As IndyCar comes to Road America, who's the favorite and who are drivers to watch?

The NTT IndyCar Series is set for the XPEL Grand Prix on June 21, at Road America, the 4.014-mile road course outside Elkhart Lake in rural Sheboygan County.

>It will be the 10th of 18 races in the 2026 championship, the 12th for IndyCar at the track and the 37th including CART and Champ Car.

>The race is scheduled to take the green flag about 1:20 p.m. Sunday. The schedule includes practice at 3 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, qualifying at 1 p.m. Saturday and a warmup at 10 a.m. Sunday.

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Who is the favorite to win the 2026 IndyCar XPEL Grand Prix at Road America?Alex Palou was victorious at Road America in 2021, ’23 and ‘25 and went on to win the series championship each year. While Palou’s victories have come with Chip Ganassi Racing, a powerhouse Honda team, he also scored impressive finishes of third and seventh for Dale Coyne Racing in the 2020 doubleheader before he hit the big time. Palou, a four-time champion at age 29, has won four of the nine races so far in 2026 and again leads the standings.

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Who are some other drivers to watch at Road America?Christian Lundgaard broke through for a victory on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and finished second to Palou at Barber Motorsports Park, the only natural terrain road courses on which the series has raced so far this season. The 24-year-old Danish driver has yet to crack the top-five at Road America, though.

>Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvistpicked up his first IndyCar victory at Road America in 2020 and finished second to Palou last year.

>Josef Newgardenhas won twice at Road America (2018, 2022), had a third victory slip away due to a parts failure and was second in 2017, ’23 and ’24. Team Penske finished 1-2-3 two years ago. Newgarden has been racing hurt since a crash at Indy but won on the World Wide Technology Raceway oval in the most recent event.

>Will Power has two victories at Road America (2016 and ’24) but is struggling for results in his first year with Andretti Global and the team has been weakest at natural road courses in recent years.

>Santino Ferrucci finished third in 2026 with the help of fuel strategy and then endeared himself to Wisconsin fans when then chugged a beer tossed to him by a spectator after his car stopped in Turn 1 after the checkered flag.

>David Malukas has a pole and three podiums, including a heartbreaking second at Indy, since joining Roger Penske’s team. Malukas was seventh at Road America with a lesser team last year.

>Kyle Kirkwood, who comes in second in points behind Palou, has finished progressively better in each of his four Road America starts. He was fourth last year.

>Six-time series champion Scott Dixon has two Road America victories to his credit (2017, ’20) but has been on the podium only one other time in 11 starts.

>This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: IndyCar drivers to watch in XPEL Grand Prix at Road America