Heavy rain forced Carb Day's Oscar Mayer Indianapolis 500 Pit Stop Challenge to be abandoned after only the opening round of head-to-head competition, with the slick tyres and cold track ruling out any further stops on a treacherous pit lane.
IndyCar's technical director Rocket confirmed the call after a long delay, telling the broadcast: "It's just too much rain and the slick tyres and they're cold and you know, our intent's not to get anybody hurt out here. So, I think as much as we hate to say, it's probably over."
The first round did produce one of the great pit lane upsets. Ryan Hunter-Reay's crew, lined up on the fast lane, executed a bang-on stop to topple defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou. Palou had drawn the slower transition lane and was, in commentary's words, "a little long on his marks," while Hunter-Reay was perfect entering his box and absorbed his rear-tyre wheelspin to take the win.
Josef Newgarden delivered the round's most polished performance for the Penske squad, dispatching Scott Dixon's Chip Ganassi crew despite Dixon getting a flying jump at the lights. "New Garden is just too good. That crew on the number two invincible," said the call, as Newgarden's team had the guns on the wheel nuts before the car had even come to a complete stop.
Marcus Erikson backed up his earlier loose-wheel scare in practice by edging David Malukas in a stop both teams will want to forget. Erikson took the win with a 13.1-second total time, 9.8 in the box, in what the broadcast bluntly framed as "not necessarily a case of who was best, but a case of who was least worse."
The final completed bout pitted Rinus VeeKay against Romain Grosjean, with VeeKay advancing after Grosjean's crew copped a delay on the front-left wheel. That set the second-round draw for Newgarden against Erikson, and VeeKay against Hunter-Reay, with Will Power and Pato O'Ward, Mick Schumacher and Dennis Hauger, the rookie meeting of Ray Hall and Foster, and the all-Danish battle of Christian Rasmussen against Christian Lundgaard all still to come.
It was Power's car that signalled the end. The Penske veteran appeared to creep before the green light, then stalled the engine completely as the rain intensified, with drivers walking back up pit lane under umbrellas. Series officials brought out the track dryers but could not coax the surface back to a workable state for the remainder of the bracket.
Despite the abandoned competition, the charity component of the event will still pay out. IndyCar confirmed all participating crews will share in the prize pool that had included USD 50,000 for the eventual winner, with the broader fundraising effort raising USD 9,000 in cash and USD 135,000 in donated product. "Hopefully we'll give them some money for that just for helping participate," Rocket said.
The abandoned challenge added another layer of uncertainty to a weather-disrupted Carb Day at the Speedway, with attention turning quickly to the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, where the same teams will face the same conditions for far higher stakes.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/indy-500-pit-stop-challenge-2026-rain-cancelled-erikson-newgarden-veekay). Visit for full coverage.*
