IndyCar opens season in St. Petersburg as Alex Palou chases a 4th straight title

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — IndyCar opens its season with a roaring four races in March, a return to Phoenix Raceway, three new venues and the son of a motorsports icon making his debut in a North American-based series.

Oh, and Alex Palou will be racing for his fifth championship in six years.

The season begins Sunday on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg with a field of 25 drivers led by defending race winner Palou. The Spaniard kicked off his title campaign on the street course a year ago with the win, the first of eight victories that included the Indianapolis 500 and a third consecutive IndyCar title.

He’s back with his Chip Ganassi Racing team intact, the breach of contract lawsuit with McLaren decided, and his eyes on another title. If he wins a fourth-straight, Palou would join Sebastien Bourdais as the only driver in series history to accomplish the feat.

“I think 2025 was so strange, so good, so magical … it’s very hard to get there. That doesn’t mean that nobody can or that I cannot do it again, but you need so many things to go right to get eight wins, to win the 500, to win the championship,” Palou said. “Although I would love to have another season like 2025, I am pretty certain that it’s probably not going to happen again for me. But I’ll try. I’ll try.”

His competition will come from within — teammate Scott Dixon, a six-time IndyCar champion, is looking to rebound from last year’s one-win season — as well as traditional heavyweight Team Penske. McLaren hopes to be a contender after Pato O’Ward finished second in the standings last year, and Andretti Global has been bolstered by the addition of former Penske stalwart Will Power and other key hires.

Many eyes will be on Power, who turns 45 on Sunday, same day as his first IndyCar race driving for someone other than Roger Penske since 2009. He was replaced in the Penske lineup by David Malukas, who at 24 has a longer runway than Power.

But Power was quickly snapped up by aggressive new Andretti owner Dan Towriss, who also hired Ron Ruzewski, one of three Team Penske executives fired after an Indianapolis 500 inspection infraction, as team principal of its IndyCar team. Ruzewski and Power know Team Penske inside and out and bring priceless knowledge to an Andretti organization that last won the IndyCar title in 2012.

“It’s really difficult to understand, like, are we missing anything? Are we good or bad? We won’t know that until we actually have our first race,” Power said. “But the end of the first race weekend you’ll start to see, as you always do, ‘OK, we need to work on this, this, this and this.’”

Power won Penske its last IndyCar championship in 2022 and the organization is trying to rebound from a rough season last year. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden didn’t win until the season finale and finished 12th in the standings, while teammate Scott McLaughlin went winless but was ninth in the standings.

“We’ve just got to focus on being more consistent. It’s kind of simple to say that, but that’s just what it will come down to,” Newgarden said. “If we don’t want to finish 12th in the standings, we’ve got to finish more races.”

Busy month of March

IndyCar has a healthy 18-race schedule this year, the most events since the 2014 season, and for the first time in years the series won’t go weeks between the opener and the next race.

Penske, who owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was able to get a record four races in March by joining NASCAR next weekend for a return to Phoenix. IndyCar last raced at Phoenix in 2018, a race won by Newgarden.

From Phoenix the series goes to the inaugural event on the Streets of Arlington in a collaboration with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. IndyCar closes out the month at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.

Arlington is one of three new venues on the schedule as IndyCar will move away from downtown Toronto to race on the streets of Markham, Ontario, and a President Donald Trump-backed event in Washington, D.C., to mark the 250th birthday of the United States.

The season will end Sept. 6 with the finale back at Laguna Seca for the first time since 2023.

Schumacher’s debut

IndyCar typically features a few new faces every year but none come with the name recognition that Mick Schumacher brings.

Schumacher is the son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher and has made the move away from F1 after three seasons without a ride. He drove for Haas in F1 and became a Mercedes reserve driver after losing that seat at the end of 2022.

He hasn’t made an F1 start since and instead competed in the World Endurance Championship. Now the 26-year-old German will give North American open wheel racing a try with a seat at Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

He’ll need to quickly adapt to oval racing, which will be new to Schumacher, who said he’s leaning on teammate Graham Rahal for advice.

