Marshall PruettFeb 27, 2026, 12:43 PM ET
A reclamation tour. A career rehabilitation excursion. An effort to move toward the head of the class in IndyCar's pantheon of all-time greats.
Will Power, Mick Schumacher and Álex Palou have three of the bigger plots to follow this season, which kicks off on Sunday at the 1.8-mile St. Petersburg street course.
Power, the 44-year-old Australian who spent 17 seasons leading Team Penske, was the most prominent mover of the offseason, joining Andretti Global. It would be an overstatement to say Power has headed out on an 18-race revenge tour against his former team; he's highly focused on what he can achieve in the future rather than allowing the recent past to act as a distraction.
But there is some truth to the notion that after he felt Team Penske started viewing him as a slightly devalued commodity during the final year of his contract, the two-time IndyCar champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner found motivation in rejecting a short-term offer once the door opened last summer at Andretti.
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso -- another ageless wonder -- went through a similar reckoning a few years ago as he entered his 40s. The Spaniard saw a longer runway for himself than most of his suitors so he changed teams, leaving Alpine for Aston Martin, where he rewrote expectations for a driver of his vintage and promptly took fourth in the championship on debut with the outfit.
Power turns 45 on Sunday, which also serves as a birth of sorts of his new Alonso-esque chapter with Andretti. He's believed to have a fresh three-year contract in hand that was negotiated on his behalf -- and fittingly so -- by Alonso's management firm, A14.
"I sat down with [his manager[ while we were talking at the beginning of '25 and we said that the best-case scenario was having a spot at Andretti, because I felt like it's going to become the best team," Power said. "They've got all the ingredients there. So it's funny that it worked out the way it has."
The 2025 season was a long and dramatic one for Power as he waited for team owner Roger Penske to decide whether to he wanted to continue the relationship or replace IndyCar's all-time pole position record holder with a younger model. Until California's Colton Herta left IndyCar for a season of Formula 2 racing in 2026 and testing for Cadillac's F1 program, which shares an owner with Andretti in TWG Global, Power's options to leave for another top-tier team were limited.
"Because honestly, in the middle of the year, if Roger just offered me a one-year deal, yeah, we would have taken it, because there was no seat to be had, really, at Andretti or anywhere desirable," Power added. "So it kind of dragged on and dragged on."
Power earned Team Penske's most recent IndyCar championship, which was delivered in 2022, and even in a down year when the outfit struggled to match the output of its key rivals, Power was the first driver to win for Penske in 2025 -- late in the season at Portland -- and ranked first in the standings among Penske's three drivers in eighth.
If there was a time to bid farewell based on diminished speed, this was not it. No indicators were present to suggest Power had lost a step, and that was recognition he sought while waiting for a new multi-year extension to be offered. It never arrived. A one-year deal was floated and swiftly rejected.
"And then after Portland, I was offered something, and then [it was] too late," Power said. "Even if he'd offered me two years and more money, it was, to me, a done deal to go to Andretti. I just had to do it for myself."
And that's where Power finds himself this season, placing faith in himself to be just as quick and just as good as he was for Penske, but at Andretti, and with another helping of his patented intensity to show he's capable of stacking more poles and wins in pursuit of his second Indy 500 win and third championship triumph.
The return of Schumacher
The son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher arrives in IndyCar with a similar objective after dreams of carrying on the family name in grand prix racing were dashed. As the reigning F2 champion and a member of Ferrari's driver academy, Mick Schumacher seemed destined to find glory in F1, but his signing with the Ferrari-powered Haas team from 2021-2022 when it was among the worst teams in the series ended whatever ambitions he had to author a long F1 career.
Better known at the time for its then-team principal Guenther Steiner, whose frequent cursing and meme-worthy one-liners made more headlines than Haas' on-track results, Schumacher's rookie season was a crash-filled nightmare. In 2022, though, he made a significant improvement to run 16th in the championship, not far from veteran teammate Kevin Magnussen in 13th.
But two years is all Schumacher would get in F1, and after hanging on to see if he'd get the nod to drive for one of the other teams, he grew tired of the inactivity and joined Alpine's global sports car program. Another shot was taken to try and get back into grand prix racing with Cadillac, and as the team went in a different direction, Schumacher did the same by engaging with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan IndyCar team.
His father's affinity for the U.S. included buying a large ranch in central Texas where the 26-year-old spent plenty of time in his youth. The concept of an open-wheel career reboot, in the American series that was birthed back in 1911 with the inaugural Indy 500, wasn't as uncomfortable of a proposition for Schumacher, who hopes to reestablish the energy once associated with his name and rediscover the joy he's been missing while serving as IndyCar's most overqualified rookie with RLL.
"I don't really put any specific goals for myself," Schumacher said. "I think the aim is just to go in and be comfortable; be in a good place with the car and be in a good place with the team and just continue to build the relationship and trust and then go from there. A positive [debut] weekend would look like we're all going away with a smile on our face and not with a sad face.
"We're all very keen to get going. I know the team has been working so hard to get everything ready for it. I'm very excited to start this journey."
Palou's quest for history
Palou's journey involves chasing history. The Spaniard has been in IndyCar since 2020, and in those six seasons, he's won four championships -- the first in 2021 and the past three in a row. He'll attempt to become only the second IndyCar driver to capture four consecutive championships; former Chip Ganassi Racing colleague Sebastien Bourdais stands alone in that regard with his four straight taken between 2003 and 2007.
At 28, Palou is young enough and good enough to have future chances to complete a four-peat, but the opportunity that awaits this season is his only guaranteed ticket to match Bourdais.
"It's super cool, and it's not done every year," Palou told ESPN. "It's something that if we are able to pull it off, it'll be huge for everyone. But at the same time, I just feel more excited for the season to get started, knowing that I have a good team to try and compete for wins again. That's what I'm more excited for than just looking at Seb's record. Can we do it and do it together as a group? It would be more special when it's one of those milestones."
Stacking a fifth championship would move Palou into rarified air among IndyCar legends. He enters 2026 tied at four with Bourdais, Dario Franchitti and the all-time great Mario Andretti. Only two drivers have more IndyCar crowns, starting with Palou's teammate Scott Dixon, the six-timer, and from there, it's the peerless A.J. Foyt at seven.
The possibilities are too much for the humble father to process.
"I think that it's cool for when you retire and maybe you look at the history books and show my daughter that our name is in there," Palou said. "But now, it's more about winning and becoming the champion again then just trying to make records. I feel lucky to get to do this and have these chances."
