The IndyCar Afterburn: Indianapolis GP 2025

Today’s theme music: “Caution” by The Killers

If there’s one thing American sports love, it’s having signature months. The magic of baseball in October, football in January, or college basketball in March can elevate wins into heroic triumphs and players into cultural touchstones. In that respect, nothing in global motorsport can match the Month of May in IndyCar, and as has become tradition, we kicked off our buildup to racing’s greatest spectacle in the world’s largest sporting venue with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Last year’s run at the roval was actually a bit of a cooldown compared to the madness and drama that both preceded and followed it. This time, though, it was the peak of the season so far, with considerably more chaos than the last couple races, some very unique front-runners, and a welcome late yellow to add one last thrill of suspense. So without further ado, let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds of the day and see how it all sets the stage for the next two weeks.

Palou remains unstoppable

Once again, Álex Palou was picture-perfect on his way to victory, and this time around he synthesized his previous means of winning into one package. Like at Barber, Palou started this race on pole. Like at St. Petersburg, he spent the bulk of the race waiting for his moment to pounce. Like at Thermal, once Palou made the pass for the lead, he absolutely rocketed off into the distance. And like always, the #10 crew provided quick pit stops and the perfect strategy, setting him up to run the final stint on a fresh set of red tires. The only new element was that he had to lead the field back to green and deal with a late restart, and even then, he handled it with ease and ran off with the win. When the time comes to explain Palou’s domination to future generations, this race will show them everything they need to know.

With four wins and five podiums to start the year, and an average finish of 1.2 in that stretch, Palou is off to the kind of start we haven’t seen since Sébastien Bourdais in 2006. King Kong is on the loose in New York, he’s crushing cars and knocking over buildings, and the planes that can stop him might not even be built yet. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Rahal chokes on his ambitions

Few teams in motor racing have a single course figured out the way Rahal Letterman Lanigan do with the IMS road course, and family scion Graham Rahal was the primary beneficiary. After qualifying on the front row, Rahal shocked everyone by making an overtake for the lead on the first turn, then making it stick for the bulk of the race. He officially led 49 laps, the most of the day, and controlled the effective lead over Palou whenever he wasn’t actually in first throughout that time. For the bulk of the race, fans, commentators, and #15 team members alike openly dreamed of the Lebanese-American veteran’s first win since 2017, when he swept the doubleheader in Detroit.

However, that dream would come undone thanks to multiple errors from across the #15 team. First, the team’s tire strategy worked out such that Rahal would have to run his final stint on hard tires while Palou would do so on softs, meaning Rahal was in deep trouble no matter what. Then, he spent several laps and a ton of his push-to-pass trying to lap Jacob Abel, leaving him vulnerable on yet another front. Eventually, Palou just ran it down the inside on lap 58, taking the lead that Rahal would never get back. Even Rahal’s podium hopes were quickly dashed, as the pit crew fumbled his final stop, and a day which looked so promising ended with him finishing only 6th.

Still, by RLL’s standards, that’s not bad at all—in fact, it’s Rahal’s personal best finish since he came 2nd at 2022’s summer Indianapolis Grand Prix. The question now is whether what he had today will translate to the oval or fizzle into him fighting to run the 500 at all.

O’Ward slices upfield for silver

Much of Fox’s marketing for the Indy 500 presents it as a battle between Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward, and between the two, Pato was easily the one to gather more steam. Though he narrowly missed the Fast 6 in qualifying, O’Ward had the pace on race day, and so did his pit crew. The #5 McLaren’s crew were lightning-quick on all of Pato’s stops, allowing him to make crucial passes on pit row and ultimately claim his second runner-up finish of the season. Though that first win of the year remains elusive, Pato’s chomping at the bit to unleash his talent for oval racing, and if the stars finally align for him at the 500, he’s in a great position to capitalize.

Power, McLaughlin show up, show out

Team Penske might be more renowned for their oval setups than their road course ones, but with the all-time IMS road course king Will Power and fastest-ever Indy 500 polesitter Scott McLaughlin on their roster, there was no way this team was going to miss the podium. McLaughlin, with his P4 start, was the first of the two to work his way into the podium fight, but Power used his expertise to great effect and worked his way past his Kiwi teammate, ultimately taking the bronze by a second and a half. 

Dixon brings vintage shenanigans

So far, Scott Dixon’s story this year has been one of Father Time perhaps finally catching up to him. He’s been Chip Ganassi Racing’s worst qualifier for a few races in a row now, and he continued that pattern by starting in P16. However, he’s always been more of a racer than a qualifier, and he proved his racecraft is as sharp as ever with a classic work-your-way-up drive. By the time we finally got a yellow late in the race, the Iceman was up from 16th to 6th, and on the restart, he expertly found his line and snaked past Graham Rahal, ultimately cementing Dixon’s first top-five since St. Pete. If anyone was starting to think they could finally count him out, this must have been an extremely frustrating reminder that his time in the sun isn’t over yet.

Armstrong succeeds on his terms

Up until this point, Marcus Armstrong had spent his time at Meyer Shank Racing eating empty calories. Sure, he led laps in St. Petersburg, Long Beach, and Alabama, but that was entirely down to his zealous commitment to running longer stints, not his actual pace. This time, though, something finally clicked, and in a race that favored the undercut, Armstrong was fast enough to go against the grain and still make it work, coming home 7th to match his season best. Add in Felix Rosenqvist fighting hard to pull a Spin-and-Top-10, and you have a very decent day at the office for MSR.

Foster, DeFrancesco ride RLL’s roval magic

Graham Rahal may have stolen the spotlight in his doomed quest for victory, but the other two Rahal Letterman Lanigan drivers certainly got their shine. In the early goings, Devlin DeFrancesco made a bizarrely strong impression, starting fifth and even managing to lead a lap before a pit row stumble returned us to sanity. Still, by DeFrancesco’s usual standards, finishing 17th is actually a pretty solid haul.

