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.
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing are celebrating their 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Championship following the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Palou started eighth and finished second in Sunday’s race after clinching the title following last week’s 10th place finish in the second race at The Milwaukee Mile.
“One for the thumb,” said Team Owner Chip Ganassi, referring to Palou’s fifth championship ring in an obvious homage to a familiar football refrain around Pittsburgh.
“Incredible,” Palou said. “I owe everything to this team. So proud of this team. It is great to have another championship and ready for the next one.”
Palou’s title is his fourth straight, matching a feat for the team from 1996-1999.
“I’ve been saying it for years now, I cannot still believe the position I am,” said Palou. “The opportunity to start every single year with the chances and the best team around me and best partners to fight for wins and championships.”
Palou finished the season with 6-wins, 8-poles, 7-podiums, 12-Top 5’s, 15-Top 10’s and 631 laps led.
“Last year was magical,” reflected Palou. “I thought it could not be repeated. We did not repeat it, unfortunately, but we were close. We were like really, really close. Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship. If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane. Was so fun.”
CGR Team Manager Barry Wanser, who has been with the team for over 25-years, talked about what makes Palou a special talent.
“I just think his ability to constantly learn and take advantage of the resources that we have at Chip Ganassi Racing,” said Wanser, who credited the men and women behind the scenes at CGR. “Alex can’t perform as well as he does without such a great team behind him. The engineering department certainly has knocked it out of the park again with some great cars. Certainly in the pits has been amazing this year. Alex is just impressive. Very awesome.”
Ganassi, whose team ran off four straight title with Jimmy Vasser (1996), the late Alex Zanardi (’97 & ’98) and Juan Montoya (’99), refuses to take credit for the team’s success, which starts with the team mantra, ‘One team, One goal’.
“When I started the team, I wanted to have a team that I would want to drive for,” explained Ganassi. “That’s kind of always the way I looked at it. It takes a lot of people to make this stuff happen. It’s one team. We all work together. We’re all trying to win. It’s open book with us all the time across the board with all the drivers, all the teams.”
Palou’s four titles in a row by a driver match the only other driver to do it, Sebastien Bourdais.
“We’re in the midst of a generational thing here, a generational driver,” said Ganassi. “Four in a row has been done before, but five out of six hasn’t been done before. That’s something that’s kind of unprecedented. We’re in the midst of that right now. It’s not over!”
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet are back in Victory Lane following a dominating performance at the Mission Foods Monterey Grand Prix at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
McLaughlin, who started on the pole position, ended a 2-year win drought leading 87 of 90-laps en route to his 8th-career NTT IndyCar Series victory.
“Really proud to get our first win together on a road course where the last couple years we probably struggled at the most,” said McLaughlin of his new engineer Raul Prados. “What a great way to end the season. We have a lot of hard work to do over the off-season to come back stronger, combat against the 10 (Alex Palou).”
Palou started second in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda that paid tribute to CGR Champion and Alum, the late Alex Zanardi, who passed away earlier this year. Palou settled in behind McLaughlin but couldn’t match the pace or tire wear of the No. 3.
“We started on used alternates and we kind of survived, but then we went on an another used alternates,” said Palou, who finished eighth. “We, like, killed ourselves there.”
Despite the eighth place finish Palou, who clinched his fifth Series Championship in six years last week at Milwaukee, says he is as lucky as they come.
“Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship,” explained Palou. “If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane.”
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished second in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda to clinch second place in the Series Championship.
“We played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship,” explained Kirkwood. “We made all the decisions based on that. Probably could have had a go at Scottie at the end on the first few laps on reds. The number one goal was to make the tires last. That’s what we did. Came home with a second, which is something to be proud of.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi came home third in the No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet. The podium finish ended a drought as well for Rossi and was his first in two years at ECR.
“It’s no secret that this has been a pretty terrible year for myself and the whole ECR team with the litany of issue, some out of our control, some in our control,” said Rossi. “Really ever since the Indy GP, there’s been a huge amount of emphasis and effort behind the scenes to kind of dig out of that hole. This is a great result to kind of reward that effort, just rebuild the confidence in everyone that we’re capable of doing this.”
Despite finishing last in the 25-car field due to the incident with Robb, Hauger hung on to win series Rookie of the Year honors. He finished with 228 points, 15 ahead of Mick Schumacher of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the rookie race.
The 2027 NTT IndyCar Series season opens Sunday, March 7 with the Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
MONTEREY, CA (September 5, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey after blasting to a quick lap of 1-minute, 9.1363-seconds in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevy in Firestone Fast Six qualifying at the picturesque permanent road course.
“I felt like from the jump this weekend, we’ve come with a philosophy we’ve been working on the last, I don’t know, four months or something like that, basically since our Mid-Ohio test,” explained McLaughlin. “Been feeling better and better. Put it all together today.”
McLaughlin edged Alex Palou, whose lap of 1-minute, 9.1540-seconds in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, was a mere o.o177-seconds off the top spot.
“It’s so tough to put a lap together, especially at this place,” said Palou. “I think it’s so great to see that we’re all so close. I’m sure that Scott feels like he could have got another 10th if he puts like a perfect lap. I feel the same way.”
Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist clocked in third fastest at 1:09.1931 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Nickelback Honda.
“Good qualifying for us,” said Rosenqvist. “We’ve been in the top three in every session, so I think we would have been disappointed if we didn’t end up in the top three. Always tough to get through with all of the sand and traffic. I missed it a bit in the corkscrew, so maybe there was a pole in there. I’m not sure.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi lines up fourth after a fast lap of 1:09:3247 in the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet.
“The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet has been through a lot this season so it’s nice to get a decent qualifying on the books before the year comes to a close,” said Rossi. ““Road courses have been a big struggle for us, really all season. At a test we had a couple of months ago, we really understood something we hadn’t prior to that and have just been building off of it.”
Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard will start fifth and Team Penske’s David Malukas will start sixth as Chevrolet took four of the Fast Six qualifying spots en route to it’s 250-career IndyCar Series pole.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyffin Simpson will start 9th in the No. 8 Sunoco and Scott Dixon will start 17th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. The race will be the last for Dixon at CGR after 25-years with the team.
Live coverage of the 95-lap race starts at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.
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