It initially looked like the Sonsio Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course would be dominated by Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou for the fourth year in a row, after he took the pole position by more than half a second.
He opened up a big lead in the early stages of this 85-lap race around the 13-turn, 2.439-mile (3.925-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana road course and appeared to be coasting to a third straight NTT IndyCar Series victory, until Alexander Rossi's No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet crawled to a halt on the front straightaway.
It appeared as though IndyCar was going to stay green, as they have inexplicably done on a number of occasions in the past to "let the pit cycle play out", even at the expense of driver safety.
There was a local caution displayed as Rossi sat near the start/finish line, enraged at the fact that IndyCar had forced him to choose between being left stranded or exiting his vehicle onto a hot race track – and at the fastest part of the course, no less.
But the full course yellow was finally flown. However, due to the confusion, which led some to believe that the initial local yellow was really a full course yellow, Palou did not make a pit stop from the lead, meaning he would need to pit under caution and drop to the back of the grid.
Fortunately for him, Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, who was running second at the time, didn't pit either. So Palou's closest championship rival dropped to the back of the grid with him, in an extremely bizarre sequence from two of the teams that are usually on point with their pit strategy.
Alex Palou's rough outing results in extended points lead anyway
Both of them made quick work of a number of other cars after the subsequent restart. Kirkwood then got around Palou when Palou needed to take evasive action to avoid a multi-car crash in turn 13, a crash that triggered another caution.
They both continued their march through the field after the next restart. Kirkwood progressed quicker than Palou did, so Palou came in for another pit stop for new tires and clean air.
Kirkwood came in shortly thereafter, and Andretti Global did what Andretti Global have been best at for several years now: completely blew it in the pits.
The No. 27 team took more than 15 seconds to send Kirkwood back out on the race track as a result of a lost wheel nut on the front right tire and an early drop. At that point Palou was well ahead of him.
In the end, Palou was able to rally from the back to finish fifth, while Kirkwood could only recover for a season-low ninth. With Palou having started from pole and led 20 laps, he scored two bonus points, meaning he outscored Kirkwood by a total of 10 points over the course of the weekend.
So on an afternoon that quickly turned into a disaster for Palou, he still managed to avoid further disaster and extend his championship lead from 17 points to 27.
The seventh race on the 18-race 2026 NTT IndyCar Series schedule is the 110th running of the Indy 500, which is set to be shown live on Fox from Indianapolis Motor Speedway starting at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 24. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss it!
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