Palou returns to the top in frantic, fuel-saving race

Alex Palou returned to winning ways at Road America as he enjoyed a trouble-free race combined with strong strategy to reassert his IndyCar dominance in 2025.

Palou kept his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda clean as drivers and managed fuel in a strategy-filled conclusion to claim his sixth win, bringing the championship dominator back to the front after two atypical results at Detroit and Gateway.

“It was a crazy race for us,” Palou admitted. “At moments I thought we were losing a ton of positions, then we were making [spots]. It was a tough race for everybody. Kudos to the team for the amazing strategy. And Honda, man. HRC. Being able to give us the fuel mileage we needed to make it.”

Palou was rarely up front in the race despite qualifying second, as he was sent out of the top five after bold three-wide moves from the drivers around him.

Hit with that early setback, Palou steadily marched forward, and when Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood got into a pair of intense run-ins, Palou used them to sneak, before repeating the feat when Josef Newgarden was too late on the brakes and went wide under team-mate Scott McLaughlin at Turn 5.

Christian Lundgaard looked poised to take his first win on the year, but a timely caution for a crashed Newgarden with 25 laps to go came after Lundgaard and others had just pitted, allowing Palou and others to stretch fuel into the window needed to make it to the end with just one more pitstop.

Even then, Palou didn’t hold the front spot. Team-mate Scott Dixon took over the lead and paced Palou into the closing laps, but the Kiwi had to pit with 17 laps to go and needed another pitstop under caution if he hoped to make it to the end. That caution never flew, forcing Dixon to pit with two to go.

That enabled Palou to take the chequered flag by 2.1725s clear of Felix Rosenqvist to return to his winning ways, the Swedish driver taking his best finish since 2023. Santino Ferrucci followed in third, but his car out of fuel on the cooldown lap and he celebrated with a beer tossed his way by a fan after he stopped at Turn 1.

Kirkwood and Marcus Armstrong capped off the top five, with Kyffin Simpson, David Malukas, Nolan Siegel, Dixon and Rinus VeeKay rounding out the top 10.

In a race of high attrition, three cautions flew in the opening 10 laps, including a yellow just two corners into the race when Malukas was late on the brakes and ran into Lundgaard, sending Malukas spinning into the gravel trap.

The race got back underway three laps later, with fierce battles for position throughout the field. But the caution flew again for a Robert Shwartzman crash in Canada Corner before the end of the lap. It took until lap eight for the field to complete a full lap, and the yellow flag was displayed again just two laps later when Sting Ray Robb nearly crashed into a braking Armstrong and slammed into the concrete barrier on driver’s right before sliding into the tyre barrier.

More chaos followed in the mid-section of the event. Conor Daly slide into the barrier after a similar late-braking mistake into Turn 5. Power spun in Canada Corner with 28 laps left, while Newgarden did the same at the exit of the final corner to bring out the final caution on lap 30.

David Malukas, A. J. Foyt Enterprises

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Lumen via Getty Images

Given all the incidents, there was a real chance that Dixon would catch the caution he needed in the closing stages, but in the end, it never came.

Instead IndyCar’s status quo returned. Palou marched back to victory lane, continued Honda’s undefeated streak and stretched the number of races he and Kirkwood have combined to sweep to nine events.

IndyCar Road America – race results