By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
NOTE: After failing post-race technical inspection , the cars of Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood and Callum Ilott were moved to the back of the field finishing 31st, 32nd and 33rd, respectively. This story was updated to reflect the changes in the official results.
Alex Palou has cemented himself among the greats of IndyCar racing after winning the 109th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, in front of a sold-out crowd.
The 28 year-old from Barcelona, Spain took the lead with 14 laps to go, passing 2022 “500” winner, Marcus Ericsson going into Turn One. Palou only led 14 laps en-route to his first “500” and oval race victory. The driver of the No.10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing also became the second driver to sweep the Month of May, winning the road course race and the “500”, after Simon Pagenaud did so in 2019.
“It’s amazing. It’s amazing to win this race,” Palou said about the win “This race means so much for me, for my family, for the INDYCAR community, our fans, and I would say motorsports in general. To win an Indy 500, it’s amazing.”
Palou becomes the first Spaniard to win the race and give Chip Ganassi his sixth “500” victory as a car owner.
The three-time IndyCar Series Champion continues his impressive 2025 campaign, having won five out of the six races run so far and now has a full race points lead over second place Pato O’Ward with a 118 point gap, as he inches closer to the Astor Cup and the IndyCar Championship.
Following closely behind Palou was David Malukas in the No.4 Clarience Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing, Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren in third, Felix Rosenqvist in the No.60 Creed Honda for Meyer Shank Racing ended the day in fourth and Santino Ferrucci ended the day in the top five in the No.14 HomesForTroops Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing.
SEE: Race Results for the 109th Indianapolis 500
Ericsson notches his second runner-up finish at Indianapolis in just two years after leading 17 laps on Sunday, due to making an extra pit stop to put him in the contention for the win. Despite taking the checkered in second, Ericsson’s car failed post-race technical inspection, moving the driver from Sweden to the 31st position in the official results.
Ericsson can look at the positives of the 2025 “500” after finishing 33rd last year.
“I’m really proud of the Allegra team. We’ve really had a good month, a good solid month, good qualifying weekend,” Ericsson said after taking the checkered in second on Sunday. “This race was a bit strange. We started out fairly strong. I felt really comfortable the first part of the race, and then my car went really oversteery, I was really hanging on and sort of struggling to keep up with anybody, I felt like we had to make a ton of changes. Then we had a bad pit stop that dropped us right to the back field lead. At one point we were last in the lead lap.
So it was really looking like a bad day, but that’s the cool thing with us and with the No.28 crew, we kept fighting. We keep never giving up, and we keep fighting through. And that’s what we did today. I had some really good stints there in the second half of the race where I felt the car came more to me and put us back in contention, and then the last stop was really good, good call on the strategy, as well. I’m really proud of that fight-back. It stinks. Second is a good result, but here it’s not a good result. Here you’ve got to win.”
Sunday’s race was akin to the 1992 “500” with cold temperatures and wrecks aplenty. Just like ‘92, a wreck occurred on the pace laps when Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet for Team Penske crashed into the inside wall on the front stretch, ending his day before the green flag flew. The race saw seven cautions for 45 laps, with only 155 under green conditions.
When the race went green, Marco Andretti wrecked in Turn One, ending his 20th “500” early.
The third caution on lap 19 was for light rain. The drivers then went into their respective pit strategies after the brief rain shower. Drivers like Palou, Conor Daly, David Malukas and Pato O’Ward went on the main strategy while Jack Harvey, Devlin DeFrancesco, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter and Christian Rasmussen went off the main strategy.
Rossi, looking for his second “500” would retire the car on Lap 72 due to a fire erupting in the back of the race car. Smoke was billowing for several laps for Rossi and when the crew went to work and fuel the car, the gearbox started to erupt. Rossi and crew walked away from the fire without injury.
Rinus Veekay, driving the No.18 AskROI Honda for Dale Coyne Racing, brought out the fourth caution on lap 82 after a nasty wreck at the pit entrance. Just 10 laps later, Kyffin Simpson, Kyle Larson and Sting Ray Robb brought out the caution after Larson lost his No.17 HendrickCars.com/Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, ending his attempt of completing all 1,100 miles of the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double.
On Lap 106 Rasmussen in the No.21 Splenda Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing clipped the wall in Turn Four on a restart and the field had to be re-assembled, bringing out the second-to-last yellow of the day.
Daly and Malukas capitalized on their chance to run up front, with most of the household names in the back of the field like Josef Newgarden driving the No.2 Shell Chevrolet for Team Penske. Newgarden, the winner of the 2023 and 2024 Indy 500’s, drove from the 32nd starting position to get into the Top 10 before retiring the car due to fuel pressure issues on Lap 140.
“An anomaly, something we’ve never seen before,” Newgarden told Indianapolis news station WISH TV 8’s Andrew Chernoff after exiting the car. “Just unfortunate for the whole group.”
During a quiet second half of the race, the strategy game was on. Drivers were desperately looking to hit the required fuel number in order to make it to the end of the race. With most of the race controlled by Daly, Palou and Malukas (the top three drivers on the main strategy), it would come down to those three in the closing laps.
Daly would lead only 13 laps with his best shot to win the “500”. The driver of the No.76 ampm Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing maintained great track position all day long but would come up short after reporting issues with the right rear on his car on Lap 163. Daly would stay out and lose time before making his final pit stop.
Malukas would lead just two laps in a career day for the Chicago, Illinois native. After Daly’s struggles, Malukas capitalized on his opportunity to challenge for the win but would come up short in third place.
“I mean, we had it at the end there,” Malukas said at the end of the day. “Definitely picturing it, and man, we gave it our all in those last — I think it was about 15 to go, and we turned it up and I was just hanging on for dear life trying to get something out of it. Those two lap cars kind of came in and ruined the fun for us and chose this winner. That’s just kind of how this track goes.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay would show life at the end as he carried the torch for the drivers off-strategy. The 2014 “500” winner, driving the No.23 Wedbush Chevrolet for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports, had the slight strategy advantage heading into his last pit stop on 171. Hunter-Reay came into the pits with a shot to win again at Indy but the car would stall, ending his chances for racing’s ultimate prize. Hunter-Reay did all this in a back-up chassis after a fire in Final Practice on Friday resulted in his primary being destroyed.
“I’m just heartbroken,” Hunter-Reay said. “We had a chance to win this race today and with a car that hadn’t run a competitive lap before the race started. The DRR/Cusick crew did an amazing job to get the backup car ready for the race, then to lead 48 laps and be in position to win the 500 is pretty remarkable.”
The last caution came on lap 200 for Nolan Siegel in the No.6 NTT Data Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren, after exiting Turn Two and hitting the outside wall, concluding the race.
After a historic two-and-a-half weeks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar Series heads north to Detroit, Michigan for the Detroit Grand Prix on the city streets. The race, on June 1, will be the third race on the streets of the Motor City.