The IndyCar Afterburn: Road America 2025

Today’s theme music: “Halftime (Stand Up and Get Crunk!)” by Ying Yang Twins ft. Homebwoi

If we’re being honest about the sports world, everything that happened in racing Sunday was a series of opening acts before Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Even with practically every American racing series airing on TV at some point, no one was going to match basketball’s prestige. That said, IndyCar fans still got the best of the daytime action as we made the trip to Wisconsin for the Grand Prix of Road America, where every lap is four miles long and every decision is made on a knife’s edge.

This race was chess on wheels as only IndyCar can provide, with plenty of crashes in the early going giving way to a tense three-strategy finale. We still don’t have much variety in our race winners, but after this many bangers in a row, any fears of an unwatchable season have been thoroughly squashed. So without further ado, let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds from Elkhart Lake and see how they set up the back half of our trek down the National Championship trail.

Palou scores off Dixon’s alley-oop

Today belonged unquestionably to Chip Ganassi Racing. For much of the day, Scott Dixon led the proceedings, overcoming a horrid qualifying through his signature brilliant fuel management and strategy. But when his fuel numbers didn’t pan out, the Iceman switched priorities to play the team game. For much of the final stretch, he provided a fuel-saving tow to Àlex Palou, and once Dixon finally pitted with two laps to go, the Spaniard handled the rest, inheriting the lead and running off with it all the way to the checkered flag. Dixon got a solid result himself, managing to take 9th even with the splash and dash, while Kyffin Simpson led a couple laps and finished in between his teammates at P6. 

The big story, though, is Palou. Not only is this officially his winningest season ever, with six trips to the top step, but it cements a local dynasty at Road America with three wins in the last five years. The field simply cannot catch King Kong here in an odd year, and if he has his way, that won’t change anytime soon.

Rosenqvist finally sees silver

Ever since his switch from McLaren to Meyer Shank, Felix Rosenqvist has been trying to put his new home on the podium, and after a year and a half of struggles and near-misses, it finally went his way. His car was quick, and his strategy was on point, as the Swede made the most of his strategy and had the fuel to go full tilt down the home stretch. While it wasn’t enough to catch Palou, it still amounted to Rosenqvist’s first podium in an IndyCar championship race since 2023, when he was finishing out his contract with McLaren.

Add in a 5th place finish for Marcus Armstrong, plus a win at Watkins Glen for MSR’s Acura team, and it was a brilliant day all around for the wall-crawlers. If Rosenqvist can keep this up and get the cards to fall a little more his way, he could well lead this team to Victory Lane in the near future.

“Stone Cold” Ferrucci celebrates again

It was certainly a good weekend to be a divisive driver in an open-wheel series. Over in Indonesia, Dan Ticktum picked up his first ever win in Formula E, and here in the States, Santino Ferrucci cemented his best ever year with a second trip to the podium. While this was only for 3rd, it was arguably a stronger performance than his Detroit runner-up, trading that race’s dumb luck on yellows for a more skillful finish. Ferrucci quietly worked his way up the ranks, then stretched his fuel tank to the absolute limit while fending off Kyle Kirkwood for track position. That paid off handsomely, as Ferrucci had just enough to make it over the line before parking it in turn 1 and celebrating with a shotgunned Miller Lite that a fan tossed him from the stands.

Ferrucci will still have his critics after this—God knows I’ve been among them—but for his fans and his team, this has to be an incredible feeling.

Kirkwood, Power resume beef

It was a strong day for Kyle Kirkwood, even if he didn’t make the podium. The Floridian fell just a few drops of someone else’s fuel short of the podium, helping him finally work off the debt of his Indy 500 penalty and move to second on the season standings. But before that locked in, Kirkwood got back into it with Will Power—who, in an early bid to get past, went insanely deep into a corner, risking both their races. In the caution that soon followed, Kirkwood made a point to drive up alongside Power and make a “What was that about?” hand gesture. This doesn’t seem major enough to lead to a huge dust-up, but if they keep having run-ins like this, it’s only a matter of time before familiarity starts to breed contempt.

