved too wide a gap to close over a full season.
Honda confirmed it will return to TCR competition in 2027. Closing the gap to Hyundai will require more than pole laps; it will require finishing them.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
