By: Spencer Neff
May 7, 2026

The month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins with this weekend’s Sonsio Grand Prix. It is the 18th race on the Speedway, Indiana venue’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn permanent road course and the 12th time it will begin on-track action for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in May at IMS.

Following Saturday’s 85-lap race, the 18-event schedule will be a third of the way complete.

Before two days on track commence on Friday, here’s a look at the major pre-race storylines.

Headlines

Prior to last Tuesday and Wednesday’s Open Test at the IMS oval, the last round of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES was the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou returned to the points lead following his victory on the California street circuit. The four-time champion now heads to a track where he’s won three of the last four events contested. Teammate Scott Dixon won the August 2023 race, giving CGR four straight wins- including the last two from the pole,

With a victory on Saturday, Palou would join Bobby Rahal (Laguna Seca 1984-1987) as the only drivers to win in four consecutive seasons at one track.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood heads into Saturday’s race racing a 17-point deficit to Palou. Kirkwood earned his first career Top Five on a permanent road course in the series’ March 29 visit to Barber Motorsports Park.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has started on the pole twice and earned five podiums on the IMS Road Course but has yet to reach victory lane there. Rookie Mick Schumacher will make his debut at a track where his father Michael won a record five times during his Formula 1 career.

Additionally, the “Push to Pass” System has been modified after a software malfunction during the Lap 61 restart of the race at Long Beach.

Per INDYCAR”s Tuesday release:

“INDYCAR Officiating has announced its findings and
updates following a thorough review of the Push to Pass software failure during the Sunday, April
19 INDYCAR SERIES race on the Streets of Long Beach.

Following the race, INDYCAR Officiating followed the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Push to Pass rule
(Rule 14.19.16.), which placed the burden of the Push to Pass system on the series to assure
that the software perf ormed properly. As such, all cars that competed on the Streets of Long
Beach were deemed legal and using Push to Pass software that was compliant to the rules.

INDYCAR Officiating’s review of the Push to Pass software failure also included the detailed use
of by all 12 cars that used it on Lap 62 and revealed the following:
Car No. Uses Total Time
3 (Scott McLaughlin) 1 3.0
6 (Nolan Siegel) 3 8.0
8 (Kyffin Simpson) 2 12.1
10 (Alex Palou) 3 15.1
12 (David Malukas) 1 6.0
14 (Santino Ferrucci) 2 7.0
15 (Graham Rahal) 1 ~0.0
18 (Romain Grosjean) 2 4.5
45 (Louis Foster) 2 2.5
60 (Felix Rosenqvist) 3 18.5
66 (Marcus Armstrong) 1 6.3
76 (Rinus VeeKay) 2 6.0

Analysis of the restart again showed that no cars received a position change as a result of the
software error with the exception of car No. 66 (Armstrong), which passed car No. 14 (Ferrucci) despite the fact both
cars used it in near-equal amounts. Based on the findings and the fact INDYCAR Officiating did
not view this as a team or driver infraction, no changes were made to the official results.

Push to Pass Responsibility Update
Moving forward, beginning with the event this weekend on the IMS road course and for all
subsequent road and street circuit races, INDYCAR has rewritten the rules around Push to Pass
to place the burden on competitors to ensure Push to Pass is not used at restricted times. In
further analysis and discussion with teams and drivers, INDYCAR Officiating believes the rule
update better serves the point of the rule while also simplifying the interpretation for all
competitors.
The update comes as INDYCAR, in a separate announcement, established expanded availability
of Push to Pass on race restarts to provide teams and drivers additional tools and overtake
possibilities.
Push to Pass rules for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone are effective
immediately.
Root Cause of the Software Failure
An intense examination of the system revealed that in the moments before the full-course yellow
and following the Lap 61 restart, simultaneous CAN (Controller Area Network) messages were
mistakenly sent from the INDYCAR software to the receivers on the cars on track. The system is
designed to only send individual signals to the cars. These signals provide telemetry such as
ranking, lap count, gaps, differential to the leader, and Push to Pass information and availability.
The simultaneous nature of the signals – instead of an individual signal – led to the Push to Pass
system shutdown, resulting in the cars never receiving the signal to disable Push to Pass.
Instead, the system remained available during the full-course yellow and subsequent restart.

Corrective Code and Measures
Beginning with the event May 8-9 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, an updated
and corrected code will be used for the CAN messages, which includes a “lock” around the
sequence of events that writes the message to the server to send to the cars. The new code
provides for only one-at-a-time messaging and avoids simultaneous signals. The “lock” is a
common industry practice and does not pose any risk to the functionality of the code.

