The IndyCar Afterburn: Monterey 2025

Today’s theme music: “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” by Deftones

It’s been a fantastic weekend for racing, even beyond the single-seater world. Oscar Piastri extended his F1 championship lead at the Belgian Grand Prix, Formula E closed out its season with a doubleheader in London, Bubba Wallace became the first Black driver to ever win the Brickyard 400, and out here on the West Coast, IndyCar finished its brutal five-race July gauntlet by visiting the iconic Laguna Seca, home of the Grand Prix of Monterey.

If you come to IndyCar for the lead changes, this race wasn’t for you, as this year’s usual suspect blew the doors off everything. However, even a dull race at a track this great is still worth watching, and we got a decent number of highlight reel passes out of it. So let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds from Northern California and see how it sets the scene for the final month of the season.

Palou unstoppable in his house

Álex Palou on the podium is historically a guarantee at this track, but this may have been his most dominant display at Laguna Seca to date. The Spaniard controlled everything from flag to flag, starting on pole, posting the fastest lap, and leading 84 tours on his way to maximum points and his third win in the last four Grands Prix of Monterey. It almost didn’t matter what tire Palou was on, because he just ran away on raw pace no matter what he loaded up with, only keeping the margin as short as it was by the end because of all the cautions.

On top of all that, Palou officially became the first driver to win eight races in a single season since Sébastien Bourdais did it in the final year of the Split. The Spaniard’s dominance simply knows no bounds, and until something major changes about his situation, all we can do is watch in awe.

Lundgaard lights it up

The last time we were at Laguna Seca, Christian Lundgaard was still with Rahal Letterman Lanigan, and he spent the day running over signs, going rallying when he needed to be road racing, and generally having a terrible day. This time, though, Lundgaard took his McLaren on a redemption ride, executing savvy strategies and making multiple daring passes at the track’s most difficult corners. As a reward, the Dane took his fifth podium of the season, and while wins will be hard to come by in these final few stops on the trail, it’s still yet another reason this year is the height of his career so far.

Herta returns to the podium

For Colton Herta, success at Laguna Seca is a family tradition, and though a third win at this circuit still eludes him, he still put on a strong reminder of what he’s capable of. In fact, it started from the jump, as Herta passed Pato O’Ward for second at the opening Andretti hairpin and ran within the podium places practically all day. It also helped that he got a great day out of his much-maligned pit crew, who saved a potentially disastrous second stop by replacing a runaway wheel nut mid-tire change and keeping the team’s hopes alive. While Herta didn’t manage to beat Lundgaard for silver, this is a long-overdue second podium of the year for a driver whose luck has refused to match his talent this season. 

O’Ward needs more

On the whole, it was a decent day for Pato O’Ward, who started second, finished fourth, and had entertaining battles for position throughout while keeping the winning strategy an open question most of the day. However, he needed a great drive today, and he didn’t get it. That did major damage to his National Championship ambitions, and it’ll take a superhuman couple of performances just to try and get this all the way to Nashville.

Ilott makes history again

For the second time in three years, Callum Ilott has brought a team its best ever IndyCar finish at Laguna Seca. Not content with the P8 he delivered in Toronto, Ilott proceeded to claw 18 positions up from where he started, repeatedly challenging Pato O’Ward for position in the process. A sloppy final stop kept him from going any higher, but 6th place is still enough to raise the Italians’ bar once again.

Siegel in the spotlight

Only two drivers were able to even briefly wrest the lead from Álex Palou’s hands today. Will Power’s fraction of a lap in the lead didn’t count, but for hometown kid Nolan Siegel, it was a career milestone. Last year, Laguna Seca marked Siegel’s official—and controversial—debut at McLaren, and this year, the #7 led 11 laps, starting under a caution and hanging on until lap 37, when Palou decided to just take it on track rather than wait for the kid to pit.

