While not a 10 out of 10 drive, Alex Palou, as he’s done much of his career, dominated on the streets of the motor city and took the checkered flag.
The driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda regained the lead thanks to an undercut and a caution on Lap 39. From that point on, aside from a pit cycle, he never relinquished it. Even with multiple late restarts, the last with seven laps to go, Palou, on hard tires, held off a late charge by Kyle Kirkwood, on soft tires, to win the Detroit Grand Prix
“It was good. It was not an easy day at all,” Palou said. “It was not like a straight — there’s races where it’s just straightforward and whatever it looks like it’s going to be, it is. But today was plenty of action, struggling a lot on restarts, and didn’t know if we were going to make it with Kyle or not because he was on alternates and kind of — I think he had a small advantage on the first two restarts, but then at the end, I think he just didn’t have enough grip on the tires.”
It’s his 23rd career victory in his 106th NTT INDYCAR SERIES start, second on the streets of Detroit and fourth of the 2026 season.
Despite the on paper tire advantage, Kirkwood used up the good in his tires, ran out of laps and settled for a runner-up finish.
“Yeah, it was a good race,” Kirkwood said. “I wish we had another opportunity or two to be able to try and pass Palou there. I think the yellows kind of hindered that.
“Yeah, overall good day. You can’t be very upset with starting sixth and finishing second. We did all the right things. Pit stops were great, strategy was great. I kind of made the decision to run primes when we did, which I think was probably the right call in hindsight. I don’t know what we could have done better. All the stones were left unturned.”
Graham Rahal rebounded from a Lap 39 spin to round out the podium, his third of the season and most since 2020.
“Yeah, it was good,” Rahal said. “A good battle, I should say. I don’t think overall I was not very pleased in the early phase with Kyffin (Simpson). Battling hard there in the top-seven, eight, nine, but it’s early in the race. You’ve got to let it kind of come to you.
“I felt like — I don’t even know what happened. All I know is I got hit hard in the back, and that was very frustrating, kind of put me on the back foot.
“But as much as you want everything to go smooth, this is a race that I think you’re often predicting issues, and we knew that the last stop we wanted to be on the early side of the window no matter what and bank on yellows. Bank on that Honda fuel mileage, number one, but number two, on the yellows. Both came through for us today, so we’ll take it. We’ll move on to St. Louis now and hopefully have a good run there.”
Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top-five.
Felix Rosenqvist, Louis Foster, Marcus Ericsson, Kyffin Simpson and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top-10.
Alex Palou whoops field in chaotic Detroit race
Race summary
Palou led the field to green at 12:53 p.m. ET. Will Power pulled to his outside into Turn 3, but Palou maintained the lead with the inside line. Exiting Turn 3, Scott McLaughlin powered by Power on the inside for second. The field settled into a green flag rhythm, until Christian Rasmussen pounded the wall exiting Turn 1, broke the right-front wheel and stopped on track on the backstretch. Four drivers (Rosenqvist, Dennis Hauger, Newgarden and David Malukas) pitted under the caution. Two drivers (Sting Ray Robb and Rinus VeeKay) pitted before the caution flew.
Back to green on Lap 15, Power returned the favor and overtook McLaughlin into Turn 3 to retake second on Lap 16. The next lap, Power out-braked Palou into Turn 3 to take the race lead. For the next few laps, the gap from him to Palou hovered between eight-tenths of a second to a full second. By Lap 23, he pulled out to a 1.5 second lead. Four laps later, Palou closed the gap to half a second. Ericsson kicked off a cycle of green flag stops when he pitted from eighth on Lap 29. By Lap 30, Palou cut the lead to three-tenths of a second. He made his move on Lap 32, going outside of Power into Turn 3, but couldn’t complete the pass and lost second to McLaughlin. On Lap 35, he went outside of Power into Turn 3, but couldn’t complete the overtake. Exiting Turn 3, however, Power got loose and McLaughlin powered by him. McLaughlin ducked onto pit road and Lundgaard assumed the lead. He pitted from the lead on Lap 37. Caution flew on Lap 39 when Simpson turned Rahal in Turn 3, for which Simpson served a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact. Marcus Armstrong pitted just as the caution flew and Rosenqvist took over the lead. Because Armstrong pitted under a closed pit lane, INDYCAR dropped him to the back of the field on the restart. When Rosenqvist pitted under the caution, Palou cycled back to the lead.
Back to green on Lap 45, Palou pulled out to a full second over Kirkwood in a lap. By Lap 48, he stretched it out to two seconds. Ten laps after the restart, Palou pulled to a 3.5 second lead over Kirkwood. By Lap 59, however, Kirkwood, on the hard tire, cut the gap down to 2.9 seconds. Three laps later, he cut the lead to 2.1 seconds. One lap later, he cut the gap to under two seconds. During this, Rahal kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on the same lap. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 64 for a set of hard tires. Caution flew on Lap 66 when Santino Ferrucci bumped VeeKay and turned him in Turn 5, for which Ferrucci served a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact. Palou stayed out while Kirkwood and the first five drivers pitted under the caution on Lap 69 and he retook the lead. Just like Armstrong, Alexander Rossi, who restarted second, served a drive-through penalty for pitting under a closed pit lane.
Back to green on Lap 73, caution flew on the same lap when Malukas and Mick Schumacher made contact into Turn 5 and both wound up in the runoff (with Schumacher in the tire barrier).
Back to green on Lap 77, Kirkwood cleared Rossi before he ducked onto pit road. One lap later, Kirkwood closed a two-second gap to right on his tail. Caution flew with 21 laps to go when Ferrucci’s car stalled on track.
Back to green with 17 to go, Palou wasted no time and pulled out to a one second lead over Kirkwood. With 14 to go, Palou locked up into Turn 1 and Kirkwood closed the gap to under a second. With 11 to go, Palou stretched the lead out to 1.8 seconds. Caution flew with 10 laps to go when Rossi locked up on his crossover move on Romain Grosjean into Turn 3 and punted him into the wall, for which Rossi served a stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact.
Back to green with seven to go, Palou got a strong run off Turn 2, but couldn’t pull away like he did on the previous restart. Kirkwood held the gap to within half a second. With five to go, Palou was down to 11 seconds of push-to-pass. While Kirkwood had 15. Coming to the line with four to go, Palou stretched the lead to 1.3 seconds. With two to go, Palou pulled out to a two-second lead and drove on to victory.
Alex Palou whoops field in chaotic Detroit race
What else happened
During pace laps, Rossi hit the wall off Turn 7.
Scott Dixon ran wide and into the runoff in Turn 8 on Lap 53. He was running seventh, but quickly spun his car around and rejoined the race in 10th.
During the third caution, bits of asphalt came up between Turns 3 and 4.
On the Lap 77 restart, Power went to McLaughlin’s outside in Turn 3 for third. Exiting the turn, McLaughlin nudged him into the wall. During the fourth caution two laps later, Power pulled into his pit stall and retired from the race.
Alex Palou whoops field in chaotic Detroit race
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 59 minutes and eight seconds, at an average speed of 82.842 mph. There were seven lead changes among six different drivers and five cautions for 23 laps.
Palou leaves Detroit with a 62-point lead over Kirkwood.
The NTT IndyCar Series returns to action, Sunday, June 7, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois.
