Musings From the Weekend: Third or Fifth or Does it Matter?

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

The pope is American. Álex Palou has won four of the first five IndyCar races. The weather produced a chaotic MotoGP round from Le Mans. Ferrari continues to have a successful run in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Alpine has cleaned house, and the new boss is same as the old boss. There might be more to that story. Liam McNeilly had his five-race winning streak snapped in U.S. F2000 as visa issues kept the Briton from re-entering the country for the Indianapolis round. We are through one busy weekend from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Two more are ahead of us, and it could be a historic year at the Speedway. 

Third or Fifth or Does it Matter?

Every year there is a chance at Indianapolis 500 history. Someone is always on the verge of doing something unprecedented at 16th & Georgetown. This year is extraordinary. 

Josef Newgarden has won the last two Indianapolis 500s. Newgarden's victory last year made him the first driver with consecutive Indianapolis 500 victories in 22 years. For the first time since 2003, and for only the sixth time in the history of the race, someone has a chance at a third consecutive victory. A three-consecutive Indianapolis 500 winner has been one of those accomplishments pondered for years. It is an unexplored frontier for such a historic race. A chance to reach it does not come around often. 

But we have been staring into the unknown for the last few years at Indianapolis, this year gives us a second possibility of greatest. 

While Newgarden looks for a third consecutive, Hélio Castroneves is making his fourth attempt at a fifth Indianapolis 500 victory, the top of the mountain. A fifth Indianapolis 500 victory is nirvana. It does not get better than that. Castroneves could separate himself for the long-establish trio of A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears, and Castroneves will set the bar at a previously unthinkable level. A fifth Indianapolis 500 almost seemed unreachable, but it is within Castroneves' grasp. 

Third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory. Fifth overall Indianapolis 500 victory. Both are at play in the same Indianapolis 500. We have never seen both on the table simultaneously. 

A fifth Indianapolis 500 victory has only been a possibility since 1978. At that time, we were seven years removed from the most recent driver to win the race in consecutive years when Al Unser did it in 1970 and 1971. When Hélio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 in 2001 and 2002, the only other active driver with multiple Indianapolis 500 victories was Al Unser, Jr. with two. No other driver had three let alone four looking at five. 

These two achievements are aligning in a way only the planets in the sky have previously. To possibly see one is wonderful gift. To have the chance to see either in the same race is staggering. Both have long been sought achievements, and here we are.

Do either matter though? 

In my youth, Castroneves had a realistic chance at a third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory in 2003. He was second to Team Penske teammate Gil de Ferran. It was close. We nearly saw it. History fell a spot short. It was agonizingly close. Then Castroneves won a third in 2009. A fourth Indianapolis 500 victory was conceivable. A fourth made a fifth seem obtainable. It took longer than we thought for Castroneves to win his fourth, but the drive for five was revived three decades after its last pursuit. 

A third consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory and a fifth Indianapolis 500 victory felt like earth-shattering accomplishments, not just in motorsports but in the world of sports. It felt like those were significant achievements that would draw the awe of many. 

I have grown older. I don't think the outside world would be impressed if either occurred. 

I saw Castroneves win his fourth. It was big to us. We were floored we got to see it especially in Castroneves' first Indianapolis 500 start not with Team Penske, and for it to come with Meyer Shank Racing, a relatively small team based out of Ohio. Castroneves' fourth coming in 2021 after virtually every race in 2020 was held behind closed doors and with around 135,000 people in attendance that day was another beautiful occurrence. We had lost so much, and normal was slowly returning. It was a jubilant celebration we needed after so much time apart. 

Did it make any waves outside the bubble? 

The true reach of a sporting event is how many people who otherwise would not tune in make it an appointment to watch. We have seen it with Triple Crown races, Caitlin Clark's final games with Iowa in the NCAA tournament, over nine million people watching Canada and the United States play ice hockey in a competition that didn't exist prior to this year, and most recently in April at The Masters with Rory McIlroy completing the career grand slam in golf. People love to see greatness hit its highest level. It doesn't matter what the sport is especially when it is exhilarating. 

Castroneves' fourth didn't quite reach those levels though he hit a mark that had not been reached in 30 years. The world didn't stop to honor the man. I don't think a fifth will be any different. The same goes for Newgarden winning a third consecutive. 

For as celebrated as the Indianapolis 500 is and for the attention is still able to draw, less than two weeks from race day the rumble for either possible triumphant is unnoticeable. Of course, let's see what happens over the next week. If neither Newgarden nor Castroneves show great pace through practice and qualifying and both start on row ten, no one is going to believe either is possible and waste their energy. If both end up qualifying on the front row or within the first three rows, then they will have our attention. "OUR" being the key word. 

It isn't about us. We are already here. The Indianapolis 500 is the one IndyCar race that reaches beyond those regularly at the table, but we know it could draw more. It never hurts to have more. Are any casual viewers enchanted at the possibility of history? 

For all the great racing that the Indianapolis 500 produced over the years, the one thing the Indianapolis 500 stands on more than anything else is history. Nostalgia intoxicates the fanbase to a dangerous levels at times. The race is over a century old and many still wish it would not enter the 21st century. We know people love the chance to see history. The Belmont Stakes draws its biggest crowds when a Triple Crown is at stake. When a Triple Crown isn't on the line, a little more than half that shows up. 

The Indianapolis 500 doesn't have the temperamental attendance issue, but success comes in terms of viewership of from those at home. It comes in the storylines and the conversation of the week leading up to the race. Who is paying attention and who is speaking about the race? General buzz in the sports landscape is something the Indianapolis 500 hasn't seen since the days of Danica Patrick. It is hard to get but not impossible. 

For as much as we celebrated the Indianapolis 500 as this quintessential American sporting event, it is an event America does seem to miss most times than not. It hasn't mattered how many passes there are or how close the photo finish is or if someone has a chance to win a third consecutive year or set the sole record for most victory in the race's history. If the race captures the country that would be news to the United States.

Maybe when a bit of history happens I will be pleasantly surprised. Until then, it will matter in our circle, but let's not mistake it as something the average person recognizes has occurred. 

Champion From the Weekend

Cooper Webb clinched the Supercross championship with a fourth-place finish in Salt Lake City.

Tom Vialle clinched the 250cc East championship after finishing third in Salt Lake City.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou, but did you know...

Johan Zarco won MotoGP's French Grand Prix, his first victory since the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. Marc Márquez won the sprint race. Manuel González won the Moto2 race, his second consecutive victory and third of the season. José Antonio Rueda won the Moto3 race, his second consecutive victory and fourth of the season. Óscar Gutiérrez and Mattia Casadei split the MotoE races.

The #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The #21 AF Corse Ferrari of François Heriau, Simon Mann and Alesio Rovera won in LMGT3.

The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet won the IMSA race from Laguna Seca. The #77 AO Racing Porsche of Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler won in GTD Pro, its second consecutive victory. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis and Russell Ward won in GTD, its second victory of the season.

Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup race from Kansas, his third victory of the season. Carson Hocevar won the Truck race.

Lochie Hughes and Dennis Hauger split the Indy Lights races from Indianapolis. Ariel Elkin (race one and race three) and Jacob Douglas (race two) split the USF Pro 2000 races. Jack Jeffers and Thomas Schrage split the U.S. F2000 races.

Broc Feeney (race one and two) and Matthew Payne (race three) split the Supercars races from Symmons Plains. 

Chase Sexton won the Supercross race from Salt Lake City, his seventh victory of the season. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race.

Coming Up This Weekend

Indianapolis 500 qualifying. 

Formula One has its first European round of the season from Imola.

Formula E takes a trip to Tokyo.

It is NASCAR All-Star Weekend from North Wilkesboro.

Super Formula is at Autopolis. 

World Superbike is off to Most.

GT World Challenge America makes its way to Sebring.

The World Rally Championship is in Portugal.

First Impressions: 12th Grand Prix of Indianapolis

1. Ladies and gentlemen, what else can we say about Álex Palou has not been said already? 

The man is brilliant. He is the best in the IndyCar. He has been the best driver to enter the series in quite some time. There is a chance he is already greater than his teammate Scott Dixon, a man who is second all-time in victories and second all-time in championships. Dixon never had a run like this. 

We are living in a world where Palou locked up a championship with a race to spare two years ago, something that had never happened since reunification and had not happened in the series whose roots are the Indy Racing League since 2005. Last year, Palou nearly had the title locked up a race early. Now, Palou has won four of the first five races, his championship lead is 97 points and the Catalan driver effectively has his fourth title in five years wrapped up and we haven't even made it to Memorial Day weekend. 

Palou plays with his food every race. It never looked like this race was not going to be his even as Graham Rahal led nearly the entire first half of the event. Palou was constantly in Rahal's mirrors. If Palou remained in touching distance going into the final stop, he was going to have a shot at victory until the checkered flag. 

Palou didn't need to wait until the final pit stop. Rahal's team deciding to run its final set of alternate tires on the penultimate stint instead of waiting to run them on the final stint was costly. The one thing the Rahal team likely didn't count on was Palou maintaining ground on the primary tire while Rahal was on the alternate. Palou was quicker than Rahal despite the perceived disadvantage in rubber. Rahal's alternate tires wore out beyond the wear of Palou's primary tires, and Palou flashed into the lead before they even made it to the final round of pit stops. In four laps, Palou was up to a 6.1-second lead. 

The late caution for David Malukas breaking down opened the door for an upset. Palou's lead was over ten seconds at that point over Patricio O'Ward. O'Ward never made Palou sweat on that restart. Palou just resumed his beatdown, and in the final dash to the finish, Palou said goodnight, leaving the competition with a meal of his dust, as he claimed his third consecutive Grand Prix of Indianapolis victory. 

