Image: Zach Catanzareti
Palou’s Dominance Continues In Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – Alex Palou fights off Graham Rahal and Pato O’Ward to win the Sonsio Grand Prix, his fourth victory of the season.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was host to the fifth race of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES last weekend, with this season’s dominant force, Alex Palou, looking for another victory to maintain his lead in the championship.
Despite starting in pole position, Alex Palou quickly fell to P2 in the first turn of the second lap as an eager Graham Rahal settled into the lead. This was a lead that Rahal held onto for 49 laps of the race, with his eyes set on ending his 129-race long winning drought. However, Palou stayed composed as he sat in second place for the majority of the first half, waiting to pounce on Rahal out in front. As anticipated by Palou and his team, the opportunity soon came on lap 58, with an intelligent overtake earning him P1.
In desperate need of a tyre change, Rahal was called to the pits at lap 62, with the aim of clinging onto a podium position. Unfortunately, a slow pit stop hampered his podium chances with just over 20 laps left to race.
As Rahal continued his descent down the standings and out of a podium position, Palou’s focus turned to Pato O’Ward who sat a comfortable 10-seconds off the lead. Despite the healthy gap between the two drivers, the latter stages of the race became somewhat unpredictable once a full course caution was issued due to David Malukas for coming off the track towards the back of the field.
As racing resumed with 13 laps to go, and O’Ward kept right behind Palou eyeing a late overtake. Nonetheless, Palou confidently fought off O’Ward to the chequered flag. Alex Palou took his third consecutive victory in the Chip Ganassi Racing Honda with a 6-second victory over Pato O’Ward in P2, and Will Power taking the final podium position.
The results of the Sonsio Grand Prix see Palou extend his lead at the top of the championship to 97 points, with the Spaniard averaging a 1.2 place finish through the first 5 races. Kyle Kirkwood collected 24 points finishing in P8, which keeps him in second place on the leaderboard just 1 point ahead of Christian Lungaard.
