1. This year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis was one of the more physical and chaotic races we have seen on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in recent years, possibly since IndyCar started running on the circuit in 2014. In this race, it took a brilliant move from Christian Lundgaard on the outside of David Malukas in turn four to take the lead and ultimately the victory in what was a thrilling race.
After a caution shuffled Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood from the front before they could make their first pit stops, this became the David Malukas show, and it looked like Malukas was set to start his first month of May with Team Penske with a victory at the track Roger Penske owns.
Lundgaard was the closest challenger, and it would come down to the final pit cycle. Malukas held the lead after emerging from pit lane, but Lundgaard had warmer tires, and he had more push-to-pass. Malukas got bogged down behind a backmarker and Lundgaard made the daring move to the outside of turn four. Going into the left-right switchback at turns five and six, Malukas lifted and Lundgaard flew into the lead. There was no looking back as Lundgaard won by 4.6713 seconds.
This has been a matter of time for Lundgaard, and it is fitting he wins on the IMS road course. The location of his IndyCar debut, Lundgaard has blossomed into a tremendous driver, and we have known that since he was at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He was doing more with less equipment. A move to Arrow McLaren was destined to get the most out of Lundgaard. He probably should have won a race last year, and it just didn't work out. McLaren has a short leash. If you do not win, you are shown the door. Another year of a half-dozen podium finishes might not have been enough. Lundgaard needed this victory.
With the pedigree of driving Lundgaard has, it felt like he was going to find a way through when he was this close to Malukas. He took a massive chance with that pass, and against other drivers, I am not sure it works out. Malukas could have run Lundgaard wide, but he didn't, and it allowed Lundgaard to have the advantage into the switchback.
Lundgaard saw an opportunity today and he took it. That is a big statement for a team that loves to make statements. It is a good way to head into the Indianapolis 500 as well.
2. I was skeptical of the decision to hire David Malukas. While he had the occasional good oval result, we never really saw him punching above his weight on road and street courses. Malukas has been excellent this season. He has been the best Team Penske driver in probably five of six races this season. He had a good chance of victory at Phoenix. He had a great chance of victory today. He caught a break when Palou and Kirkwood were shuffled back from the front, but Malukas didn't crumble. He could have fallen back and relinquished control of this race, but he didn't.
And then Lundgaard made a stunning move in turn four. Going into the final pit stops, it felt like Lundgaard had the confidence he could win the race, and Malukas was nervous. Even after Malukas emerged from the pit lane ahead of Lundgaard, it felt like the margin was too close for comfort and Malukas wasn't going to hold on.
Malukas hasn't been in that position before. Many drivers, in their first strong case for a race victory, don't hold on. Many lose a race or two before they win one. Ask Bryan Herta.
Malukas will learn from this. What it does not take away from Malukas is he has five consecutive top ten finishes, two of which are podium results. He has settled in at Team Penske. There is still room for growth, but he is not behind by any stretch of the imagination.
3. Graham Rahal did almost nothing all race and finished third. Every time you looked up, Rahal was third. That was it. That was his day. And good for him! Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing produces competitive race cars on the IMS road course. It is one of the few places the team enters with confidence, and it got a result. That is all Rahal can ask for.
I am sure he wishes he was competing for the victory. We know he can at this track, but he was solidly at the front all race. We are not used to seeing RLLR run this well, and Rahal has two podium finishes and four top five finishes in six races. That is a blistering start for this team.
4. Josef Newgarden benefitted from others being caught out by cautions, and a lot of contact. It allowed Newgarden to finish fourth. He ran well all race and didn't get into trouble. Sometimes that is all you need to do to get a good result. Newgarden will take it. There are many races remaining. You build a championship through stacking up top five finishes. There is still work Newgarden must do. He isn't the driver we saw from 2017 through 2020.
5. Despite being caught out when Alexander Rossi's car was parked on the front straightaway after a lengthy delay before a full course caution came out, Alex Palou drove to fifth. Once he was caught out, victory was out of the question barring a caution in Palou's favor. Even with that hurdle, Palou was passing cars and clawing his way forward. He drove into the top ten, and then drove into the top five. I am not sure anyone could have done better if put in the same situation.
