Track Walk: Detroit 2025

The seventh round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season ventures up to the Motor City. The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix is on the 1.645-mile downtown street course for the third consecutive year. Chip Ganassi Racing enters not only as the only team to win on the circuit, but it is coming off victory in the Indianapolis 500 with Álex Palou. Palou has won five of the first six races and finished second in the other. That is the best start since A.J. Foyt won five of the first six and finished second in the other to open the 1979 USAC season. However, that was the first season of the first Split, as CART was contesting its first season and a number of teams were not at the five races that were not the Indianapolis 500. This year, Palou has done it against united competition.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday June 1 with green flag scheduled for 12:47 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: 3:00 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 9:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 12:00 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 9:32 a.m. ET (25 minutes)
Race: 12:47 p.m. ET (100 laps)

FS2 will have coverage of Friday practice session while FS1 will have coverage of Saturday's sessions and the Sunday morning warm-up. Fox will have race coverage.

If Anyone Can End a Slump, It is Palou

It has become an annual tradition to note no driver has won the Indianapolis 500 and the following race since Juan Pablo Montoya did it in 2000. Montoya was also driving for Chip Ganassi Racing and after he won the "500" on debut, he won at Milwaukee the following weekend. Those victories were in two different series. Ganassi ran Indianapolis as a one-off Indy Racing League entry while continuing full-time in CART. 

No driver has won the Indianapolis 500 and the following race while competing in the same series since Arie Luyendyk followed his Indianapolis victory in 1997 with one at Texas Motor Speedway. Yes, that Texas victory which Luyendyk was awarded after successfully protesting a scoring error that showed Billy Boat and A.J. Foyt Racing as the winners. Luyendyk had not been credited with an extra lap completed. 

Many talented drivers have won the Indianapolis 500 over the 24 years since Montoya scored consecutive victories starting with the Indianapolis 500. 

Since 2001, the average finish for the Indianapolis 500 winner in the following race is 9.45. Note that twice since 2001 has the winner not competed in the following race. Those two drivers were Dan Wheldon in 2011 and Hélio Castroneves in 2021. 

Four times has the Indianapolis 500 winner finished second in the following race. Dario Franchitti was second to Tony Kanaan at Milwaukee in 2007. Scott Dixon was second to Ryan Briscoe at Milwaukee in 2008. In 2012, Franchitti was second at Belle Isle to Dixon. Takuma Sato was runner-up to Dixon at Gateway in 2020. 

On only two other occasions since 2001 has the Indianapolis 500 winner finished in the top five of the following race. Hélio Castroneves was fourth at Texas in 2002, and Franchitti was fifth at Texas in 2010.

Palou has another bit of history he could achieve this weekend in Detroit. Only three drivers have won the race before the Indianapolis 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the race after the Indianapolis 500. Palou would become the fourth. 

Things are quite different from the first time it happened. In 1935, the Indianapolis 500 was the first round of the season. Kelly Petillo won that race, and Petillo had won the 1934 season finale at Mines Field in Los Angeles, California. The next race was on July 4, 1935 at the Minnesota State Fair Speedway and Petillo won the 100-mile dirt event.

We have spoken multiple times about A.J. Foyt's 1964 season in comparison to what Palou has done this season. Foyt won the first seven races in 1964. Indianapolis was the third round that year. The first two victories were at Phoenix and Trenton. The following four victories came at Milwaukee, Langhorne, Trenton and Springfield.

The most recent occurrence of such a winning streak was in 1994. Al Unser, Jr. won at Long Beach, then the Indianapolis 500 and followed it up with a victory at Milwaukee. Coincidentally, Unser, Jr.'s winning streak ended at Detroit at Belle Isle. He was tenth in that race.

On all three occasions, Petillo, Foyt and Unser, Jr. went on to win the championship that season.

Penalties Shake Up Championship

A trio of penalties in the aftermath of the Indianapolis 500 has shifted the championship positions for a few drivers. After the Andretti Global entries of Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood, and the Prema entry of Callum Ilott were found with technical infractions in post-race qualifying, all three cars were moved to the end of the results, taking 31st, 32nd and 33rd positions respective. Ericsosn had finsihed second with Kirkwood in sixth and Ilott in 12th. 

