Palou stays cool under fire to take Detroit GP win

For those who missed the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, learning that Alex Palou won from pole might conjure thoughts of another snoozefest where the Spaniard ran off and hid from the field, but thanks to constant contact, inflamed emotions, and the double requirement for drivers to use Firestone’s short-life alternate compound tires, it was far from boring to behold across 100 laps in Motown.

In what proved to be a three-stop race, Palou and his race strategist Barry Wanser chose to start with alternates on the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, stayed on alternates for the middle stint, and closed on the more durable primary compound which played to their advantage.

Kyle Kirkwood, who started sixth and finished second in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda after starting on alts, shifting to primes, and closing on alts, which started to fall off in the closing laps as Palou pulled out a 3.0s. But the race wasn’t simply decided on tire strategy.

One of the incessant cautions came out at the two-thirds point in the race while Kirkwood was leading; Wanser called Palou in to make his final stop just before the incident, and when the race was paused, Kirkwood and the rest of the drivers in the lead pack were forced to wait and stop once the pits opened. In the moment, it looked like Palou was gifted the win with the choice to use the under-cut while Kirkwood’s day appear to be ruined, but as the race unfolded and more cautions flew, he found himself back on Palou’s gearbox, and with the softer alternates to try and overtake the leader on the restarts.

Although Kirkwood cut the lead to under one second, the strategy battle between Wanser and Kirkwood’s Bryan Herta fell in the Ganassi driver’s favor as the Andretti car started to lose grip on alts in the last 10 laps while Palou’s sturdier primes kept delivering quick laps. Earlier in the race, Palou was passed by Andretti’s Will Power and dropped as far as fourth when Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard rifled by as he struggled to close his first stint on alts.

Altogether, it was an up-and-down afternoon for the eventual winner, who was thankful to extend his championship lead from 42 points to 62.

“Honestly, it was a tough one, very tough one,” Palou said after earning the fourth win of 2026 and the 23rd victory of his career. “But the team did an incredible job once again with the strategy. Pit stops were incredible. Incredible start to the year. Another win. Can’t wait for the next one.”

Kirkwood, who regained second in the drivers’ championship behind Palou, was thankful to recover from what could have been a disastrous moment when the caution landed while he was close to pitting.

“I'm happy with that,” Kirkwood said. “I was ready to make a dive on him, and of course [the caution] comes out after I burned 10 seconds of overtake, so and then from there we just didn't really have another shot at it. I think I just used up my tires too much to try that one pass, and the yellow came out as I was trying it, so I'm happy with P2 though. I'm very happy with that. Thanks to the team.”

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal was a fighting third after being dropped to the tail of the field after Ganassi’s Kyffin Simpson spun the No. 15 RLL Honda from behind.

“[Race strategist] Brian Barnhart did a wonderful job calling that,” Rahal said after completing a Honda 1-2-3 at Chevrolet’s home race. “Honda, wonderful job here in the Motor City. I know it feels good for them, and the fuel mileage was really key for us, and the drivability, man.”

Arrow McLaren didn’t have the pace to win, but Pato O’Ward and Lundgaard represented well for Chevy as the first drivers home for the Bowtie in fourth and fifth, respectively. Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist wasn’t overly competitive all day, but made the most from the big swings in strategy and shuffling of the running order thanks to the five cautions to take sixth.

“We started 16th and tried to kind of go off-strategy and we even got kind of screwed two times on it, so I was surprised we were still running that good,” Rosenqvist said. “We had a really good last restart, we started 11th and came out 6th. Some people crashed and we passed a few cars, so we kind of played it semi-aggressive survival game, and it worked out pretty good for us."

RLL’s Louis Foster was on an adrenaline-filled run from the first lap and used his won’t-be-denied mindset to deliver seventh for the team, matching his best result of the season in the process. But the most impressive drive of the event belonged to Josef Newgarden, who started 21st, fell to last early in the race while running uncompetitive lap times, and mustered the effort to go forward – and run clean to prosper from the wild swings happening around his Team Penske car – to take 10th.

Almost every driver behind Newgarden from 11th to 25th either hit something on their own, hit another driver, or did both, or were penalized or, like ECR’s Alexander Rossi, managed to accomplish all three. Some were innocent and received hits, and in Scott Dixon’s case, he was felled by a hybrid failure, but the other 13 behind Newgarden had some sort of story to tell and significant reasons behind their adversity, even if it was of the self-made variety.

IndyCar and street racing. Sometimes it’s boring as hell like last month in Long Beach and sometimes it’s a slam dance and a strategy play like Detroit to close the month of May.

AS IT HAPPENED

The 100-lap Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix featured a front row of Alex Palou and Will Power and Scott McLaughlin directly behind Palou. Alexander Rossi managed to hit the wall on the warmup laps and bent the suspension.

Lap 1 and Palou leads with McLaughlin slotting into P2.

Lap 3 and Palou leads McLaughlin by 0.8s and Power by 1.8s.

Lap 5 and Palou is up 1.1s on McLaughlin and turned a 1m04.6 on alternates while Christian Lundgaard – first on primaries in P5 – turned a 1m04.5s.

Lap 6 and Josef Newgarden has fallen from P21 to P25. Teammate David Malukas is up from P25 to P22.

