Perfect Palou breaks oval duck with Indy 500 win

In a thrilling final stanza, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver made the decisive pass for the lead with 14 laps to go on Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson.

Despite having the oldest tyres of the top three drivers, the #9 Chevy driver controlled the closing laps to take the win.

The win finally ends his long-awaited drought having never won on an oval – until now. It comes in his 29th start on an oval.

With it, Palou became the first Spaniard to win the Indianapolis 500, adding to his three IndyCar Series title wins.

It’s the sixth Indianapolis 500 win for Chip Ganassi Racing, joining Juan Pablo Montoya (2000), Scott Dixon (2008), Dario Franchitti (2010, 2012) and Ericsson (2022).

Even before the race began, there was drama when Scott McLaughlin looped out on the warm-up lap and careered into the inside wall.

That delayed proceedings as the clean-up began to recover the wrecked #3 Pennzoil Chevy.

Even when the race finally got going, it was short-lived, as Marco Andretti spun at the first turn.

The opening stanza was a frantic affair. Pole position winner Robert Shwartzman was quickly usurped for the lead by Pato O’Ward.

The rain that had delayed proceedings returned just a few laps into the contest, triggering a slew of pit stops. Most came to the lane while several elected to go off-strategy.

Under yellow, Alexander Rossi led Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter, and Devlin DeFrancesco ahead of the lap seven stoppers Jack Harvey, Rinus Veekay, and Graham Rahal. Then came the first of the Lap 24 stoppers, Takuma Sato, Marcus Ericsson, and O’Ward.

It was a dramatic sequence, punctuated by a near miss for McLaren driver O’Ward. His teammate Kyle Larson stalled, dropping him to last of the lead lap cars.

Behind the Safety Car, Scott Dixon brought the #9 Honda to pit lane for a brake change. Before the race began, flames were spotted coming from the back of his car. That cost him three laps and ultimately put paid to his day just 29 laps into the contest.

The race resumed on Lap 29 and Rasmussen immediately made a move on his teammate. He and Rossi continued to trade places at the front of the field.

While Rahal plummeted from seventh to 14th in the space of just two laps, Conor Daly made massive headway. Of those to pit on Lap 24, he was second best behind Sato on Lap 40 as he made his way up to eighth.

Rossi came to the pits on Lap 43 under green followed by DeFrancesco and Rasmussen.

Once the out-of-sequence drivers pitted, Sato led Daly, David Malukas, Alex Palou, and Santino Ferrucci. O’ward was sixth, Ericsson seventh, Colton Herta eighth, Felix Rosenqvist ninth, and Louis Foster the last of the top 10 runners.

Josef Newgarden’s charge from last took him to 14th by Lap 50 of 200. His teammate Will Power made almost as much headway to 19th at the same point.

Daly brought his car to pit lane on Lap 59 from second, triggering a flurry of pit stops. Sato maintained his lead but soon had Malukas on his tail.

Herta was pinged for speeding on pit lane, forcing him to complete a drive-through penalty and fall a lap down on Lap 65. He went on to finish 17th and was never really a factor.

The drama continued on Lap 70 when Rossi’s car began smoking. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver pulled into the pits and lay idle as the team diagnosed the issue. All of a sudden, the #20 car burst into flames.

Rossi escaped unharmed but one of his crew members caught on fire in the incident. Fortunately, he escaped serious injury.

On Lap 81, VeeKay spun at high speed entering pit lane. The Dutch driver reported he had no brakes entering. The #18 Dale Coyne Racing Chevy spun and slapped the wall, ending his day early.

At that time, Sato led Malukas, Palou, Daly, Ferrucci, O’Ward, Callum Ilott, Rosenqvist, Newgarden, and Castroneves. As the yellow flew, the front-runners pitted. Ryan Hunter-Reay took the lead of the race having opted not to come in. His last stop to that point was on Lap 61.

Sato could have come out in second behind Hunter-Reay but lost that opportunity when he ran long in his pit stop and had to be rolled back into his pit box. That promoted Palou to the effective lead of the race ahead of Malukas.

There was more drama on pit lane as pole position winner Shwartzman slid through his pit box and clobbered the wall, taking several crew members with him. One was taken to the infield care centre but cleared of serious injuries. Damage to the nose and suspension ended Shwartzman’s race on Lap 87.

The race resumed on Lap 91 with Hunter-Reay at the point. There was drama almost immediately as Carpenter slid up the track and triggered a chain reaction of cars checking up.

The net consequence of that was a three-car pile-up of Larson, Kyffin Simpson, and Sting Ray Robb. Replays showed Larson got loose and tried to recover the slide before looping. In that process, he took Simpson with him while Robb got loose trying to avoid and slid up into the wall.

DeFrancesco was promoted to the lead under yellow when Hunter-Reay ducked into the pits on Lap 103. Harvey duly moved to second.

In the midst of all the race restart drama, Palou was passed by Malukas and Daly. The top 10 was completed by Ferrucci, Rosenqvist, Carpenter, Newgarden, and Ilott.

Racing resumed for all of a few seconds before Rasmussen got loose and sent smoke signals, forcing officials to abort the restart.

The green flew on Lap 109 with DeFrancesco at the head, albeit out of sync. Behind him, they were four-wide and out of it all came Daly to move into second.

DeFranceso gave away the lead when he pitted on Lap 120, handing Daly the lead to send his home crowd wild.

Green flag pit stops for the front-runners began on Lap 132 with Sato and Castroneves. Daly, Palou, Newgarden, and O’Ward followed suit a lap later.

Disaster struck for Newgarden when he was forced to return to the pits with a fuel pressure issue. He returned to the race but wound up back in the lane as the team investigated the issue, at which point the team retired the car.

Once the pit stops shook out, it was Palou effectively leading Daly and Malukas who jockeyed over what was effectively second. The actual leaders – Hunter-Reay, Rasmussen, Ericsson, and Lundgaard – were another 30 seconds up the road on the alternate strategy.

At three-quarter race distance, Hunter-Reay led Daly, Malukas, Palou, and Ferrucci, followed by Rosenqvist, Ericsson, O’Ward, Rasmussen, and Ilott.

Daly began to hemorrhage time inside 40 laps to go, and soon he was begging to pit for a new set of tyres. They kept him out as long as possible, pitting him with 35 laps to go. Palou and Ferrucci came to the lane a lap later.

Hunter-Reay’s hopes took a dive when he stalled during his pit stop, taking him out of contention as he lost time hand over fist.

With the final pit stops complete, Ericsson led the race having gone longer than anyone else with a Lap 175 pit stop. Palou elected to slot in behind and save fuel with Malukas and O’Ward in tow.

Complicating matters was the lapped cars of Foster and DeFrancesco fighting over the final two positions on the lead lap.

With 14 laps to go, Palou made the move for the lead at Turn 1. Ericsson never offered a reply and Palou was able to cruise to victory – perhaps helped by Foster and DeFrancesco creating dirty air.

All told, Palou came home 0.6s clear of Ericcson. Malukas was third, O’Ward fourth, and Rosenqvist fifth. Australia’s interest, Will Power, was only 19th.

Results: 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500