How Is the Championship Won in IndyCar?

IndyCar
Creation: 12 October 2026

In IndyCar, the championship is not built on a single victory, but on the patience of points tucked away in every race, every qualifying position, and even every lap led.

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In IndyCar, the championship is not won by a single race victory, but by collecting points from every scoring position throughout the season. The race winner receives 50 points, second place gets 40, and every position up to 25th is scoring; bonuses such as pole position and laps led are also added to the total. In other words, consistency is rewarded more than a single win.

Highlights

The race winner receives 50 points; from 25th place onward the score is a fixed 5 points . Pole position
is worth 1 point, leading a lap 1 point, and the driver who leads the most laps 2 additional points .
The Indianapolis 500 paid double points between 2014 and 2022; since 2023 there have been no double points.
In Indy 500 qualifying, those who make the Fast Twelve earn up to 12 points of championship points.
The name of the championship trophy is the Astor Cup.

How Does the IndyCar Points System Work?

In many motorsport series only the top ten positions score points; the rest fall into a void. IndyCar operates on a completely different logic: every scoring position awards points. The winner climbs to the top with 50 points, second takes 40, third 35, fourth 32, and fifth settles for 30 points. From there it decreases gradually: 10th place gets 20 points, 11th place 19, 24th place 6 points. From 25th place onward the points are fixed and stay at 5 - those positions are usually filled by drivers who retire from the Indianapolis 500.

Let me explain this with an everyday analogy: the IndyCar championship resembles steady saving every single day until the end of the year, not a one-time big jackpot. The difference between the winner and second place in a single race is only 10 points. So a driver who wins one race and finishes 15th in the next can fall behind a driver who finishes 5th twice. That is why the system is incredibly fair.

Moreover, the picture is not just about finishing order. The following are also added to the championship tally:

To the driver who takes pole position: 1 point
To every driver who leads at least one lap during the race: 1 point
To the driver who leads the most laps: 2 additional points

And don't forget, points are not just for drivers: team (entrant) and engine manufacturer championships are awarded separately as well. In the engine manufacturer standings, the two full-season entries with the best race results are scored on the same point scale. There is also a small but interesting rule: in a car racing with a substitute driver, the points go to the driver who started the race, and the substitute receives no points at all. A car that cannot start the race but participates in practice and qualifying is rewarded with half points. At the end of the season, the driver who accumulates the most points becomes the owner of the Astor Cup.

Qualifying Points: Is Pole Worth Only 1 Point?

In a normal race weekend, the only person to earn championship points from qualifying is the pole sitter: 1 point. That's all. The format changes depending on the track type - on ovals, a single car runs two laps; on road and street courses, a three-segment knockout system is used, but on the points side the table remains the same.

The exception, of course, is the Indianapolis 500. The qualifying format of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" has a structure of its own: all drivers who make the Fast Twelve earn championship points. The pole sitter gets 12 points, second gets 11, each position drops by one point, and the 12th place finishes with 1 point. For the 110th Indianapolis 500, this procedure was expanded even further: full-field qualifying on the first day, followed the next day by the Top 12 shootout and Firestone Fast Six; if needed, Last Chance Qualifying comes into play to determine positions 31-33. In other words, a strong qualifying at Indy can turn into a real points advantage across the season.

Does the Indy 500 Still Award Double Points?

No - and this is one of the most talked-about rule changes of recent years. From 2014 to 2022, both the Indianapolis 500 and the season finale paid double points. A winner at Indy collected twice the points in the championship race, while a full-season team having a bad day in the 500 suffered serious damage. In 2023, this practice was abolished.

The double points rule excessively punished full-season championship teams that performed poorly in the 500.
When IndyCar management explained the rationale for removing the rule,

That was the official rationale: double points disproportionately hurt regular point-scoring teams that experienced bad luck in the season's biggest race. Interestingly, even in the years when double points were applied, it never changed the season champion, but it did occasionally create negative effects in the standings. In other words, the debate was mostly built on perception - double points made the season finale seem like a closer contest than it really was.

The other side's argument is not empty either: considering the historical weight of the Indy 500, some argue that a race only 76 drivers have ever won should play a bigger role within the championship. For some racers, an Indy 500 victory is even more desirable than the season championship. If it were you, which would you choose - the Astor Cup or victory at the Brickyard? That question is still debated in the paddock.

