Alex Palou arrived in Washington D.C. with a 133-point cushion and left with 91. One bad weekend compressed a season’s worth of work into a manageable deficit for Kyle Kirkwood, and now the two Andretti and Ganassi pilots head to Milwaukee for the only doubleheader on the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series calendar with the championship math sharpening into focus.
The arithmetic is straightforward. If Palou extends his lead to 108 points after Saturday’s Snap-On Makers and Fixers 250, or holds a 54-point gap after Sunday’s Snap-On 250, he clinches a fifth title in six years. Anything less than 54 points in hand leaving Milwaukee keeps Kirkwood mathematically alive for the season finale at Laguna Seca. Six races in five weekends to close the season. The doubleheader makes this the heaviest points weekend of the stretch.
Both drivers run Honda power. Palou takes the wheel of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing entry; Kirkwood runs the No. 27 for Andretti Global. That means Honda wins the drivers’ title either way, but the manufacturers’ championship has its own storyline. Honda leads Chevrolet 1,316–1,110 with three races left and can seal that fight in Milwaukee before the season even reaches California.
Honda’s 2026 résumé is built for ovals and streets alike. Ten wins on all four track types. The street circuit numbers are particularly lopsided: six races, six wins, 15 of 18 possible podiums, more than 90% of laps led. Felix Rosenqvist’s Indianapolis 500 victory added 55 points for the win and another 50 for the engine reaching 2,000 miles of running. Thirteen of 15 Honda-powered entries have contributed to the manufacturers’ points total. Milwaukee, a one-mile oval, is the one surface where Honda has yet to find a win since the track returned to the schedule in 2024, adding a layer of unfinished business to an otherwise dominant season.
The track itself carries weight beyond this season. The Milwaukee Mile has staged racing continuously since 1903, except for the years of U.S. involvement in World War II, making it the oldest continually operating racing facility in the world. Honda’s history here goes back to Jimmy Vasser in 1998, the first of nine manufacturer wins at the track. Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, and Scott Dixon all added victories before Milwaukee went dark. The 2026 doubleheader gives Honda two shots at putting another name on that list.
Down the order, the rookie title is still contested. Dennis Hauger leads Mick Schumacher by 24 points, with Hauger running the No. 19 for Dale Coyne and Schumacher in the No. 47 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Honda-powered rookies have won 12 of the 14 Rookie of the Year titles since multi-manufacturer competition resumed in 2012, and a fifth consecutive Honda rookie title is on the table. Christian Lundgaard took it in 2022, Marcus Armstrong in 2023, Linus Lundqvist in 2024, Louis Foster in 2025.
TV viewership for the 2025 IndyCar season averaged 1.36 million, up 27% from the year before. Both Milwaukee races air on Fox, Saturday at 2:30 PM ET and Sunday at 1 PM ET. A title fight going into the final two weekends with two drivers from different teams separated by 91 points is the kind of story that tends to hold those numbers.
Palou has been here before. Kirkwood hasn’t. That’s the only edge either driver carries into the weekend that no points chart can measure.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
