The NTT Indycar Series’ first oval race of the 2026 season saw two-time series champion Josef Newgarden defend his Phoenix crown by winning the Good Ranchers 250. He took the victory over Kyle Kirkwood not only to earn his first win of the year, but earn the championship points lead after just two races.
The early stages of the race began with Team Penske dominance, with Newgarden’s young teammate David Malukas leading the first 65 laps of the event. That same stretch of laps, however, didn’t come without a few early incidents. Such as the No.19 of rookie Dennis Hauger spinning off of turn two just shy of the 10 lap mark. But, the biggest accident would come on lap 19 with the No.10 of defending series champion Alex Palou and the No.76 of Rinus Veekay making contact out of turn four where Palou would hit the outside wall suffering severe front wing damage to his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Ending his 100th career series race in the infield care center, where he was then checked and released.
Racing would resume at lap 25 with Malukas continuing his lead. During green flag pitstops passed lap 65, a new leader would emerge with the No.21 of Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing leading for more than 100 laps on the day.
Other notable names led laps as well, such as the No.27 of Kyle Kirkwood starting at lap 153. Green flag pitstops and strategy amongst teams would see both the Andretti Global cars of Kirkwood and the No.26 of Will Power make their way to the front.
Rasmussen and Power would battle hard for the lead with just 50 laps remaining, but at lap 208 both cars would make contact with each other and outside wall in turn two with both drivers suffering damage that would affect their day.
Kirkwood would retain the lead after the final restart at lap 219, but the hard charging Penske duo of both Malukas and Newgarden would quickly evaporate the deficit in front of them with Newgarden taking the lead with seven laps to go, and never looking back to earn his 33rd career win in Indycar.
“I’m just very surprised,” Newgarden said, excited. “The thing was a rocket ship when it needed to be.”
Rasmussen would fall to finish 11th, noting the disappointment of what could’ve been.
“We were the class of the field today,” Rassmussen said. “Just frustrating, we should’ve won the race today.”
Results:
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Laps Led | Status | Points |
| 1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 8 | Running | 51 |
| 2 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian | 47 | Running | 41 |
| 3 | 12 | David Malukas | Team Penske | 73 | Running | 39 |
| 4 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | 10 | Running | 33 |
| 5 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian | 8 | Running | 31 |
| 6 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | ECR | — | Running | 28 |
| 7 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 12 | Running | 27 |
| 8 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | — | Running | 24 |
| 9 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | — | Running | 22 |
| 10 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing | — | Running | 20 |
| 11 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | — | Running | 19 |
| 12 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian | — | Running | 18 |
| 13 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | Arrow McLaren | 8 | Running | 18 |
| 14 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | ECR | 69 | Running | 17 |
| 15 | 19 | Dennis Hauger | Dale Coyne Racing | 3 | Running | 16 |
| 16 | 26 | Will Power | Andretti Global | 10 | Running | 15 |
| 17 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | 2 | Running | 14 |
| 18 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | — | Running | 12 |
| 19 | 4 | Caio Collet | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | — | Running | 11 |
| 20 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | — | Running | 10 |
| 21 | 77 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Hollinger Racing | — | Running | 9 |
| 22 | 76 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Hollinger Racing | — | Running | 8 |
| 23 | 45 | Louis Foster | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | — | Contact | 7 |
| 24 | 10 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | — | Contact | 6 |
| 25 | 18 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing | — | Mechanical |
