Inside The Garage: A New Test Awaits As INDYCAR Heads To DC

Here’s what’s happening this week Inside The Garage: Markham, Ontario — Not all street courses are alike. And you might be hard-pressed to find two street courses as opposite as the ones INDYCAR drivers are taking on this month. When drivers raced Sunday on the streets of Markham, they had a 2.1-mile mix of lefts and rights and gradual turns, sharp turns and a hairpin on streets newly repaved for the event. When drivers race next Sunday on the streets of Washington, D.C., they will compete on a 1.7-mile circuit of mostly 90-degree left-hand turns with one right-hand turn. They also will go 61 miles further, racing 250 miles as part of the “Freedom 250,” compared to 189 miles at Markham, a more normal road-course length. “It will be interesting, man, to see how that plays out,” Andretti Global driver Will Power said during his news conference Sunday after finishing third at Markham. “It’s pretty crazy distance for a street course.” So what will it be like doing 147 laps on a street course? “You’re going to feel like you’re in a bit of washing machine in some ways, you just keep going around and around,” Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin told me and other reporters. “That’s going to be a long hard race, bumpy and whatnot.” At least the course might be a little more straight-forward than crazy (although crazy can be considered challenging and fun, too). “Washington’s a lot different,” Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood told me and other reporters Sunday after a crash at Markham. “It’s just pretty much 90-degree corners. Here [at Markham], there’s a lot more characteristics, a lot of increasing radius, which usually breeds passes and breeds crashes. “But it really even hasn’t been that many passes, there’s been crashes. D.C. will be way different.” One thing that will be similar is the schedule. While Markham had to delay the first practice from Friday to Saturday, a disappointing turn of events, it did get drivers ready for the schedule this weekend. In hopes of having the least amount of disruption to life in the capital, INDYCAR agreed to a two-day show. That means both practices and qualifying are set for Saturday, just as they were in the adjusted Markham schedule after the Friday postponement. Photos of the track build in Washington indicate that there will be no questions as far as whether the track will be ready. One thing that won’t be new when it comes to competition? Alex Palou was the championship leader going into Markham and remains so going into Washington. In fact, there is a chance he could clinch the title. Palou went from having a 110-point lead on Kirkwood to a 133-point lead thanks to the Kirkwood crash. David Malukas is 137 points behind Palou. If Palou can leave Washington with a 162-point lead on the field, he would clinch the title with three races remaining. That would be a tall, but not impossible, order. “That would be fun — that would be a great spot to win it,” Palou told me and other reporters. It would be a little ironic for Palou, a Spaniard, to win a title (his fifth overall and fourth consecutive) in front of President Donald Trump, considering Trump was in attendance when Spain won the World Cup last month. “I’ll work for it, absolutely,” Palou said. Malukas told me that the battle isn’t for the title — it’s for second. “The battle is for P2,” Malukas told me. “What would [Palou] have to do? Crash every race? It’s done. We just have to look on getting that P2 because that P2 race is a big battle.” The Washington race also is the middle of a tough stretch of five consecutive weekends to close out the season. There are four races remaining — Washington, a two-race weekend at The Milwaukee Mile and then the season finale on the Laguna Seca (Monterey, Calif.) road course. For two veteran drivers, they have key streaks they will try to snap. McLaughlin hasn’t won in nearly two years as his winless streak is 32 races. “It’s the longest of my career by a mile since I started racing,” McLaughlin told me and other reporters. “I really do hate it. I’m chomping at the bit for a win. “We have been close, but just haven’t quite got there. I’m not frustrated, but I’m angst. You can’t force it. … I feel like I’m driving really well.” And Scott Dixon has won every year in each of the previous 21 years. All those seasons came with Chip Ganassi Racing, where he is leaving at the end of the year for Arrow McLaren. “The goal is always to get a win,” Dixon told me and other reporters. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a streak or anything like that. The obvious goal is to win every weekend we go to. “That’s really all I think about it. If that happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, so be it.” In The News –Noah Gragson signed a contract extension to remain at Front Row Motorsports. The contract includes options to keep him in a Cup car beyond 2027. –NASCAR announced that it has set limits for drivers to have rookie status. It is a maximum of 12 previous starts in Cup to be a rookie, 10 starts for O’Reilly and eight starts for trucks. –Trackside Enterprises, which had the contract to promote NASCAR races at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway, announced the track will not have NASCAR national series dates in 2027. It had O’Reilly Series and truck series races the last couple of years. Postseason Clinchers At Richmond, several drivers clinched spots in the postseason for NASCAR. Cup: Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell clinched to make it seven drivers having clinched with two races remaining. Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Ryan Blaney had previously clinched. Trucks: Christian Eckes, Gio Ruggiero and Ty Majeski clinched to join Layne Riggs, Kaden Honeycutt and Chandler Smith in the Chase. There are four spots left to be determined in the regular-season finale this weekend at New Hampshire. Social Spotlight They Said It “Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? Yes. That’s a clear yes. So much that our little team slogan in our hauler, our scoreboard, is ‘4 the Haters.’ That’s where we’re at.” — NASCAR driver Joey Logano, who is in his quest for a fourth championship. In Inside The Garage, Bob Pockrass takes us behind the scenes of the motorsports world the way only he can.