Nothing lasts forever, but no one has been able to come close to Palou and the #10 Ganassi team in 2025. It has been a long time since we have entered an Indianapolis 500 feeling there is a clear favorite. Palou is the man. It will be his race and everyone else will be running for second.

2. Patricio O'Ward ended up second and he was probably the fourth-best driver today. O'Ward got to second with a timely final stop and he leaped ahead of Scott McLaughlin, who had spent most of the race in third. I don't think O'Ward did anything special beyond he made the final stint at the right time and he took advantage of McLaughlin coming out in traffic behind the lapped car of Colton Herta.

O'Ward did nothing special and he finished second. Good for him.

3. Will Power ended up third and he was probably the sixth-best driver today. Power did what O'Ward did. He benefitted when McLaughlin was caught in traffic and when Graham Rahal's race unravelled. After a boneheaded start to the season, Power had driven four quiet races, finishing in the top six in all of them. This was his first podium finish of the season.

Good for him.

4. It felt like Scott McLaughlin could have been set to sneak in and steal a victory at one point when Graham Rahal and Álex Palou were caught behind the back-marker of Jacob Abel. McLaughlin dove into the pit lane and sought to take advantage of the traffic. It didn't quite work out as Rahal and Palou came in the following lap. The positions remained unchanged with McLaughlin in third. 

Then McLaughlin was burned on his final stop to come out behind the lapped car of Colton Herta. What was looking to be second ended up as fourth. McLaughlin should have been on the podium today. The only bad thing to happen was catching Herta after that stop. McLaughlin made no mistakes today. He ended up finishing where he started, but he was better than that for this entire race.

5. Scott Dixon went from 16th to fifth. It started with a good opening stint on the primary tire followed by a second stint on the alternate tire where he could pick off a few more positions. Then a third stint of consistent pace on the primary tire got him more ground and he was able to end all-out on the alternate tire. 

If Dixon only could find some qualifying pace, he might be able to compete with Palou. Just when you start to worry about Dixon, he has a day like this. It makes us nervous, but then he impresses us once again. 

6. Oh Graham Rahal, how I waited to talk about your day! 

It was always going to be a task to defeat Palou, but Rahal got the jump at the start, taking the lead from the pole-sitter Palou, and Rahal was able to hold the point through the first round of pit stops. Despite being caught behind Jacob Abel, Rahal still held onto the lead. On the second round of stops, he and Palou stopped together, but Rahal held on. The critical error was the Rahal team made the choice to take the alternate tire, his second set of the race, meaning he would have to finish on the primary tire. 

The hopes of victory ended there. 

It possibly could have worked out, but Rahal needed to drive away from the competition. He was unable to do that and Palou was able to take the lead before the final round of pit stops even began. Rahal's tires were shot and he slid backward. He was over six seconds behind Palou when he made his final stop. To add insult to injury, the team had a long stop and then held him for a moment to avoid an unsafe pit release into the path of Kyle Kirkwood. 

Rahal came out in fifth but essentially a million miles from he had spent most of this race. 

Regardless of how a team broke up the race today, the only logical choice was to end on the alternate tire. It was the best tire and it would give the teams the most speed on the run to the checkered flag. The Rahal team rolled the dice but unnecessarily so. The team gave Álex Palou an empty net for him to slam home the easiest goal of his life. 

I can understand the Rahal team thinking it had to do something special to beat Palou in a one-on-one fight, but it took Rahal out of the fight before we could even get to the final round. If Rahal was on primary tires in that penultimate stint, the same as Palou, I don't think Palou passes him prior to the final stop. Rahal's tires would not have fallen off that much to where Palou could pounce. It would have come down to the final pit stop and final stint. Could Palou leapfrog Rahal or could Palou beat Rahal in a fight to the finish? Rahal made it easy by taking itself out of the battle altogether. 

Even if Palou ended up as the better of the two drivers in a battle to the finish, Rahal likely would have still finished second today. Instead, Rahal dropped back to fifth, but he was a sitting duck on that restart. Dixon took fifth immediately and Rahal salvaged sixth from a day where he could have been second.

This is all on the RLLR team. Graham Rahal did all he could and he probably should have won this race. He definitely should have been on the podium, but he wasn't even put on a strategy to give him a shot at getting the most out of this race, which sucks because we don't know if RLLR is going to come this close to a podium again. The only track this team can seem to excel at is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. It blew its one chance.

It has been a rough season for this team. Considering RLLR entered this weekend with zero top ten finishes across its three cars, it is unthinkable to believe its worst result of the season would be sixth, but with how this race played out, this is the most painful result so far.

7. Marcus Armstrong was the only driver to go primary-primary-alternate-alternate in this race and it paid off with Armstrong going from 15th to seventh. I liked the call to end on two stints with the alternate tire. 

This race was starting almost split 50/50 on the tire selection. It actually leaned 15-12 in favor of the primary tire. Armstrong was following the group. By taking the primary on the next stint, he wasn't losing that much group. When you factor in Kyffin Simpson didn't start the race, Marcus Ericsson broke down and Callum Ilott and Colton Herta each fell off the lead lap due to unscheduled pit stops early, Armstrong was not taking a gamble as 13 cars were on alternate tires and 11 cars were on the primaries. 

It allowed Armstrong to take advantage of those on the primary tire for the third stint and then he was even with the field on the final stint. Entering that final stop, Armstrong was in the top ten. If we do this again, I wonder how many more teams will employ this strategy where it gets the least desirable tire out of the way in the first two stints. It surely worked for Armstrong. Hopefully, others noticed.

8. Kyle Kirkwood started 21st and he had to do something different to get track position. Kirkwood went primary-alternate-alternate-primary. Kirkwood likely knew he had to take advantage of those who would run the middle two stints on the primary tire to get track position and then live with the hand he was dealt on the final stint. 

It worked. It got him into the top ten. He was seventh after that final stop, but that was the best his day was going to be though. There was no way he could make up ground on the primary tire when the top five were all on the alternate. He lost seventh spot to Armstrong after the restart, but Kirkwood still managed eighth. It is as good as it was going to be after starting 21st.

9. Rinus VeeKay went primary-alternate-primary-alternate, but stopping on lap 14 to get off the primary tire paid dividends. He was able to carve through the middle of the final on that second stint, and it got him into a top ten position. This is the kind of strategy Dale Coyne Racing was once exceptional at, turning a start outside the top twenty into a top ten finish. Even better is they have a driver who can execute such a strategy. It has been a good year for VeeKay and DCR.

10. It was a scrap for tenth, and Felix Rosenqvist came out with the spot. Rosenqvist had a few lockups and a few bumps in this race. Qualifying did not go Meyer Shank Racing's way, but the team and both drivers did a sensational job to turn this into a double top ten day.

11. Louis Foster suffered at the end of his first stint. Foster didn't lose that much ground, but ending on used alternate tires left him with a battle to the finish, and it cost him a top ten result. This was still a good day for Foster. Should the team have set him up to end on new alternate tires? Probably. This is a rookie. In race #5 of his career, I wouldn't believe he would have the comfort to sprint to the finish on used tires. It was a good day, but it could have been better. That will be the story of Rahal Letterman Lanigan's 2025 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

To wrap up the RLLR day, the only team to run a dumber strategy than the #15 RLLR team is the #30 RLLR team. I cannot figure out who thought it would be smart to run alternate-alternate-primary-primary. Devlin DeFrancesco was done with the alternate tire halfway through the race, and DeFrancesco fumbled out of the gate when switching to the primary tire when he stalled on that second stop. That took him out of the top ten, but he was always likely to tumble that far. It was only made worse when he still had a second stint to go on the primary tire. DeFrancesco ended up 17th. Without that stall, DeFrancesco might finish 14th, but again RLLR took a car out of the top ten. 

I understand with three cars splitting strategies. With three cars starting in the top five, you cannot be that crazy! 

Kyle Kirkwood can finish on the primary because he started 21st. If you were starting outside the top fifteen that was the only way that gamble was acceptable. RLLR had three cars starting in the top five! Split the strategy with one car starting on the primary. Hell, run the Armstrong strategy and run the first two stints on the primary compound. 

Ending on the alternate tire is where the planning should have started. Then you build the rest of the strategy from there. I don't understand how RLLR missed that on TWO CARS STARTING IN THE TOP FIVE! 

12. Josef Newgarden is 12th but he had an impressive day because he had an MGU issue that caused him to drop from his grid position to essentially last because his car was being worked on during the parade laps. I don't understand how Newgarden and his team continue to stumble. Seatbelt issue, driver error, MGU issues. I don't know how this keeps happening to this team. 

Remember when Newgarden decided ahead of the 2024 to focus himself on his career and eliminate distractions? I have been saying this for a while, it is time to go back to the drawing board. All that work has been for nothing.

13. Nolan Siegel had a positive day driving up to 13th. Siegel wasn't in the mix that much. Christian Lundgaard had a pit lane penalty when he went over the blend line exiting after his second stop. This killed Lundgaard's race. He was looking poised to fight for a top ten result. The Dane went primary-alternate-alternate-primary. He likely would have been around Kirkwood and in a battle for those spots at the back of the top ten. Instead, Lundgaard was 16th.

14. Alexander Rossi did the primary-alternate-alternate-primary strategy. It didn't work. Rossi was 14th after starting ninth. That battle for tenth was likely tighter than expected, and Rossi lost out with the number of cars in that fight. I wonder how Rossi would have fared on the primary-primary-alternate-alternate strategy that Armstrong ran. It netted Armstrong seven spots from the start. I am not saying it would have put Rossi on the podium, but I think he could have pushed for a top five.

