IndyCar 2027: 5 Offseason Storylines to Watch

Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar Race Preview - the storylines column that tells you what to actually watch for. The 2026 season is done, so this week we point it at the winter.

The Short Version

The 2026 IndyCar season ended September 6 at Laguna Seca with Scott McLaughlin winning the finale and Alex Palou already crowned. Now the real drama starts. IndyCar 2027 has a champion chasing a record nobody has ever held, a driver who finished third in points with no ride, a six-time champion changing teams for the first time in 25 years, a grid shuffling itself in public, and a race car working through its final season. Here are the five storylines worth following all winter.

Storyline 1: Palou and the IndyCar 2027 Record Nobody Owns

Alex Palou clinched his fourth straight title at the Milwaukee Mile on August 30 with a race still left on the schedule, finishing 10th in a rain-delayed event that carried over to Sunday night. He closed the year with 631 points and six wins, 86 clear of Kyle Kirkwood.

That fourth in a row ties Sebastien Bourdais, who won four straight from 2004 through 2007. It also makes Palou the third driver in series history to reach five career championships, behind only A.J. Foyt with seven and Scott Dixon with six. He is 29 years old.

So here is the hook for next season. In more than a century of American open-wheel racing, nobody has won five championships in a row. Palou can. That is not a stat that needs dressing up, and it is the single biggest reason to care about the first race of IndyCar 2027 whenever it lands.

Storyline 2: The Guy Who Finished Third Still Needs a Ride

Christian Lundgaard had the second-best season of his career. He won twice, at the Indianapolis road course in May and at Road America in June, took seven podiums, and finished third in the championship with 535 points. He was half of Arrow McLaren's first 1-2 finish as a team, at Mid-Ohio in July.

Then Arrow McLaren let him go. The team announced Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist on July 6 and released Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel at the end of the season. Chip Ganassi Racing has the most wanted seat on the market open in the No. 9, and Lundgaard has been the obvious name attached to it since the day the McLaren news broke. As of now, the No. 9 is still listed as to be announced.

A third-place driver with two wins waiting on a phone call is the kind of thing that only happens when a silly season gets this crowded.

It's the first-ever 1-2 finish for @ArrowMcLaren. Christian Lundgaard talks with @KevinLee23. pic.twitter.com/BkNs3XQxkV

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) July 5, 2026

Storyline 3: Scott Dixon in Papaya

Dixon spent 25 seasons and 417 races with Chip Ganassi Racing. He won 58 of them for the team, took six championships, and became the guy every other driver measured a career against. On September 6 at Laguna Seca he ran his last race in the No. 9 and finished 17th.

2026 was also the first season since 2004 that Dixon did not win a race. That ended a streak of 21 consecutive seasons with at least one victory, which is one of the quietest absurd records in motorsport. He finished the year 12th on 331 points.

Now he goes to Arrow McLaren alongside Pato O'Ward and Rosenqvist, with Ryan Hunter-Reay added for a partial schedule. Watching a six-time champion learn a new shop at this stage of a career is genuinely new territory, and if he wins early, the 2026 winless year turns into a footnote instead of a trend.

Storyline 4: The Grid Is Reshuffling in Public

Meyer Shank Racing completed its 2027 lineup on September 4 by signing Mick Schumacher to the No. 66 Honda, with Marcus Armstrong moving to the No. 60. Schumacher spent 2026 as a rookie at Rahal Letterman Lanigan and was named Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in May after running the full 200 laps in his first start on the oval.

A day later, Conor Daly was confirmed at Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, which returns to full-time IndyCar competition for the first time since 2012. Rahal Letterman Lanigan is going the other way, dropping from three cars to two with Graham Rahal and Louis Foster staying put. Team Penske, Andretti Global and Ed Carpenter Racing all run the same lineups they had in 2026.

Add it up and a real chunk of the field is still unspoken for. That is why the winter matters this year in a way it usually does not.

2027 lineup locked in 🔒 pic.twitter.com/qdoLxqievr

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 4, 2026

Storyline 5: The Last Dance for the DW12

2027 is the final season for the Dallara DW12 and the 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engine formula that came with it. The DW12 arrived in 2012, which means it will have run 16 seasons by the time it retires. Almost every driver on the current grid has spent their entire IndyCar career in it.

The replacement is the Dallara IR-28, introduced for 2028. It is a clean-sheet car with a new safety structure, roughly 85 to 100 pounds of weight taken out, revised aerodynamics aimed at closer racing, and a step up to a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 paired with an evolved version of the hybrid system the series added in 2024.

Practically, that makes 2027 the year every team empties the notebook. Sixteen seasons of setup data on a car nobody has to protect past next November tends to produce aggressive racing.

The Bottom Line

IndyCar has spent four seasons watching one driver win everything, and it heads into 2027 with the most unsettled driver market in years underneath him. Palou is chasing history, the best free agent on the board finished third in points, a six-time champion is starting over at 46, and the car everyone knows by heart has one year left. The season is over. The story is not.

Offseason is the right time to stock the closet. Here is what is in stock right now from our IndyCar collection:

• IndyCar Checkered Flag Sublimated T-Shirt - the one above, and the right shirt for a season that just took the flag.
• 109th Indianapolis 500 Car Flag Tee - for the fans already counting down to May.
• Indianapolis 500 Back Home Again Tee - the line everybody sings before the green.
• Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit Tee - if your 500 memories are more infield than grandstand.
• Colton Herta No. 26 Andretti 1:18 Diecast - shelf gear for the die-hards.

New IndyCar previews, recaps and features run every week at Happy Hour Racing. Browse the rest of the store in our newest arrivals and keep an eye on the blog through the winter.