INDIANAPOLIS, IN (May 10, 2025) Alex Palou is etching his name in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES record book after winning Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The victory was Palou’s fourth in five races in 2025, coupled with a 2nd place finish at Long Beach, is the best start to a season since 1964, when AJ Foyt won 10 of 13 races.

“I cannot describe the amazing season we have had so far,” said Palou.  “I owe everything to team, Chip Ganassi Racing, my teammates and everyone who is working behind the scenes to make me look so fast on track.”

Palou’s No. 10 DHL Honda beat Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward No. 5 Chevy by 5.4840-seconds.

“We’ve just got to keep working,” said O’Ward, when asked what the field needs to do to beat Palou. “We need to do something to stop this 10-car.  These guys are really, really on a roll.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, especially in IndyCar.”

Team Penske’s Will Power finished third in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet with teammate Scott McLaughlin following behind in fourth.

“It was just a solid day,” explained Power, a two-time series Champion. “Didn’t pass a single car. Just spent the whole day sort of like in a good pit stop strategy and speed and sort of overcut there at the end. Got us a couple of positions.”

Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon came home fifth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda after starting 16th.

Palou started on the pole position but was passed by Graham Rahal as the pair entered Turn 1 on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.

Tire strategy played a big part in how the race played out as a new rule for this race forced teams to use two sets of the Firestone Primary black sidewall tires and two sets for the Firestone Alternate red sidewall tires.  Palou started on used reds and Rahal started on new reds.

“We started on the used softer tires, the alternates,” said Barry Wanser, the team manger for the No. 10 car. “Graham started on the stickers, so he had a big advantage on us over the start, which he got us. Then we had to settle in and try to get as far as we could on the used.”

The first pit stop saw Palou switch to the Firestone Primary tires and Rahal put on a set of used reds.  The softer tires allowed Rahal to keep the lead until Lap 58 when Rahal’s used reds began to wear out, allowing Palou to make the pass in Turn 7.

“We were fortunate enough to be really strong on the primary tires, get 23, 24 laps out of them,” explained Wanser. “That reduced the amount of laps we had to do on our sticker alternates for the end. That gave us a huge advantage.”

Another huge advantage is having a talent like Palou behind the wheel.

“Alex’s ability certainly to go fast, take care of the tires, and get the fuel number, you know, it’s second to none,” said Wanser.

Rahal had to close out the race on the black sidewall tire so despite leading a race-high 49-laps, the No. 15 Honda faded to sixth at the end as the front runners saved the quicker alternate tires for the last stint.

Palou and the No. 10 team lead the Championship standings by 97 points – nearly two races’ worth of points – over Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global.

Next up for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is practice for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.  Practice opens Tuesday eat Noon and continues the rest of the week leading up to qualifying weekend Saturday May 17 with the battle for the pole position on Sunday May 18.

Sonsio GP Results

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (May 9, 2025) Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou is continuing his impressive 2025 by winning the pole position for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Palou’s fast lap of 1 minute, 9.3417 seconds in the No. 10 DHL Honda on the last lap of the Firestone Fast Six spoiled Graham Rahal’s bid for the Top spot.

“The car has been really, really fast all day, but especially qualifying,” said Palou. “Qualifying was really, really good. I had a couple of moments there locking a couple of tires, especially on Fast Six. That was big.”

Palou has won three of the first four races this season, earned his second straight pole of the year and his second in a row for this race carrying quite the momentum into the month of May at the Speedway.

“You can see in the team, myself, my confidence, and it just feels amazing to be in this position,” said Palou. “We want to win every single race, which is really tough, but whenever we have a chance of having a lot of confidence on driving a really fast car like what we have here, it’s up to us to try and execute.”

Execute is exactly what Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is doing at the Speedway this weekend, leading the second practice session and putting all three team cars into the Firestone Fast Six for the first time.

Graham Rahal will start second in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda with a best lap was 1:09.7516 – .4099 of a second behind Palou.

“It’s a huge day for us,” said Rahal. “Really happy for everybody in our organization. It’s been a lot of hard work. I think coming into this weekend we expected to be good here.”

Rahal led a historic day for RLL. Rookie Louis Foster qualified a season-best third in the No. 45 Mi-Jack Honda of RLL at 1:09.8801 and Devlin DeFrancesco kept the good times rolling for RLL by qualifying fifth at 1:09.9432 in the No. 30 EVTEC Honda.

“This is the first track I’ve come to in INDYCAR that I’ve actually won in a junior category,” said Foster. “The previous rounds, two of them I had never raced at and the other two I had never won at. Honestly, at the end of the day all the credit is to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew and the engineers.”

Scott McLaughlin will start fourth in the No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet after his best lap of 1:09.8910

Two-time series champion and two-time reigning Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Josef Newgarden rounded out the Firestone Fast Six with his best lap of 1:09.9829 in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet.

Saturday’s schedule starts with a 25-minute warmup session at 11:30 a.m. followed by the 85-lap race later in the day at 4:30 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL – (May 4, 2025) Alex Palou’s dominating performance in the No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing’s Honda Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park should have the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field worried for the rest of 2025.

Palou led 81-of-90 laps en route to his third victory in four races this season, second at Barber and 14th of his INDYCAR career.  Palou finished 16.0035-second ahead of Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. It was the widest margin of victory in a series race since Scott Dixon won by 22.2256 seconds in August 2023 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

“Amazing, amazing weekend,” said Palou, who has now lead over 1,000-laps in his INDYCAR career. “The car was amazing, super fast. I had a ton of fun. It was a perfect day today for me, for the 10 car.”

Palou’s victory gives him a 60-point lead in the season Championship over Lundgaard who continues to impress after moving to the Arrow McLaren team this year.

Lundgaard finished second to give him three podium finishes in his first four races with Arrow McLaren.

“The team has been doing an awesome job,” said Lundgaard.  “The pace in the car is there, and it’s just about execution. We didn’t really execute in qualifying yesterday, so we were frustrated and wanted to make up for it. We did today.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin started beside Palou on the front row and kept pace with the leader early in the race before giving up a spot to Lundgaard late in the race.

“I think we were just third place today,” said McLaughlin, a two-time winner at Barber. “From lap two I tried to push Alex. He just had a lot of speed. I just didn’t feel I had much grip. But the car was still okay. It was still pretty fast. Just wasn’t as quick as the front guys, front two.”

Rinus VeeKay came home fourth in the No. 18 askROI Dale Coyne Racing Honda. This was VeeKay’s best result since finishing fourth in July 2022 at Iowa Speedway for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Two-time series champion Will Power rounded out the top five finishers in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, his third consecutive top-six result this season.

Now the focus shifts to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the month of May will get underway with the Sonsio Grand Prix on Saturday, May 10 on the road course at IMS.  Palou has won the last two Sonsio Gran Prix’s.

“Honestly Indy road course we’ve been really, really strong there in the past,” said Palou. “Hopefully we can maintain our performance there. It’s always tough there. I would say it’s the toughest place because for some reason everybody has a good car there. Hopefully we can continue with the form that we had so far this year.”