AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The IndyCar season started exactly how it ended, with Alex Palou on top of the standings, and the rest of the field scratching their heads on how to catch the four-time series champion.
“Every time I’m on the podium, second or third, he’s first. It’s pretty annoying,” McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard said after finishing third in last week's opener in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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Will Power watches the IndyCar race on pit lane after hitting the wall in his debut for Andretti Global on Sunday, March 1, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
FILE - Romain Grosjean walks to driver introductions before an IndyCar auto race, Sunday, July 14, 2024, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
FILE - Alex Palou celebrates after winning the IndyCar championship Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Their next shot at catching Palou comes Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, where IndyCar is the undercard of a doubleheader weekend with NASCAR. The back-to-back races to start the season is an anomaly for IndyCar, which typically has a large gap between St. Pete and its second event of each year.
And even though IndyCar has raced at Phoenix before, it's last trip to the short oval in the desert was in 2018 and only five of 25 drivers entered have ever raced here before. Josef Newgarden won IndyCar's last race in Phoenix in 2018, and Scott Dixon won two years before that.
Besides them, only Will Power, Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi have competed at Phoenix previously. In theory that makes the track a neutral playing field for the drivers hoping this is where they can catch Palou.
IndyCar held an open test at Phoenix last month to give all the drivers at least a chance to turn laps on the 1-mile dogleg, and most hope its enough come Saturday.
“It doesn't hurt with a little bit of experience, but it's been a while for the others, so we'll see,” Marcus Ericsson said. “I think everyone got a lot of laps here in the test and everyone is kind of on an equal playing field because of that, so I don't think it's going to be a huge advantage.”
The three rookies in the field could have it the hardest: Dennis Hauger and Caio Collet have raced on ovals in IndyCar's feeder system, but Mick Schumacher will be making his oval debut. Collet crashed during the Phoenix test.
“It’s not new for everyone. I think Dixon was driving around here before I was born probably, or at least when I was born,” said 22-year-old Hauger, who is 23 years younger than six-time IndyCar champion Dixon.
“For the majority of the grid, it’s new. I think maybe that levels it out.”
The biggest question mark will be Schumacher, who failed to complete even a single lap in his IndyCar debut last week because he was a casualty of two drivers colliding ahead of him. He had hoped the race at St. Pete would give him some seat time and opportunity to work with his Rahal Letterman Lanigan crew, but the son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher was reduced to a spectator after the lap 1 crash.
He watched the rest of the IndyCar opener from the pit stand, then spent some time ahead of Phoenix on the simulator trying to understand oval racing.
“It's important to learn, it was my first event, so I needed to analyze everything,” Schumacher said. “So it was important to go back to the pit stand and see what the engineers were talking about, what we would have done differently in certain scenarios, to pretend we did the race and take away key elements of it.”
Everyone will likely be chasing Palou no matter what as his opening race of the year showed he has not slowed a bit. The Spaniard has won four of the five last championships, and last year had eight victories that included the Indianapolis 500 and a third consecutive IndyCar title.
At St. Pete, he led 59 of 100 laps, won by a race-record 12.4-seconds and on Saturday will be seeking his 21st career victory.
Phoenix will mark his 100th career start in IndyCar since he showed up in 2020 as an unknown coming from a Japanese series. He's been unstoppable since moving to Chip Ganassi Racing in 2021 and doesn't plan to let up anytime soon.
“It's just how racing goes, and we have to do a better job,” rival Romain Grosjean said. “It's possible we all have the same cars and he's just using it a better way than we are. Combination of the team, the name, the driver, they're doing amazing. I wish I was a small mouse to see what they have going on.”
Palou insists it hasn't been as easy as he has made it look and Phoenix will be a fair test to see if the competition has caught him at all.
“I tend not to have much expectations,” he said. “I’m pushing. I’m giving everything I have. I like to be in the car. I like to be strapped in, and I like to drive the race. We take it one step at a time. We need to focus on Phoenix.”