Lap 7 and Palou leads McLaughlin by 1.5s. He turns 1m03.3s to Lundgaard’s 1m03.7s.

Lap 10 and Palou leads McLaughlin by 2.0s. Power is down by 3.4s. Palou turns a 1m03.0s to Lundgaard’s 1m03.4s.

Lap 10 CAUTION. Christian Rasmussen crashes.

Lap 12 and Felix Rosenqvist and Dennis Hauger and Josef Newgarden pit. Rinus VeeKay and Sting Robb stopped prior to the crash. The rest stayed out.

Lap 15 restart.

Lap 16 and Power takes P2 from McLaughlin.

Lap 17 and Power takes P1 from Palou. Bad lap for Palou at 1m06.6s to Power’s 1m04.4s.

Lap 18 and Power leads Palou by 1.4s.

Lap 20 and Power leads Palou by 0.8s. Power, Palou, and McLaughlin all turned 1m04.4s laps. Lundgaard turned a 1m04.8s on primes.

Lap 23 and Power leads Palou by 1.3s. Power: 1m04.5s. Palou 1m04.4s. Lundgaard: 1m05.0s.

Lap 25 and Lundgaard takes P4 from Dixon and a bit of contact is involved.

Lap 26 and Power leads Palou by 0.7s. Power: 1m04.7s. Palou 1m04.5s. Lundgaard: 1m04.1s.

Lap 28 and Power leads Palou by 0.8s and Lundgaard in P4 by 4.9s. Lundgaard is 0.9s faster than Power and Palou on this lap with his primes.

Lap 30 and Power leads Palou by 0.3s and Lundgaard by 2.6s. Alts are dead.

Lap 32 and Palou falls to P4 as McLaughlin and Lundgaard take advantage of a poor decision to try and pass Power around the outside of the hairpin.

Lap 35 and Power falls to P3 behind leader McLaughlin and Lundgaard.

Lap 36 and McLaughlin and Power pit. Lundgaard leads.

Lap 39 and Kyffin Simpson tags and spins Graham Rahal who was running P11. Rahal takes a few moments to fire the car, backs up, and drives off. IndyCar Officiating throws a full-course yellow.

Lap 40 and Marcus Armstrong enters the closed pits, loses the lead, gets sent to the back of the field.

Lap 45 restart and Palou (alts) leads Kirkwood (primes), McLaughlin, Lundgaard, Power (all alts).

Lap 46 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 1.1s.

Lap 47 and VeeKay barges bast Santino Ferrucci for P12. Newgarden is P15 and Malukas is P16.

Lap 48 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 1.7s, McLaughlin by 3.0s, and Lundgaard by 3.9s. Rosenqvist takes P13 from Ferrucci.

Lap 53 and Palou leads by 3.6s, McLaughlin by 6.2s, and Lundgaard by 7.3s.

Lap 55 and Dixon runs long, falls to P10.

Lap 57 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 3.3s. Palou 1m04.2s. Kirkwood 1m03.8s.

Lap 61 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 2.6s. Palou 1m03.8s. Kirkwood 1m03.5s.

Lap 62 and Rosenqvist takes P12 from VeeKay. Remarkable effort by P15 Newgarden to continue running in front of Malukas.

Lap 64 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 2.0s. Equal lap time by both. Malukas pits.

Lap 65 and Palou pits from the lead.

Lap 66 and VeeKay and Ferrucci spin when Ferrucci tags VeeKay from behind. Caution. Kirkwood loses the lead. Caution timing turns the race upside down, but favors the under-cutting Palou.

Lap 70 and the top six pit while Palou retakes the lead. Rossi moves to P2 but had a penalty to serve for entering a closed pit lane.

Lap 73 restart. Schumacher and Malukas run long and fall to the back of the field. Schumacher nosed into the tires. Caution.

Lap 77 restart. Palou leads Kirkwood. Power takes P6 from Newgarden.

Lap 78 and Rossi pits. Power takes P3 from McLaughlin, McLaughlin fights back and walls Power hard exiting the hairpin, lifting the front of Power’s car off the ground.

Lap 80 caution for Ferrucci.

Lap 81 and Power pits and retires. An incensed Power mouths ‘**** off’ to the camera on pit lane.

Lap 84 restart.

Lap 86 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 0.8s, Rahal by 1.7s, O’Ward by 2.5s, Lundgaard by 3.5s, Rosenqvist by 5.1s.

Lap 88 and Palou is under pressure on primes from Kirkwood on primes.

Lap 90 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 1.7s and Rahal by 2.6s.

Lap 91 and McLaughlin retires. Rossi punts Grosjean into the wall. Caution.

Lap 93 restart.

Lap 95 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 0.5s and Rahal by 1.4s.

Lap 96 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 0.7s.

Lap 97 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 1.1s.

Lap 98 and Palou leads Kirkwood by 1.6s and has Rahal, O’Ward, Lundgaard, and Rosenqvist in tow.

Lap 99 and Palou has 1.8s over Kirkwood and the race under control.

Lap 100 and Palou wins the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix for Honda as Honda goes 1-2-3 with Kirkwood and Rahal.

RESULTS