Palou benefits from caution periods to win again

Alex Palou benefitted from two timely cautions to beat Josef Newgarden and David Malukas to victory in the second IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway.

The runaway championship leader had started from pole, but was overtaken twice by Newgarden during Sunday’s race.

But using Honda’s supreme fuel mileage and some misfortune for Andretti Global proved key. After Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta each suffered separate right-front tyre failures, both times after Newgarden had come into the pits, it trapped the Tennessean a lap down.

After the first one, on lap 130, Newgarden took the wave around and marched from 13th back to the front. He passed Palou with 35 to go, taking Malukas with him, and figured to contend for the win. But the caution flew again with 22 laps remaining, after Newgarden and Malukas had already stopped.

That gave Palou the advantage he needed. The Indianapolis 500 winner stopped for fresh tyres, emerged with the lead and marched off over the final 11-lap run for his seventh win of 2025.

“I cannot really believe it, honestly. Winning here is super special,” Palou said. “I struggled on short ovals for so long. Today, although the strategy helped us a little bit there at the end when we were P3, we were still trying everything that we could. That worked for us.”

The late caution significantly shifted the final running order, as Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon followed Palou to the finish to give Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 result, with Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong completing an all-Honda podium.

Malukas rallied over the late stint to rise from eighth to fourth, with Pato O’Ward completing the top five. Newgarden was unable to make similar late progress and finished down in 10th.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Just as it had on Saturday, the first caution came out on the opening lap. Devlin DeFrancesco lost control of his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda in the pack and spun around, clipping Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the process. Both drivers were knocked out of the race.

A second caution followed on lap 50, when Sting Ray Robb hit the wall hard between Turns 1 and 2 for Juncos Holliger. Nolan Siegel suffered a similar crash on Saturday and missed Sunday’s race for Arrow McLaren with mild concussion, but Robb was released from the medical centre with no reported issues.

Will Power saw his day undone by an engine failure in the early stages, making it another race to forget for all three Team Penske cars, after an apparent breakthrough after the trio had finished in the top four on Saturday.

Palou now leads the drivers’ standings by 129 points from O’Ward – the pair effectively trading results over the Iowa weekend with one win and one fifth apiece – with just five rounds remaining.