As the laps clicked away at Elkart Lake, Wisconsin, IndyCar points leader Alex Palou didn’t know if he could make it to the finish on fuel.
When teammate Scott Dixon pit from the lead with three laps to go, Palou, who pit two laps later than Dixon, stretched the fuel enough to score the victory at Road America.
“It was tough,” he said. “It was a crazy race. I don’t know about how it looked from the outside, but from inside, it just felt like there was a lot going on. Lots of yellows, obviously, that were shaking how we were looking.
“We were looking really bad at the beginning, then really good, then terrible, then really good. It was tough to be up there. But yeah, we just had to stay focused on battling against the people that were on our strategy.
“I didn’t agree with Barry’s strategy call. I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again. It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy. They made it look really good, and HRC that gave us the mileage we needed to gamble and to make it with that stop that we did.”
It’s his 17th career victory in his 90th NTT IndyCar Series start and sixth of the 2025 season.
Felix Rosenqvist finished runner-up for the second time this season and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the podium.
“Yeah, good memories from here,” Rosenqvist said. “I had my first win here. As you said, it’s been a couple of good results here in the past. I felt the whole weekend we had good pace and in practice we were rolling well. Kind of messed up qualifying. Tried to do the carousel flat and I lost it and I started P12.
“It wasn’t ideal, but I knew we had good pace in the car. My Meyer Shank SiriusXM Honda was just on rails. There was a lot of strategies going on. We did two black stints in the beginning and we held on pretty good, and especially in the restarts, it seemed like the blacks were pretty good, and they faded a bit when you got up to speed. But we capitalized on all those yellows, and I think that was to our advantage.
“Then at the end of the race we didn’t have to save any fuel and we had two new reds, and we were just doing qually laps every lap, and that’s kind of when we ended where we ended. So it was really good, and super proud of all the guys.
“It’s a hot day out there. It was tough for everyone, pit crew, engineering, and computers and all that kind of stuff. Everything is running hot. Happy we made it to the finish.”
Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top-five.
Kyffin Simpson, David Malukas, Nolan Siegel, Scott Dixon and Rinus VeeKay rounded out the top-10.
Alex Palou stretches fuel to win at Road America
Race summary
Louis Foster led the field to green at 1:53 p.m. ET. Caution flew on Lap 1 when Malukas locked up, got into the back of Pato O’Ward and spun into the gravel trap off Turn 3.
Back to green on Lap 4, Scott McLaughlin overtook Foster on the outside into Turn 1 for the race lead. Robert Shwartzman brought out the second caution when he got loose, spun and got stuck in the gravel pit off Turn 12 on Lap 5.
Back to green on Lap 8, the field tried settling into a green flag rhythm. On Lap 10, however, Sting Ray Robb wrecked hard in Turn 5. McLaughlin and most of the field pitted under this caution. Dixon, who pitted during the first caution, stayed out to take the race lead.
Back to green on Lap 14, the race settled into a green flag run. Just like the first two cautions, however, caution flew on Lap 22 when Conor Daly got stuck in the gravel trap off Turn 5. Dixon pitted under the caution, while Christian Lundgaard stayed out to take the lead.
Back to green on Lap 25, Kirkwood overtook Lundgaard into Turn 1, but ran wide on exit and Lundgaard held onto the lead. Teams started hitting pit road 29 laps to go. Including race leader Lundgaard. Kirkwood pit from the lead with 28 laps to go. Caution flew with 26 to go when Josef Newgarden got loose and wrecked into a sign and tire barrier off Turn 14.
Back to green with 23 to go, Dixon pit from the lead with 18 laps to go. Palou pit from the lead with 15 to go. Rosenqvist pit from the lead with 14 to go. Malukas pit from the lead with 12 to go. Dixon cycled back to the lead with 11 to go. The master of fuel saving in INDYCAR, however, couldn’t stretch the fuel enough and he pit from the lead with three to go.
Palou inherited the lead and stretched the fuel enough to win the race.
Alex Palou stretches fuel to win at Road America
What else happened
After the AMR safety team towed Daly out of the gravel trap, he took off before they removed the tow cable.
Alex Palou stretches fuel to win at Road America
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 53 minutes and 30 seconds, at an average speed of 116.696 mph. There were 11 lead changes among nine different drivers and five cautions for 12 laps.
Palou leaves Road America with a 93-point lead over Kirkwood.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action on July 6, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