Ericsson and Kirkwood were found with modified Energy Management Systems covers, and Ilott's was found with a front wing endplate that did not meet minimum height. Along with the removal of these three cars from their original finishing positions, all three entries were fined $100,000 and the team managers for all three entries are suspended for the Detroit round.

Kirkwood was set to be third in the championship on 180 points after this race. Instead, he drops to fifth on 156 points. Ericsson was about to enter the top ten in the championship after this runner-up result, but the 29-spot drop knocks Ericsson from tenth on 115 points to 20th with 79 points. This was also his fifth consecutive race without a top ten finish. Ilott remains 26th in the championship, but he goes from 58 points to 36 points.

After Indianapolis, Álex Palou leads the championship on 306 points, 112 points clear of Patricio O'Ward in second. Christian Lundgaard is up to third in the championship, 125 points behind Palou. O'Ward and Lundgaard are the only other drivers besides Palou to have multiple podium finishes this season. Felix Rosenqvist is fourth on 165 points with Kirkwood in fifth, 150 points off the championship lead. 

Scott Dixon has exactly half of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou on 153 points. Scott McLaughlin has 145 points after his Indianapolis 500 ended on the pace laps. Will Power is three points behind his Team Penske teammate McLaughlin. Colton Herta is ninth on 120 points, while David Malukas jumped to tenth on 110 pants after finishing tenth. 

Rinus VeeKay and Graham Rahal are tied on 105 points. VeeKay holds the tiebreaker with his best finish being fourth to Rahal's best finish of sixth. Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi are tied on 104 points with Newgarden holding the tiebreaker as his best finish is third to Rossi's eighth. Santino Ferrucci and Marcus Armstrong are tied on 103 points, and the tiebreaker goes to Ferrucci with a best finish of fifth to Armstrong's best finish being seventh.

Christian Rasmussen sits on 95 points, 12 points ahead of Conor Daly and 13 points ahead of Nolan Siegel before we arrive to Ericsson in 20th on 79 points. Rasmussen and Daly each picked up their first top ten finishes of the season in the Indianapolis 500. Kyffin Simpson and Louis Foster are tied on 67 points. Simpson holds the tiebreaker with his best finish being tenth to Foster's best finish of 11th. 

Robert Shwartzman is on 65 points, one point ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco and two points ahead of Sting Ray Robb before we arrive to Ilott on 45 points.

Who Will Finish Second This Week?

While there has been one regular winner this season, second-place has been a rotating cast of characters. Through six races, six different drivers have finished second. 

Scott Dixon was second at St. Petersburg before Patricio O'Ward was runner-up at Thermal Club. Álex Palou's only blemish was second to Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach. Christian Lundgaard took second to Palou at Barber before Graham Rahal was second at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. David Malukas inherited second at the Indianapolis 500 after Marcus Ericsson's penalty. 

This is the first season with six different runner-up finishers through the first six races since the 2018 season opened with six different runners-up. Graham Rahal, Robert Wickens, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon and Ed Carpenter were the runners-up through those first six races.

Felix Rosenqvist is the top driver in the championship without a runner-up finish. In fourth, his best finish this season is fourth, and he has finished in the top ten of five of six races this season. Rosenqvist has not finished second in a race since Portland in 2023. His only other runner-up finishes were in his rookie season in 2019 when he was second at Mid-Ohio and Portland.

Though he has won this season, Kyle Kirkwood has not finished second this season, and the only runner-up finish in Kirkwood's career was last year at Toronto to Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta.

Team Penske has yet to finish in the top two this season in any of the first six races. All three Penske drivers have finished third this season. Will Power was second in the first race held on this Detroit street circuit in 2023. Scott McLaughlin has seven runner-up finishes in his career, four of which have been on ovals, and the only street course where he has finished second is Nashville, where he was runner-up twice. Josef Newgarden's last two runner-up finishes have come at Road America over the last two seasons.

This is the first time Team Penske has not had a top two finish through the first six races of the season since 1999 when it only had one car entered for the first four events, and the best finish for the Penske PC-27B through the first six races was ninth. That was the middle of a 33-race podium drought for the team, which started at Belle Isle in 1998 and went through the 2000 season opener at Homestead.