“I’m very curious and interested in learning about that,” Schumacher said. “The good thing is we have Graham on board, who has done a couple of these races in his lifetime, and therefore I can learn very much from him.”

Coincidentally, Schumacher will be on the grid this year with Romain Grosjean, the driver he replaced at Haas in 2021. Grosjean returns to IndyCar after a year away with Dale Coyne Racing, the team that first brought him to the series in 2021.

Coyne has an entirely new lineup this year as Grosjean will pair with rookie teammate Dennis Hauger, the reigning INDY NXT champion.

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Mexican cartel clashes fuel worries in lead-up to FIFA World Cup

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Hugo Alejandro Pérez was in his house a few miles from the Mexican stadium that is slated to host FIFA World Cup games when gunfire and explosions erupted just outside his door.

The 53-year-old restaurant owner was already skeptical about his city, Guadalajara, hosting the international sporting event.

He saw a government that failed to fix basic things, like water service to his home, along with cartel violence in the surrounding state of Jalisco and shook his head. The surge of bloodshed this week following the Mexican military’s killing of the country’s most powerful cartel boss offered more confirmation of his doubts.

“I don’t think they should host the World Cup here,” Peréz said. “We have so many problems, and they want to invest in the World Cup? With all the violence, it’s not a good idea.”

Peréz joined other people Tuesday in questioning Guadalajara’s capacity to be a host city for the summer soccer competition, even as the Mexican government vowed that the international event — hosted jointly by Mexico, the United States and Canada — will not be affected.

President offers ‘every guarantee’ for World Cup

President Claudia Sheinbaum was asked at her daily news briefing what guarantees there are that World Cup matches will be held in Jalisco. “Every guarantee,” she said, adding that there was “no risk” for fans coming to the tournament.

Jalisco Gov. Jesús Pablo Lemus said he had spoken with local FIFA officials, who have “absolutely no intention of removing any venues from Mexico. The three venues remain completely unchanged.”

The same day, the Portuguese soccer federation said it was “closely monitoring the delicate situation” in Mexico.” Its national team was scheduled to play Mexico’s team in a friendly on March 28 at the newly renovated Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which is scheduled to host the opening World Cup match on June 11.

Jalisco, in central Mexico, was already facing scrutiny. The state been plagued by some of the starkest examples of cartel violence in recent years, including the discovery of a cartel killing site at a ranch last March and a crisis of disappearances.

The state, with Guadalajara as its capital, is the central hub for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, whose leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” was killed Sunday in a capture attempt by the military.

The operation and waves of violence killed 70 people. Cartel gunmen set fire to cars to block streets in states across the country, namely Jalisco, and fought with Mexican forces into Monday as the government said the conflict was under control.

The death of Oseguera Cervantes came as Mexico’s government has stepped up its offensive against cartels in an effort to meet demands by U.S. President Donald Trump to crack down on criminal groups. The cartel, also known as CJNG, is one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in Mexico.

The White House confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence support to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico’s army for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries. On Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to briefly reference the operation during his State of the Union address, saying “We’ve also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all. You saw that yesterday.”

Drug lord’s death could lead to more violence

Peréz, the restaurant owner, also commended Sheinbaum’s efforts to go after cartels, saying the government has taken cartel violence more seriously then her predecessors. At the same time, he said, local authorities in Jalisco have fallen short in protecting civilians.

The root concern for many is that the death of “El Mencho” could pave the way for more violence. Killing capos, in what’s become known as the “kingpin strategy,” has been criticized by Sheinbaum herself because it can often spark internal conflict between cartel factions and push rival cartels to make territorial grabs.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, an academic at the Brookings Institution, said she doesn’t see more acts of “revenge” by the cartel as likely, but the future remains uncertain, especially after leading figures in both CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel have been knocked out in recent years.

