Is There an IndyCar Race Today? How to Check & Watch
No, IndyCar does not race every day, and the only reliable way to know if there is an IndyCar race today is to check the official schedule at indycar.com/Schedule, which lists every round with its date, Eastern Time start and track. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES ran 18 races in 2026, from March 1 to September 6, so most days of the year have no race at all. This guide shows how to check any date, how to convert start times to your time zone, where to watch or listen, and how a race weekend is laid out.
Is There an IndyCar Race Today? How to Tell in 30 Seconds
As of October 21, 2026, indycar.com’s 2026 schedule shows all 18 races as completed. The last one was the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 6, 2026, and the 2027 view of the schedule page lists no upcoming races yet. On that date the answer is no, because the series is between seasons. On any other day, the next section walks through the check. Schedules change, so treat the dates on this page as a record of the 2026 season and confirm anything current on the official page.
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How to Check IndyCar’s Schedule Any Day of the Year
- Open indycar.com/Schedule. Under Upcoming Races, the first entry is the next race. Under Previous Races you can see what has already run, with the winner and a Race Recap link.
- Read the time as Eastern Time. The page prints every start as ET, such as 2:30 PM ET, so convert it to your own zone before you plan around it.
- Open the race’s event page for the whole weekend. It lists practice, qualifying and race times, a Watch Live button, the track length and the race distance.
- If Upcoming Races is empty for the season you are viewing, no races have been published for it yet.
The schedule page also has an Add to Calendar button, a Download Schedule button and a season selector that goes back to 2012. The downloadable 2026 schedule carries the note “schedule and broadcast times subject to change,” which is why a saved PDF or screenshot is a poor way to check a race day. Use the live page on the morning of the race.
What Time Is the IndyCar Race Today? Reading ET Start Times
Start times on indycar.com are printed in Eastern Time. In 2026 the listed starts ran from 10:00 AM ET for the Indianapolis 500 to 9:00 PM ET for the June 7 race at World Wide Technology Raceway, so “today” can mean a morning, an afternoon or a night race. To convert, subtract one hour for Central, two for Mountain and three for Pacific time. These examples use start times from the 2026 listing.
| Listed start (ET) | Central | Mountain | Pacific | Example from the 2026 list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 AM | 9:00 AM | 8:00 AM | 7:00 AM | 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 |
| 11:30 AM | 10:30 AM | 9:30 AM | 8:30 AM | Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington DC |
| 2:30 PM | 1:30 PM | 12:30 PM | 11:30 AM | Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey |
| 4:00 PM | 3:00 PM | 2:00 PM | 1:00 PM | OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland |
| 9:00 PM | 8:00 PM | 7:00 PM | 6:00 PM | Bommarito Automotive Group 500 |
The 10:00 AM ET entry for the Indianapolis 500 is the time on the main schedule list. The event page for that race shows pre-race coverage at 10:00 AM ET and the race itself at 12:30 PM ET, so on a big race day read the event page, not only the list.
Where to Watch or Listen to an IndyCar Race
Per indycar.com’s How to Follow page (read October 21, 2026), these are the official ways to follow a race:
- FOX: FOX Sports is the exclusive US television home of the series, with all NTT INDYCAR SERIES races airing live on FOX.
- INDYCAR LIVE: full race broadcasts and onboard views, live and on demand every race weekend.
- INDYCAR Radio Network: flag-to-flag coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone, through a local station or the INDYCAR App.
- SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation: race play-by-play plus weekly talk shows.
- INDYCAR.com Live Race Leaderboard: positions, lap times and pit stops for every on-track session in real time.
- International: IndyCar says deals cover about 150 nations, with details on the same page.
Broadcast details can shift during a weekend. When rain stopped the Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, indycar.com announced the restart for 9 a.m. ET Sunday on FS1 and FOX One, and the 1 p.m. ET race that day on FOX and FOX One. Before a weekend at the track, the event page also links a Find Local Radio Station page. If you plan to listen at the track, a radio earmuff like the one above is one way to carry an AM/FM radio, but check the track’s own rules about what you can bring.
How an IndyCar Race Weekend Works: Practice, Qualifying and Race
A race weekend is built from three kinds of sessions. Practice lets teams tune the cars. Qualifying, in IndyCar’s glossary, is the timed session that sets the starting grid, and the fastest qualifier earns pole position, which the series calls the NTT P1 Award. The race then starts from that grid. How many sessions each event has varies, as these three 2026 event pages show (all times ET, as listed on indycar.com).
| Event (2026) | Practice | Qualifying | Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey, Laguna Seca, Sep 4-6 (road course) | Fri 5:00 PM, Sat 1:00 PM, Sat 8:00 PM (final practice) | Sat 4:30 PM | Sun 2:30 PM |
| Snap-on INDYCAR Weekend, Milwaukee Mile, Aug 28-30 (doubleheader) | Fri 6:00 PM | Sat 11:00 AM | Sun: Race 2 at 1:00 PM, Race 1 at 6:00 PM after a rain delay |
| 110th Indianapolis 500, May 12-24 | Tue-Thu May 12-14, Fast Friday May 15, Sun and Mon May 17-18, Carb Day May 22 | Sun May 17: all cars 12:00 PM, Top-12 4:00 PM, Firestone Fast 6 at 6:00 PM | Sun May 24, 12:30 PM (pre-race 10:00 AM) |
The pattern is clear: a normal road-course weekend packs everything into Friday to Sunday, a doubleheader runs two races on one day, and the Indianapolis 500 spreads over almost two weeks. That is why the answer to “is there an IndyCar race today” can be no even on a day when cars are on track for practice or qualifying. If you are curious about the field size for the big one, see how many cars start the Indy 500.