Christian Rasmussen started 19th and finished 19th. This seems to be the story of Rasmussen's career. He has a lot of races where he is anonymous. I know Ed Carpenter Racing hasn't been the bellwether team over Rasmussen's season-plus in IndyCar, but I also don't think Rasmussen has shown much to think he is someone who can make waves in IndyCar. With how competitive teams are for the Leaders' Circle funding, especially after last season when a number made changes with the prize money in mind, ECR might be making a change if the results don't improve. 

15. Conor Daly was 15th and Sting Ray Robb was 21st. That is Juncos Hollinger Racing for you. Daly did spin on the opening lap. Not the way you want to start the race, so I guess 15th isn't that bad in that context.

16. Robert Shwartzman ended up on the lead lap and in 18th, a nine-spot improvement. Callum Ilott was spun when the final stacked up early exiting turn 12, and Ilott battled some mechanical issues afterward to finish 22nd. Prema are going through those growing pains. 

17. Not a great day for A.J. Foyt Racing. 

Santino Ferrucci lost an engine in the warm-up, and he didn't benefit from starting in 11th on the primary tire. Ferrucci was shuffled back quickly. He actually rolled the dice when his teammate David Malukas broke down and brought out a caution. He switched to a third set of alternate tire after running nine laps on his second primary set. Ferrucci sacrificed track position in hopes to charge through the field. Ferrucci then immediately locked up his tires entering turn one, lost spots and that gamble backfired. 

Even before breaking down, David Malukas was outside the top fifteen and wasn't competitive in this race. A.J. Foyt Racing will be happy about oval activity beginning Tuesday. 

18. Jacob Abel's highlight of the race was being traffic to balk Graham Rahal and Álex Palou. Again, I don't think Abel is that bad. We can see Dale Coyne Racing has picked up form. However, in five races Abel has yet to finish better than 23rd and I don't think he has spent a lap in the top twenty that wasn't during a pit cycle. Something must give. 

19. Kyle Kirkwood salvaged Andretti Global's day because the team had numerous mechanical issues in the warm up. In the race, Colton Herta damaged his front wing on lap two and fell off the lead lap. Then seven laps into the race, Marcus Ericsson lost drive and was spun for good measure. 

This was a nightmare day for Andretti Global, but at no point this season has it felt Andretti was due for a day to go this poorly. Herta has had his pit stop mishaps, but that isn't a sign that everything would break on this team at once. The team has won and probably could have two victories this season. I guess it is better for this to happen in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis than the Indianapolis 500, but this does feel like a team that gets in its own way more often than it should.

20. Kyffin Simpson did not start this race. Simpson could not get the car in gear on the grid and he never took part. I do find it fascinating that the teams can run a morning warm-up, look over the cars in the few hours before the race and when it is time for the race to begin, there is a problem that keeps the car from running. 

I do wonder if IndyCar should be like Formula One and allow reconnaissance laps prior to the cars lining up on the pit lane. We can still have the warm-up, but like an hour before the race allow the teams to run one or two laps to check everything over and then line up on the grid. 

We don't need driver introductions. Scrap the driver introductions. Have the cars do reconnaissance laps and then when the drivers are done have all 27 of the get on a flatbed and do a fan lap. IndyCar and American motorsports must get into the 21st century with the pre-race festivities. Driver introductions are slow and out-dated. 

21. I have been a proponent of having the teams regulated to use both tire compounds multiple times in a race for a while now. I thought it played out well. There is always going to be a limit to strategy. If the alternate tire is the best tire, it is the best tire and teams (except RLLR) will work to end on that tire. But I think this opened the door today, and for the first attempt, I think we only scratched the surface of what is possible. 

The alternate tire was the one to end on. That set up two logical strategies:

Alternate-Primary-Primary-Alternate

Primary-Alternate-Primary-Alternate

However, we saw Marcus Armstrong make up big ground going primary-primary-alternate-alternate. If we do this again, maybe more teams decide to finish on the preferred tire in consecutive stints. 

You could say this does nothing and doesn't fix anything if the strategies are limited to two options, but it was already limited to two options. Under the normal rules where the teams only have to use each compound once the strategies are either....

Alternate-Primary-Alternate-Alternate

Primary-Alternate-Alternate-Alternate

Racing is pretty straight-forward. There are a few good options that are proven to work and then there are plenty of dumb options that will end in failure. 

I think running two stints on each added a little more variety to the race. I hope we try this at more races, especially street races where those are more on the fence over whether it will be two stops or three stops based on fuel. The IMS road course is always a three-stop race. It wasn't going to revolutionize today's event, but I hope we see it for the rest of the season. 

We mind as well try stuff, and this isn't a costly experiment. All the teams have the tires anyway. They aren't being charged more nor are they being told to buy or develop something new. This seems like an easy change to hope and mix things up. 

22. I do have one suggestion about how to take this a step further, and I will admit the most infamous moment in IMS road course history is what brought this to mind: IndyCar should have a race where the teams are limited to two sets of tires for the entire race. One primary set and one alternate set. That is it. 

I want to see a race where the teams have to take the tires further than they have ever gone before. The Firestone tire does seem to last forever. It feels like at the end of a stint the tire could probably go for another 20 or 30 laps before there will be failures. It will not be quick but it will still work.

I want to see one race where the teams can only change tires once. I want to see who decides to push early to get positions and who decides to save and have speed at the end. I want to see what teams change early and I want to see what teams change late and go all-out in a sprint to the finish. 

Again, let's try stuff. The one-tire change limit would actually improve the entire weekend. There would be two sets for the race and eight sets available for practice and qualifying. All we hear about is how the teams never have enough tires and that is why 40% of practice is nothing happening. They couldn't complain if 80% of their tire allotment cannot be used in the race. They would have no choice but to practice more. The fans would win on Friday that is for sure. 

If we are trying two stints for each compound in a race, IndyCar should also try limiting tire changes to once per race. It might be good and fun to watch. Again, what else does IndyCar have to lose? Not a damn thing!

23. Fun hypotheticals aside, we are through with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and, in less than 64 hours, Indianapolis 500 practice will begin and we are practically 14 days away from Álex Palo winning the Indianapolis 500. 

Morning Warm-Up: 12th Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Álex Palou took his second consecutive pole position of the season as Palou ran a lap at 69.3417 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. This is Palou's eighth career pole position and he has won from pole position in five of his first seven starts. He has never finished worse than fourth when starting on pole position. He could become the first driver to win consecutive races from pole position since Simon Pagenaud did it at Barber and at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2016. Palou could tie Will Power and Pagenaud for most Grand Prix of Indianapolis victories on three. 

Graham Rahal was 0.4099 seconds slower than Palou's pole position time, but Rahal's lap was good enough for second, his best starting position of the season, and his best starting spot since he was on pole position for Portland in 2023. For the second consecutive season, Rahal has opened a season with no top ten finishes in the first four races. The last time he did not have a top ten in the first five events was in 2014. Rahal has finished in the top ten in four consecutive IMS road course races and in 14 of the last 15 races here. It has been 128 starts since Rahal's  most recent victory.

Louis Foster will start a career-best of third as the Briton was 0.5384 seconds off Palou's time. For Foster, this was the third time he has made it out of the first round of qualifying this season, but this was his first appearance in the Fast Six. In four Indy Lights starts on the IMS road course, Foster had two podium finishes, including a victory last year. This will be Foster's fifth career start. The most recent driver to have their first career victory come in their fifth career start was Al Unser at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on July 4, 1965

Scott McLaughlin takes on fourth on the grid as he was 0.5493 seconds off the fastest lap in the final round. This is McLaughlin's best career starting position on the IMS road course. His previous best came in his first start at the track when he started fifth in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. In seven starts at this track, McLaughlin's only top five finish was fourth from 15th on the grid in July 2022.

Devlin DeFrancesco makes his first appearance at the IMS road course since August 2023 and, like August 2023, DeFrancesco is starting fifth. The Canadian was 0.6015 seconds off the top. Fifth matches his career-best starting spot, and this is his third time starting in the top ten in his career. In four starts on the IMS road course, DeFrancesco has an average finish of 18.75 with his best finish being 17th. This will be DeFrancesco's 39th start and he is still looking for his first top ten finish.

Josef Newgarden starts on the outside of row three. Newgarden was 0.6412 seconds from pole position. When it comes to the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Newgarden has only one top five finish and three top ten finishes in 11 starts with an average finish of 14.0909 in the May race. This is his best starting position of the season, but Newgarden has never won a race from sixth on the grid before, the lowest starting postion he has yet to win from. 

Will Power was 0.0199 seconds short of advancing to the Fast Six, leaving Power seventh on the grid. After finishing fifth in the last two races, Power is looking for his third consecutive top five finish. He has not had three consecutive top five finishes since a three-race stretch of podiums in 2022 at the Iowa doubleheader and on the IMS road course.

Patricio O'Ward missed out on the final round of qualifying by 0.0309 seconds and O'Ward will start eighth. O'Ward was sixth at Barber Motorsports Park but he has not had consecutive top ten finishes since a seven-race from that stretch from the Indianapolis 500 through the Iowa doubleheader last season. In the last five IMS road course races, O'Ward has finished on the podium twice and outside the top ten three times.

Alexander Rossi fell 0.091 seconds from advancing to the final round of qualifying, and this leaves Rossi ninth on the grid. Rossi has four consecutive top ten finishes on the IMS road course. He started inside the top ten for all four of those races. Rossi is aiming to have four top ten finishes in the first five races for the second consecutive season and for the fourth time in his career.

