MONTEREY, Calif. — Thirty years after the late, great Alex Zanardi completed “The Pass” in the corkscrew, doughnuts returned to the celebration at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske won the race and five-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing both celebrated their respective accomplishments with “doughnuts” on the front straight as they lit up their rear tires.
It was McLaughlin’s first win of the season, and it came in the last race of 2026.
“Well, firstly, my little girl hasn’t seen me win yet, and she finally has,” McLaughlin said. “So, Dad’s coming home with a trophy, baby. Let’s go.
“The DEX Imaging Chevy was unbelievable. These guys and girls on my team, Team Penske, have stuck behind me the whole time. Congrats, Alex, on his fifth (championship). We’re working hard to be better but today was a big step in the right direction.
“I’ve been waiting six years to do doughnuts. They sucked, but I was like, let’s go. I was really happy. We had to be solid. That’s what it’s going to take to win a championship. What a great warm-up we had.
“So, yeah, bring it on 2027.”
McLaughlin defeated Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global by 1.3739 seconds.
“What a day,” Kirkwood said. “Second in the championship and that is my best road course race. We had an awesome race. We played it super clean and super methodical and held second the whole time. I wish I could have had a go at Scottie there at the end on the better tires, but second place is best of the rest and has been the real championship the last couple of years.
“We’re happy with it.”
Alexander Rossi finished third and had his first podium for ECR.
“I don’t know that I could state the significance of it just with how challenging this year has been for the whole organization, and how much road courses have been a huge struggle of ours,” Rossi explained. “There was a lot of doubt, I think, coming into this event, as to whether or not we could find a direction. So, I think this is just a huge reward for all of the effort for the entire Java House/Splenda ECR team, and it’s been a grind this year, but everyone stayed true to the course and focusing on just continuing to push forward.
“I think that that speaks volumes this weekend and gives us a great kind of step of motivation, belief, self-belief in ourselves going into next year.”
But the man who got to celebrate the biggest prize of all was Palou, who finished eighth in the final race of the season after clinching his fourth-straight NTT IndyCar Series championship and fifth overall last week at The Milwaukee Mile.
“Everybody behind me, everybody around me, this team has been incredible every single year, every single race,” Palou said. “Once again, I had a rocket ship. This team, DHL, OpenAI have been supporting us. Honda gave us all that power that we needed.
“It’s been a magical year and now it’s time to celebrate with these guys.”
When asked his favorite moment of the season, Palou said he had so many good times in 2026.
“We had so much success, but winning at Long Beach, Nashville and St. Pete, those were all incredible,” Palou said. “Let’s go, we’re ready.”
Team owner Chip Ganassi celebrated his 18th IndyCar Series championship, breaking a tie with the great Roger Penske for most IndyCar titles.
When asked what Ganassi saw in Palou that made him realize he was a driver for the ages, Ganassi was succinct in his assessment.
“Fire in his belly and the look in his eye,” Ganassi said.
Six-time champion and 59-race winner Scott Dixon finished 18th in his final race at Chip Ganassi Racing, ending a glorious 25-year relationship. He will join Arrow McLaren Racing beginning next season.
