Álex Palou driving on the Indianapolis road course
/ Indycar
What sometimes gives you a win can just as easily take it away. That’s exactly what happened to Álex Palou on the Indianapolis road course. In Long Beach, the Spaniard secured victory thanks to a lightning-fast pit stop by his team. But in this race, a strategic mistake—partly due to questionable race direction decisions—snatched it from him. The Catalan driver topped every session of the weekend except the race itself, yet he still holds the championship lead during the biggest month of the Indycar calendar.
The start was chaotic. Even before the green flag waved, Rinus Veekay damaged his front wing in a light contact as skirmishes broke out in the pack. Palou set the pace and held the lead despite being on hard tires. Right behind him, trouble erupted at Turn 1. Rosenqvist overshot his braking, clipped O’Ward, and both spun. The Swede was left stranded in the middle of the track, and Dixon and Collet ran into him. Lap 1, first yellow flag. After these incidents, Malukas moved up to second, Graham Rahal to third, and Kirkwood—who started ninth—climbed to fourth.
The race restarted on Lap 6. Kirkwood passed Rahal and then Malukas to sit second, chasing Palou. The Spaniard already had over a second of lead, and his gap grew by three-tenths per lap. By Lap 19, Palou’s advantage over Kirkwood was more than four seconds. Even though there were car parts lying on the racing line at Turn 7, race control did not throw a full yellow. The decisions started looking odd: on Lap 21, Alexander Rossi stalled on the main straight, but race control only called a local yellow. Green flags waved in other sectors until a full-course caution came the following lap. This confusion put Palou’s victory at risk.
On Lap 24, pit lane was closed, and everyone except Palou and Kirkwood—the race and championship leaders—had already stopped. Chip Ganassi made a poor call, and the Andretti driver followed the Catalan. One lap later, both entered for tire changes. Palou was one of the few to take hards, while Kirkwood went with softs. They rejoined 19th and 20th. The race restarted with Will Power leading after starting last. Lundgaard passed Rahal for third. Further back, Palou and Kirkwood overtook Collet but soon found themselves involved in an incident.
Lap 28 brought another yellow after contact between Sting Ray Robb, Simpson, and Rosenqvist, forcing the Spaniard off-track onto the grass to avoid a crash. Despite these setbacks, they fought back: Kirkwood was 14th, Palou 16th. Power pitted, and Malukas became the new leader. While the Team Penske driver built a gap out front, Palou climbed to 12th before pitting on Lap 38. Chip Ganassi switched the Spaniard’s strategy, fitting softs, and he exited 21st. Ericsson and Kirkwood followed him in, but Kirkwood—second in the championship—had a right-front wheel nut issue and left behind the Catalan.
Drivers began cycling through pit stops, and Palou steadily moved forward. On Lap 48, leader Malukas pitted, and Palou was already ninth. The Catalan passed Foster (who ran wide), then Simpson and O’Ward—both on different strategies—to sit sixth. Laps ticked by. On Lap 59, Power entered the pits while leading, but he crossed the white line exiting pit lane and got a drive-through penalty. That handed Palou another position, putting him fifth. Malukas returned to the lead with Lundgaard closing in. Palou pitted again on Lap 63 for fresh softs, dropping to 15th, but soon recovered his fifth place when the hard-tire runners made their final stops.