We are going to cover the delayed caution in a little bit. That was unfortunate. If the caution comes out immediately, as we all thought it did, Palou likely remains in control of this race and could have possibly won. This does feel a little bit like this was stolen from Palou. He did nothing wrong and had to drive like hell just to get back to fifth.
6. Scott Dixon was involved in the opening lap accident when Felix Rosenqvist made contact with Patricio O'Ward entering turn one and it left Dixon and Caio Collet with nowhere to go. Dixon went off strategy early to get something out of it, and it worked. Dixon ended up finishing sixth.
That sounds about right for Dixon. Think about what happened in Portland back in 2018. We have seen this play before. I am sure Dixon is tired of digging himself out of these kinds of messes, but he is pretty good at it.
7. The drought is over! It only took 23 starts but Louis Foster finally has his first career top ten finish in IndyCar! Foster looked good all race. For a moment he looked like he was going to get a top five finish, but I am sure he was thrilled with seventh. Foster needed a good day. He has had good runs that have slipped from his grasp, some due to his own errors, others because of things out of his control. He just needed a clean day, and he got it.
8. Dennis Hauger kept his nose clean and he finished eighth! Hauger benefitted from other drivers stumbling and the cautions falling his way, but he gets credit for not making mistakes, not over-driving the car, and he had to make some passes to get up to eighth. For Dale Coyne Racing, especially when starting 24th, these are tremendous results.
9. Caught in the same boat as Alex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood was fighting to just be in the background of the fight for victory, and Kirkwood looked steady. He was ahead of Palou after both were shuffled back, and it looked like Kirkwood was going to drive back into the top five and finish ahead of Palou.
The story of Kirkwood's race is that the team fumbled the second pit stop when the right front tire changer dropped the wheel nut. It was a 15-second stop and instead of being two spots ahead of Palou, he came out behind. Palou gained more ground and Kirkwood could not recover.
Andretti Global got away with one with its pit stop issues at Arlington, mostly because Kirkwood could overcome those mistakes on track. There was no overcoming this today, and it is deflating. Without that mistake, I think Kirkwood is at least finishing where Palou finished. Kirkwood might have been a few seconds further up the road and taken fourth and put another car between him and Palou.
This is a common theme for Andretti. It has been a common theme for years. It cost Colton Herta. It has cost Kirkwood. The team needs to spend money on pit crew members.
10. Nolan Siegel was flawless and it got him a top ten finish. If we were to re-rack these cars and run another 85-lap race tomorrow, I am not sure Siegel finishes tenth. We can say the same about Foster, Hauger and Kirkwood with their finishing positions. Siegel avoided the trouble today. He got a top ten finish out of it. He needs these results. I don't know if they are going to hold up, but the last two races have been exceptional.
11. Marcus Armstrong did his best to make up for starting 20th and he was 11th. He drove well. He was competitive at the end of the race. Armstrong was fighting from behind today. There might not be a moral victory from this one, but there should be more positives drawn than negatives. There should only be positives from this race.
12. Let's run through the rest of the field...
Kyffin Simpson was involved in an accident that ended Felix Rosenqvist's day, and Simpson was still 12th. Other than that, nothing flashy from Simpson today.
Will Power started last today. The team went off strategy with a lot of hope. Power had a drive-through penalty after he had a blend line violation exiting pit lane on his penultimate pit stop. Through all the highs and lows, it netted a 13th-place finish for Power. It could have been worse. It could have been better.
Santino Ferrucci was dumped while struggling on worn tires in the closing laps in turn nine when Mick Schumacher plowed into him. Ferrucci was running tenth, but he wasn't going to hold onto tenth. Ferrucci spun around and ended up 14th. He probably should have been 11th.
Rinus VeeKay had a damaged front wing before the green flag was waved. The grid backed up on itself, and VeeKay lost out. We have covered IndyCar's start shenanigans for years and nothing has changed. If they haven't changed by now and no one has stood up to make sure it is done differently, it will never change.
Scott McLaughlin had front wing damage early and he never bounced back. A caution never went his way. There were no breaks in this one. It was a rough day for McLaughlin.
Sting Ray Robb was losing the car when Simpson closed down on Rosenqvist in the penultimate corner, and there were almost two accidents happening simultaneously in the same corner. Either way, Robb was 17th. It was never going to be better than that today.
Patricio O'Ward never came back from the opening corner spin. The team tried different strategies. It didn't work like it did for Scott Dixon. O'Ward's day was done immediately and he still had to run 85 laps just to finish 18th. Woof.
