Here are the results of the IndyCar preseason test in Phoenix

The 25 drivers scheduled for the start of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season turned laps for the second and final day at Phoenix Raceway on Wednesday, and the improvement from Tuesday was widespread as 24 of them recorded faster times.

The afternoon session was delayed by 90 minutes due to intermittent rain and had only one red flag for an incident involving Marcus Ericsson, but the workload remained high with 2,804 laps between the day's two sessions, for a total of 4,853 over the two days of the Unser IndyCar Open Test.

That collective performance jump makes sense considering Tuesday was the first real contact with the one-mile oval for several drivers with new teams and for the three rookies. With that baseline established, teams were able to work on setup fine-tuning and pursue pure performance on Wednesday.

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ECR with both cars at the top

The one who made the most of that second day was Ed Carpenter Racing. Alexander Rossi was the fastest of the test with a time of 20.6254 seconds (equivalent to an average speed of 174.542 mph) in the afternoon, and he had also been first in the morning with 20.6370 seconds. His teammate Christian Rasmussen finished fourth in the day's combined standings with 20.6987 seconds and was second in the afternoon session.

"We covered everything we wanted to, and when you can do that, it's a good day," said Rossi. "Christian's car is strong too, so I couldn't ask for more." "Going 1-2 this afternoon, and with Alex being P1 this morning... it's safe to say we're pretty excited about Phoenix," said Rasmussen.

On Tuesday, Rossi had closed tenth with a time of 21.1876 seconds and Rasmussen in 14th position with 21.2380. Both improved by more than half a second in 24 hours, and the fact that the team's two cars are among the top four goes beyond a good individual result for Rossi because it indicates that ECR found something in their aerodynamic package for this oval. That matters because Phoenix returns to the IndyCar calendar for the first time since 2018 on March 7th, as the second date of the season.

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Wednesday's top 5 and Penske's approach

Josef Newgarden was second in the combined standings with 20.6467 seconds, a time he set in the morning. In the afternoon, the two-time champion ran 85 laps, the most of any driver in that session, but his best time of the afternoon (21.6296s) placed him last in that session's classification. That difference between a fast lap in the morning and long stints of work in the afternoon suggests that Penske dedicated the second half of the day to testing race configurations rather than chasing lap times.

David Malukas, who had been fastest on Tuesday in his first day with Penske in the No. 12 car, closed fifth in Wednesday's combined standings with 20.7183 seconds. That he was at the top both days confirms a smooth transition to the team.

The rookies' progression

Mick Schumacher improved his time from 21.9504 seconds on Tuesday to 21.0408 on Wednesday, a gain of more than 0.9 seconds which equates to a jump of approximately 7 mph in average speed. For a driver with only two prior oval sessions (the first was on February 4th at Homestead-Miami Speedway), this pace of adaptation is remarkable. On Tuesday, he had already accumulated 109 laps, the third-highest figure of the day, and on Wednesday he added 113 more across both sessions. Dennis Hauger went from 21.2692 to 21.1647 seconds from one day to the next and ran 118 laps on Wednesday, more than double his 55 from Tuesday.

Caio Collet, whose car had hit the wall on Tuesday due to a visibility issue with the sun, improved by almost a second and a half (from 22.1574 to 21.1381 seconds), although his program was more limited with 53 laps on Wednesday compared to 51 on Tuesday.

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Ericsson's incident and what's next

Marcus Ericsson lost control of his No. 28 Andretti Global car in turn 4 during the final hour of the afternoon. The rear of the Honda stepped out and the right side hit the SAFER barrier, although Ericsson got out of the car unassisted.

"It was something, like a snap, and I lost power through the critical part of the corner," said Ericsson. "It wasn't moisture. It was something else." The incident is more of a logistical problem than a competitive one. Ericsson was coming off a solid test at Sebring and had been seventh in Wednesday's morning session with 20.7956 seconds.

"It's frustrating because I felt Sebring was very strong, this was very strong, and then you have a big crash," he said. Andretti Global will have to repair the car before St. Petersburg.

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Power accumulated more laps than the race distance

Will Power totaled 259 laps over the two test days, more than the race distance on March 7th and the highest figure of any driver in the full test. Power moved to Andretti Global this year after 16 seasons with Penske, and the track time addresses the integration work with a new team. In terms of speed, he improved from 20.9661 seconds on Tuesday to 20.7867 on Wednesday, finishing eighth in the day's combined standings.

The 2026 season kicks off on March 1st with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and the Phoenix race will be on March 7th, the first IndyCar event at this oval since 2018.

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Combined Wednesday results from the Unser IndyCar Open Test