For 28-year-old Spaniard Alex Palou, winner of three of the last four IndyCar season championships, his career would not be considered complete until winning at the most famous speedway in the world.
Sunday marked one more item crossed off Palou’s rapidly-growing legend as one of the greatest in the circuit’s history.
To put things into perspective, Mario Andretti won four championships, but only kissed the bricks as the winner of the 1969 Indy 500. Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. both have three championships, but a record-sharing four Indy 500 wins each.
Remember that Palou is only 28, and Sunday’s win was his 16th on the circuit. Palou already has five wins in the first six races in 2025, and is well on his way to his third straight season championship. Pato O’Ward already trails by 112 points in the standings. The one race that Palou did not win was at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, where he finished 2.6 seconds back of winner Kyle Kirkwood in second.
That makes six podiums in six attempts heading into the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on June 1.
Rookie Robert Schwartzman of Israel won the pole in a stunning feat over two-time champion Takuma Sato and O’Ward. Palou would start on the outside of row 2 in sixth. With cooler temperatures throughout the midwest earlier in the weekend, there was a light drizzle that hit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway just an hour before the scheduled green flag of 12:45 PM eastern time. The command to start the engines from racemaster Roger Penske would be delayed nearly 30 minutes for the rain to push through and the track to dry out. Penske, the owner of the speedway, came into Sunday in an inauspicious position for the second straight year.
All three Penske cars suffered during qualifying. Scott McLaughlin crashed during practice on Friday, but was able to use a backup car to qualify 12th. Josef Newgarden and Will Power were found to have modified attenuators, and were moved to the back of the field. Power was the 2018 winner at Indianapolis, while Newgarden was looking to become the first driver in history to win three straight.
The race began with an even larger delay, as McLaughlin spun on the opening pace lap while warming up his tires, hitting the wall on the front straightaway, breaking his left front suspension. Visibly distraught, McLaughlin could be seen weeping on the infield grass as the safety crew hooked up his car to drive back to the garage.
The 2016 winner Alexander Rossi had a strong car that was in the top 10 for most of the first 50 laps. On lap 73 it was noticeable that some sort of liquid was leaking from the back end of Rossi’s car, which was picked up on Palou’s windscreen directly behind while under caution. Rossi was advised to come into the pit, where his crew immediately began to check the back of the car. When the left rear tire was removed, the car shot into flames, with Rossi quickly jumping out of the cockpit to safety. His fuel man Mike Miller could be seen jumping back over the wall, being doused with the same fire extinguishers that IndyCar officials had used to put out the fire to the car. Miller was treated and released from the medical tent a few minutes later.
After Schwartzman lost his brakes coming into the pit on lap 89, the left front of his car hit four crew members on its way to hitting the wall in the pit box. One member was treated for a foot injury, but Schwartzman had fallen well back in the field by this point.
Lap 93 saw a three car crash involving Sting Ray Robb, Kyffin Simpson and Kyle Larson. The notability was Larson seeking to become just the second driver in history to pull off “The Double,” turning all 500 miles of the Indianapolis 500, and then all 600 miles of the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 later that afternoon. Larson hopped on a helicopter after being examined after his crash, and led 34 laps in Charlotte before wrecking a second time on the day.
As for Newgarden, starting at the back of the field did not seem as big a challenge as expected, advancing all the way to ninth at the midway point. However, lap 135 saw him complaining to his crew chief that the car was getting away from him, and he had to come into the pit. A fuel system issue was found, and his quest for the three-peat ended as the engine was turned off.
Palou passed Marcus Ericsson on lap 187 after spending the past 15-20 laps trying to save fuel for the end. Once Palou got the okay that he had enough in the tank to make it to the end, he made the pass going into turn one, holding off numerous closures by Ericsson. Palou additionally had the benefit of traffic in front after making the pass, allowing him to conserve even more fuel in case Ericsson was able to get around. Ericsson would be penalized on Tuesday for failing a post-race inspection, and moved to 31st in the final race standings. The inspection found a modification to the Energy Modification System cover, which IndyCar forbids from being altered, as they are supplied by chassis manufacturer Dallara. Ericsson’s teammate Kirkwood also failed inspection for the same reason, and was moved to 32nd.
Callum Illott also failed inspection for his endplate, dropping his 12th place finish to dead last.
Winning under caution on the final lap, Palou stopped a few hundred yards after the bricks, got out of his car, and ran partway up the front straightaway to meet his team. The 257,325 fans in the seats, and thousands more on the infield Snake Pit all saluted Palou’s surgical precision in winning his first 500. When one driver is typically this dominant, race fans soon begin to find some flaw to use in their argument of dislike. Palou does not fail inspections, does not drive dirty, and is simply the ideal of what you want your driver to be…calculated and clean on the track and extremely likeable off of it.
“The Surgeon” did not need to carve the field on Sunday, but certainly left the other 32 drivers waiting in recovery for another year.
-JC24