Colton Herta has five career runner-up finishes, all coming on road/street courses. He was second at Long Beach and Laguna Seca last season. Herta's teammate Marcus Ericsson was runner-up in last year's Detroit race.

Eleven drivers entered in the Detroit race have never finished second in their IndyCar careers. Everyone ranked in the top fourteen in the championship has at least one runner-up finish, as well as Ericsson and Conor Daly.

The last time a season open with seven different runners-up was in 2013. That year saw Hélio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Carlos Muñoz, Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Jakes were the first seven drivers to finish second. The first driver with multiple second-place results was Hunter-Reay.

Oh... Honda is Undefeated

Lost in Álex Palou's dominance is Honda is undefeated this season. Through six races, Honda has won six times. This is the most consecutive races Honda has won to open a season since engine competition returned to IndyCar in 2012. Dating back to last season, Honda has won seven consecutive races, its longest overall winning streak since 2012 as well. 

There will be 14 Honda drivers looking to extend this winning streak in Chevrolet's backyard while 13 drivers will be defending the home team. 

Chevrolet's name might be on the Detroit Grand Prix, but this has been Honda's race. Honda has won the two races held on this track configuration. Both victories have come at the hand of Chip Ganassi Racing. Last year, Honda swept the top four spots with Scott Dixon leading Marcus Ericsson, Marcus Armstrong and Kyle Kirkwood. In 2023, Palou won from pole position with 74 of 100 laps led. 

Over the 200 laps run in the last two Detroit races, Honda drivers have combined to lead 181 of them. Last year, Honda drivers led 99 of 100 laps. Te only lap a Chevrolet driver led was during a pit cycle under caution. It was lap 34 with Josef Newgarden leading. 

Even prior to the move downtown, Honda has been succeeding in Detroit. At Belle Isle, Honda won ten of 18 races held from 2012 to 2022. Chip Ganassi Racing has a chance to become the first team to win three consecutive Detroit Grand Prix dating back to the original Renaissance Center course, Belle Isle and this current configuration. 

Honda also enters this weekend having won five consecutive street course races and 12 of the last 13 street races since the 2022 Toronto race. Chevrolet's most recent street course victory was the 2024 St. Petersburg race, which Josef Newgarden won on the road, but was awarded to Patricio O'Ward after Team Penske was found to have manipulated the push-to-pass system. 

For Chevrolet, it has taken two of three podium positions in four of the first six races, including in the last three events. Chevrolet has actually had more podium finishes this season with ten to Honda's eight. Chevrolet has also had more different drivers on the podium this season. Through six races, six different Chevrolet drivers have been on the podium while Honda has only had three podium finishes. Álex Palou is responsible for six of Honda's podium finishes with Scott Dixon and Kyle Kirkwood each responsible for one apiece. 

Though Chevrolet has most of the podium finishers, and it has had more drivers on the podium, it has not led nearly as many laps as Honda. Chevrolet has led 257 of 630 laps, 40.793% of the laps run this season. In the last three road/street course races, Chevrolet has led 41 of 265 laps, and Honda combined to lead all 85 laps run at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis three weeks ago. 

Only three active Chevrolet drivers have won the Detroit Grand Prix previously. Will Power was a three-time winner at Belle Isle in 2014, 2016 and 2022. Josef Newgarden won at the circuit in 2019 and Patricio O'Ward won in 2021.

Who Will Be Happy to See June?

On May 1, everyone loves the month of May. On Memorial Day, a fair number of people will be happy once the calendar flips to June. This year is no exception. Detroit marks the fifth consecutive week of competition that started with the Alabama Grand Prix from Barber Motorsports Park. After the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and two consecutive weekends of Indianapolis 500 festivities, IndyCar's longest stretch ends in Detroit and in a new month. 

For the third time in six seasons, Colton Herta failed to finish in the top ten in either May race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, early front wing damage knocked Herta off the lead lap and he finished 25th. In the Indianapolis 500, Herta had an early pit lane speeding penalty knock him a lap down, and he never able to cycle back to the lead lap. Through attrition and penalties, he was classified in 14th. 

