Alex Palou Leads Just Two Laps, Wins At Road America

Last weekend, Penske Racing cars led both races at Detroit for most of the day and seemed in position to win when the final caution flew. One race fell apart for Will Power when his car failed to re-fire after a red flag. The other saw Josef Newgarden, on old tires, passed late by Patricio O'Ward. Today, Josef Newgarden either led or effectively led on strategy every single lap of the race at Road America before a caution came out with four laps to go. On a smaller track, that would end the race under yellow. Here, it meant one more restart.

Newgarden had a difficult easy race. He had a minor mechanical issue early, something he briefly thought would force him into an emergency shift mode that would require him to manually rev match on downshifts. That proved to be a non-issue early, but then the timing of cautions and seemingly inferior fuel mileage for the Chevrolet-powered cars forced him to save fuel throughout the second half of the race. The final caution guaranteed his window, but the transmission glitch popped up again on the final re-start.

He stumbled on an upshift as the leader heading into turn 1, opening the door for Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou to turn what had been a second-place run all day into a win. He fell all the way down to 21st, a crushing result for a driver and team with championship expectations that have now failed to win a single event through nine races of a 16-race season.

Newgarden falls to fourth, 83 points behind what looks like something of a three-horse race. He, his teammate Simon Pagenaud, today's runner-up Colton Herta, and last weekend's race 1 winner Marcus Ericsson now make up a group of outside contenders, within 22 points of one another but only within striking distance if they either go on a winning streak or see the lead contenders put up a few disastrous results in a row over the next five races.

His failure is Alex Palou's gain. The second-year driver has now won his second race with Chip Ganassi Racing, and the second of his career. That victory makes him the first CGR driver besides Scott Dixon to win twice with the team since, incredibly, 2011 series champion and 2013 retiree Dario Franchitti. It also makes him the championship leader once again, while a disappointing ninth-place finish has pushed Patricio O'Ward 28 points behind him. Dixon, who salvaged fourth today after an exceptional but near-silent drive from the middle of the field, sits 53 points back as the third member of a three-car, two-team battle.

Will Power completes the day's podium, but, like Colton Herta, he has been doomed by inconsistency. He now sits a distant tenth in the series standings, 145 points behind the leaders.

Among non-contenders, the star of the day was Formula 1 veteran Romain Grosjean. The former Renault and Haas F1 driver fell out of the top ten after a series of slow stops, but that put him in a perfect position to charge through the field with all the aggression he could never show in a Formula 1 car. Grosjean made turn 5 his battleground, passing on both the inside and the outside all day as he recovered to a triumphant fifth. It is the best drive yet for Grosjean in an IndyCar, including his runner up finish after taking a pole at the Indianapolis road course.

It was a mixed back for his former Haas F1 teammate, Kevin Magnussen, on his IndyCar debut. Magnussen had never driven an IndyCar before this weekend, and the adjustment period meant that he was in a difficult position from lap 1 of the race. He ran off track early, then pit strategy actually moved him into the race lead on a restart. Despite slow lap times, he held off fellow off-strategy driver Takuma Sato throughout that run before pitting and seemed to be in position to steal a strong finish when he suffered a mechanical issue and came to a halt on the side of the road late in the race. His best lap time of 1:50 was nearly a second and a half off the best times of the leaders, but it was competitive with much more experienced drivers. If this is something Magnussen wants to do, the F1 veteran and newly-minted IMSA winner seems more than qualified for a chance to do it going forward.

IndyCar has a week off before its race at Mid-Ohio next weekend. That race will be the last for a month, but, after that long break, will run its final six races in a flurry over eight weeks. The season is already rapidly approaching its end, so anyone hoping to win a championship will need to finish this first half of the year strong in that race.

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