Indy 500 2026: ranking the top five returning winners at Indianapolis

5. Will Power

With apologies to Palou, Marcus Ericsson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi, we’ve plumped for Will Power for the final spot. The Australian veteran’s only win from his 18 starts in the 500 – the vast majority with Team Penske – came in 2018. Bizarrely, for a driver renowned as the qualifying king of the 21st century in IndyCar, Power, now at Andretti Global, has never claimed pole for the Big One, but he has started the race from the front row on five occasions, behind only Dixon (six) of the current drivers.

4. Scott Dixon

It’s now 18 years since the New Zealand great’s sole win in the 500, and he’s still an integral part of the Chip Ganassi Racing stable – and gets the nod in our Top 5 over team-mate Álex Palou, the greatest IndyCar driver of the 2020s but also with a ‘mere’ one victory in the race, which he notched up 12 months ago. Dixon gets his place because he easily tops the 500’s laps-led table – 677 to the 644 of nearest rival Al Unser Sr – and has also stockpiled three seconds and two thirds from his 23 starts.

3. Josef Newgarden

The Tennessee native is the only full-time IndyCar driver with multiple victories in the 500. His triumphs came in 2023 and ’24 but, in the minds of some, the Team Penske controversies of the past couple of seasons have led to some question marks. Even so, Newgarden is the standout driver on ovals of the current IndyCar elite – his first 500 front row and podium, in 2016, came with the team of Ed Carpenter, who himself is back in a bid to improve on his record of three poles at the race.

2. Takuma Sato

These days the popular Japanese is, like Castroneves, a 500-only member of the IndyCar field. Also like the Brazilian, 49-year-old Sato is back with the team with which he claimed his most recent victory – in 2020, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. That came three years after his maiden triumph at the Brickyard – also the scene of his only F1 podium finish. For a driver reared on European road racing, Sato has an affinity with the Speedway: his two wins here come from an IndyCar total of just six.

1. Hélio Castroneves

The 50-year-old Brazilian plies his trade these days in Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series, but he’s back with Meyer Shank Racing for his 26th crack at the 500. Castroneves is the only one of the 2026 crop with more than two victories in the race – he’s taken four, but if you’re Paul Tracy you’d say three, such was the controversy in 2002 over whether the Canadian had completed his pass for the lead before a race-ending caution. That gifted Castroneves a second win from his first two starts at the Speedway. The others arrived in 2009 and ’21. That last success, with Meyer Shank, completes a 20-year span of victories, a 500 record. A fifth win would make him the race’s all-time best.