How Long Is an IndyCar Race? Distances at Three 2026 Tracks
Readers who search for the length of today’s race are really asking for two numbers: how many laps and how many miles. indycar.com lists both on each event page, and they differ a lot from track to track.
| Track (2026 event page) | Track length | Laps | Race distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indianapolis Motor Speedway | 2.5 miles | 200 | 500 miles |
| Milwaukee Mile | 1.015 miles | 250 | 250 miles |
| WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca | 2.238 miles | 95 | 212.61 miles |
Elapsed time is a different matter. A Full Course Yellow, which IndyCar’s glossary describes as a caution period where all cars slow behind the pace car, adds minutes without adding laps, and a fuel window, the range of laps a car can run on a full tank, shapes pit strategy. For the tank itself, see what fuel IndyCar engines run on.
The 2026 IndyCar Calendar as Listed on IndyCar.com
Here is the full 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES list as shown on indycar.com on October 21, 2026. It is a record of one season, not a promise about the next one.
| Date | Race | Track |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 1 | Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg | Streets of St. Petersburg |
| Mar 7 | Good Ranchers 250 | Phoenix Raceway |
| Mar 15 | Java House Grand Prix of Arlington | Streets of Arlington |
| Mar 29 | Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix | Barber Motorsports Park |
| Apr 19 | Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach | Streets of Long Beach |
| May 9 | Sonsio Grand Prix | IMS Road Course |
| May 24 | 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
| May 31 | Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix | Streets of Detroit |
| Jun 7 | Bommarito Automotive Group 500 | World Wide Technology Raceway |
| Jun 21 | XPEL Grand Prix at Road America | Road America |
| Jul 5 | Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course |
| Jul 20 | Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix | Nashville Superspeedway |
| Aug 9 | OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland | Portland International Raceway |
| Aug 16 | Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham | Streets of Markham |
| Aug 23 | Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington DC | Streets of Washington |
| Aug 30 | Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 and Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 (doubleheader) | Milwaukee Mile |
| Sep 6 | Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey | WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca |
Count the dates and a useful base rate appears. The 18 races fell on only 17 different days, spread over the 27 weeks between the March 1 opener and the September 6 finale. Across a full 365-day year that is about 4.7 percent of days with a points race, so the honest default answer to the question is no. indycar.com describes the calendar as a mix of superspeedways, short ovals, road courses and street circuits, and says the Indianapolis 500 in May is the centerpiece of every season. For how the cars compare with Formula 1, see our IndyCar vs F1 car comparison.
Why an IndyCar Race Day Can Change
Weather is the usual reason. Two 2026 examples from indycar.com show how a date or time can move:
- Milwaukee, August 30: after a rain delay pushed Race 1 to Sunday evening, indycar.com first announced a 9 a.m. ET Sunday restart, then posted a revised Sunday schedule with two races, at 1 p.m. ET and about 6 p.m. ET.
- Nashville, July 20: indycar.com’s race highlights describe the Music City Grand Prix as run after Sunday’s rainout, and the schedule lists the race on Monday, July 20.
The lesson is to check on the day. A start time read a week earlier, or copied into a calendar, may no longer be right by Sunday morning.
Off-Season: What Happens After the Finale
Once the finale is over there are no points races until the next season. IndyCar’s October 2026 news posts show the series still working: the new IR-28 car, which indycar.com’s INDYCAR 101 pages describe as the next-generation machine for 2028, was scheduled for a test at Sebring International Raceway on October 12-13, the first test of that chassis away from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The INDYCAR Radio Network page lists its race broadcast schedule as “stay tuned for next season.” In the meantime, the schedule page’s Previous Races list and the Race Highlights videos are the best way to catch up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What channel is the IndyCar race on today?
Per indycar.com’s How to Follow page, FOX Sports has been the exclusive US television home of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2025, with all races airing live on FOX. The event page for each race has a Watch Live button, and some rain-delayed sessions have moved to other channels: the Milwaukee Mile race that resumed on Sunday, August 30, 2026 was announced for FS1 and FOX One.
Was there an IndyCar race today?
Open indycar.com/Schedule and look under Previous Races. Each completed race is listed with its date, start time, track, winner and a Race Recap link. For a date that is not on the 2026 list, use the season selector on the same page to switch to another year.
How many races are in an IndyCar season?
The 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season had 18 races, and indycar.com calls the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey on September 6, 2026 Race 18. The count changes from year to year, so use the schedule page for the season you care about.
When does the next IndyCar season start?
The 2026 season opened on March 1, 2026 at St. Petersburg, Florida. When this page was last checked on October 21, 2026, the 2027 view of indycar.com’s schedule page listed no races yet. Check that page for dates once IndyCar publishes them.
Where is today’s IndyCar race?
Each row on indycar.com’s schedule lists the track and city, for example WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California or Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event page adds the track length, race distance and the full weekend timetable.
Can I listen to an IndyCar race on the radio?
Yes. The INDYCAR Radio Network offers flag-to-flag coverage of every race weekend, and indycar.com says you can listen through a local station or the INDYCAR App. SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation also carries race coverage. Each event page has a Find Local Radio Station link.
Bottom Line
On most days the answer is no, and the way to be sure is the live schedule at indycar.com. Convert the ET time, open the event page for the weekend, and watch on FOX or listen through the IndyCar Radio Network. This guide does not cover ticket buying, betting odds or driver and team standings; the official site has those.
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