Three Up, Three Down: Who's Rising, Falling Entering Final Six Races

Alex Palou enters the final six-race stretch of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season as the driver to beat.

Fresh off his July 20 victory at Nashville Superspeedway, Palou owns an 83-point lead over Team Penske's David Malukas (photo, main) entering the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland on Aug. 9. Kyle Kirkwood trails by 87 points. No other driver is within 100 points of the leader.

Palou has two wins in the past five races, one on the Nashville oval and another on the Detroit streets. Arrow McLaren teammates Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward won on permanent road courses Road America (June 21) and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (July 5).

Here's who is trending up -- and who's trending down -- entering the final push for the Astor Cup championship trophy.

Three Up

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing: Palou has four top-five finishes over the past five races and has led a series-high 230 laps since Detroit. He also has earned five poles in the past seven races. Palou is well-positioned to capture a fourth consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship and his fifth title in six seasons. The remaining schedule also favors him. He owns a 3.6 average finish at Portland International Raceway and a 1.6 average finish at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, site of the Sept. 6 season finale. He also has a series-best 1.25 average finish on street circuits with races remaining at Markham on Aug. 16 and Washington, D.C., on Aug. 23. Palou also won the most recent oval race and two oval races remain in the Milwaukee Mile doubleheader Aug. 29-30.

Team Penske: It's impossible to single out just one driver because all three have gained momentum. The team has placed a driver on the podium in five of the past seven races. Malukas remains winless in 73 career series starts but has podium finishes in two of the past three races, including a second-place finish at Road America and a third-place finish at Nashville. He also has finished in the top eight in four consecutive races. Josef Newgarden has battled through a left foot injury suffered in the Indianapolis 500 on May 24 but has four top-10 finishes in the five races since, highlighted by a June 7 victory at World Wide Technology Raceway and a runner-up finish at Nashville. Scott McLaughlin has three top-seven finishes in the past four races, including a fourth-place finish at Nashville, where Team Penske placed three cars among the top four finishers. The remaining schedule also sets up well for the organization.

Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren: Nashville was a slight step backward with a 16th-place finish, but Lundgaard (photo, above) still has one of the strongest recent stretches in the series. He won at Road America, finished second from the pole at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and has four top-10 finishes in his past five starts, including three top-five finishes. He has led 51 combined laps since Detroit.

Three Down

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing: The six-time series champion is in unfamiliar territory. Dixon has gone six consecutive races without a top-10 finish, the longest such streak of his INDYCAR SERIES career. His finishes during that span are 15th, 24th, 12th, 11th, 17th and 18th.

Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing: Rossi has just one top-15 finish in the past seven races, a sixth-place result at Road America. His average finish over that stretch is 19.9 after averaging 10.2 over the previous five races. He and Dixon (both in photo, above) remain on the "Three Down" list after also appearing in the June 11 edition.

Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing: Rahal was among the series' hottest drivers a month ago with four top-eight finishes in a five-race span, including three third place finishes. Since then, he has finished 23rd, 23rd, 12th and 19th. One of those results came after he entered the final lap at Road America running third before contact with Will Power dropped him to 23rd.