For the second consecutive race, Kyffin Simpson is starting tenth, matching his career-best starting spot, which was set last week at Barber Motorsports Park. Simpson is coming off his worst finish of the season despite having his best starting position of his career. Simpson dropped from tenth to 21st after a slow first pit stop.

Santino Ferrucci has his best starting position of the season in 11th. In the last three IMS road course races, Ferrucci has finished outside the top twenty. After finishing in the top ten in his first two starts on this course, he has finished outside the top ten in the last five. He was 18th last week at Barber. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen since the final two races of 2023.

Felix Rosenqvist had an off well on his final qualifying lap in the second round, and this relegated Rosenqvist to 12th on the grid. Rosenqvist has finished in the top ten in the last three May IMS road course races. The Swede has not finished better than his starting position in the last five IMS road course races. He has finished better than his starting spot in two of 11 races here, seventh to fifth in the first Harvest Grand Prix races in 2020 and 19th to 13th in the August 2021 race.

Colton Herta missed out on advancing from the first round of qualifying for the first time this season, and for the first time in 2025, Herta is starting worse than fourth. He takes 13th spot after being 0.1810 seconds off advancing. Herta has finished worse than his starting position in three of four races this season, and in the other, Herta finished where he started, which was fourth at Thermal. 

Christian Lundgaard came 0.0332 seconds shy of advancing from group two, and Lundgaard will start 14th, his worst starting position on the IMS road course. For the first time in his IndyCar career, Lundgaard has finished in the top ten of four consecutive races. He is 28 races removed from his only career victory, which came at Toronto in 2023. 

Marcus Armstrong takes 15th on the grid, his worst starting position of the season, and this is his worst starting spot for an IMS road course race. His previous worst was 11th in his first race at this track. Armstorng was fifth in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his first career top five finish, after starting eighth.

Scott Dixon makes its an all-New Zealander row eight as Dixon was 0.0541 seconds from advancing from the second group. Dixon has outside the top ten in four consecutive race after this qualifying result, a first for him since 2022 when he had a four-race run of starting outside the top ten over the Iowa doubleheader, IMS road course and Nashville street race. Dixon won that Nashville race. This race makes the 407th start in Scott Dixon's IndyCar career, tying Mario Andretti for most starts in IndyCar history.

Sting Ray Robb starts 17th, a career-best starting position for Robb, His previous best came two races ago when he started 19th at Long Beach. He ended that race matching his career-best finish of ninth. In three IMS road course starts, Robb has an average finish of 23.667, and his best result was 22nd, which has come in the last two IMS road course races.

Nolan Siegel starts on the outside of row nine, and 18th is Siegel's worst starting position of the season.  Siegel is coming off his best finish of the season when he was ninth at Barber Motorsports Park. He was second and fifth in the Indy Lights races held on the IMS road course last season. Siegel has finshed worse than his starting position in all four races this season.

Christian Rasmussen put car #21 into 19th on the grid. This is Rasmussen's fourth consecutive race starting on either row nine or ten. Dating back to last season, this is his eight consecutive race starting outside the top fifteen. Though he has started outside the top fifteen in the first four races this season, Rasmussen has finished inside the top fifteen in three events.

Marcus Ericsson will start 20th, his second consecutive race starting 20th or worse after opening the season with three consecutive starts inside the top seven. Ericsson enters the Grand Prix of Indianapolis having not finished in the top ten in his last three starts. He has not gone four consecutive starts without a top ten result since an eight-race stretch over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. 

After starting in the top ten for the first three races of the season, Kyle Kirkwood is starting outside the top fifteen for the second consecutive race, as Kirkwood will take 21st on the grid. This is his worst starting spot since he started 22nd at Gateway in 2023. In five IMS road course starts, Kirkwood's best finish is ninth and his average finish of 16.6.

Conor Daly rounds out an all-American row 11. This is the third time Daly has started on row 11 this season. He went from 22nd to 17th at St. Petersburg, but he went from 21st to 25th at Long Beach. Daly has failed to finish on the lead lap in the last two races. Daly has finished outside the top fifteen in five of ten starts at the IMS road course.

Callum Ilott will occupy 23rd on the grid, the fourth time this season Ilott is starting outside the top twenty. Ilott is coming off finishing outside the top twenty for a third consecutive race after ending up 23rd at Barber. The only other time Ilott has had three consecutive finishes outside the toptwenty were the first three races of his career at the end of the 2022 season.

One week after starting in the top six, Rinus VeeKay starts in the bottom six, specifically 24th position. Since winning the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, VeeKay has finished outside the top ten in the last three May IMS road course races. VeeKay was fourth at Barber and he could become the first Dale Coyne Racing driver with consecutive top five finishes since Santino Ferrucci at Pocono and Gateway in 2019.

Jacob Abel starts 25th for the third time in five races this season, and for the second time in six days. Over four races, Abel's finish has gotten worse since the season opener. It hit rock-bottom with a last-place finish at Barber Motorsports Park. He is still looking for his first lead lap finish.

David Malukas will start 26th, his worst starting position since he started 27th in the August 2023 IMS road course race. Malukas did recover to finish 16th in that race. The Illinois-native has not had a top ten finish in his last six natural-terrain road course starts. His last was eighth at Portland in 2023.

Robert Shwartzman rounds out the grid in 27th position for his inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis appearance. Shwartzman missed part of the second practice session ahead of qualifying. This is the fourth consecutive race he is starting 24th or worse.

Fox's coverage of the 12th Grand Prix of Indianapolis begins at 4:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 4:52 p.m. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.

Track Walk: 12th Grand Prix of Indianapolis

The fifth round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the festivities begin in Speedway, Indiana. Since 2014, the 2.439-mile road course hosts the opening weekend of action from the Speedway with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis taking place a fortnight before the Indianapolis 500. Only twice previously has the Grand Prix of Indianapolis winner gone on to win the "500" two weeks later. Six drivers have split the first 11 editions of this race. The first seven editions were won by drivers born in 1984 or earlier, but the last four races have been won by drivers born in 1997 or earlier.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday May 10 with green flag scheduled for 4:52 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 9:30 a.m. ET (75 minutes)

Second Practice: 1:00 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 4:30 p.m. ET 

Saturday:

Warm-up: 11:32 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 4:52 p.m. ET (85 laps)

* - FS2 will have coverage of first two practice sessions. FS1 will have coverage of qualifying and the morning warm-up. 

Palou's Roll

There is only one place to start entering any IndyCar weekend at this point. That is with Álex Palou. 

At Barber Motorsports Park last week, Palou took his third victory in the first four races of the season. He has not finished worse than second in 2025. With 81 laps led at Barber, Palou cleared 1,000 laps led in his career and it only took him 85 starts to get there. Out of the 10,586 laps run in his career, Palou has led 9.843% of them. 

The Grand Prix of Indianapolis could not have come at a worse time for the competition. Palou has won the last two races on the IMS road course, and he has started in the top seven in the last eight races here. Last year, he won from pole position. 

This season, not only has Palou not finished worse than second, but his worst starting position is eighth. He has started on third twice, and his Barber victory was from pole position. He has won from pole position in five of his seven times starting on the point. This is only the second time in Palou's career where he has had four consecutive podium finishes.

The Catalan driver is already out to a 60-point lead in the championship after four races. This is the largest a championship lead has been after four races since reunification in 2008. 

Palou will have a little more history to chase in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He will be looking to become the first driver with five consecutive podium finishes to open a season since Simon Pagenaud in 2016. In that season, Pagenaud's championship lead after five races was 76 points. Palou is looking for a fourth victory in five races. The last driver to open with four victories in five races was Sébastien Bourdais, who won the first four races in the 2006 Champ Car season before finishing third in the fifth round at Portland. Palou could also become the first driver to win consecutive races at multiple times in a single season since Will Power in 2010. 

It might seem hard to believe, but Palou is already mixing his name with some of the most famous in IndyCar history. His victory at barer was the 14th of Palou's career. That moved him to 35th all-time, breaking a tie with Tom Sneva. Palou is now one victory away from tying Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud for 32nd, and he is two away from tying Dan Wheldon for 31st. 

Not only is Palou winning often, but he is coming rather close on the days he doesn't win. His runner-up finish at Long Beach last month was the tenth in his career, making him only of 35 drivers to have at least ten runner-up finishes in an IndyCar career. His 47 top five finishes put him three away from becoming the 34th driver with 50 top five finishes in an IndyCar career. Palou has had 13 top five finishes in each of the last two seasons. 

For all that Palou has accomplished, the missing jewel in his crown comes at the end of the month. He already has one victory in the month of May. Only four drivers previous have won a race in the month of May and then won the Indianapolis 500 later that month. No driver has ever won three races in a single month of May. That possibility remains alive for Palou to chase over the next few weeks.

Who Could Slow Palou's Roll?

As inevitable as a Palou victory might feel, he will not win forever. Someone will best him even if Palou is still finishing at the front. In all likelihood, someone new will win this weekend at Indianapolis. 

The biggest challenger through four races has been Christian Lundgaard. The Arrow McLaren driver continued his tear at his new team when Lundgaard raced to a second-place finish at Barber. It was his third consecutive podium finish, and prior to this season Lundgaard had never had multiple podium finishes in a season. Off the back of three consecutive podium finishes, the Dane is one top five finish away from matching his most in a single season.

While IndyCar is heading to a favorable track for Palou, it is also a wonderful track for Lundgaard. Among drivers with at least three starts on the IMS road course, Lundgaard has the best average finish. In six starts, he has an average finish of 5.667, and he has finished in the top five of the last four races. He has never started worse than eighth on this course and he has started on the front row in each of the last three IMS road course races. 