Malukas rides a rollercoaster

With Team Penske unable to get any of their cars into the top 10, A.J. Foyt Racing once again stepped up as Chevy’s top team of the day thanks in part to David Malukas. It wasn’t without struggle, though, as after a great start, Malukas ran into the back of Christian Lundgaard and caused a caution on the first lap. Despite the damage, as well as a later avoidable contact penalty, Malukas put on a clinic of a salvation day, riding up and down the order, leading a couple laps, and ultimately finishing 7th—which, given how the other Chevy teams’ days went, meant Lil Dave actually contributed points to the Manufacturers’ Cup. While not a good sign for his OEM, this ability to persevere should serve Malukas well whenever his next big shot at victory arrives.

Miscellaneous Misfortunes: Daly returns to monke as contenders spin out of view

As part of our continuing tributes to Danny Sullivan’s Spin and Win, multiple drivers today attempted to do the same, only to pull more of a Spin and Lose. Will Power and Christian Lundgaard both fell victim, ruining what could have easily been top-tens at the minimum for either man.

Meanwhile, Conor Daly survived his run-in with the tire barriers, but after track marshals pulled his car out of the gravel so he could continue racing, he took off without letting them fully cut off the tow rope. This led to the hilarious image of the car driving around while looking like it had grown an uncontrollable monkey tail. Daly’s day never recovered, but it was at least a memorable image to leave us with.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: Newgarden plants himself again

Not every crash today resulted in a yellow, but the ones that did certainly made an impact. The first of those went to Indy 500 polesitter Robert Shwartzman, who lost it into turn 12 and wrapped up his day on lap 4.

After a fairly quiet last couple of races, Sting Ray Robb reverted to being Mr. Excitement on lap 11. His attempt to go down the inside on Marcus Armstrong didn’t work, and his car ended up eating a huge chunk of wall before he finally hit a tire barrier and stopped.

However, the real game-changer arrived on lap 30. Josef Newgarden had looked primed to make the podium all day, but he went too far to the outside on the final turn, spun back inside, and hit the wall. Newgarden was at least fortunate enough to do it right in front of the pit row entry lane, meaning he could limp it back to his crew, but there was absolutely no fixing his damage, and Joey Plants suffered his third DNF in four races. Even among Team Penske’s many lows this year, this is a brutal stretch.

Championship Collage: Tiebreakers litter top 10 as Honda wins 10 straight

The good news for Kyle Kirkwood is that he’s finally past Pato O’Ward for the vice-championship. The bad news is that Àlex Palou has reasserted control of the actual National Championship, drawing the lead over Kirkwood back out to 93. Meanwhile, Felix Rosenqvist rises to 4th thanks to winning the tiebreaker with Scott Dixon. Behind them, we find Christian Lundgaard, Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin, then another close-quarters duel to round us out, as Santino Ferrucci holds the tiebreaker for 9th over Colton Herta while Marcus Armstrong lurks a single point behind both.

In the fight for Rookie of the Year honors, Louis Foster loudly reasserted himself by taking his first career pole. Unlike Linus Lundqvist last year, Foster got to do something with it instead of getting punted immediately, and his P11 combined with Shwartzman’s crash means the gap is down to just two points.

The Manufacturers’ Cup remains an absolute shellacking, as Honda are now officially on a 10-race win streak going back to last season’s finale at Nashville. With the score now 819 to 636 and another Honda-sponsored race coming up next, the question isn’t if they’ll dethrone Chevrolet, but how soon we can officially call it.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, Spain fended off the hard-charging United States to keep the lead, but with 15 points separating them, the fight isn’t over yet. It was also a great day to have a Union Jack on your flag, as New Zealand and the United Kingdom leapfrogged Denmark and Israel, respectively.

Future Flames: nothing Mid about Ohio

When the action resumes in two weeks, we’ll meet for the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, one of the most-visited road courses in American open-wheel racing. Last year, it marked the debut of the new hybrid formula, effectively splitting the season in half, and Pato O’Ward hailed the new era with a nail-biting win. This year, it could mark the beginning of the end. If Àlex Palou wins and racks up enough bonus points along the way, he’ll start to mathematically eliminate drivers from championship contention, and while only the bottom two names are currently under threat, it’s only a matter of time before the magic number starts creeping up and taking out full-timers.

That said, it’s absolutely anyone’s ballgame, as the last eight runnings have produced eight different winners, including all three Penske drivers, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi, and the all-time king of this circuit, Scott Dixon. With six career wins here and improving form as of late, this could well be the Iceman’s moment to break back into Victory Lane and complicate his teammate’s path to the title.