By Cayman Compass contributor Ted Nesbitt
Caymanian Kyffin Simpson and IndyCar took to the track to race for the second time in under a week in Phoenix, Arizona, on a very tricky one-mile banked tri-oval on Saturday, 7 March.
IndyCar was returning to Phoenix for the first time since 2018.
Practice and qualifying were limited to Friday as IndyCar shared the oval with NASCAR in Phoenix, with the IndyCars racing Saturday and NASCAR Sunday.
With the shortened schedule, IndyCar qualified Friday afternoon, seeing young Penske upstart driver David Malukas take the pole position, his first pole in IndyCar with an average lap speed of 175mph. Malukas had taken over the seat of longtime Penske driver Will Power or Australia, who has moved to Andretti Autosport for this season. In a cruel twist of fate, Power crashed during qualifying and started last on the grid.
Ganassi teammates Alex Palou qualified 10th, Scott Dixon 15th and Kyffin Simpson 19th in his Sunoco Ganassi Honda.
With the sun high in the desert sky, the green flag dropped on the 250-lap race on Saturday afternoon. Early battles at the front had the fans on their feet early and often. Palou was storming through the field, but came together with Dutch driver Rinus Veekay on lap 21, crunching Palou’s nose into the outside SAFER Barrier Wall, ending his race, although Veekay was able to continue.
Through numerous pit stops, the battle up front was back and forth between a few drivers, including pole-sitter Malukas, Michael Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, Arrow-Mclaren’s Pato O’Ward, ECR Racing’s Christian Rasmussen and Andretti Autosport driver Kyle Kirkwood. The two remaining Ganassi Honda cars of Dixon and Simpson ran a more conservative race, both striving for longer fuel-mileage, which translates into fewer pits tops.
As the laps wound down, Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who had a largely unremarkable day, flashed into the lead with under 20 laps left and took the checkered flag. Kirkwood challenged Malukas near the end and wound up second, leaving Malukas to take third. For Dixon and Simpson, their fuel strategies both paid off as they finished seventh and 10th, respectively.
“I’m very surprised [with the win]” Newgarden said after the race. “In the middle of the race, I don’t know that I was fully believing that we had the capability to win. We just kept working through it, and I’m, like, ‘Look, if we get another opportunity, we’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to run on the offence.’ We took tires and the thing was like a rocket ship when it needed to be, right at the end of the race. Hats off to the whole crew,”
Palou’s DNF coupled with Newgarden’s victory sees Newgarden take the Championship lead with 78 points. Andretti’s Kirkwood is close in 2nd with 73 points, while Palou falls to 5th place with just 59 points, only 3 points in front of Malukas. This is the first time Palou has relinquished the Championship Series lead since June 2024.
The 2026 IndyCar season continues with its third race in three weekends, the debut of the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington on Sunday 15 March in Arlington, Texas. The temporary street circuit races around AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, and Globe Life Field, home of baseball’s Texas Rangers.
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