Samwise IndyCar Newsletter
Friday, July 10, 2026
Scott Dixon Breaking New Ground With Seismic Late-Career Move
Scott Dixon’s departure from Chip Ganassi Racing after nearly 25 seasons — the only team he drove for since joining in 2002 at age 21 — stands as one of IndyCar’s most significant late-career moves in memory. The six-time champion won 58 of his 59 career victories with CGR, leaving him second all-time behind A.J. Foyt’s 67. Dixon turns 46 on July 23. IndyCar has seen late-career reinventions before: Will Power moved from Team Penske to Andretti Global after 17 seasons and 42 wins, while Mario Andretti joined Newman/Haas at 43 in 1983, and Nigel Mansell arrived at Newman/Haas in 1993 as the reigning Formula 1 champion.
Sources: IndyCar.com Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
McLaughlin Leads Full-Field IndyCar Test at Milwaukee
Scott McLaughlin set the pace at IndyCar’s full-field test at Milwaukee Mile, posting a best lap of 22.669 seconds (161.189 mph) in his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet. “It was solid,” McLaughlin said. “Honestly, every test day for me and Raul [Prados] has been like, amazing.” Rinus VeeKay was second (22.798s) and Marcus Ericsson third (22.828s). Felix Rosenqvist, Will Power, and Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top six. Pato O’Ward recovered to ninth after a difficult start: “We were nowhere to begin, but hats off to my race engineer and all the guys; they turned it around.” Championship leader Alex Palou finished 10th.
FOX Ratings Soar for Mid-Ohio Broadcast
IndyCar’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course broadcast on FOX drew 1,344,000 viewers on July 5, a 73 percent increase over the 775,000 who watched the same race in 2025. The broadcast peaked at 1,541,000 viewers. The strong Mid-Ohio number fits a broader season-long pattern of growth: through 11 races in 2026, IndyCar is averaging 1,979,000 viewers on FOX. That figure represents an 18 percent increase over the 1,678,000 average the series posted at the same point in the 2025 season, continuing a positive viewership trajectory for the sport on broadcast television.
Sources: IndyCar.com Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Test Patterns: Milwaukee Mile
IndyCar.com’s post-test analysis at Milwaukee Mile highlighted the spread of results beyond the headline times. Scott McLaughlin was fastest at 161.189 mph — nearly one mile per hour quicker than second-placed Rinus VeeKay (160.271 mph). Andretti Global delivered the strongest team performance: Marcus Ericsson third (160.067 mph), Will Power fifth (159.942), and Kyle Kirkwood seventh (159.563). Meyer Shank Racing also impressed, with Rosenqvist fourth (160.032) and Armstrong sixth (159.706). Honda powered six of the next seven spots after the top two Chevrolets. The test totaled more than 4,800 laps, led by Power’s 266. Milwaukee hosts the Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 and Milwaukee Mile 250 on August 29–30.
Sources: IndyCar.com Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Drivers’ Championship
1. Alex Palou — 404 pts
2. Kyle Kirkwood — 348 pts
3. Christian Lundgaard — 339 pts
4. David Malukas — 338 pts
5. Pato O’Ward — 310 pts
6. Josef Newgarden — 270 pts
7. Felix Rosenqvist — 265 pts
8. Scott McLaughlin — 262 pts
9. Scott Dixon — 224 pts
10. Marcus Ericsson — 222 pts
11. Rinus VeeKay — 219 pts
12. Marcus Armstrong — 219 pts
13. Graham Rahal — 218 pts
14. Will Power — 209 pts
15. Kyffin Simpson — 194 pts
16. Alexander Rossi — 190 pts
17. Santino Ferrucci — 179 pts
18. Louis Foster — 159 pts
19. Dennis Hauger — 148 pts
20. Nolan Siegel — 145 pts
21. Christian Rasmussen — 143 pts
22. Romain Grosjean — 139 pts
23. Caio Collet — 132 pts
24. Sting Ray Robb — 108 pts
25. Mick Schumacher — 108 pts
26. Conor Daly — 24 pts
27. Takuma Sato — 20 pts
28. Jack Harvey — 8 pts
29. Jacob Abel — 6 pts
30. Helio Castroneves — 5 pts
31. Ed Carpenter — 5 pts
32. Ryan Hunter-Reay — 5 pts
33. Katherine Legge — 5 pts
Teams’ Championship
Ranked by combined driver points (indycar.com); INDYCAR does not publish an official teams table.
1. Team Penske — 870 pts
2. Chip Ganassi Racing — 822 pts
3. Arrow McLaren — 799 pts
4. Andretti Global — 779 pts
5. Meyer Shank Racing — 489 pts
6. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing — 485 pts
7. Ed Carpenter Racing — 338 pts
8. Juncos Hollinger Racing — 327 pts
9. A.J. Foyt Enterprises — 311 pts
10. Dale Coyne Racing — 287 pts
11. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing — 32 pts
12. Abel Motorsports — 6 pts
13. HMD Motorsports w/ AJ Foyt Racing — 5 pts
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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