Alex Palou wins 2025 Indianapolis 500 for fifth win in season's first six races

Yahoo

25-05-2025

Alex Palou continued his incredibly dominant IndyCar Series season with his first Indianapolis 500 win.
Palou passed Marcus Ericsson entering Turn 1 with 14 laps to go and held off Ericsson, David Malukas and Pato O'Ward the rest of the way. Ericsson lifted into the corner behind two lapped cars when Palou passed him and left a gap for the three-time IndyCar champion.
The victory is Palou's fifth in six races in 2025 and the Barcelona native is the first Spanish driver to win the Indy 500. After winning the 2023 and 2024 IndyCar titles, Palou is even better in 2025. The only race of the season he didn't win was the Long Beach Grand Prix. And Palou was second to Kyle Kirkwood in that event.
Advertisement
Palou's win officially came under caution on the last lap for a Nolan Siegel crash. But it was clear that Palou was going to win the race had it stayed green to the end. Ericsson had nothing for Palou after he was passed. Palou adeptly used the draft from the lapped cars of Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster ahead of him to get a tow down the straights and prevent Ericsson from getting a run.
Malukas finished third and O'Ward, last year's runner-up to Josef Newgarden, was fourth.
After getting out of his car on the frontstretch after the checkered flag, Palou ran down the track and celebrated with his crew and his father Ramon.
'I cannot believe it, what an amazing day, what an amazing race,' Palou said.
Advertisement
The 14 laps Palou led at the end of the race were the only ones he led all race. But his win was far from a fluke. He had one of the fastest cars in the field and ran patiently for much of the race, knowing he had a car capable of contending for the win.
Palou's 2025 is better than Max Verstappen's 2023 ... so far
Max Verstappen set the modern racing record for dominance just two years ago when he won 19 races and had 21 podium finishes in 22 Formula 1 races. Verstappen finished with 575 points and had more than double the points of his teammate Sergio Perez in second in the standings. Verstappen also had more points than any of the nine other teams' two drivers had combined while posting an average finish of 1.3 over the course of the season.
Palou's 2025 is on track to be even better. Palou's average finish is 1.17 through six races and already had a 100-point lead in the IndyCar standings ahead of the 500.
Advertisement
With just 17 races in the IndyCar Series season, he's almost assuredly heading for a third straight title. If he doesn't win the title, someone else is going to have to go on a Palou-like run of his own. And Palou's performance will have to fall off a cliff.
Palou's dominance could also take him to Formula 1 in 2026 where he'd have the chance to race against Verstappen. Cadillac is set to be the 11th team on the F1 grid next year and hasn't announced who its two drivers will be. If Palou isn't seriously considered to be one of them, it's malpractice.
The 28-year-old already has some F1 experience as a reserve driver with McLaren. He's gotten practice experience with McLaren and has also tested for the team.
He's clearly one of the best open-wheel drivers on the planet and deserves the chance to go F1 racing. He's making the IndyCar Series look incredibly easy. And that's hard to do.
Advertisement
Palou's next victory will make him the first IndyCar driver with six wins in a season since Will Power in 2011. And no IndyCar driver has ever won seven races in a season since the series expanded beyond nine races in 2001. It's hard to envision Palou not getting at least two more wins this season.
Team Penske's miserable week continues
Team Penske fired three employees after Will Power and Josef Newgarded were unable to qualify for the pole position a week ago because of modifications to the rear attenuators on their cars. Their teammate Scott McLaughlin was also unable to run for pole because of a crash before the final qualifying session.
Newgarden and Power had to start on the last row because of the inspection failures while McLaughlin started on the fourth row. The trio were aiming to give IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske his 21st Indianapolis 500 win. And Newgarden was trying to be the first driver to win three straight Indy 500s.
Advertisement
The race got off to an inauspicious start for Team Penske when McLaughlin crashed before the green flag even flew. His car got sideways and he hit the inside wall on the frontstretch when he was warming up his tires ahead of the start.
Newgarden picked his way through the field and looked like a serious contender for the victory. However, his car had a fuel pressure issue before he had a real chance to go for the win and was forced to get out of his car with 64 laps to go.
Power, meanwhile, had the best day of anyone. And it was mediocre. The Indy 500 winner finished 19th in what may be his final 500 for the team. Power, 44, is a free agent at the end of the season.
A really bizarre race
The race was delayed less than an hour from its 12:45 p.m. start time because of light drizzle. And McLaughlin's incident wasn't the only weird thing that happened. Scott Dixon had a rear left brake fire before the race began and ultimately finished multiple laps down.
Advertisement
IndyCar started counting laps under caution following his crash and once the race officially went green on lap four, Marco Andretti got bounced into the wall and his race was over.
Alexander Rossi cycled into the early lead because of pit strategy but had to hit pit road because his car was smoking. His Ed Carpenter Racing team decided to fuel the car even though it was spewing smoke and the car — and Rossi's fuel man — subsequently caught fire. Thankfully the fire was quickly extinguished on both car and man.
After Rossi's fire, pole sitter Robert Shwartzman's day ended when he crashed into multiple pit crew members while trying to slow in his pit box for a stop. The impact broke the front suspension on his car and ended his day. And as crews were cleaning up pit lane from Rossi's fire, Rinus VeeKay crashed entering pit road because his car had an apparent brake failure.
Kyle Larson's double-duty attempt also got cut short with a lap 92 crash. Larson's car spun shortly after a restart and he took out Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb in the wreck. The 2021 Cup Series champion was trying to run all 500 miles at Indianapolis and all 600 miles in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 later in the evening.
Advertisement
That 1,100-mile attempt was put in a bit of jeopardy with the rain delay, but that jeopardy disappeared with Larson's crash. A year ago, Larson missed the 600 because of a lengthy rain delay ahead of the 500.
2025 Indianapolis 500 results
1. Alex Palou
2. Marcus Ericsson
3. David Malukas
4. Pato O'Ward
5. Felix Rosenqvist
6. Kyle Kirkwood
7. Santino Ferrucci
8. Christian Rasmussen
9. Christian Lundgaard
10. Conor Daly
11. Takuma Sato
12. Callum Ilott
13. Helio Castroneves
14. Devlin DeFrancesco
15. Louis Foster
16. Nolan Siegel
17. Colton Herta
18. Ed Carpenter
19. Will Power
20. Graham Rahal
21. Marcus Armstrong
22. Jack Harvey
Advertisement
23. Scott Dixon
24. Ryan Hunter-Reay
25. Josef Newgarden
26. Sting Ray Robb
27. Kyle Larson
28. Kyffin Simpson
29. Robert Shwartzman
30. Rinus VeeKay
31. Alexander Rossi
32. Marco Andretti
33. Scott McLaughlin