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Will Power watches the IndyCar race on pit lane after hitting the wall in his debut for Andretti Global on Sunday, March 1, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
Mick Schumacher is pictured at the IndyCar race Sunday, March 1, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., after he was involved in a crash on the first lap of the season-opening race. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)
FILE - Romain Grosjean walks to driver introductions before an IndyCar auto race, Sunday, July 14, 2024, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
FILE - Alex Palou celebrates after winning the IndyCar championship Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
HELSINGBORG, Sweden (AP) — NATO allies and defense officials expressed bewilderment Friday at U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number of forces pulled out of Europe.
The apparent change of mind came after weeks of statements from Trump and his administration about reducing — not increasing — the U.S. military footprint in Europe. Trump's initial order set off a flurry of action among military commanders and left allies already doubtful about America's commitment to Europe's security to ponder what forces they might have to backfill on NATO's eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it was reducing levels in Europe by about 5,000 troops, and U.S. officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer rotating into Poland from Germany. The dispatch to Germany of U.S. personnel trained to fire long-range missiles was also halted.
But in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said he would now send "an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” citing his strong ties with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whom Trump endorsed in elections last year.
“It is confusing indeed, and not always easy to navigate,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told reporters Friday at a meeting she was hosting of her NATO counterparts, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ministers from the Netherlands and Norway were sanguine about Trump’s latest move, as was Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže, who said allies knew the U.S. troop “posture was being reconsidered, and now there is no change of posture. For now.”
U.S. defense officials also expressed confusion. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” said one of two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
But Rubio said Washington’s allies understand that changes in the U.S. troop presence in Europe will come as the Trump administration reevaluates its force needs. “I think there’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there has historically been for a variety of reasons,” he said.
The latest surprise came despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments, including one from NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, on Wednesday.
Trump's initial announcement that he would withdraw troops came as he fumed over remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said that the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he called a lack of strategy in that war.
Trump told reporters that the U.S. would be cutting even more than 5,000 and also announced new tariffs on European cars. Germany is the continent’s biggest auto producer.
Rubio insisted that Trump’s decision “is not a punitive thing. It’s just something that’s ongoing.”
About 80,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe. The Pentagon is required to keep at least 76,000 troops and major equipment on the continent unless NATO allies are consulted and there is a determination that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests.
The withdrawal of 5,000 troops might drop numbers below that limit.
But Trump's latest post suggests that troop numbers in Europe would not change. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski welcomed the decision to send more forces to his country, saying it ensures that “the presence of American troops in Poland will be maintained more or less at previous levels.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also welcomed the move. On Thursday, before Trump took to Truth Social again, Rutte had underlined that it was important for Europe to take care of its own security. “We have a process in place. This is normal business,” he told reporters.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, meanwhile, U.S. officials briefed the allies on the Pentagon's aims for its commitments to the NATO Force Model, which involves contingency planning for Europe’s defense in the event of serious security concerns. It was widely expected that a further reduction of U.S. forces would be coming.
Asked whether any cuts were announced, Rutte said: “I’m afraid it’s much more complicated than that.” He said the procedure “is highly classified” and declined to give details.
Rubio played down concerns about a shift in U.S. force levels in Europe, saying: "Every country has to constantly reevaluate what their needs are, what their commitments are around the world, and how to properly structure that.”
Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Emma Burrows in London contributed.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with journalists during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, front second left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, front left, speak with each other during a group photo at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte look at each other as they deliver a statement during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže speaks at the doorstep of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting at Sea U in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte deliver a statement during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks to media at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives with his wife Jeanette at Malmo Airport, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Malmo-Sturup, Sweden, ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, second from left, shakes hands with Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson, as he is greeted by King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Silvia of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Maria Malmer Stenergard, right, before a dinner at Sofiero Castle in Helsingborg, Sweden, Thursday May 21 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard speaks to media at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