Internal testing of the updated code signal, including testing during the Indy 500 Open Test on
Tuesday-Wednesday April 28-29, validated the system and resulted in zero errors.
Subsequent to the code, INDYCAR Officiating will utilize an additional software engineer and
measures to monitor the outgoing CAN messaging to the cars to confirm and validate its
operation and to monitor Push to Pass.

“The Independent Officiating Board would like to thank INDYCAR’s software and powertrain
engineers who have helped us work through this review,” board chair Raj Nair said.

“We believe the protective measures that have been established will ensure there are no more system issues
moving forward. Additionally, the board fully endorses the rule change involving the burden of
responsibility and also supports the Push to Pass rule update made by INDYCAR to allow
overtake on race restarts. This has been a comprehensive and thorough process, which has led
to a favorable result.

Sonsio Grand Prix Fast Facts

Race weekend: Friday, May 8-Saturday, May 9

Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course (clockwise)

Race distance: 85 laps / 207.3 miles

Push to Pass parameters: NTT INDYCAR SERIES: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum

single duration of 20 seconds. Push to Pass will be available and allowed for use at all times

once the car passes the alternate start-finish line following the start and once the green flag has

been displayed.

Hybrid energy deployment parameters: Unlimited activation, with a maximum deployment of

425 kilojoules (kj) per lap

Firestone tire allotment: Five sets primary (hard) and five sets

alternate (soft) to be used during the event weekend. Teams fielding a rookie driver may use one

additional set of primary tires in the first practice session. Teams must use one set of primary and one new (sticker) set of alternate tires for at least two laps in the race. 

X: @IMS, @IndyCar, #INDYGP, #INDYCAR

Instagram: @indianapolismotorspeedway, @INDYCAR, #INDYGP, #INDYCAR

Threads: @indianapolismotorspeedway, @INDYCAR, #INDYGP, #INDYCAR

Facebook: @indianapolismotorspeedway, @INDYCAR, #INDYCAR

TikTok: @indianapolismotorspeedwy, @INDYCAR, #INDYCAR

YouTube: @IMS, @INDYCAR

Event website: http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/

NTT INDYCAR SERIES website: http://www.indycar.com 

2025 race winner: Alex Palou (No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)

2025 NTT P1 Award winner (NTT INDYCAR SERIES):

Alex Palou (No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda), 1 minute, 9.3417 seconds, 126.625 mph

Qualifying records:

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

Will Power, 1:07.7044, 129.687 mph, May 12, 2017 (Set in Round 3 of knockout qualifying)

FOX Sports telecasts: NTT INDYCAR SERIES:

 Practice 1, 9 a.m. ET, Friday, FS2 (live);

Practice 2, 1 p.m. ET Friday, FS1 (live);

Qualifying, 5:30 p.m. ET Friday, FS2 (live);

Warmup, 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday, FS1 (live);

Race, 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday, FOX (live).

Will Buxton is the play-by-play announcer for FOX’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, alongside analysts

Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Georgia Henneberry, Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey are the

pit reporters.

INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls broadcasts: Mark Jaynes is the anchor alongside

analyst Davey Hamilton. Jake Query, Nick Yeoman and Michael Young are the turn announcers.

Alex Wolff, Rob Blackman and Rich Nye are the pit reporters. The Sonsio Grand Prix race (4

p.m. ET Saturday), the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix doubleheader (3:55 p.m. ET Friday

and 2:55 p.m. ET Saturday) and all NTT INDYCAR SERIES practices and qualifying sessions air

live on network affiliates, SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation 218, indycar.com/leaderboard and the

INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.

At-track schedule (all times local):

FRIDAY, MAY 8

9:05-10:25 a.m. NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice 1 (split group format), FS2 (Live)

1:05-2:25 p.m. NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice 2 (split group format), FS1 (Live)

4:01 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Indianapolis Grand Prix Race 1 “Drivers, start your engines”

4:06 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Indianapolis Grand Prix Race 1 (35 laps/55 minutes), FS2

(Live)

5:35 p.m. Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (three rounds of NTT INDYCAR SERIES knockout

qualifications), FS2 (Live)

SATURDAY, MAY 9

11:40 a.m.-12:10 p.m. NTT INDYCAR SERIES warmup, FS1 (Live)

2:31 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Indianapolis Grand Prix Race 2 “Drivers, start your engines”

2:36 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Indianapolis Grand Prix Race 2 (30 laps/50 minutes), FS1

(Live)

4:30 p.m. FOX on air

4:40 p.m. Sonsio Grand Prix “Drivers, start your engines”

4:47 p.m. Sonsio Grand Prix (85 laps/207.3 miles), FOX (Live)

Fast Facts by INDYCAR; Header Image By Karl Zemlin/INDYCAR