IndyCar just held its first race at the Markham Street Circuit in Ontario, Canada, over the course of the weekend just gone. This replaced the previous track at Exhibition Place in Toronto, and while there were some skeptics about the new circuit, it’s fair to say it delivered a crazy race.
What started relatively tame then became a chaotic last two-thirds of the race, with a huge number of incidents, drivers fighting back from adversity, and very nearly a shock winner. The record books will say that Marcus Ericsson for Andretti Global won the race.
That only tells half the story. Pole position on Saturday, during an equally chaotic qualifying session, went to Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Louis Foster. Championship leader and the man everyone is chasing, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, started just 12th after crashing in the session.
If fans thought that was carnage, then the race took it to a new level. Accidents, brave moves, hard chargers from near the back of the grid, and more combined to produce perhaps IndyCar’s best race in 2026. And the final laps in particular were incredible to watch.
IndyCar’s Debut Race at Markham Was Pure Chaos
Foster had led away from pole position before full-course yellows began to shake up the race, the first for teammate Mick Schumacher. We won’t go too much into what happened in the race, because frankly, too much did happen to fit into a reasonable article. But the race was really between Foster, Ericsson, and then Palous, as well as Dale Coyne driver Romain Grosjean, who had gotten up front thanks to a clever strategy due to the chaos.
Foster had lost out during a full-course yellow that saw him drop a load of positions in the pits. But he had recovered well to move back up the order, only to smash into the wall after passing Ericsson. At one point, it looked like Ericsson had lost out too, after his team kept him on track during one of the last yellow periods, when he had another pit stop to make. Grosjean behind him did not, and the ex-F1 driver looked set to take his first win in the series.
Ericsson made his last pit stop but only dropped to around 6th-8th place, and with the freshest tires of anyone and the fastest car, he began to hunt down those in front. Palout at one point looked like he would take the win, but a mistake with 14 to go dropped him back, and he couldn’t quite get on terms again with leader Grosjean. Then Ericsson began to put in a charge.
Ericsson Scythed Through the Field To Take the Lead
The Andretti driver, who had started fourth, began to make some serious moves. He moved past David Malukas in his Penske before he took Scott McLaughlin in the second Penske car. He was then right on the back of teammate Will Power, who was sitting in third, having started dead last. Power was going to let his faster teammate through, but Ericsson charged past with an aggressive wheel-banging move.
Palou was easy work for the Andretti driver, and with just a handful of laps to go, he reeled in Grosjean and passed the long-time leader. It was heartbreak for Grosjean, who would still go on to finish in second place. But Ericsson just had too much pace, and he went on to win by over seven seconds and take his first race win since 2023. Markham promised chaos, and boy did it deliver.