“If there is no clear line of succession (in CJNG), we might see a lot of fighting within the cartel, its breakup, and there are a lot of scenarios,” she said.

On Sunday, when firefights broke out between the cartel and soldiers, and gunmen began to burn a car just feet in front of Peréz’s house, he let people on the street scramble inside his home to seek cover. The fighting raged for an hour.

Now he says he doesn’t see the point of holding the games, adding that he doubts any of the money from the games will trickle down to businesses in working-class neighbourhoods like his, even if they are just a 10-minute drive from the stadium. Similar tensions have simmered in Mexico City.

The World Cup is expected to be a $3 billion economic engine in Mexico, according to the Mexican Soccer Federation.

“It doesn’t help us residents at all, honestly. They should move it to Monterrey or Mexico City. But right now here, we’re not convinced,” he said. “Things aren’t in good enough shape for foreigners to be coming to Jalisco for an event like this.”

On Monday, some foreign tourists trapped in the violence in the city of Puerto Vallarta took to social media to warn of the violence, with a few remarking that they didn’t plan to return.

Hope of snapping back to normal

Despite that, Guadalajara was snapping back to its normal rhythm Tuesday. Many businesses opened their doors for the first time in two days, and streets were packed with traffic.

Workers were busy fixing up the exterior of the soccer stadium that will host World Cup matches. Cyclists zipped around outside the stadium, and parents played with children in parks.

Heavily armed police officers and National Guard members roamed the city, a sign for some that the government had the situation under control.

Juan Carlos Pila, a 55-year-old taxi driver, rolled his eyes at the reports of violence after spending two days waiting with his family for things to calm down. He said social media and local news outlets were overplaying the extent of the violence.

“People should come, man. Everyone is welcome,” he said.

Others, like Maria Dolores Aguirre, simply hoped for the best. Aguirre runs a small corner story in the cobblestoned tourist town of Tapalpa tucked away in Jalisco’s mountains, where Mexico’s military killed “El Mencho.”

Aguirre’s family business of over 50 years depends on the flow of tourists to the normally sleepy town. Now she worries bloodshed will deal a blow to her livelihood and change towns like hers.

“It’s going to affect us. It’s collateral damage,” Aguirre said. “The government is going to have to have a lot of security. … The entire world just saw what happened and, of course, people are going to think twice about coming.”

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Real Madrid’s Courtois disappointed with Mourinho’s criticism of Vinicius over racism claim

MADRID — Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was disappointed with José Mourinho’s criticism of teammate Vinícius Júnior for accusing Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni of racism last week.

Courtois commented on Tuesday, a day before Madrid hosted Benfica in their Champions League playoffs second leg. Madrid’s 1-0 win in Lisbon last week was overshadowed by Vinícius’ allegation that Prestianni called him “monkey” after the Brazil forward scored and celebrated by the Benfica corner flag.

Prestianni denied racially insulting Vinícius while confronting him with his shirt over his mouth, but was provisionally suspended for one match by UEFA on Monday and will not play Wednesday’s match at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. He and Mourinho, who is also suspended after being sent off late in the game for referee dissent, still travelled to Madrid.

Mourinho, a former Madrid coach, said after last week’s match that Vinícius shouldn’t have provoked Benfica fans by dancing in front of the Benfica flag to celebrate his second-half winner. The coach suggested that something always happens in stadiums where Vinícius plays.

Courtois said it wasn’t right to use Vinícius’ celebration to justify the alleged act of racism.

“Mourinho is Mourinho, and as a coach he will defend his club and what his player told him,” Courtois said. “The only thing that disappoints me is that he used Viní’s celebration. He didn’t do anything wrong. He celebrated like many of our rivals have, because when they score on us, the euphoria is double or triple. But it’s over, we have to move on.”

Mourinho did not speak in Benfica’s news conference at the Bernabeu on Tuesday; an assistant spoke instead.

Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany was among those who also criticized Mourinho for attacking Vinícius after last week’s match.