Lundgaard would be a new winner on the IMS road course, but there are six other past winners at the track entered for this weekend's race who look to knock off Palou. 

Will Power is the wizard of the IMS road course. In 16 races on the circuit, Power has won five of them, three being the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. At no other track has the Australian won more than three times. Power has completed all 1,326 laps run in the 16 IMS road course races. Half of his results here have been top five finishes and 75% have been top ten finishes. 

Form has improved for Power over the last three races. He has finished sixth, fifth and fifth. He shook some of the qualifying ills at Barber Motorsports Park, starting fourth after having failed to make it out of the first row of qualifying in the first three races. Power has six pole positions on the IMS road course. 

There is always competition from within the Chip Ganassi Racing organization. Scott Dixon is a two-time winner on the IMS road course. He won in 2020 when the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was moved to July 4 and run alongside the NASCAR weekend. Dixon won the 2023 race held during the Brickyard weekend with NASCAR as well. The New Zealander has 14 top ten finishes in 16 IMS road course races and, like Power, Dixon has completed all 1,326 laps in these 16 races.

Though he was runner-up at St. Petersburg, Dixon has not finished in the top five of the last three races. His starting position has dropped over each of the first four races. After starting sixth at St. Petersburg, Dixon has rolled off from 11th, 14th and 26th starting positions over the last three races. 

Josef Newgarden's only victory here was the first race of the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix weekend held in October 2020. At that time, Newgarden had one top ten finishes on the IMS road course in his first seven starts. In his eight starts since the victory, Newgarden has three top five finishes and five top ten finishes. The bad things is his other three results have been finishes of 25th, 25th and 17th. Those last two results have been his last two finishes on the IMS road course.

Newgarden has not won on a natural-terrain road course since Road America in 2022. Last year, he did have two podium finishes on natural-terrain road courses, a second at Road America and a third at Portland. The Tennesseean has not been able to get on a good run of form. He has not had three consecutive top ten finishes since 2023. 

Colton Herta is looking for another rebound this season. A stall in the pit lane dropped Herta from a likely podium finish at Barber to seventh. For the third time in the last four seasons, Herta does not have a podium finish through the first four races. The good news is in one of those seasons Herta won the fifth race of the season and it was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

Since he won the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Herta has not finished better than seventh at circuit in five races. That 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis victory remains Herta's most recent victory on a natural-terrain road course.

Alexander Rossi won on the IMS road course in July 2022, and Rossi has four consecutive top ten finishes at the circuit. He has six top five finishes in his last nine starts on the IMS road course. Rossi has started on a good note with three top ten finishes in the first four races, and eighth at Barber was his best finish of the season. 

Rossi's top ten conversion rate is the best for an Ed Carpenter Racing driver through four races since Rinus VeeKay had three top ten finishes in the same span in 2022. The 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis winner returns to Indiana on cloud nine. VeeKay was fourth at Barber Motorsports Park, his best finish since fourth in the first race of the 2022 Iowa doubleheader. This was Dale Coyne Racing's first top five finish on a road/street course since Romain Grosjean was third at Laguna Seca in 2021. 

Past IMS road course winners and Lundgaard aside, the sleeper for the weekend is Graham Rahal. For all the struggles Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has had over the past few seasons, the IMS road course has been the one place where it has been competitive regardless of pace elsewhere.

On top of Lundgaard's impressive form at RLLR, Graham Rahal has the fourth-best average finish all-time on the IMS road course. Rahal's average is 7.6875. He has three runner-up finishes, five top five finishes and 14 top ten finishes in 16 starts. Rahal was on pole position for the August 2023 race, and RLLR has had a top five finisher in four consecutive IMS road course races. 

You can never count out Patricio O'Ward at any race, but the IMS road course is the one place where O'Ward has yet to find consistent success. While having finished on the podium in two of the last three IMS road course races, he has finished outside the top ten in six of 11 starts all-time at the circuit. That is despite starting in the top five in six consecutive races here and in seven of the last eight.

Arrow McLaren is still looking for its first IMS road course victory. Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Global have combined to win 14 of 16 races on the circuit with Simon Pagenaud's inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis victory with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2024 and VeeKay's victory with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2021 as the only exceptions. 

Living in the Green, Waiting for Yellow

When the checkered flag waved at the finish of the Barber round IndyCar had officially completed three consecutive races without a caution flag. It is a first since the 1986 season when Portland, Meadowlands and Cleveland were all run without interruption. In this case, nearly 39 years later, IndyCar hasn't seen a caution period since the first six laps of the season. Entering this weekend's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, IndyCar has run 349 laps without a caution period.

It hasn't been without a share of incidents. 

At Thermal Club, Devlin DeFrancesco collided with Scott McLaughlin before the race even began. The two cars spun off in the final corners as the field took the green flag, but both McLaughlin and DeFrancesco restarted before anyone else in the field knew they had a problem. On the opening lap at Thermal, Callum Ilott made contact with another car and suffered damage, slowing on circuit. Ilott was able to continue and the debris was not great enough to warrant a caution flag. 

The Long Beach round ran without any incidents that came close to warranting a caution. At Barber Motorsports Park, the only incident of note was Louis Foster having a bobble in the final corner and driving off course. Foster kept it out of the barrier but he struggled to trudge through the wet grass. When he re-entered the racetrack, Foster was in front of the oncoming leading Álex Palou. Fortunately, Foster caused no issues and was able to return to racing speed.

IndyCar has the onboard starting capabilities of the hybrid system to thank for this lengthy green flag period, preventing some cars that could have stalled from drawing a full course caution. There has also been some good behavior and respect from the competitors. 

Moving onto the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, it is a circuit that lends itself to an incident, but not many. If it comes, expect it early. 

For the first handful of years, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis was noted for its opening lap accidents. The inaugural year didn't get further than the starting grid as Sebastián Saavedra stalled from pole position and was then hit from behind as IndyCar used standing starts that season. There was an opening lap accident in four of the first five IMS road course races. All-time, six of 16 races have had an opening lap caution. 

Nine IMS road course races have had the first caution come within the first six laps. In ten races has the first caution come within the first 11 laps. 

There have been three caution-free races on the IMS road course, and there have been a few times where the race has played out before the first interruption. In 2019, the first caution was on lap 36. The August 2021 race did not have a slow period until lap 68 when Álex Palou lost an engine. Last year's race went 66 laps before the caution was thrown when Luca Ghiotto spun and stalled in turn 11. 

On average, the first caution lap in the IMS road course race has come on 15.2307, but the median of the first caution lap is lap two. 

The Tire Tango

There has been a regulation change ahead of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, though it is only a temporary change for this race.

In the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, each team must use each tire compound, the primary and the alternate, at least twice during the race. IndyCar regulations called for at least one set of each the primary and alternate compounds to be used during a road/street course race prior to this weekend. This regulation is only in effect for dry races. 

With the tire allocation change, every team will need to make at least three pit stops to satisfy the regulation. However, the IMS road course has always been a three-stop race. Outside of the second race of the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix weekend, which was 75 laps in length, every winner at the IMS road course has made at least three stops. The only time a winner has made more than three stops was Colton Herta in the wet in May 2022 when Herta made four stops. The one difference between this race and the three-stoppers before is every driver will now need to use both sets of compounds twice during the race.

On average, an IMS road course race winner has made his first pit stop on lap 17.375 with the next two stops on average coming around lap 40.125 and lap 59.9333. 

The alternate tire has generally been the tire of choice for an IMS road course race. An IMS road course winner has started on the alternate tire in ten of 16 races, though the primary tire has been the starting tire for four of the last seven winners. However, on all five occasions where a IMS road course winner started on the primary tire, that driver used the alternate compound on every subsequent stint.

If you remove the second race of the Harvest Grand Prix weekend and the two races that were held in mixed conditions, 11 IMS road course winners in 13 races have used the alternate compound on three of four stints. In May 2023, Álex Palou because the only IMS road course winner to use the primary tire on three stints. The only winner on the IMS road course to used both tire compounds multiple times in a race was Josef Newgarden in the first race of the Harvest Grand Prix weekend in 2020. That was an 85-lap race held in cooler conditions in October.

Through the first four races of the 2025 season, the primary compound has been the one of choice in the street races. At St. Petersburg, 16 drivers used the alternate tire for four laps or fewer. Twenty-one drivers started on the alternate tire at Long Beach and all 21 of those drivers disposed of the compound within the first ten laps. Of the six drivers to use the alternate compound mid-race, no one used for more than 12 laps. 

On permanent road courses, the alternate compound has reigned supreme. At Thermal Club, the alternate tire was the preferred tire to end on, but Palou won after using the primary compound on his middle two stints before his final stint on the alternates. Nineteen drivers ended on the alternate tire at Thermal and 14 of those drivers were able to use the alternate compound on three stints. Last week at Barber, the alternate tire was the clear tire of choice. No one used the primary compound for more than one stint and 24 of 27 drivers finished on the alternate compound. 

Road to Indy

For the first time since St. Petersburg, all the three series of the Road to Indy system are back together competing on the same weekend. There are a pair of doubleheaders and a triple-header on the docket for this weekend.

Dennis Hauger has opened the Indy Lights season with two victories from two races and both have come from pole position. Hauger has led all 79 lap this season and with two fastest laps to boot, the Norwegian has two grand slams to open his Indy Lights' career.

Hauger has a 32-point lead over Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes, who has finished second and third in the first two races. Myles Rowe has a pair of fourth-place finishes and he is third in the championship on 64 points, 44 points off the top spot. Josh Pierson sits on 52 points with Salvador de Alba rounding out the top five on 49 points. 