Herta might not be happy for June either. In the last two Detroit races, he has finished 11th and 19th, and last year's race was marred with cautions that knocked him out of the lead from pole position and then he got into the tire barrier making an aggressive move on a damp track.

Josef Newgarden has not finished in the top five since he was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. His best finish in the last five races was tenth at Barber Motorsports Park. His May concluded with finishes of 12th and 22nd in the races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the month is topped off with a penalty for the modified attenuator that relegated Newgarden to 31st on the grid, as well as seeing his strategist Tim Cindric fired from the Team Penske organization along with Ron Ruzewski and Kyle Moyer. 

After opening the season with three top ten finishes in the first four races, Alexander Rossi was 14th and 28th in the two races held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rossi's Indianapolis 500 ended with a gearbox issue and an unrelated pit fire added insult and additional burns to injury. This was his third time finished 27th or worse in ten Indianapolis 500 starts. 

Marcus Ericsson's penalty after the Indianapolis 500 not only knocked him out of second-place at the final results, but it meant he has now finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races. This was Ericsson's fourth time finishing 20th or worse this season. This is his longest top ten drought since a eight-race stretch that spanned his final seven starts of his rookie season in 2019 and the 2020 season opener. 

Kyffin Simpson's sophomore season started promising. Simpson was 18th at St. Petersburg before finishing 15th at Thermal Club. At the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Simpson scored his first career top ten finish in IndyCar and he picked up fastest lap for good measure. During the month of May, he was 21st at Barber, failed to start the Grand Prix of Indianapolis due to a gearbox issue, and he was caught in a lap 92 accident in the Indianapolis 500 when Kyle Larson spun in front of the Cayamanian. 

Beside Simpson, the only other drivers who finished outside the top twenty in all three races held during the month of May were Sting Ray Robb and Callum Ilott, and the only reason why Jacob Abel isn't on this list is because Abel failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. 

The bad news for those who had a bad day at Indianapolis is the bad luck does not disappear just because the calendar changes.

Since 2001, The average finishing position for the winner after Indianapolis in the Indianapolis 500 is 9.478. Fourteen of the 24 winners had finished in the top ten at Indianapolis in the race prior. Only seven of those drivers were top five finishes. Three of those drivers were runner-up finishers. 

Only once in the last 24 years has the winner following Indianapolis finished outside the top twenty in the "500." That was Ryan Briscoe in 2008, who won at Milwaukee a week after he was 23rd at Indianapolis. 

IMSA

The second and final street race of the IMSA season is this weekend from Detroit with the GTP and GTD Pro classes competing. In GTP, Porsche Penske Motorsport looks to continue its perfect season. Four-for-four, Porsche Penske Motorsport has the top two in the championship. 

Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy won the first three races before it finished second to the #6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell at Laguna Seca. Nasr and Tandy lead the championship with 1,490 points while Jaminet and Campbell are 91 points behind the #7 Porsche's duo. 

The #24 BMW M Team RLL BMW of Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor has won pole positions for all four races this season. The only problem is the #24 BMW has not finished better than third. Eng and Vanthoor take third in the championship on 1,210 points while the #25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann are fourth on 1,137 points. 

Acura won last year's race with the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, but now with Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing has yet to finish better than fifth this season. Meyer Shank Racing had each of its two Acuras score a podium finish in the first two races.

AO Racing is on a strong title defense. It has won the last two races with Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler in the #77 Porsche, and AO Racing won this race last year. Heinrich and Bachler are 70-points ahead of Antonio García and Alexander Sims in the #3 Corvette. García and Sims have finished on the podium in two of the first three races. 

DragonSpeed is a surprising third in the championship with Albert Costa. The #81 Ferrari has started on pole position in the last two races and DragonSpeed was second at Laguna Seca. Costa has 938 points and Giacomo Altoè is his co-driver. 

Daytona winners Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch are fourth on 907 points. The #65 Ford has finished outside the top five of the last two races. Paul Miller Racing's BMWs are tied for fifth in the championship. The #48 BMW of Dan Harper and Max Hesse, and the #1 BMW of Madison Snow and Neil Verhaen are tied on 860 points. 

Lexus has two cars entered this weekend. Aaron Telitz will have Jack Hawksworth join him in the #14 Lexus as Ben Barnicoat remains sidelined after suffering an injury cycling. Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo will be in the #15 Lexus as a one-off in the GTD Pro class. 

