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XPEL Grand Prix at Road America
Plymouth, WI - June 21, 2026

JOSEF NEWGARDEN No. 2 PPG CHEVROLET

START: 15TH 
FINISH: 22ND 
POINTS: 8TH (-127)

RACE RUNDOWN: Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet team were in position to come away with a solid finish late in Sunday's XPEL Grand Prix at Road America before a costly penalty for avoidable contact dropped them to 22nd in the finishing order. Displaying immense grit while still recovering from a left foot injury, Newgarden qualified a respectable 15th on Saturday afternoon. When the green flag fell, however, he was caught out in the wrong lane as the two-by-two field barreled toward turn one, dropping to the 23rd position in the process. Race strategist Jonathan Diuguid kept to his fuel-saving strategy early on, allowing Newgarden to take advantage of several caution periods that happened during pit cycles to pick up several positions. The final caution flag of the day flew on the 55-lap race's penultimate lap, setting up a one-lap shootout in which Newgarden started from the 12th position. Unfortunately, before reaching the checkered flag Newgarden made contact with the No. 6 of Nolan Siegel. After review by the INDYCAR officiating crew it was determined to be unavoidable contact, which usually means a pass through of pit lane while the race is under the green flag. With the race over, Newgarden was penalized 30 seconds of race time, dropping him to the 22nd position.

NEWGARDEN'S THOUGHTS: "I'm very proud of the way the PPG Chevy team executed today. We didn't get off to the best start. Just got caught in a bad situation at the green flag and could not find a way to stop the bleeding. But we kept to our strategy and were in position for a really nice finish until that late race contact."

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN No. 3 XPEL CHEVROLET

START: 6TH 
FINISH: 7TH  
POINTS: 7TH (-126)

RACE RUNDOWN: Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet team continued their mid-season push with a solid, seventh-place finish in Sunday's XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. He and first year race strategist, Raul Prados are starting to find their footing, evident by the speed shown all weekend in the No. 3 Chevrolet as McLaughlin qualified in the sixth position after advancing to the Firestone Fast Six. After surviving a chaotic opening lap of action, McLaughlin settled into the fifth position and began working his race strategy with strategist Tim Cindric. The 55-lap event only featured four caution periods with most of them happening around the pit cycle when McLaughlin had already made his way down pit lane for service and needing the cycle to finish. Despite the setbacks, McLaughlin relied on the speed in his XPEL Chevy to persevere for his sixth top-10 finish of the year as he sits just nine points out of the top five in the standings.

MCLAUGHLIN'S THOUGHTS:  "Solid day for us. It could have been a lot worse. We were probably, on strategy, looking at P15 because of the yellows. But, we managed to come all the way back through and finish seventh. Got screwed a couple of times on yellows, obviously. I think our potential was a podium or a top five, so to come back to seventh was fantastic. The XPEL Chevy was really good. Just bummed that we didn't have the luck today, but that's all right. One day we'll catch the yellow."

DAVID MALUKAS No. 12 VERIZON CHEVROLET

START: 2ND  
FINISH: 2ND  
POINTS: 2ND (-60)

RACE RUNDOWN: It was a "Deuces Wild" day for David Malukas and the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet team in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday afternoon as they started from the second position, finished second and find themselves second in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings after 10 rounds of the championship. For the fifth time in 2026, Malukas started on the front row to improve his impressive average starting position on the year to 5.9. While Malukas was able to keep his Verizon Chevrolet at the front of the field for the entire race, it was not without the need for several adjustments under each trip to pit lane, depending on which tire compound was being applied. Unlike his teammate Scott McLaughlin, Malukas and team were fortunate with the timing of the pit stops in relation to the caution flags that flew, allowing him to maintain his position after pitting just before two caution periods. As the race wound down, he and race winner Christian Lundgaard raced hard and clean with Malukas at a disadvantage being on the softer compound tire. Despite not being able to hold off Lundgaard, the second-place finish moves Malukas just 60 points behind the lead in the series standings. 

MALUKAS' THOUGHTS: "It was obviously a chaotic run, but thankfully, we were on the right side of the chaos. So overall, though, I just need to study myself. I need to look into why I'm losing pace in these races. It's a little bit of a repeat of INDY GP. Other than that, a really strong strategy from the guys, and big thank you, Team Penske Verizon, Chevrolet, all these guys. It's because of them of why I'm here, so thank you. It was definitely very different with these cooler temps, but, we still had it roughly in the window from the warm up, and, these guys, they can see the weather, they know where the weather's gonna be, so they got the car in the right place."

The 11th round of the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship will take to the historic Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday, July 5.