Caio Collet was caught in the opening corner accident, and he could not recover either. Collet was starting 12th, a career-best. It felt promising. The day was wasted immediately.
13. This was by far Mick Schumacher's best race, he was set for a top ten finish, and then he jacked up the back of Ferrucci. Ferrucci was struggling mightily on his tires. Schumacher was hooked up in the closing laps. I don't think Schumacher was overly ambitious. I do think Ferrucci slowed more than Schumacher expected in that corner and Schumacher had nowhere to go, but you cannot ram someone clean from behind and get away with it. Schumacher served a drive-through penalty on the penultimate lap and he finished 20th.
This was a great day for RLLR even with Schumaher's penalty. The problem is Schumacher needs to run like this everywhere else, not just the track RLLR has figured out.
14. Romain Grosjean was upset about something. Some mechanical issue cost him time. He lost a lap and finished 21st. I am not sure Grosjean is having fun in his second stint in IndyCar. It would not surprise me if by Mid-Ohio Grosjean was au revoir. Dale Coyne will find a replacement.
Marcus Ericsson also had a mechanical issue that ended his race 24 laps early and it was unclear what it was. It happened on what was his final pit stop. Ericsson entered the pits in ninth and that was it. His race was over without anyone noticing. That is a shame because he was in line for a top ten finish.
15. Felix Rosenqvist had a day. The opening corner contact happens. It wasn't the worst we have ever seen. Drivers are close together. Everyone is looking to make up spots. He caught O'Ward. It was always going to be a penalty.
Simpson chopped Rosenqvist into the penultimate corner. Watch that again. Simpson turned in significantly earlier than likely at any other point in the race. Rosenqvist had nowhere to go at that point and he climbed over Simpsons' car. Some days you are the hammer, other days you are the nail. Rosenqvist was the nail today.
16. This was a brutal day for Ed Carpenter Racing. Christian Rasmussen had an early on-track excursion and it caused mechanical issues. Alexander Rossi lost a hybrid and was done after 20 laps.
Failures happen. Sometimes they bite you, sometimes they don't. I understand Rossi's frustration, but he is not the first driver to suffer a mechanical failure. Get over it. We can talk about the hybrid and engine regulations on another day.
17. What is not acceptable is the delay for Rossi's car stopped on track. I understand the officials waiting to let the pit strategy play out, but this was not one of those scenarios where you could wait.
It was the main straightaway. At Indianapolis, it is a canyon. There is no runover room on the main straightaway. Track limits are the barriers on the inside and the outside of the circuit.
If the caution had been thrown immediately, 90% of the field would have had to stop under caution. Scott Dixon would have been fine as would have a few other drivers who stopped early, but most of the field would have had to stop and they would have had plenty of time to drive forward.
There is a solution to this: Virtual Safety Car.
Virtual Safety Car has been around for over a decade in Formula One. Alexander Rossi raced with it in GP2! It famously cost him a victory at Monaco. It is not perfect, but if you do not want a caution shaking up a race too much when a pit cycle is underway and catching the leaders out on pit strategy, VSC is a tool that can allow pit stops to progress safely before the full course caution comes out.
As we have seen, IndyCar struggles officiating IndyCar. The resources are not there to properly run a series in the 21st century. I don't want immediate cautions all the time. I don't want drivers winning races purely because they stopped on lap 22 before anyone else stopped and then a caution came out on lap 23. That is not good. VSC limits that possibility while still allowing the best cars to be the ones competing at the front.
A VSC drops everyone down to say 80 mph. That is a much safer speed with Rossi stopped on track, pit stops can commence, and once everyone has stopped or at least had the chance to stop, then the full course caution can come out to claim Rossi's car. A full course caution was always going to come out in this scenario. Rossi wasn't going to clear himself. That was always going to require a tow truck and the field bunching up behind the pace car.
It took a mistake with push-to-pass at Long Beach for those regulations to change. Is this the straw that breaks the camel's back and sees VSC adopted?
No! Of course not! IndyCar isn't that capable, but my goodness in the year 2026 of our Lord it is about time IndyCar adopted it.
18. And now we are onto Indianapolis 500 practice! Enjoy Mother's Day. Practice begins Tuesday!
