Alex Palou crosses the line to win the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. Image via Penske Entertainment: Paul Hurley.
The end of the 109th running of the Indy 500 Sunday seemed to suit Alex Palou. The IndyCar points leader has had one of the most dominating starts in the sport’s history this year: he’s won every race except one, and in that one he finished second.
The end therefore mirrored his established pattern of taking control of the race and delivering Chip Ganassi yet another victory. But this one was sweeter than any yet for the four-time series champion in just six years in the sport, quickly establishing himself as one of the greatest ever IndyCar drivers.
It’s not only his first win on an oval ever, with Palou previously establishing his mastery on the road and street courses, but it’s IndyCar’s biggest race and the biggest single race in the world by audience. Palou is also the first Spaniard to win the Indy 500.
“I cannot believe it,” Palou said after stepping out of his car. “What an amazing day, what an amazing race. I might be out of breath but just celebrating it.”
The race is a 500-mile marathon, but Palou won by staying in contention all day. After starting sixth when the green flag flew, his Chip Ganassi Racing team used strategy to their advantage and pitted him early to give him track position in the final stint at the expense of having to save fuel.
That would have meant Palou was vulnerable to Marcus Ericcson and David Malukas behind him, who had enough fuel to go the distance without having to save, but there were two fast lap cars in front of the lead pack. That meant Palou could take the lead and still save fuel in the draft.
He pulled off the decisive final move with fourteen laps to go, jumping in front of Marcus Ericcson to take the lead. He never surrendered it, managing both the gap and his fuel to drive to victory.
“At the end, I didn’t know if I was going to get by Marcus and all, but yeah, made it happen,” Palou described.
Alex Palou celebrates with the traditional winner’s milk in Winner’s Circle. Image via Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski.
The win meant a lot to team owner Chip Ganassi. Even after 16 championships in IndyCar and formerly Champ Car, and it being his sixth Indy 500 win, each one is still special.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ganassi said. “I don’t know what else to say. I mean, we saved fuel all day doing this, doing that, and we were in the draft. And then at the end, we had those guys in front helping us, and he just beat everybody today.
“It’s an incredible thing. It’s going to make Alex Palou’s career, it’s going to make his life. It certainly has made mine,” Ganassi concluded.
Marcus Ericcson holds his head in his hands after getting out of his car. Image via
There is no trophy for second place at the Indy 500, and past winner Marcus Ericcson fully appreciated that after the race.
“Painful to miss out again,” Ericcson said. “Second time, second place. This is a winner-take all kind of place.”
He won in 2022 and finished second the very next year after a controversial three late red flags. This time, the win was a little less close. While he was able to stay within Palou’s tire tracks, Ericcson was never able to get in range to make the pass as Palou was helped along by the draft from the lap cars in front.
All that was left for him was to rue leaving the door open with 14 laps to go for Palou to make the dive to his inside for the lead.
“That’s one of the things I’m thinking about constantly,” Ericcson acknowledged. “I should have covered the inside, of course. When he got by, I tried to everything to get back on him, but it’s just really hard in that dirty air.
“So it’s just, you know, really frustrating because I was out in the lead there, I had that race covered, and I missed it.”
David Malukas speaks to media following his third-place finish. Photo via Penske Entertainment: Aaron Skillman.
Third-place finisher David Malukas was emotional coming across the line. A win in the Indy 500 would have been huge redemption for the Chicago native.
“I’m not going to lie, I was crying coming into the pits,” he admitted. “We were just so close to getting it.”
He was signed with powerhouse Arrow McLaren for the 2024 season, but released from his contract after just a few races when he was unable to drive the car after injuring his hand mountain biking. He ended up with Dale Coyne Racing to end that season and AJ Foyt Racing to start this one, but Malukas hasn’t secured the results he’s been hoping for: this third-place finish is just his third top-ten since leaving McLaren.
In the race, Malukas showed speed throughout the second half and held the lead until losing it to Ericcson, but much like Ericcson, he just couldn’t get around the cars in front of him in the closing laps.
“I mean, we were ahead of everybody, it was an incredible job from the crew and the strategy,” Malukas said. “Obviously bittersweet because we didn’t get it.
“But if I look back one year ago, I didn’t have a left hand and I was up there in the pagoda watching as a fan, and now one year later I could say I was a part of the 500. And not just a part of it, but fighting for the win. So bittersweet, but a lot of positives to take from it.”
A helicopter flies over the field during pace laps. Image via Jeff Hilliker/IMS Photos.
If the end of the race was relatively sedate and processional, it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the race. It could hardly get going without incident.
On the warmup laps, Scott McLaughlin was jerking the wheel trying to put heat into the tires when he gave it too much power and spun the car on the frontstretch. The car hit the inside wall hard and drifted into Turn 1, taking McLaughlin out of the race before it even began and leaving him despondent with his head in his hands on the grass inside the track.
That meant the race technically started under caution and when the actual three-wide race start happened it only lasted for a corner before Marco Andretti was squeezed into Turn 1 and sent into the outside wall, on the outside of three wide with Jack Harvey and Ryan Hunter Reay to his inside.
When all was said and done, the entire first nine laps of the Indy 500 were run under caution with the exception of one set of corners. But the race did finally get underway.
There were a few more big incidents in the first half or so of the race. Alexander Rossi had a major fire on pit lane after coming in trailing smoke that was quickly extinguished just before the caution came out for a separate spin on pitlane. During those yellow-flag pitstops, rookie polesitter Robert Schwartzman came into his pitstall much too quickly and hit both the wall and his crew members, causing terminal damage to his car and injuries to his crew.
Just after that, Kyle Larson, attempting ‘The Double’ by racing in Indy and then NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, spun on the restart, collecting Sting Ray Robb and taking both out of the race.
After all this, the second half of the race turned into a strategy game, which ultimately worked in the favor of Alex Palou and the Chip Ganassi Racing team.
RESULTS
- Alex Palou Wins Indy 500, His First IndyCar Oval Win - May 25, 2025
- Ford Triumphs in Contact-Heavy GTD Class at Daytona 24 - January 26, 2025
- Tower Motorsports Emerges from LMP2 Attrition for Daytona 24 Win - January 26, 2025