Indy Diary 2025: Episode #4
Alex Palou gives Chip Ganassi a very big win.
Indy 2025 was the 16th IndyCar victory for 28-year-old Spanish star, Alex Palou. But this was the big one. And his first on an Oval.
The Indianapolis 500 is the jewel for any IndyCar driver and his race was measured and aggressive when needed. His final stint after the last stop was superb as he stamped his authority on the race by passing Marcus Erickson, and then strategically using the two cars of Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, the last cars on the lead lap, to act as spoilers and allowing him to save fuel while keeping his podium contenders behind him.
“Best milk I’ve ever tasted,” Palou said on the Victory Podium after a hearty swig from the traditional winner’s bottle of milk. “It tastes so good. What an amazing feeling.”
“I cannot believe it,” Palou said at the media conference. “It’s amazing to win.
"There were some moments that I felt really good in the race, but at the end I didn’t know if I was going to able to pass Marcus or not, but I made it happen. First oval win. What a better place?”
It was the sixth Indianapolis 500 win for car owner Ganassi, who watched his other entries of Scott Dixon and Kyffin Simpson fail to strike a blow.
Penske hoping ‘The Month of May’ finishes quickly.
There was no doubt that the early favourites for both the pole and a race win were going to come from the Team Penske stable. But things only got worse as the month of May wore on.
The team attenuator controversy, the disqualification, the sackings of long-time senior staffm were largely forgotten as the grid lined up for the start.
But the IndyGods were not smiling on Team Penske as Scott McLaughlin made a terrible error on the warm up lap behind the pace car, spearing his #3 Yellow Submarine into the inside wall at Turn 1 while tyre warming.
A heartbroken McLaughlin told Fox TV that it ‘was the worst day of his life.’
Josef Newgarden looked to be getting things back on track with a heady drive from 32nd to a strong position in the Top 5 when fuel pressure problems put him out on lap 136.
Will Power never figured and spent most of the race in the midfield, finally finishing 19th.
It was one of the worst Team Penske performances in recent history.
Pit Road Antics
Action was coming thick and fast in pitlane all day.
Second-placed Marcus Erickson (before his disqualification for a technical breach) summed it up by saying that, with no brake temperature and in most cases old tyres, the entry to the pitlane was very tricky.
It caught out many including pole sitter Robert Shwartzman who locked up and hit the left-side crew and the pit wall, ending his race.
Earlier, Rinius Veekay locked up and spun into the wall ending his race as well.
Pit box overshoots from the likes of Ryan Hunter-Ray highlighted the tricky conditions.
Alexander Rossi was having a great day in the Ed Carpenter entry, leading 14 laps, before a gearbox oil leak ignited a major fire at his pit stop.
Kyle Larson also emerged from a pit stop in last place after stalling and then being unable to fire the car. But worse was to come for the man chasing an Indy 500/ Charlotte 600 NASCAR race on the same day.
A wild restart on Lap 92 saw the Hendrick-sponsored car drop low in Turn 2, spin and take out Kyffin Simpson and the quite bizarrely named Sting Ray Robb.
At least Larson did not have to worry about being late to Charlotte as, ironically, he crashed there as well on Lap 246. Not a great day.
The Teams evenly spread in the Top 10
Only one team in the 33-car field had one car as Dale Coyne Racing was pinning its hopes on Rinus Veekay before his pit wall exit.
All others were three-car teams with the exception of Meyer Schank Racing with two.
At the chequered flag, the spoils were evenly spread across the top 10 with AJ Foyt Enterprises, Arrow McLaren and Andretti Global with two each and winner Chip Ganassi with only one – although it was the one that mattered.
Marcus Ericksson summed it up after the race saying he will be spending a lot of time thinking about how he could have been in the number one position at the final flag.
Like most motorsport, Indy 500 winners are celebrated while second place-getters are largely forgotten.
Money, money, money.
The Indianapolis 500 payout record was broken for the fourth straight year thanks to the bumper crowd for the 109th running of the race.
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing earned $US3.8 million ($A5.8m) from the total purse of $20,283,000. ($A30.7m), although there is no detail on the breakdown between driver and team.
The average payout for the 33 drivers was $US596,500 or $A920,000.