Consistency or Wins? The Championship Formula

The system's math gives a clear answer: consistency wins. The 10-point gap between the winner and second place, along with all positions scoring points, prioritizes continuous top finishes far more than one-off brilliant weekends. Of course, history has exceptions: A.J. Foyt won 10 of 13 races to reach the top in 1964, Mario Andretti took nine wins in a single season, and Al Unser established a similar dominance in 1970. But that was a product of the era's calendars with fewer races and less balance.

Foyt amassed 67 wins, 7 championships and 4 Indy 500s over his career; Mario Andretti's numbers are 52 wins, 4 championships and 1 Indy 500. The only name to win four consecutive championships is Sébastien Bourdais - that alone shows just how rare a talent consistency is.

A recent example sums the situation up very well: in one season, the leader, despite 6 race wins and 8 poles, owed the championship gap primarily to his constant top-10 finishes - 15 top-10s. Although its rival trails in the number of wins, the gap narrowed and widened because of consistent points collection, but the leader filled the points bank every week. This is the essence of the IndyCar championship: bank the points every week, and the brilliant weekends come on their own.

And there is a tiebreaker scenario that is pure motorsport drama: if two drivers are tied on points at the end of the season, the number of first-place finishes is compared first; if the tie persists, second places, then third places... This procedure also applies to other standings throughout the season.

Push-to-Pass: The Button That Changes the Overtaking Game

Another format element affecting championship dynamics is Push-to-Pass. The logic is simple but the impact is big: when the driver presses the button, they gain an extra 60 horsepower for a short time. On the technical side, the system is software-based; in Push-to-Pass mode a maximum of 1,650 mbar of boost is provided, while in normal mode 1,500 mbar is applied on road and street courses and 1,300 mbar on superspeedways. Estimated power is in the 650-700 hp band, additive up to 150 horsepower from the hybrid unit.

In 2026 the system was expanded even further: Push-to-Pass can now also be used on race restarts, offering teams extra overtaking opportunities. It also became usable at almost any moment except the segment from the start of the race start to the alternative start-finish line. The picture is not entirely innocent, of course - the rules that restricted P2P usage at certain times at Long Beach were rewritten by the newly established three-member Independent Board of Referees, and there was also a scandal in which 12 cars were found to have used P2P illegally on a restart. What I mean is: this button gives drivers who "know when to press it" a small but real advantage in the championship math.

Varied Calendar, Balanced Championship

IndyCar'da şampiyonluk tek bir zaferin değil, neredeyse her hafta podyuma oynayan sürücünün sabrıyla kazanılır.

One of the things that makes IndyCar unique is the variety of its calendar: superspeedways, short ovals, road courses and street circuits all in the same season. Each track type demands different overtaking opportunities and different setups - low wings on ovals, high downforce on street circuits. This variety makes it harder for a driver specialized in a single track type to reach the championship, while rewarding the "all-rounder" driver who collects points every week. On the car side, the picture is fixed: Dallara IR-12 chassis with the IR-18 aero kit, Honda and Chevrolet's 2.2L V6 twin-turbo hybrid engines, a 12,000 rpm limit and Firestone tires.

One more detail: in 2026 the only race that awards no points is the one held at Thermal Club - meaning almost every weekend directly touches the championship calculations. This once again highlights consistency across the season.

Summary: What Does It Take to Become an IndyCar Champion?

Let's sum it up briefly. In IndyCar, the championship is determined by the total of finishing points, pole bonus, lap leads, and qualifying points accumulated throughout the season. The Indy 500 is no longer double points, but its qualifying contributes up to 12 points. The system carries drivers who finish at the front every week to the Astor Cup, rather than one-race heroes. Elements like push-to-pass heat up the competition but don't change the math: The IndyCar championship is the reward not of a single race, but of an entire season.

How many points does the race winner get? 50 points; second gets 40, third gets 35.
Is the Indy 500 double points? No, not since 2023; but its qualifying awards up to 12 points.
Which race awards no points? The 2026 Thermal Club race.
How is a tie broken? First by number of wins, then respectively by second places, third places.
Does a substitute driver earn points? No; the points go to the driver who started the race.