IndyCar
Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing win the 109th Indianapolis 500
SPEEDWAY, IN (May 25, 2025) – Alex Palou’s historic 2025 is continuing after winning the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. The win was Palou’s fifth victory in six races and is the best start to a season since INDYCAR legend A.J. Foyt won the first five races in 1964.
Palou passed Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson on the inside going into Turn 1 with 14-laps-to-go and never looked back, using the draft from lap traffic up ahead to keep Ericcson behind the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“It’s amazing,” said an exuberant Palou. “The guys on this team make me look so good. I can’t thank them, HRC (Honda Racing), DHL and all of our supporters enough.”
“It was just an incredible day,” said team owner Chip Ganassi. “This is a big deal. The Indianapolis 500 is a big damn race. He (Palou) will always be known now as an Indianapolis 500 winner. He’s just an incredible driver. Look at the last five, six races we’ve had.”
Palou’s win extended his Championship points lead to 115-points over O’Ward.
Ericsson finished second in the 500 for the second time in his career.
“I was trying to manage the dirty air and Alex got a run on me,” Ericsson explained. “I didn’t think Alex was going to go for it. That’s going to keep me up at night, what I could’ve done, what I didn’t do. Right now I’m disappointed.”
A.J. Foyt Racing’s David Malukas finished third, his best career 500 finish.
“All the credit goes to the A.J. Foyt team and crew,” said Malukas. “What an incredible car. Everyone did an incredible job. We really needed this and it will be great morale booster. Alex was able to get a run and then he got behind those lap cars and use their tow.”
Pato O’Ward finished fourth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet followed by Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 Creed Sirius/XM Meyer Shank Honda.
The victory also continues Honda’s winning streak as they have powered every NTT INDYCAR SERIES winner in 2025.
The second half of the race was much cleaner than the first half of the race, which was delayed roughly 45-minutes by a light sprinkle and featured a number of incidents on track and on pit lane.
Scott McLaughlin crashed the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevy on the final pace lap while trying to warm up his tires on a day where the ambient temperature was 63-degrees at the start of the race.
While crews were cleaning up McLaughlin’s car, fire broke out on the left rear of Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. The team elected to keep Dixon on the track and the fire went out and he was able to start the race. Unfortunately Dixon’s crew had to change a brake caliper during a caution for weather losing 3-laps in the process. Dixon rallied for a 23rd place finish.
Marco Andretti’s race was short-lived as he was on the receiving end of a Jack Harvey hip check that sent him into the wall on Lap 5. “Whoever was next to me crowded me and I ran out of room,” said the third-generation driver, who was credited with a 32nd place finish.
Alexander Rossi’s day ended on Lap 75 when the Java House Chevy began to smoke, forcing him to pit road. Fire broke out while the crew was checking out the problem ending their day with which turned out to be a gearbox problem. Rossi finished 31st.
Rinus Veejay’s day ended on Lap 82 when he was coming into the pits but when he when to hit the brakes, the car spun sending the Ask ROI Honda into the pit wall. VeeKay finished 30th.
Polesitter Robert Shwartzman’s day ended during the same sequence of pit stops when he locked his brakes up coming into the pits and hit his crew and the wall. Shwartzman finished 29th.
The subsequent restart led to more chaos when Kyle Larson, attempting to do ‘The Double’ of racing in the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, lost it in Turn 2 and spun collecting Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson. Sting Ray Robb was also an innocent victim going high to avoid the spinning Larson, only to get into the tire marbles, hit the outside wall and then came back across the track and smacking the tire barrier against the inside wall. All the drivers were okay.
Josef Newgarden’s hope for three-in-a-row ended with 65-laps to go when the No. 2 Shell V-Power Team Penske Chevy was forced to pit road with a fuel pressure problem.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix June 1, 2025 on the streets of Detroit.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (July 2, 2026) – Six-time Series Champion Scott Dixon is leaving Chip Ganassi Racing following the conclusion of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Season the team announced in a statement Thursday before the series races at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex this weekend.
MADISON, IL (Sunday, June 7, 2026) – The king of World Wide Technology Raceway has returned to his throne.
Josef Newgarden won for the sixth time in 11 starts at the 1.25-mile oval just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, enduring two rain delays during the race Sunday night to win a feverish, fascinating Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. The victory was Newgarden’s second this season, as he also won in March at the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway oval.
SEE: Race Results
The two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion has captured 15 of his 34 career victories on ovals shorter than 1.5 miles. This win came as he was still recovering from a lower leg injury suffered two weeks ago in the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“Great job to the group,” Newgarden said. “Just a methodical night. We had a good car to start. It wasn’t perfect, but it really came to us just when we needed it. It was a track position day.”
