Palou wins 2023 Detroit Grand Prix, extends IndyCar points lead

Alex Palou used strategy and opportunity to his advantage to emerge victorious from the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

On a late race restart, Palou had to survive the advances of Will Power as the defending Detroit race winner attempted to go outside of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda as the field headed to Turn 3.

Power tried to cut underneath the Spaniard but cut across Scott Dixon’s car, causing Power’s left side wheels to temporarily leave the pavement. Power lost second place to Alexander Rossi who was in fifth place for the restart. Power only fell to third after a forceful pass on Dixon put the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda off line at Turn 4.

Palou kept the lead but had to survive one more late restart following the late yellow for Santino Ferrucci and Sting Ray Robb’s stalled cars in Turn 3.

Power got second place from Alexander Rossi on the race’s final restart but could not catch Palou as the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion picked up his second win of the 2023 season.

“It was a busy race, honestly,” Palou said. We had a really fast car. Yeah, we were really good on the first stint. I think we did the right strategy of just pushing. We knew the tyre deg was going to be high. I think it was going to be high anyway if we were managing or not.

“I think we got a gap that gave us the opportunity to fight with Will [Power]. He did a tremendous job. At the end it was too busy for me. I wanted to be more calm end of the race.”

Power couldn’t replicate his 2022 Detroit win, but being the first driver in the field starting on the black sidewall primary compound tires meant that he had to do something different than everyone ahead of him to advance through the field. The primary compound tires lasted a decent amount longer at their peak than the alternate compound tires and Power went up to second place during the first stint of the race, picking up the lead when Palou pitted for the first time on Lap 29.

“Good strategy. I mean, starting on the blacks, everything played out as we thought,” Power said. “I guess we were worried when the yellow came. Everyone packs up. But then we got a yellow again, so that kind of helped us. We had 10 laps to push hard. I got Palou on the restart. Then they went off, he got me back. Yeah, I couldn’t get him. I tried everything.

“I think my one chance was when Dixon got into me a little bit, I was trying to switch back and get a run, get him into four. Apart from that, yeah, the next restart was in third so I didn’t have another shot at him.”

Felix Rosenqvist finished third, his first podium finish since Toronto in 2022.

Race control waved off the start of the race but the second start attempt resulted in a collision. Callum Ilott missed his braking point into Turn 3 and hit the rear of Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda.

Kirkwood’s crew replaced the rear wing assembly and sent the Floridian on his way.

The race resumed without incident until a chain of events rapidly unraveled Pato O’Ward’s race. The No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet pitted at the end of Lap 34 and in an attempt to quickly pull away from his pit stall, O’Ward left before his left rear wheel was fully secure to the car.

The team recovered O’Ward’s car after it stopped in the pit lane exit zone. O’Ward tried to get back onto the lead lap by running quick laps to get close to the leaders, but that came to an end as the 2018 Indy NXT champion ended his race against the Turn 9 barrier, his suspension damaged beyond rpair.

“I got into the marbles,” O’Ward said. “I had to get by Santino because if Palou got us we were going to go [another] lap down. My push to pass was disabled as expected because we were a lap down and yeah, I was pretty boxed in what I could do and it was either race over or try and get past, but it ended up being race over so it is what it is and honestly our race went upside down on that pit stop and all downhill from there, so it is what it is, we’ll move on to Road America.”

The next caution was for Sting Ray Robb’s stalled car at Turn 3. The IndyCar safety team restarted Robb’s car but had another situation to deal with as Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda hit the wall at the exit of Turn 1. Benjamin Pedersen hit Rahal’s car and continued, but Rahal’s car was terminally damaged.

“Just don’t know, obviously I got a lot of understeer, it’s on me,” Rahal said. “I need to obviously see the tape and understand but I’m just disappointed with myself in all the errors this weekend, just not driving well. It’s hard, when you’re in a position like this it’s hard to escape to figure out why, but ultimately it’s on me.

“You’ve got perform a heck of a lot better than that, particularly on a day like this, it’s not typical of me. I know you’ve got to stay on the dance floor and I don’t know what to say. We weren’t good, obviously, even in the race we were in pretty bad shape but it’s disappointing.”

Power pounced on the restart following the lengthened caution. After faking a move to the outside, the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner moved inside of Palou, getting a lead he would keep for the next 11 laps until Power locked up for the Turn 3 hairpin, allowing Palou by again for the lead.

Romain Grosjean hit the wall exiting Turn 4 while running in seventh place, causing the race’s fifth full course yellow. After the field took the green flag, David Malukas hit the Turn 9 wall in nearly the same place O’Ward hit earlier, causing another full course yellow that led to the chaotic restart.

Palou’s win put him 51 points ahead in the IndyCar points over Marcus Ericsson with Josef Newgarden third in points, 19 behind the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner.

Kiwis Scott McLaughlin finished seventh ahead of Marcus Armstrong in eighth.

Results: Race, Streets of Detroit

Race winner: 100 laps

Series points