Round 6 of the 2025 IndyCar season is in the books as the Indy 500 race has been completed, full report and results below. Rookie driver Robert Shwartzman started on pole for IndyCar’s newest team PREMA.
Alex Palou won the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with a masterful pass on Marcus Ericsson on lap 187, securing his first Indy 500 victory and etching his name into racing history.
The popular Spaniard turned in a masterful drive behind the wheel of his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
The day opened under cloudy skies and a weather delay of nearly an hour due to light rain and a crash by Scott McLaughlin on the pace laps. Starting tenth, McLaughlin lost control of his No. 3 Penske Chevrolet while warming the tires and made contact with the inside wall on the front stretch. At the same time, Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Ganassi Honda caught fire at the rear, but the team kept him out on track.
The field took the green flag on lap five in the traditional eleven rows of three after a start under the caution flag.
Marco Andretti lost control entering Turn One, impacted the outside wall, and slid across the track before coming to a stop as Jack Harvey came up towards him as the pack was sorting itself out.
Lap 10 featured three different leaders: Pato O’Ward took the lead from rookie polesitter Robert Shwartzman into Turn One, while two-time Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato moved to the front into Turn 3.
Rain brought out the day’s third caution on lap 20.
Kyle Larson, in the No. 17 Arrow McLaren Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, stalled on pit lane and dropped several positions.
Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter, and Devlin DeFrancesco elected to stay out. Jack Harvey, Rinus VeeKay, and Graham Rahal, who had pitted on lap 7, also remained on track. Sato, Ericsson, O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, Palou, David Malukas, and Conor Daly all pitted and cycled out behind the leaders.
Josef Newgarden and Will Power worked their way up to 23rd and 24th on the restart. Dixon lost three laps due to a caliper change prior to the green flag.
The race resumed on lap 31, and Rasmussen passed Rossi for the lead.
Rasmussen and Rossi pitted on lap 43, with Carpenter following a lap later, handing the lead to Harvey. Harvey led one lap before pitting, returning the lead to Sato.
By lap 61, Sato still held the lead, with Daly the first of the frontrunners to pit from second. On lap 64, Colton Herta in the No. 26 Andretti Honda was penalized for speeding on pit lane.
Once the stops cycled through, Sato maintained the lead over a hard-charging Malukas. By lap 67, the top five were Sato, Malukas, DeFrancesco, Rossi, and Palou.
Rossi developed a fluid leak on lap 72 and had to pit. The leak and resulting fire ended a promising run for the 2016 winner.
Newgarden cracked the top ten by lap 79, running five seconds behind race leader Sato.
The fourth caution of the day came on lap 82 when VeeKay lost his brakes and slammed into the inside pit lane wall while attempting to pit his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda.
At that point, Sato, Malukas, Palou, Daly, Santino Ferrucci, O’Ward, Callum Ilott, Rosenqvist, Newgarden, and Helio Castroneves held the top ten spots.
Lap 87 saw Sato overshoot his pit box, costing him valuable seconds. Meanwhile, Shwartzman’s day ended after he hit the wall entering the pit lane and damaged the front end.
On the lap 92 restart, Ryan Hunter-Reay took over the lead. DeFrancesco and Carpenter, on alternate strategies, ran second and third. Harvey and Palou rounded out the top five.
A chaotic restart into Turn One triggered an incident when Larson lost the car’s rear after an aggressive downshift. The move collected Kyffin Simpson in the No. 8 Ganassi Honda and Sting Ray Robb in the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet—Robb tried to avoid the incident but couldn’t save it.
After the accident, the top ten reset to Hunter-Reay, DeFrancesco, Harvey, Malukas, Daly, Palou, Ferrucci, Rosenqvist, Carpenter, and Newgarden.
Hunter-Reay pitted on lap 104, handing the lead to DeFrancesco, who had pitted 30 laps earlier. That moved Ilott into the top ten.
On the restart at lap 107, Rasmussen spun in the No. 21 but avoided the wall, bringing out another caution.
DeFrancesco, Harvey, Malukas, Daly, Palou, Ferrucci, Rosenqvist, Carpenter, Ilott, and O’Ward held the top ten positions as the field reset.
With 75 laps to go, Indiana native Conor Daly inherited the lead when DeFrancesco pitted. A.J. Foyt’s duo of Malukas and Ferrucci ran second and third. Palou sat fourth, with Ilott in fifth.
Newgarden and Power climbed to seventh and 13th, respectively, after starting on the last row.
By lap 131, four-time winner Helio Castroneves had moved his No. 06 MSR Honda into ninth.
Newgarden’s hopes for victory ended on lap 135 when he pitted with a fuel pressure issue.
On lap 136, Palou, Daly, and Malukas swapped positions as they battled for fifth, sixth, and seventh—effectively the lead due to pit strategy cycles.
Daly pitted on lap 166 from fourth with an ill-handling car.
Palou and Ferrucci pitted on lap 168. Hunter-Reay’s day ended when his car stalled in the pits.
Malukas pitted on lap 170, handing the lead to Ericsson.
Ericsson’s final stop came on lap 175, and the Andretti crew executed flawlessly to get the Swede out ahead of Palou and Malukas.
While Palou and Malukas worked to save fuel, Ericsson ran wide open.
On lap 187, Palou capitalized on lapped traffic and dove to the inside to pass Ericsson for the lead.
With five laps to go, Palou led Ericsson, followed by Malukas, O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Kirkwood, Ferrucci, Castroneves, Rasmussen, and Lundgaard. The top five were separated by less than two seconds.
Palou held off Ericsson for four and three-quarter laps before a crash by Nolan Siegel brought out a yellow, and the field coasted home from the final turn to the yard of bricks in the Indy 500 race.
Alex Palou took the checkered flag, extended his NTT IndyCar points lead, and, more importantly, stamped his place in history and likeness on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
Full race classification and results from the 2025 Indy 500