Siegel’s day nearly went to the other extreme later on, when he got the worst of a hit with Louis Foster and spun down the Corkscrew, but the Californian managed to keep the engine going and ultimately brought the car home in 18th. While still easily the worst of McLaren’s results, leading the way in front of family and friends is always a performance to remember fondly.

Kirkwood punts VeeKay, kicks self in balls

With no podiums to his name since his win at Gateway, Kyle Kirkwood had faded from what was once an undisputed spot as Palou’s top challenger, but he’d managed to at least keep himself in the hunt. That ended definitively on lap 29, when Kirkwood received a stop-go penalty for punting Rinus VeeKay at turn 3. Looking at the replay, it seemed more miscalculated than malicious, but whatever the Florida man’s motive was, his punishment matched the crime, and he’d drive anonymously in the midfield the rest of the way to end up 16th.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: uhhh, safety team? You awake there?

Our first green flag of the day didn’t even last to the Corkscrew. Kyffin Simpson, who soared so high last week, came right back down to Earth with a massive wipeout that saw him hit a wall, a tire barrier, and Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede was able to get back to pit row and run around off the lead lap the rest of the day, but Island Boy still has yet to finish a race at this circuit.

The next caution came on lap 11, when poor Jacob Abel lost his brakes and went straight into a wall all by himself. This is his third DNF in the last four races, and at this point, you have to wonder if he’s going to eat all that Abel Motorsports funding and send Dale Coyne looking elsewhere for the #51 seat.

Finally, after multiple survived spins throughout the field, we had a genuinely scary moment late in the race with Marcus Ericsson. As the Sneaky Swede came up the hill towards the Corkscrew, he spun out and avoided the wall, but left the car stalled and partially still on track at a blind corner. Instead of the expected immediate full-course yellow, we instead got a local yellow for a blind corner and spent multiple laps hoping to God nobody came up and plowed into Ericsson’s dead car. IndyCar finally threw the caution on lap 78, allowing him to finally restart the #28 and limp it to pit row for retirement, but it was a shockingly late call from what’s normally a very prompt unit.

Championship Collage: Palou and Pato, the last two standing

With a top-five finish, Scott Dixon moved past Kyle Kirkwood to 3rd in the season standings, but it’s too little, too late. With Álex Palou collecting another max-points win, Dixon and Kirkwood are both out of the National Championship, leaving Pato O’Ward as the last challenger standing.

In our Rookie of the Year battle, Robert Shwartzman went playing in the dirt early on, allowing Louis Foster to get and stay ahead all day long, ultimately retaking the award lead. However, with only four points separating the Brit from the pride of the former Leningrad, this battle is far from over.

In a story that’s becoming as common as “dog bites man,” Honda once again extended their lead in the Manufacturers’ Cup with a pole, win, and 1-3 finish. Even with Team Penske all finally remembering how to finish a race, we’re really seeing how dependent Chevrolet was on that team to bring that trophy to Detroit, and how far out of hand things can get when they’re slumping.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, Álex Palou helped Spain recover from the national humiliation of losing to England on penalties by once again extending his country’s lead over the United States. However, that gap remains less than a full race’s worth of points, so if you’re hungry for something that’ll come down to the last race, the Nations’ Cup might be the perfect land of delusion for you.

Future Flames: last right into Portland

Believe it or not, next week, there will not be an IndyCar race. That’s certainly going to leave a lot of us twiddling our thumbs and unsure what to do with our weekends. After that, though, we’ll continue the theme of West Coast road racing at the Grand Prix of Portland, which will also be the final time all season that we get to see drivers turn to the right.

Get ready for a lot of Dharmic numerology, because right now everything boils down to 108. If Pato O’Ward isn’t within that many points of Álex Palou by race’s end, Palou will take his fourth National Championship in five years with two races to spare. It’d be icing on the cake of one of the most jaw-dropping seasons ever assembled in this sport, but I’m sure many fans would gladly trade that in for a chance to see this all come down to the wire. Whatever happens, I’m sure all our eyes will be glued to the TV as it unfolds.