The 2026 INDYCAR season calendar features three brand-new street circuits. Earlier this year, they raced on the streets of Arlington; this past weekend, they were on the streets of Markham, and this weekend they will be in the Nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., for the Freedom 250.
With the number of new street circuits, there are definite lessons drivers can take away, despite the differences among the tracks. Before the start of the Markham weekend, The Girls Who – Motorsport had the opportunity to ask a few drivers what lessons they took away from Arlington and could apply to Markham and then to eventually Washington about learning a new circuit.
Rinus VeeKay
For Rinus VeeKay, Arlington was a rough weekend. A few issues in Practice 1 prevented him from getting as much running time on the new street course before qualifying. He started the race in 21st and ended in 14th at the checkered flag.
Heading into Markham, there were a lot of unknowns, but VeeKay was grateful that Markham wasn’t the first new street course on the calendar and they had something to build on
“Having that experience with Arlington, to know how to approach the bumps, we didn’t know how high we had to run the car, so learning from there will for sure help our progress this weekend”
Their lessons from Arlington seemed to work out in Markham as the Dutch driver finished inside the top 10 of every single session, including making it to the Firestone Fast 6 where he qualified in sixth.
Drivers have only driven the streets of Washington D.C. virtually, but VeeKay and his team on the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing have already decided where they are going to start when Practice 1 comes.
“With D.C., we’ve been running on the simulator, but it’s just a simulation, not the real thing, so we’ll go with a safe approach and then build from there on.”
Kyffin Simpson
Last year’s race north of the border on the streets of Toronto, Kyffin Simpson earned his first-ever INDYCAR podium with a third-place finish. This year, he looked to get back on the podium by “just keep doing the little things right, and when it all comes together, that’s when good things happen,” he said.
In 2024, Simpson’s rookie season, he was constantly learning new tracks, but now in his third season in the series, he hadn’t had to do that in a little while. So for Kyffin, having Arlington earlier in the season helped him get back into the swing of things when taking lessons from a new track like Markham.
“You’ve always got a strategy to how you learn a track, but I think you can adjust your philosophy of how you learn quickly from track to track, and I think with Arlington, it was nice to get back into the rhythm of learning new tracks, and we’ve got two coming up.”
Neither track ended up the way he wanted. In Arlington, the Cayman Islander finished 20th after a penalty dropped him down a place. In Markham, although it was a bit of a roller coaster, it was an improvement. Kyffin crashed during practice but qualified 13th. In the race, he made some progress early on but struggled on the restarts and had a late spin, resulting in a 14th place finish.
Louis Foster
When asked about his expectations for Markham, Louis Foster was unsure of how the weekend was going to go. The No. 45 of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has struggled on street circuits; their best finish was seventh on the streets of Detroit, one of the bumpiest tracks on the calendar. So when he and the team found that Markham was newly paved, it had them a bit on edge but ready for the challenge.
“We just got to keep working on the car performance, simple as that. Street courses and adapting our car are where we have struggled significantly, so realistically we need to find something this weekend to take with us next weekend.”
They did end up finding something in Markham, with the Brit quick from the get-go. Being third fastest and fastest in the two practice sessions was backed up by earning his second career pole position with a lap where he was the only driver on used tires.
In the race, Foster continued to show his speed and looked like nothing was going to stop him; even when strategy cycled him back down the order, he made up places quickly. It was his race to lose. On lap 43, he clipped the wall while overtaking Ericsson for the net race lead, and ended his race and shot his first INDYCAR victory.
Despite the way it ended, Foster can take a whole heap of confidence into D.C. and beyond because, as Foster said, “from a driver’s perspective, a street course is a street course; I’ll drive as hard as I can, as fast as I can.”
Drivers will first hit the streets of Washington, D.C. for the Freedom 250 on Saturday at 15:00 CEST for Practice 1.