Throttle issues ended a promising run for Caio Collet at Barber, and it dropped Collet to sixth on 47 points, one ahead of Jordan Missing and five ahead of Ricardo Escotto. 

Evagoras Papasavvas made an unexpected debut at Barber and Papasavvas was second in his first start. The Washington-native will be back for the IMS road course doubleheader. Papasavvas' second place finish has him on 40 points and tied with Liam Sceats.

We will have another debut this weekend in Indy Lights. American Juan Manuel Correa will drive the #39 Dallara for HMD Motorsports. Correa plans on running seven race weekends this season while also participating in two oval tests. 

Correa was a regular in Formula Two from 2019 through last year. After breaking both legs and suffering a minor spinal injury in an accident at Spa-Francorchamps in 2019, Correa did not return to competition until 2021 in Formula Three, where he spent two seasons. Correa has also run for Prema Racing in LMP2 competition in the European Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship. He won the 2022 ELMS season finale at Portimão with Prema.

The first Indy Lights race will be at 7:00 p.m. on Friday May 9 The second race will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday May 10. Both races are scheduled for 35 laps.

This will be the third round for the USF Pro 2000 Series, as it competed at NOLA Motorsports Park last month with a triple-header round. 

Alessandro de Tullio won two races in Louisiana and Max Garcia won the other. De Tullio and Garcia split the St. Petersburg weekend, but Garcia has finished second in the other three races this season, and he leads the championship on 141 points. De Tullio was second in the final race from NOLA Motorsports Park, but 18th in the second St. Petersburg race sets him back and he has 125 points from the first five races.

Max Taylor has four top five finishes from seven races, and his worst finish is seventh. Taylor had 89 points, eight clear of Jacob Douglas, who has four consecutive top five finishes entering this weekend. Mac Clark opened the season with three consecutive top five results, but finishes of 17th and 18th to close the NOLA weekend has Clark in fifth on 73 points.

Michael Costello sits on 68 points, four ahead of Jace Denmark. Ariel Elkin's three top five finishes in NOLA has him on 60 points, seven ahead of Owen Tangavelou. Jorge Garciarce rounds out the top ten on 49 points.

USF Pro 2000 will race once on Friday at 3:20 p.m. ET. Its two races on Saturday all be at 9:30 a.m. and at 2:20 p.m. All three races are scheduled for 25 laps or 45 minutes.

U.S. F2000 was also at NOLA Motorsports Park last month, and Liam McNeilly swept the triple-header. With five victories from five races, McNeilly has 163 points and he is 51 points clear of Jack Jeffers in the championship. Jeffers was runner-up in the first three races and then finished fifth and fourth. Thomas Schrage has finished runner-up in the last two races, and Schrage had 95 points in the championship. 

Evan Cooley takes fourth on 85 points and then there is a 17-point gap to G3 Argyros in fifth. Teddy Musella is on 65 points, one ahead of Caleb Gafrarar and Sebastián Garzón. Jeshua Alianeli has 60 points and Cristian Cameron is in tenth on 55 points.

U.S. F2000 will race a pair of 15-laps races, the first at 12:10 p.m. ET on Friday and the second at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Fast Facts

This will be the fifth IndyCar race to take place on May 10, and the first since Simon Pagenaud won the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014. 

Four of the 25 starters from the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis are entered in this year's race (Will Power, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal).

Hélio Castroneves will turn 50 years old on Saturday.

Nine drivers have won on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They are Alex Lloyd, Jack Harvey, Dean Stoneman, Colton Herta, Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi.

Marcus Ericsson could become the tenth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.

Rinus VeeKay, Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta are the only drivers to win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indy Lights and IndyCar. VeeKay and Herta are the only driver to win on the IMS road course in both Indy Lights and IndyCar. David Malukas, Jacob Abel or Louis Foster could join VeeKay and Herta as drivers to win on the IMS road course in Indy Lights and IndyCar.

Rinus VeeKay is the only driver to have a first career IndyCar victory occur on the IMS road course. 

Patricio O'Ward, Sting Ray Robb, Christian Rasmussen or Louis Foster could become the first driver to win on the IMS road course in Indy Pro 2000 and IndyCar. 

Kyle Kirkwood could become the first driver to win on the IMS road course in U.S. F2000 and IndyCar.

The average starting position for a winner on the IMS road course is 4.375 with a median of second. 

Scott Dixon's victory from 15th in the August 2023 race was the furthest back an IMS road course race winner has started. 

Two of the last five IMS road course winners have started outside the top ten. Colton Herta won from 14th in May 2022.

The average number of lead changes in an IMS road course race is 8.85 with a median of ten. 

Last year's race had a record 13 lead changes.

Only three of 16 IMS road course races have had fewer than eight lead changes. Will Power has won two of those races (2017 Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the second Harvest Grand Prix race in 2020). 

Power's victory in the second Harvest Grand Prix race is the only time a driver has led all the laps in an IMS road course race, and it is the most recent time a driver has led every lap in an IndyCar race. 

The average number of cautions in an IMS road course race is 1.8125 with a median of one. The average number of caution laps is 6.875 with a median of 4.5. 

Nine of 16 IMS road course races have featured one caution or fewer.

The most cautions in an IMS road course race was eight in the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, which ran to a time limit due to rain.

Predictions

Now is when Christian Lundgaard gets his first victory with McLaren and he takes some points out of Álex Palou's championship lead, but Palou is still in the top five and the best finishing Chip Ganassi Racing driver. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing does have a top ten finisher. Six teams have a top ten representative. Colton Herta has three clean pit stops. There will be at least eight drivers who end the race on the primary tire, but the preferred tire strategy will be alternate-primary-primary-alternate. At least one driver makes his first appearance in the final round of qualifying. Sleeper: Graham Rahal.

Musings From the Weekend: Should the Indianapolis 500 Start Later?

Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...

Álex Palou continues thrashing the IndyCar competition, and Palou won by over 16 seconds at Barber Motorsports Park. It is a "he said, he said" over what the rules could have been for the NASCAR All-Star Race. Formula One sprinted around Miami. Max Verstappen sprinted around the world as he became a father for the first time. Monaco already hosted its first round of the month. There were some questionable moves in Denver. It is May. A certain segment of the population cannot stop mentioning that. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is about to get busy. That is where our attention turns. 

Should the Indianapolis 500 Start Later?

This has actually been on my mind for nearly a year, but there is only so much time for review and recap after an Indianapolis 500. It is a race that takes your attention for the better part of the month. You could pick apart every decision and what could be different (Side bar: If the pace car is going to be a Corvette every year, can we have something more dynamic than just a white car? How about an art car design? How about someone with a tad bit of creative comes up with a livery. Come on, man!). 

With this being the start to the month of May, it feels natural to return to the topic. 

After last year's rain-delayed race, on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast, Alexander Rossi noted that despite the delay, the crowd remained in the grandstand and television viewership did not suffer. Rossi suggested a later start time, a mid-afternoon start time, would be better for the race, especially when it came to television viewership.

The scheduled green flag time of 12:45 p.m. ET is pretty precarious for half the country. Most of the nation is still in the morning. That is 9:45 a.m. Pacific. Some people are just waking up. Others are out at church or on their way to church. The Indianapolis 500 is not at the top of their minds at that time. By the time they might realize the race is taking place, it could be over. There is a fraction of the audience that is only catching the end. There is also a fraction of the audience that is only ever going to watch the end, so it might work out for some. 

But Rossi has a point. If IndyCar and its broadcast partner is trying to maximize viewership, if it is trying to expose its competition and its biggest race to the greatest number of people, shouldn't it be at the most advantageous time for the viewing public? 

As we slip deeper into the 21st century and have now completed a quarter of it, we have more information on viewer habits and when is the best time to get the most number of people watching. Television drives all start times. They want to sell advertisements for the highest price possible. We have seen a shift from the early afternoon start time in all sports. 

Outside of wild card weekend, all NFL playoff games start at 3:30 p.m. ET or later. NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final games are all in primetime. There hasn't been a day World Series game since 1987. Heck, the final pairings for a golf tournament do not go out until the middle of the afternoon. Even the most basic events start later. NASCAR has virtually all of its races starting no earlier than 3:00 p.m. Even IndyCar schedules its races later, though IndyCar will take an earlier window if it means avoiding competition. 

There is a limitation in a 12:45 p.m. start for the Indianapolis 500. Not only is it early for most of the country, it is also competing with the general holiday festivities. The last thing many people want to do on a holiday weekend is spend Sunday afternoon inside watching television. People want to get out. Some people have already traveled. If they are on vacation, the last thing they will want to do is spend a day in front of the television, Indianapolis 500 be damned. The nature of Memorial Day weekend means the Indianapolis 500 will always be out of reach for some people. 

There is a way for the "500" to be brought within reach though. As much as people love being out, at some point they will want to be in. At some point, they will want to relax and call it a day. Some will look for a break from the sun, and some will head in for dinner. What better time to turn on the television than around 6:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. It is a wonderful time to slip into a chair and see what is on the tube. 

Last year, a group of people who likewise would have never knew the Indianapolis 500 was happening possibly got to see the finish of the race for the first time. They are unlikely to change their behavior to be available for an earlier race this year, but a later race could fit into their schedules.

Last year's race ended at 7:45 p.m. ET, and though the inconvenient circumstances setup such a lovely evening finish, it should be noted it was a tight window for the race. Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the local authorities agreed that the race would end by 8:15 p.m. ET to allow for safe egress from the circuit. Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the surrounding area is not set up for a night time crowd exit. None of the parking lots are lit. The surrounding streets are not that well lit. Last year turned out to be a little bit of a mess when the race was over. The last thing the Indianapolis 500 should want is a race against sunset. 