Much less baffling—and ultimately more successful—was reigning Indy NXT champion Louis Foster. He’d already proved capable on this track at the lower levels, with wins in USF Pro 2000 and Indy NXT, and that translated to a P3 start and solid day spent hanging around in the top 10 until Felix Rosenqvist snatched away 10th in the final laps. Still, 11th place is the best any rookie has managed this season, and it should be a massive confidence boost before Foster takes on the first and scariest of the ovals in the schedule.

Newgarden shrugs off the cartoon anvil

After Team Penske seemingly broke their pattern of two good drives and a third gone wrong at Barber, the problems seemed to start all over again for Josef Newgarden on the formation lap, as he had to come into pit row for a last-minute fix, forcing him to start twenty spots lower than the place he’d earned. What followed was a phenomenal recovery drive, as Newgarden put his head down and got to work making overtake after overtake until he’d salvaged it into a 12th-place finish. While Rinus VeeKay would have won the Biggest Mover trophy anyway, having climbed 15 places to Newgarden’s 14, it was still a great prep session for the reigning king of the Brickyard, and he’ll need every skill as sharp as possible if he wants to pull off the unthinkable threepeat in two weeks.

Miscellaneous Misfortunes: penalties and punch-ups

One reason we had such a long stretch of no cautions was a shocking lack of drivers beating and banging like their Indy cars were actually touring cars. That finally changed this race, as more of the field proved willing to throw elbows and get tight, and Callum Ilott was the first and biggest victim. He took an early sandwich of hits that sent him into the pits for repairs and never recovered, ultimately coming home six laps down.

We also hadn’t seen any race-ruining penalties go around this year, but that changed when Christian Lundgaard made an improper pit exit and had to serve a drive-through penalty. The Dane was fighting for a top 10 until that point, but this setback ultimately cast him down to 16th, something his rivals will surely be thankful for.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: you can’t park there, Dave

Here at the IndyCar Afterburn, we believe that race cars breaking down and crashing is endlessly funny as long as no one gets hurt, and after two whole races of everybody finishing, we finally get to bring back the Sicko’s Guide. The trouble actually started before the racing with the #8 of Kyffin Simpson. He’d qualified in the top 10, but the car’s hybrid unit went Seventh-day Adventist and refused to work on Saturday anymore. Still, he technically got close enough to get the minimum five points, so we can’t call it a DNS.

Our first DNF of the race proper came six laps in, when Marcus Ericsson suffered both a dying engine and a whack from the back courtesy of David Malukas. The Swede ran to pit row and tried to get it fixed, but it was no use, and his day ended after just six laps of action.

He wasn’t the only Andretti with car trouble, as Colton Herta had a wing clipped on the first lap and had to duck in for repairs. Despite phenomenal pace once he got going, contending for the day’s fastest lap and even managing to unlap himself temporarily while Palou and Rahal were fighting, Herta just didn’t find the luck he needed and ultimately retired the car after 64 laps.

Jacob Abel’s rookie season has been one of quiet misery thus far, with the Kentuckian struggling to merely stay on the lead lap week after week, and this time his car outright gave up on him. He retired with mechanical issues late in the race, overshadowed by the chaos unfolding on track.

That chaos brings us back to David Malukas, whose car made the ultimate sacrifice for our entertainment. After 408 consecutive laps of green flag racing, we finally got a yellow when the #4 A.J. Foyt machine broke down, forcing Lil’ Dave to park it in the infield grass. 

Championship Collage: Foster forces his way

As Álex Palou continues to put up peak Barcelona Messi numbers, the National Championship picture just looks more and more absurd. He now sits 97 points ahead of closest challenger Kyle Kirkwood, who’s just one point ahead of Christian Lundgaard and two more ahead of Pato O’Ward. Each odd-numbered place in the rest of the top 10 has its own little battle going, as the two Kiwis named Scott fight for 5th, Will Power sits just ahead of Felix Rosenqvist in 7th, and Colton Herta holds 9th by four points over Rinus VeeKay—who, at 100 points exactly, has as many points now as five of Dale Coyne’s nine drivers last year combined to score all season.

We finally have our first lead change in any of the four awards tracked in this section, as Louis Foster’s strong day earned enough points to take him past Robert Shwartzman for the Rookie of the Year lead. With just two points separating the two, and neither of their teams being proven consistent threats, every little inch in the midfield and the back of the pack is going to matter.

Honda’s domination of the Manufacturers’ Cup continues, as their drivers now have the majority of poles in addition to all the wins. Chevrolet at least contained the damage somewhat this time, holding Honda’s second scorer to a mere 5th, but as the bowties stare down a 93-point deficit going into the 500, that’s very cold comfort.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, Palou continues the Bourdais parallels by single-handedly running off with the lead for Spain and extending his lead over runners-up the United States to 69 points. Meanwhile, New Zealand pounces on Denmark’s setbacks to take 3rd place, and Mexico and Australia both use their drivers’ podiums to get ahead of Sweden, which falls into the bottom half of our twelve-team table.

Future Flames: taking some bumps

With the road course portion of the month complete, the IndyCar field will spend the next week doing nothing but eat, sleep, and turn left in preparation for Indianapolis 500’s vaunted time trial weekend. Those who find their place somewhere in rows five through ten will finish their work Saturday, while Sunday settles the extremes. At the top end, it’ll be a gold rush, as the twelve fastest qualifiers fight to take the pole and earn up to twelve championship points along the way. For the slowest four in the field, however, it’s the dreaded Bump Day, and they’ll have to drive for their lives to make it onto the final row. If you only watch one qualifying session all year, this is the one to pick.