Honda needed a last-lap sprint through a rain-slicked Indianapolis Motor Speedway to secure its eighth TCR podium of the 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season. The #93 MMG Honda Civic Type R TCR of LP Montour and Karl Wittmer crossed the finish line third in Sunday’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120, a result that arrived in the messiest possible fashion.
Before the race got complicated, qualifying went exactly as Honda would have scripted it. Rocco Pasquarella set a record lap to put the #5 TMR Honda on pole, earning his third pole position of the year and Honda’s sixth in 2026 TCR competition. Montour, who has three poles of his own this season, qualified the #93 just 0.009 seconds behind, giving Honda a clean front-row lockout.
The race itself was disrupted early by multiple caution periods. The #72 Pegram Racing Honda was forced off track from sixth position in the opening stages, dropping Riley Pegram and Larry Pegram to the back of the field. The two MMG and TMR Hondas held their positions at the front through the cautions. A mid-race caution triggered the scheduled pit cycle; after the restart, the MMG entry briefly lost the lead but pulled several seconds clear before the TMR Honda began to lose pace from a developing mechanical issue that eventually ended its day.
Montour described working through the GS class traffic to take the lead: “I got the opportunity to draft between a GS competitor and another car to make the pass to move into P1 and lead for a bit. It went really well.” MMG ran second through the middle portion of the race, managing position while protecting their pace advantage.
A late caution reset everything. With the field bunched for a one-lap dash to the checkered flag, Wittmer moved immediately on the restart and grabbed the lead into Turn 1. Rain had settled over parts of the circuit by that point, and he was the first to find it. “Going into Turn 7, I was the first man in,” Wittmer said. “I hit the water, overshot the corner, two guys passed me, and we secured third.” The MMG Honda crossed the line in third, two positions back from where it had been moments earlier.
Pegram Racing’s recovery was the other story worth noting. After the early off-track incident dropped the #72 to the back, the team worked steadily through the field, used the mid-race caution stop efficiently, and finished sixth. It is the team’s best result of the 2026 season.
The result extends Honda’s strong championship run in IMSA TCR competition, a category where the Civic Type R has been the consistent front-runner across the season. Honda’s dominance in North American motorsports more broadly has been well documented in 2026: Alex Palou clinched his fifth IndyCar championship earlier this month, giving Honda a manufacturers’ title sweep alongside Palou’s drivers’ crown and Dennis Hauger’s rookie of the year award. Under new HRC US president Kelvin Fu, who took over from David Salters on September 12, the organization is carrying momentum into the season finale.
Honda returns to action for the tenth and final round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 2, 2026, for the FOX Factory 120. MMG goes in knowing what a single late caution can cost. So does the competition.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