Of course, this is where the "put up lights" crowd comes out of the woodwork. Easy folks. 

As much as I enjoyed the dusk finish and as much as Alexander Rossi has a valid point, I don't think the Indianapolis 500 start time should change. 

I was thinking about this at last year's race. Think about how long people wait for this race. This is a yearly event. For most it is the only race they will view all year let alone attend. The last thing you want is to make them wait a little bit longer. For a race of this magnitude, when it comes to race day, it should happen early. 

Why make them wait? We know the race can start at 12:45 p.m. The race is around three hours, let's just do it! People don't need and probably do not want an extra three hours to tailgate. The day is full enough as it is with people showing up at 5:00 a.m. to enter the track. 

As mentioned above, a later start time puts the race in a box. Last year's race worked out because the storm cleared by the middle of the afternoon. We had the late afternoon and early evening to fit in the race. The first year with a 3:45 p.m. green flag where it is clear all day and rain starts 20 laps into the race and the remaining 180 laps are postponed until Monday will be vilified because everyone will say, "We could have gotten a full race in with a normal start time." 

And those people would be right! A late start only screws you, and not in a fun way. Even if the Speedway put up lights, no one wants to feel like they are taken hostage by an event. Nobody wants one race to steal their free time. No one wants a six-hour day at the race to turn into a 12-hour day at the race and keep them out deep into the night. An early start time gives you the entire day as a buffer in case the weather is not in your favor early. The moment you push the start time back, you lose that. 

It must also be acknowledged the Indianapolis 500's place on that Sunday. There is another race later that night, and even if the Indianapolis 500 is the Indianapolis 500, and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 will only be available through streaming on Prime Video, we know the best thing is not to step on each other's toes. IndyCar was a little lucky last year that it had Kyle Larson. Without Larson's Double attempt and him staying to run in Indianapolis, I don't know if the viewership stays around even if it is the Indianapolis 500. 

A later start time would kill The Double. Until this year, The Double has been a once-a-decade thing, and a timely one at that. Robby Gordon in 2004, Kurt Busch in 2014 and Kyle Larson in 2024. The Double isn't attempted enough for that alone to justify keeping the earlier start time in Indianapolis, but the mystique of the accomplishment is great enough that IndyCar shouldn't throw away its one chance to be a part of something special. 

The Indianapolis 500 has its place in the sporting landscape. As much as things have changed in the 114 years since the first race, there are certain things that should remain unchanged. Being an afternoon race, one that is not racing against the sunset or dinner time, can remain the Indianapolis 500's identity. The moment it starts moving around is when it loses people. The race will start in the early afternoon. If you miss it, you miss it. Everyone knows when it will start. It doesn't have to be on the edge of prime time. It might not be at its maximum potential, but it has been one thing for so long and found great success being what it is that chasing more could come at a loss, not a gain. 

There are valid reasons as to why the Indianapolis 500 should start later. However, it feels like it is at the right time, and it should keep its place. 

Champion From the Weekend

Haiden Deegan clinched the Supercross 250cc West championship with a victory in Denver.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Álex Palou and Deegan, but did you know...

Oscar Piastri won the Miami Grand Prix, his third consecutive victory and fourth of the season. Lando Norris won the sprint race.

Dennis Hauger won the Indy Lights race from Barber, his second consecutive victory.

Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Texas. Kyle Larson won the Grand National Series race, his second of the season. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his third victory of the season.

Oliver Rowland and Sébastien Buemi split the Monaco ePrix.

The #18 IDEC Sport Oreca of Jamie Chadwick, Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. The #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier of Adrian Closmenil. Theodor Jensen and Paul Lanchère won in LMP3, its second consecutive victory. The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Riccardo Agostini, Custodio Toledo and Lilou Wadoux won in LMGT3.

The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera and the #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer and Maro Engel split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races from Brands Hatch.

The #38 TGR Team KeePer Cerumo Toyota of Hiroaki Ishiura and Toshiki Oyu won the Super GT race from Fuji. The #6 Velorex Ferrari of Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Mehri won in GT300.

Nicolò Bulega swept the World Superbike races from Cremona. Stefano Manzi swept the World Supersport races.

Chase Sexton won the Supercross race from Denver, his sixth victory of the season.

Coming Up This Weekend

The 12th Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

MotoGP ventures up to Le Mans.

NASCAR ends its first third of the season in Kansas.

IMSA will be at Laguna Seca with GTP and both GT classes.

The FIA World Endurance Championship has its final round before Le Mans, its traditional May outing at Spa-Francorchamps.

Supercars heads to Symmons Plains. 

Supercross closes its season in Salt Lake City.

First Impressions: Barber 2025

1. Everyone is in trouble. The season is effectively over. Three victories in four races, and this one being a smackdown mentally clinches the 2025 IndyCar Series championship for Álex Palou. This is over, especially after this race. Palou put a beating on the field. Win, from pole position, with 81 of 90 laps led, and the margin of victory was over 16 seconds. 

Another victory at Barber Motorsports Park demoralized the competition and to bring down the competition even more, Palou's worst finish through four races is second. 

Good luck, everyone else. 

There is not much else to say. We have not seen many races where a driver checks out from the drop of the green flag. Outside of the opening stint, no one came close to Palou today. He was gone. 

Palou doesn't make mistakes. The crew doesn't make mistakes. Barry Wanser never makes a mistake on strategy. The one possible thing that could have tripped Palou up today was starting on the alternate tire, which was the preferred tire today. Could one stint on the primary tire mid-race cost Palou time and allow someone else to sweep through? We saw such a strategy cost Scott McLaughlin victory at St. Petersburg. Would it derail Palou's drive to victory?

Nope! Palou still pulled away. Once he was through with the primary compound, this race was over. 

There aren't even tracks that trip Palou up. Next up is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Palou has won the last two Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Indianapolis 500? He has run well in that race before. He is a past winner at Detroit. Gateway might be his worst track, but he doesn't struggle on ovals, and his advantage will likely be great enough that he can settle to finish eighth or ninth or even 12th and not suffer. 

Someone will need to beat Palou to win this 2025 championship, and beat him at all the remaining 13 races. That isn't going to happen.

2. The closest challenger to Palou in the championship was the closest car at the checkered flag, and Christian Lundgaard still finished 16.0035 seconds the Catalan driver. For Lundgaard, it is three consecutive podium finishes and it places him second in the championship, but 60 points back. It could be worse but this is far from great. 

Lundgaard was extraordinary today, especially mid-race. He went from seventh to second and made a hat trick of stellar passes on Patricio O'Ward, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin to get up to second. 

For a tense environment at McLaren, Lundgaard could not have asked for a better start. Many previous hires have already been in trouble four races into their McLaren tenure. Lundgaard is doing just fine. Palou isn't going to win 16 races. Lundgaard is due to have a standout day and get a victory of his own. He might win a few. The Grand Prix of Indianapolis is one of Lundgaard's favorite races. Let's not be surprised if Lundgaard keeps up the form in six day's time.

3. Scott McLaughlin had some work to hold onto third. Dale Coyne Racing's Rinus VeeKay gave Team Penske's McLaughlin a scrap in the final laps, but McLaughlin had enough to get the podium position. 

McLaughlin also started on the alternate tire and took on the primary tire in the second stint, like Palou. Unlike Palou, McLaughlin could not run at a blistering pace, and he was struggling at the end of that run. It is what cost him second. It actually cost him the spot to Colton Herta. It allowed Lundgaard to be close after the next round of pit stops and Lundgaard could slip through when McLaughlin was still on cold tires. 

Outside of the final charge from VeeKay, McLaughlin wasn't really in much of a battle. Lundgaard was gone once cleared, and McLaughlin was on his own until the closing laps. Good car, good day, still miles away.

4. If this wasn't a bludgeoning from Palou, Rinus VeeKay would be driver of the day. Going from fifth on the grid to fourth doesn't sound that impressive, but VeeKay had two out-laps of legend. On the first, VeeKay came out ahead of Colton Herta after Herta's poor pit stop and then he had Will Power and Patricio O'Ward breathing fire down his neck on warm tires.

If it wasn't for O'Ward and Power being equal and battling each other, VeeKay might have lost the spots, but the battle behind allowed VeeKay to stay ahead, and he opened up some breathing room on the next stint. 

For the final pit stop, a slow change of the right front put him in danger of losing spots. Instead, he came out ahead of Power, but again with the two-time champion on his tail. However, VeeKay held off Power and kept the position. Then VeeKay chased down McLaughlin. Traffic ahead of McLaughlin assisted VeeKay in closing in for third, but I think that same traffic hurt once VeeKay got there because all he had in his face was turbulent air on older tires. 

VeeKay was 0.3330 seconds from third, but nobody likely expected Dale Coyne Racing to finish in the top five on speed this season, and VeeKay was one of the best five cars all weekend. 

5. Will Power had been running fourth until the third stint. Power was a little upset he didn't get ahead of McLaughlin and the team could have run a little longer in the middle of the race. Power let his frustrations be known over the radio. This has been a good recovery after not completing a lap at St. Petersburg. Sixth, fifth and fifth. They are good results, but not great results.

6. Sixth place doesn't look as good when your teammate is finishing on the podium in nearly every race. Patricio O'Ward has become used to his perch as McLaren's lead driver. It is hard to say that spot is not in danger after Lundgaard's start. There is a lot of season to go and Lundgaard still has to show it on ovals, but O'Ward has been in Lundgaard's shadow the entire season. Not a bad place to be if you are finishing sixth, but O'Ward must string together some results. If O'Ward wants to remain McLaren's #1 driver, at some point he must beat his teammate.

