Graphic: Backfire Racing.
One of the things that makes IndyCar unique among major racing series is that its cars race on three very different types of circuits: superspeedways, short ovals, and road or street courses. Each demands a distinct approach to aerodynamics.
Superspeedway Setups
On high-speed ovals, teams run the lowest possible drag configuration, trimming out wing angles to maximize top speed since cars run in large packs at close to 230 mph. Less wing means less grip in the corners, so drivers rely heavily on the draft and precise car positioning rather than pure mechanical grip.
Short Oval Adjustments
Short ovals require more mechanical grip and downforce than superspeedways because corners are tighter and speeds lower, so teams add wing angle back in to help the car rotate through turns without sliding.
Road and Street Course Downforce
Road and street courses are the opposite extreme: teams run maximum downforce packages with larger wings and underbody elements to generate grip for braking zones and low-speed corners, even though this costs straight-line speed. This is part of why a single driver dominating across all three surfaces, the way Alex Palou did in his title-winning season, is considered such a complete driving achievement.
Why This Matters for Race Strategy
Because the aero kit changes so much between race types, teams essentially have to re-learn their setup from scratch for each type of track, and success on one kind of circuit doesn’t guarantee success on another. That variability is part of why dynasties like the one built by Chip Ganassi Racing are so impressive — sustaining excellence across ovals and road courses alike requires a much broader engineering effort than specializing in just one discipline.
The Driver’s Adaptation
For drivers, this also means adjusting their driving style significantly from race to race, since a car set up for a road course will feel and behave completely differently from the same chassis trimmed out for a superspeedway.
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