Grand Prix of Monterey: 5 IndyCar Storylines for Sunday
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Saturday Race Preview - the storylines and the stuff worth watching, fan to fan, before the green flag drops.
The Short Version
The Grand Prix of Monterey closes the 2026 IndyCar season Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, 95 laps and 212.61 miles, green flag at 2:30 PM ET on FOX. Alex Palou already locked up the title at Milwaukee, so the championship is settled. Everything else is not. Second place in the standings is a two-point fight, the Corkscrew was renamed Friday morning in honor of Alex Zanardi, and Scott Dixon takes the last green flag of a 25-year run with Chip Ganassi Racing.
1. The Corkscrew Has a New Name
On Friday morning, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca formally dedicated its most famous stretch of pavement as The Zanardi Corkscrew. Alex Zanardi died on May 1, 2026, at 59. Palou, Dixon, Dario Franchitti and IndyCar president Doug Boles were all there, along with a proclamation from Monterey County and an In Memoriam recognition from the California State Assembly. Track president and general manager Mel Harder unveiled renderings for a permanent monument that will eventually stand at the turn.
The timing is the part that gets you. Sunday is the 30th anniversary of "The Pass" - Zanardi dropping his wheels into the dirt on the last lap in 1996 to get around Bryan Herta through the Corkscrew and win. Palou's No. 10 Honda will carry the old Chip Ganassi Racing lightning bolt this weekend, the same mark Zanardi and the team's other champions ran during four straight titles from 1996 to 1999. Zanardi drove for Ganassi from 1996 to 1998 and won two championships and 15 races there.
"I'm so excited to get the lightning bolt back on our car," Palou said. "We're racing in memory of Alex Zanardi."
25 years ago today.
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 9, 2021
Alex Zanardi made the pass in the corkscrew to win at @WeatherTechRcwy Laguna Seca. pic.twitter.com/XbgyeOjP2m
2. Second Place Is a Two-Point Fight
Palou sits on 607 points and cannot be caught. Behind him, four drivers are stacked up like traffic in Turn 2. Christian Lundgaard leads the runner-up fight on 507. Kyle Kirkwood is two back on 505. Pato O'Ward is four back on 503. David Malukas is 23 back on 484. One caution, one bad pit stop, one long lap in traffic decides where all four of them finish the year.
Then qualifying happened, and it got worse for the guy in front. Lundgaard put the No. 7 Arrow McLaren fifth on the grid, the best of the three McLaren cars. He will not start there. A six-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change drops him to 11th. Malukas and Kirkwood both move up a spot as a result, so the two drivers chasing him start ahead of him. That is a rough way to defend a two-point lead on a track where passing is genuinely hard.
3. Nobody Is Hotter Than Pato O'Ward
Rain wrecked the Milwaukee schedule so badly that the Saturday race had to be finished Sunday evening, after the Sunday race had already run. O'Ward won both of them. That made him the first IndyCar driver since Rick Mears in 1981 to win two races on the same day, and it was his third career win at the Milwaukee Mile and his third of 2026.
He arrives at Laguna Seca chasing three straight wins and a runner-up championship finish. The problem is the same one that has bitten Arrow McLaren all year: he could not get out of the first qualifying group and starts 13th. O'Ward has built a reputation on Sunday charges, and he is going to need one, because there is no points cushion to lean on.
4. Scott Dixon's Last Green Flag in a Ganassi Car
This is the one that will hit longtime fans hardest. Dixon and Chip Ganassi Racing have been together 25 seasons. In that time they piled up 58 wins, six championships and the 2008 Indianapolis 500. Dixon has 59 career wins and 436 starts overall, more than any active driver, and he set the all-time series starts record last year. In 2027 he turns up in an Arrow McLaren car.
He would love to leave on a win. It is not going anywhere near easy. Dixon is 12th in points with 318, no wins, one top-five finish all season, and he was knocked out in the opening qualifying group Friday after a mistake at Turn 5. He is also carrying an ugly first: he won at least one race in every season from 2005 through 2025, 21 years running. Unless he wins Sunday, that streak ends here.
5. McLaughlin Beat the Champion to Pole by 0.0177 Seconds
Scott McLaughlin put the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet on pole with a 1:09.1363, edging Palou's 1:09.1540 by 0.0177 seconds. It is his third NTT P1 Award of 2026 and, more notably, the 250th IndyCar pole in Chevrolet's history. Felix Rosenqvist qualified third in his last race for Meyer Shank Racing, and Alexander Rossi went fourth in Ed Carpenter Racing's best session of the year.
McLaughlin has been fast and unrewarded all season: sixth in points, 428, six top-fives, and zero wins. Sunday is his last chance to fix that, and he starts from the best possible place to do it.
IndyCar's Scott McLaughlin and new race engineer Raul Prados continue to develop positive chemistry in their first year of working together with the No. 3 Team Penske Chevy.https://t.co/OebtAb3HlV
— RACER (@RACERHQ) July 19, 2026
What We Are Watching For
Watch the opening lap into Turn 2, the Andretti Hairpin, and the long run out of it. That is where a driver starting 11th or 13th gets a whole afternoon back, or loses one. Watch the first stop cycle, because Laguna Seca has a habit of turning one alternate-tire gamble into a track position swing nobody recovers from. And watch Malukas, fifth in points on 484 and still winless in 78 career IndyCar starts. He starts fifth. A first career win in the finale would be the story of the year.
Our Friday track preview picked Christian Lundgaard for the win, and the grid penalty does not change that. He has two wins in 2026, both on road courses, he holds the qualifying lap record here from 2023, and this is his final start for Arrow McLaren. Motivated drivers in fast cars find a way in 95 laps.
The Bottom Line
The championship is over, and the race still matters more than most this year. A renamed corner, a two-point fight for second, a legend's last lap for the only IndyCar team he has really known, and the hottest driver in the field starting 13th. Green flag is 2:30 PM ET Sunday on FOX.
Shop the Story
Season finale gear, all in stock and ready to ship:
- IndyCar Checkered Flag Sublimated T-Shirt - the checkered flag tee for the last race of the year.
- Indianapolis 500 Car Flag Tee - clean car-and-flag graphic in IndyCar colors.
- Indianapolis 500 Back Home Again Tee - for the fans who never miss May.
- Indianapolis 500 Race Logo Long Sleeve Tee - long sleeve for the fall calendar.
- Colton Herta No. 26 Andretti 1:18 Diecast - shelf-worthy IndyCar detail.
Want the full rack? Browse the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar collection or see everything new in the store.