7. Colton Herta's biggest rival is pit stops. On the second stop, Herta stalled after entering the pit lane in second. He wasn't going to chase down and beat Palou, but Herta was poised for another podium finish and another pit stop error took it away. Lundgaard's pace might have taken second away from Herta, but Herta should have at least finished third.

The good news is this wasn't a 16th-place disaster like St. Petersburg. Herta still finished seventh, but it is points lost at a time when no one can lose points. It is going to take perfection to come close to Palou, and we know Herta's team cannot be perfect. It gets in its own way more than most on the grid. It is better this happened in the first race of May than the last race of May. The #26 crew and driver should be on notice.

  

8. Alexander Rossi had to blow through the alternate tires to get positions early in the race. The tax Rossi paid at the end was running his final stint on the primary tire. Rossi actually came out of the pit lane ahead of Herta on the final stop, but Herta overtook Rossi shortly after that. It is a surprise that is the only spot Rossi lost. 

Rossi did 22 laps on that final stint. I think Nolan Siegel was on Rossi's rear wing for about 17 laps. Somehow, Rossi hung on. Starting 15th is a tough spot to be in. I think the team did the best it could with the hand it was dealt. Three top ten finishes through four races is a good start.

9. Nolan Siegel needed a good day and he had a good day. Being the best McLaren starter in sixth meant he had to produce a respectable result. Being the worst McLaren finisher isn't likely what Siegel had in mind, but it is a ninth-place result. He is still 20 years old. Siegel held his own while put toward the front of the grid. We had not seen Siegel this solidly in the top ten at the start of a race. He didn't make any errors and could have a decent day.

Last year, McLaren had all three of its cars finish outside the top twenty. Having all three of its cars in the top ten is a 180º turn the team will celebrate. Siegel made a step today. 

10. Josef Newgarden did nothing and finished tenth. Newgarden didn't have the greatest start and he could not make up any ground in this race. It was mostly a recovery drive considering Newgarden started ninth. It wasn't a bad day. Newgarden didn't make any mistakes. He just wasn't competitive. His two teammates at least were running in the top five. 

In a way, Newgarden is like Siegel. He needed to make a step today. It wasn't another 26th-place finish. That is at least an improvement. 

11. Kyle Kirkwood started 18th and climbed to 11th. With the depth of IndyCar, there are always two or three names you are surprised don't make it out of the first round of qualifying. Kirkwood was one this weekend. That can be a big difference in what kind of race you have. 

If Kirkwood gets out of the first round of qualifying, he is going to finish in the top ten. Perhaps he is right with his teammate Herta and fighting for a top five result. Caught in the middle of the field, Kirkwood had some extra work to do and after all he accomplished, it still wasn't enough for a top ten. In some ways, exiting Barber only 69 points behind Palou is a small miracle.

12. Scott Dixon went from 26th to 12th, and he didn't even look that good through the first stint. I think Dixon was 21st and behind Marcus Ericsson after the first round of pit stops. All the ground was made in the middle of the race. This was a three-stop race for everyone. Seeing the pace Palou had, Dixon surely had good speed, especially at the end of stints. Good in-laps and out-laps can get you a lot of spots. It certainly helped today. 

13. Meyer Shank Racing tried to go alternate-alternate-primary-alternate in this race on both its cars, and it didn't quite work out. Felix Rosenqvist went from 14th to 13th. Better than where he started but no one outside of second on the grid is devising a strategy to gain one spot. 

Marcus Armstrong might have been on his way to a top ten finish, but on his final stop, Armstrong's crew had issues getting the fuel hose out of the car and that cost him everything. Seeing how Armstrong's final lap was a 72.4676, I would guess that fuel issue also meant the car didn't get entirely full. What could have been a top ten was 17th for Armstrong. 

It is a shame because Meyer Shank Racing looked competitive today. I have a good feeling about this group at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis next week.

14. It is hard to celebrate a 14th-place finish. It is hard to think that is the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing can do, but Graham Rahal did go from 21st to 14th. It is a minor victory but it shows the work this team must do. 

Devlin DeFrancesco was 24th and I don't know if he ever ran a lap better than 24th all race. Louis Foster spent a good percentage of the race as the top RLLR driver, but Foster had a moment exiting the final corner and went off course. Keeping it out of the barrier and keeping it from being stuck in mud, Foster lost a lap and then he lost another and finished 26th. 

15. While Alexander Rossi was eighth, Christian Rasmussen was 15th. Rasmussen attempted to run long on his penultimate stint and set up a 17-lap sprint to the finish. If it wasn't for that strategy, which put Rasmussen into the top ten for a few laps, I don't think we would have heard his name all race.

16. David Malukas was 16th and was pretty much non-existent in this race. I don't understand how anyone believes Malukas is going to Team Penske anytime soon. Really look at his results. Seriously. 

Santino Ferrucci's car was not filled after the first stop and it put Ferrucci on a four-stop strategy. Ferrucci did run hard the rest of the way and was mixing it up in the top ten but that fourth stop was always going to be costly. He started 13th. If the car had been filled with fuel after the first stop, I don't know if Ferrucci sneaks into the top ten. He certainly finishes better than 18th. It is points unnecessarily lost though. 

17. Where else do we go? 

Juncos Hollinger Racing was not seen once. Conor Daly was 19th, exactly where he started, and Sting Ray Robb was 22nd, exactly where he started. How often does that happen? That is a dangerous rabbit hole to consider exploring. The team played the right strategy at Long Beach and had a good reward. When it came to pace, it just wasn't there for JHR this weekend. 

18. Marcus Ericsson had a whale of a weekend. Practice accident, knocked out in the first round of qualifying, and then Ericsson never ran better than 20th in the race. He had some front wing damage to boot. It has been a trying season-and-a-quarter at Andretti Global. It has had some high points, but Ericsson has face regular struggles as well. 

Kyffin Simpson kept up his darling run when he qualified tenth. The clock struck midnight on his first pit stop when his crew was slow on the left rear. That torpedoed Simpson's day and he was not seen again until he was lapped. Twenty-first is rather cruel.

19. The remaining cars to acknowledge are Prema's drivers, who were 23rd (Callum Ilott) and 25th (Robert Shwartzman) and Jacob Abel, who was last, two laps down and for the fourth consecutive race.

I do wonder if the hybrid-era of IndyCar has made it rather unforgiving for rookies, drivers and teams included. 

The three rookie drivers were the bottom three drivers in this race. If it wasn't for Devlin DeFrancesco, the bottom four would have been the three rookies and both cars from the only new team on the grid.

Abel hasn't been close anywhere. I don't know if we saw anything go wrong for Abel today. He just hasn't been making strides. Rinus VeeKay is a good driver, and he is likely pulling more out of that Dale Coyne Racing car than it has, but and if VeeKay is finishing in the top five, the Dale Coyne Racing car must be good, not necessarily great, but at least good. 

I don't think Abel is a terrible driver. I just don't know if Abel has had enough time with the hybrid and if that lack of testing with the smallest team has hung him out to dry. 

Foster made his own mistake. If Foster doesn't go off, he probably finishes 18th or 19th. He is in the top twenty. This result wasn't entire because Foster has a lack of experience with the car. Rookie mistake. 

We know Callum Ilott can be quick in an IndyCar. Prema hasn't been awful, but it hasn't been good. The team is able to put two cars on track and in four races Prema has gotten both its cars to the checkered flag. Both cars were on the lead lap at St. Petersburg. Shwartzman was on the lead lap at Long Beach. The pace just isn't there for something notable for the right reasons. 

All the rookies are behind on the competition, and one organized preseason test plus two or three tests on their own is not going to be enough for a young driver to pick up enough to be relatively competitively, especially for one with an entirely new team. 

It feels like this is going to be the norm this season. These three or four drivers are going to be stuck and never finish better than 20th unless many other drivers have issues. 

20. For the first time since the Portland, Meadowlands and Cleveland races in 1986, there have been three consecutive caution-free races in IndyCar. After Long Beach, Alexander Rossi said on his podcast the reason there had been no cautions is because no one was pushing beyond 80-90% because every driver is saving tire or saving fuel. 

If this was 80-90%, it was damn impressive. It didn't look like anyone was holding back in this race. It was a three-stopper. Everyone knew to stick to the alternate tire. The battle wasn't for the lead, but there were battles everywhere else. From the podium to the top five to the top ten to even the final cars on the lead lap. There was action everywhere. In some cases, it is because the drivers are not pushing the limit. It should also be acknowledged when the drivers are professionals and not doing anything stupid. 

There was plenty of side-by-side racing today that someone could have gone over the edge and taken someone else out. No one did. Foster had an off. Ferrucci nearly lost it. Ericsson had some damage. These guys weren't just palling around this afternoon. 

We will wait until Thursday to see if Rossi says anything different. Probably not. What will be different is next week at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, when every team will be required to use both tire compounds twice in the race. Everyone will be on a three-stop strategy, but it will not be as simple as getting one stint out of the way. 

If the worst of the two compounds is a dog, teams will have to suffer on it twice, and that is not as easy as running three laps and getting it off the car. That will shake up strategy, and this regulation change is one I welcome trying because I have pitched it as an option for some of these races. 

There is a greater dynamic if a tire compound must be used twice. Imagine today's race if everyone had to use the primary compound twice. The primary compound wasn't terrible. Rossi used it on the final stint and only lost one spot, but if teams have to use it twice, it will shake things up. We will have to wait and see how that turns out. 

21. Overall, not a bad race, and we are just getting started. Six days until the next one and soon we will have nearly daily competition from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.