Benfica has defended Prestianni, saying the Argentine player was the victim of a “defamation campaign.” It lamented that he was provisionally suspended by UEFA while an investigation remained open.

Madrid was fully behind Vinícius and coach Álvaro Arbeloa said on Tuesday that UEFA had a chance to do more against racism.

“We are facing a great opportunity to make a significant step forward in the fight against racism,” he said. “UEFA has always been a strong advocate in the fight against racism, and now they have the opportunity not to leave it as just a slogan or a nice banner before matches. I hope they seize this opportunity.”

Arbeloa added Vinícius, who has five goals in his last four matches, was “very motivated” for Wednesday’s match.

“Vini has always shown great courage and character,” Arbeloa said. “I don’t know how anyone else in his situation would react. He has always done so bravely, showing tremendous personality. That has always been his response and it always will be because he is a fighter. Tomorrow he will come out to fight and play a great match, showing that he is one of the best players on the planet.”

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How lack of coaching adjustments played role in Canada’s loss to USA

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Connor Hellebuyck comes up big as U.S. downs Canada in OT of gold-medal game

Connor Hellebuyck has slayed his demons.

The U.S. goalie dismissed any notion that he couldn’t perform when it counts most, making a whopping 41 saves to lead his country to a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in the gold-medal game at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.

Hellebuyck stopped several grade-A Canadian chances throughout regulation and the extra frame to keep his team in it despite the ice being tilted his way.

In the first period, the Winnipeg Jets netminder stonewalled Canada captain Connor McDavid on a breakaway.

In the second, he was crucial as the U.S. killed off a 5-on-3 Canadian power play.

And Hellebuyck saved his best for the third period, when he robbed Devon Toews of a potential go-ahead goal with a diving stick save.

In overtime, Hellebuyck started the play that led to the eventual Jack Hughes winner, earning the secondary assist on what will go down as a legendary goal for the Americans.

His 41 saves broke a record for the most saves in a gold-medal game in an Olympics with NHL participation, surpassing Ryan Miller’s 36-save effort for Team USA at Vancouver 2010.

The 32-year-old from Commerce Township, Mich., has faced criticism throughout his NHL career for being among the best regular-season goalies only to falter in the post-season.

He was in the losing net at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, and won the Hart and Vezina Trophies before his Jets fell in the second round of the NHL post-season.

Now, he’s led his country to Olympic glory — and was named the goalie of the all-tournament team for his efforts.

He’ll have a well-deserved gold medal dangling around his neck.

• 

• Follow the medal race at Milano Cortina 2026

  See how all the countries are doing in the overall standings at the Winter Olympics.

  Medal table

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Raptors recall Jamison Battle from G League

The Toronto Raptors have added their resident sharpshooter back into the fold.

Jamison Battle was recalled by the Raptors on Saturday after a one-game stint in the G League, the team announced.

Battle, 24, was assigned to the G League for the first time this season on Friday and played in the Raptors 905’s win over the Windy City Bulls. The six-foot-seven wing scored 22 points and shot 6-of-13 from three-point range.

In his sophomore season with the Raptors, Battle has averaged 3.1 points per game while shooting a team-high 41.5 per cent from three. He shot 40.5 per cent from deep during his first season, which ranked second among all rookies.

Yet despite his shooting talent, Battle has been a DNP-CD — did not play, coach’s decision — in four of the Raptors’ last 10 games. In the six games he touched the floor, Battle averaged only 6.7 minutes.

Battle was signed by Toronto after going undrafted in 2024, and earned a two-way spot after shooting a combined 17-of-29 (58.6 per cent) from three between Summer League and the pre-season in 2024-25.

He was later converted to a standard contract after the trade deadline as he continued to shoot the lights out.

Battle’s next chance to make an impact for the Raptors will come on Sunday when they take on the Milwaukee Bucks at 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT.

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What to keep an eye on for Raptors’ final regular season games

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