Indy 500 - 2026

Race Report - Ondra Matějíček

Started the Indy 500 from P4 and honestly the opening phase went pretty much how you’d expect around here, chaotic. We had a few early safety cars which kept resetting everything and made it difficult to really settle into a rhythm. The main focus early on was just surviving it, keeping the car clean and not getting caught up in anything unnecessary while still trying to hold track position.

Once the race got going properly, the pace felt really solid. After around lap 80 the race became a lot calmer and stretched out quite a bit, with most people settling into their strategies. I spent a huge chunk of the middle part of the race running around P5 pretty much on my own. There wasn’t loads happening around me, so it became one of those long stints where you’re fully focused on consistency, fuel saving where needed and just trying to hit the same marks every lap.

The car felt strong in clean air and we were in a decent position heading into the final part of the race. At that stage it looked like a good result was definitely on the cards, especially after staying out of trouble all day and avoiding mistakes while others around were struggling.

Unfortunately the last pit cycle is where things started to slip away a bit. We lost some time in the final stop which hurt our track position, and on top of that a few of the cars ahead were on slightly different strategies that ended up working better towards the end. Once the field spread out after the final stops it was really difficult to claw anything back, especially with how hard it is to make moves late in the run unless you’ve got a big pace advantage.

A little frustrating knowing there might’ve been a bit more in it, but overall still a solid Indy 500. Kept the car clean for 500 miles, stayed consistent all race and brought home a respectable result after a long afternoon.