The 100-minute race from Detroit will begin at 3:40 p.m. ET on Saturday May 31. 

Indy Lights

While Memorial Day weekend was a busy time for most of the series on the Road to Indy, Indy Lights had the weekend off, and now the series is back for the fifth round of its season from Detroit. 

Dennis Hauger maintained the championship lead after the doubleheader on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. After going off track on the opening lap in race one, Hauger recovered to finish eighth, and he won race two. The Norwegian has 187 points, and he is 15 points ahead of Andretti Global teammate Lochie Hughes. Hughes won the first IMS road course race before finishing second to Hauger in race two. Hughes has been on the podium of all four races this season. 

After opening the season with two consecutive fourth-place finishes, Myles Rowe was third in both IMS road course race, and Rowe is third in the championship on 134 points. Caio Collet was second and fifth in Indianapolis and he has 117 points. Salvador de Alba takes fifth in the championship with 111 points. 

Josh Pierson was sixth and ninth at IMS, and Pierson sits on 102 points, 12 clear of Liam Sceats. Callum Hedge has 88 points while Jordan Missig is ninth on 78 points. 

Andretti Global won last year's race with Louis Foster. In 2023, HMD Motorsports split a doubleheader with Reece Gold and Nolan Siegel. It was the first career victory for each driver.

The Indy Lights race will be run at 10:30 a.m. ET on Sunday June 1, and the race is scheduled for 45 laps. 

Fast Facts

This will be the sixth IndyCar race to take place on June 1 and the first since Josef Newgarden won at Belle Isle in 2019. 

This June 1 marks the 28th anniversary of Greg Moore's first career victory at Milwaukee, and the 17th anniversary of Ryan Briscoe's first career victory at Milwaukee. 

This Sunday will be Tom Sneva's 77th birthday. 

No driver has won six races or more in a season since Will Power won six times in 2011.

Since 1946, there have been 24 instances of drivers winning six races or more in a season.

No driver has won four consecutive races since Sébastien Bourdais in the 2006 Champ Car season. 

Since 1946, there have been nine instances of winning streaks lasting four races or longer.

Only once has a Chip Ganassi Racing driver won four consecutive races. In 1998, Alex Zanardi won at Belle Isle, Portland, Cleveland and Toronto.

In two races on this Detroit street course configuration, the average starting position for a winner is third. Álex Palou won from pole position in 2023 and Scott Dixon won from fifth last year.

Eleven consecutive street races have been won from a top ten starting position.

In each race on this configuration has the winner led the most laps. 

The average number of lead changes at Detroit is 7.5. There were ten lead changes in 2023 and five lead changes in 2024. 

The average number of cautions at Detroit is 7.5. There were seven cautions in 2023 and eight cautions in 2024. The average number of caution laps is 39.5. There were 32 caution laps in 2023 and 47 caution laps in 2024.

In last year's race, there were 27 consecutive caution laps from lap 33 through lap 59 for four separate incidents. 

Half of the cautions in last year's race were for incidents at the turn three hairpin. Seven of the 15 cautions over the last two years have been for turn three incidents. 

In neither of the first Detroit races has the first lap been completed under green flag conditions. 

The longest green flag run in last year's race was 27 laps, the final 27 laps of the race.

Despite all the cautions and incidents in last year's race, only one car failed to finish the race, and that was Christian Rasmussen, whose race ended after 24 laps due to a mechanical issue.  

Predictions

Álex Palou. Just pick Álex Palou for every race moving forward. You are going to be right at least 40% of the time. Besides Palou, Honda remains in control on the street courses, but Chevrolet will be competitive, and at least in the picture. Kyle Kirkwood will be a front-runner. Scott McLaughlin will lead Team Penske and put the Indianapolis 500 behind him. There will be fewer than five cautions and fewer than 25 caution laps. And people will be disappointed they didn't get a mess of a race. Prema will get its best qualifying effort of the season on a road/street course. No one between 11th and 16th in the championship will be tied on points after this race. There will be no disqualifications post-race, but someone will get fined for something. Sleeper: Nolan Siegel.