Newgarden, who started eighth, drove his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by .6613 of a second over the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda of fellow Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who still managed a season-best finish. Christian Rasmussen finished a season-best third in the No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet of ECR.
Rinus VeeKay continued the trend of season-best finishes by ending up fourth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, with Scott McLaughlin rounding out the top five in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet that featured a throwback livery honoring the 2009 Indianapolis 500-winning car driven by Helio Castroneves.
Newgarden took the lead for good on Lap 221 after a spirited duel with Rasmussen that began almost immediately after a restart on Lap 212. Rasmussen dove under Newgarden in Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 215, but Newgarden drove past Rasmussen in Turn 3 for the top spot on Lap 219.
One lap later, Rasmussen again drove under Newgarden for the lead in Turn 1, one of his race-high 38 on-track passes. But Newgarden countered again in Turn 3 one lap later for a lead he would not surrender. It was the most decisive of an event-record 268 passes for position in this frantic race.
Ericsson sped under Rasmussen for second in Turn 3 on Lap 225 and set his sights on Newgarden. But one lap later, a plume of smoke trailed from the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet fielded by A.J. Foyt Enterprises for Caio Collet, who was enjoying the best race of his rookie season by leading seven laps and running consistently in the top five in the second half of the race.
That triggered the last of four caution periods, with another wrinkle to concern Newgarden and the lead pack. A host of trailing cars entered the pits for fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, while the top eight cars stayed out.
McLaughlin made a spirited charge toward the front on the restart on Lap 234, climbing from ninth to fifth in just four laps. But the Kiwi and the other cars that pitted for tires didn’t have enough traction from the fresher rubber or speed to challenge the top four down the stretch.
Meanwhile, Newgarden maintained a gap of around one-half of a second over Ericsson over the closing 10 laps and never was threatened.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Marcus,” Newgarden said. “I thought he was incredibly strong. I don’t really think there was much between us, so it was a matter of who was going to get position on each other, and that was going to seal the deal. He drove a great race.”
Said Ericsson, seeking his first win since March 2023 at St. Petersburg: “I’m very proud of our performance, but at the same time it’s tough to lead that many laps … I thought we had it at some points, but Josef is the best in the business on these short ovals.”
Two red-flag periods totaling 50 minutes kept strategists’ heads spinning on the pit wall as various permutations and fuel options were considered.
Chip Ganassi Racing rolled the dice earlier in the race by calling NTT P1 Award winner Alex Palou and his teammate Scott Dixon to the pits to top off fuel as soon as the pits opened after the first red flag period, which lasted 38 minutes. The hope was to get enough caution to need one fewer fuel stop than rivals or be out front when a race-ending rain shower arrived.
But neither happened, and Palou paid the price dearly.
The four-time series champion entered the pits on Lap 203, two laps after Dixon had to enter a closed pit for emergency service as his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was running out of fuel. Palou’s No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda sputtered when it entered the pit lane and ran out of fuel, and he was forced to coast to his pit box for a stop made even longer when his engine wouldn’t refire.
Palou’s car restarted, and he returned to the track to finish 17th. The two short oval races this season have been Palou’s Achilles’ heel. He finished 24th after contact in March at Phoenix, and that result and tonight’s disappointing showing are his only finishes outside of the top seven all season.
Reigning series champion Palou’s lead in the standings was trimmed to 49 points over Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday, June 21 at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
MADISON, IL (June 6, 2026) – Alex Palou and the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing team are continuing to lay down fast laps when it counts with Palou earning the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The pole position is Palou’s fourth straight NTT P1 Pole award.
“It was incredible and so much fun, especially that first lap,” said Palou, who turned a two-lap average speed of 174.353 mph in the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “The #10 Honda Honda had so much speed. The team I have around me is incredible. My car was on rails today; it was incredible.”
David Malukas starts second in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet after a two-lap average of 173.244 mph. Malukas could only look on in disbelief as Palou knocked him off the pole.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood starts third in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda following a two-lap average of 173.206 mph.
“ It was a good run for us,” said Kirkwood, the 2025 WWWT Raceway winner. “P3 is a really good starting spot and we can definitely do some great things from there. Last year we won from 10th, so it’s nice to be able to be at the front.”
2026 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Felix Rosenqvist starts fourth in the No. 60 SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin will start 5th in the No. 3 Dex Imaging Chevrolet.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon starts 7th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda and CGR’s Kyffin Simpson will start 14th in the No. 8 Sunoco Honda.
Television coverage of Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 begins at 8 PM CT / 9 PM ET on Fox. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).
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