Palou Fourth in Inaugural Markham Race

Results: P1 Ericsson, P4 Palou, P14 Simpson, P18 Dixon

MARKHAM, Ontario (Aug. 16, 2026) — A tricky weekend on the new street course in Markham, Ontario ended with a strong points day for Chip Ganassi Racing and Alex Palou, who moved closer to a fifth NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship.

The race moved from the downtown streets of Toronto to the suburbs this year, but preparations were limited when the track was not completed in time for Friday’s scheduled practice session for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham.

Despite the lack of track familiarity, Palou was fastest in the first practice session Saturday in the No. 10 DHL Honda and was on pace to win the pole in qualifying until a crash in the round of 12. The Spaniard, who opened the weekend with a 110-point lead in the IndyCar standings, started the race in 11th because of the incident.

His CGR crew had his car repaired and ready to go Sunday and Palou wasted no time carving his way through the field. He flirted late with what could have been his fourth consecutive podium finish on a new road or street course, but a late pass by Will Power dropped Palou to fourth in the final running order.

Even so, his closest competitors in the battle for the IndyCar title all finished far behind him and Palou now takes a 133-point lead over Kyle Kirkwood into next weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, D.C.

There are four races remaining this season and Palou’s cushion in the standings is two-plus races of points over Kirkwood. David Malukas is third in the standings at 137 points back, while Christian Lundgaard is 139 points behind Palou.

Palou has won four IndyCar titles, including the last three, since joining CGR in 2021. Should he win a fifth championship he would stand alone in the IndyCar record book behind A.J. Foyt (seven titles) and Scott Dixon (six titles).

Palou can mathematically win the title next weekend in Washington, D.C.

“We just need to win, right? That would be fun. That would be a great place to win it. I will work for it, absolutely,” Palou said.

UP NEXT: IndyCar heads to the streets of Washington, D.C., for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. Extended coverage of the race begins 11:30 AM ET on Sunday, Aug. 23, live on FOX.

Alex Palou
No. 10 DHL Honda
”It seemed like we were in a wreckfest on some of the restarts. It was very tough to get the tires up to temperature, that’s why we saw so many people braking and locking up and just weird overtakes. I’m just glad that we kept our nose clean on the No. 10 DHL Honda. Obviously, we had contact here and there. It was really fun. We got lucky on some moves and strategies, super unlucky on some of the others so I think it evened out and I’m super happy to go home with P4. It was very, very fun.”

Kyffin Simpson
No. 8 Sunoco LP Honda
"Weird day for the No. 8 Sunoco LP Honda. I have a lot of questions about tires and what exactly was going on with them. I just really struggled on some of those early restarts and just had the tires tank at the end of the race there and couldn't really hold on at the end. Weird day but brought it home in one piece, got some points, and now we look on to D.C."

Scott Dixon
No. 9 PNC Bank Honda
"Just been one of those years. Anything that can go wrong has gone wrong with the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. I think we had really good strategy, got caught out by a yellow, put us in the mid-level pack on a restart, kind of got beat up in the hairpin and everybody got out of sync. Had a car on the inside in turn 8, tried to turn, had to turn otherwise I was going to go into the wall they just clipped us and spun us out. Broke the suspension, day done."