Andretti Global Hired the Men Penske Let Go. Then Kyle Kirkwood Outscored Every Penske Driver.
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar Race Preview, where we take the story everybody is arguing about and lay out what actually happened. The 2026 season is finished and the 2027 opener is still months away, so this week we are on the offseason storyline quietly reshaping the front of the field.
The Short Version
IndyCar is between seasons. The 2026 championship ended September 6 at Laguna Seca and the 2027 opener is in March at St. Petersburg. The story worth your attention in the quiet months is this: over two offseasons, Andretti Global hired the driver and the team boss that Team Penske moved on from. In 2026 the payoff showed up in an unexpected place. Andretti's own homegrown driver, Kyle Kirkwood, finished runner-up in the championship and outscored all three Penske cars.
Kyle Kirkwood Became a Real Title Threat
Kirkwood finished second in the 2026 standings on 545 points, 86 behind Alex Palou. He won twice, and both wins were first-ever runnings of a race: the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington in March and the Freedom 250 in Washington, D.C., in August. Along the way he led 220 laps, took a pole, and put together 10 top-five and 15 top-10 finishes in 18 races.
That is seven career IndyCar wins for the Jupiter, Florida driver, a list that also includes two Grand Prix of Long Beach victories. What makes it land harder is the timing of his contract. Andretti signed Kirkwood to a multiyear extension on November 3, 2025, months before any of this happened. The team bet on him, and then he delivered the best season of his career.
Now the comparison that frames the whole offseason. Penske's best driver in 2026 was David Malukas, fifth on 514 points. Scott McLaughlin was sixth on 483 and won the finale. Josef Newgarden, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was eighth on 423. Kirkwood beat all of them.
Will Power's Revenge Season Did Not Land
Will Power spent 17 seasons at Team Penske, driving for the organization from 2009 onward. He won titles in 2014 and 2022, won the 2018 Indianapolis 500, and holds the series record with 71 pole positions to go with 45 wins, fourth on the all-time list. Then Penske replaced him with David Malukas, who was 24 at the time, and Power signed with Andretti after the 2025 finale.
He did not pretend it was amicable. Speaking in January 2026, Power said plainly: "There's nothing more I want to do this year than beat Penske every single weekend."
It did not work out that way. Power finished 11th on 368 points without a win, behind all three of the Penske drivers he set out to beat. The honest read on year one is that the driver who was supposed to be the statement hire was the third-best car in his own garage.
The caveat is the back half of the year. During Andretti's late-season surge, Power finished third at both the inaugural Markham race and the Freedom 250. He sounded like a man who had found something: "It's all coming online. I think the expectation now every weekend is to be on the podium."
The Team Boss Penske Fired
The hire that matters most may not be a driver at all. Ron Ruzewski was Team Penske's IndyCar managing director until May 2025, when he was dismissed along with team president Tim Cindric and general manager Kyle Moyer. The firings followed the discovery of illegally modified spec parts on the cars of Newgarden and Power ahead of final qualifying for the 109th Indianapolis 500.
Andretti named Ruzewski team principal on September 24, 2025, and he took the role in January 2026, with Rob Edwards moving to chief performance officer. That put Ruzewski back alongside Power, and it handed Andretti a man who spent years inside the operation it is trying to beat.
By August, with Marcus Ericsson winning at Markham and Kirkwood winning in Washington on back-to-back weekends, Ruzewski described a team clicking: "The team is really jelling. The three drivers working together, really pushing each other." Ericsson put it more directly, saying the three drivers had never had chemistry like it.
What 2027 Is Actually About
Andretti has not won an IndyCar championship since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. That is a 14-season wait for an organization that is not short on money, equipment or history. Ownership has changed in that time too: Michael Andretti handed control to Dan Towriss in October 2024, and the team now sits under Towriss as co-owner and CEO.
What is different going into 2027 is stability. Kirkwood, Ericsson and Power are all confirmed to return, with Ericsson renewing in August for a fourth season with the team. Among the four strongest outfits in the series, only Andretti and Penske are standing pat. Chip Ganassi Racing swapped Scott Dixon out for Christian Lundgaard, and Arrow McLaren added both Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. Andretti is the team that does not have to spend the winter learning new people.
All roads lead to race day. The 2027 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule has landed.
- NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) October 23, 2026
The Fan Debate
Here is the argument worth having before the cars run again. Is Andretti genuinely building toward a championship, or did 2026 just look good because the fight for second is the only fight left? Palou scored 631 points and has now won five titles in six years. Kirkwood's career-best season still ended 86 points adrift, and no amount of team chemistry closes that on its own. Beating Penske is a nice headline. Beating Palou is the actual job.
The Bottom Line
Andretti spent two offseasons collecting the people Team Penske no longer wanted, and in 2026 it finished ahead of Penske in the standings on the back of a driver it developed itself. Whether that turns into a trophy comes down to one obstacle. The last person to win an IndyCar title who is not named Alex Palou is Will Power, in 2022, for Team Penske. He is now an Andretti driver, and getting that name back on the list is the whole point of 2027.
IndyCar Gear at Happy Hour Racing
Straight talk: we do not stock Kirkwood, Power or Ericsson gear yet. What we do have is the car at the center of this story. The Colton Herta No. 26 Gainbridge Andretti Autosport 1:18 diecast is the same Andretti entry Will Power took over for 2026, and there are only a couple left.
For everything else, our IndyCar shelf is built around the Indianapolis 500:
- 109th Indianapolis 500 In Motion Blue Tee
- 109th Indianapolis 500 Back Home Again Tee
- Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit Tee
- Browse the full IndyCar collection
If you want us carrying Andretti gear by the time the green flag drops at St. Pete, tell us. We stock what you ask for.
