Starting from pole Car 10 Alex Palou, Honda, won the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear for his 6th NTT INDYCAR SERIES win. This is his 2nd win & 6th Top 5 for 2023. 2nd Place Car 12 Will Power, Chevrolet, started from 7th place. 3rd Place Car 6 Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, started from 9th place.
4th Place Car 9 Scott Dixon, Honda, started from 4th place followed by 5th place Car 7 Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, started from 13th place. 6th Place Car 27 Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, started from 12th place followed by 7th place Car 3 Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, started from 2nd place. 8th Place Car 11 Marcus Armstrong, Honda, started from 11th place followed by 9th place Car 8 Marcus Ericsson, Honda, started from 6th place. Lastly in the Top 10 was Car 2 Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, in 10th place, started from 5th place. Canadian Car 29 Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda finished in 12th place.
The race had 7 Cautions for 32 laps: 1st Caution on lap 1 for Waived Off Start. 2nd Caution on lap 2 for Contact: Car 27 and 77 in Turn 3. 3rd Caution on lap 43 for Contact: Car 5 in Turn 9. 4th Caution on lap 49 for Off Course: Car 51 in Turn 3. 5th Caution on lap 82 for Contact: Car 28 in Turn 4. 6th Caution on lap 87 for Contact: Car 18 in Turn 9. 7th Caution on lap 92 for Off Course: Car 14 and 51 in Turn 3.
The race had 10 Lead changes among 7 drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou, Alex 1 – 28, Power, Will 29 – 33, O’Ward, Pato 34, Palou, Alex 35 – 55, Power, Will 56 – 64, Palou, Alex 65, Rossi, Alexander 66, Newgarden, Josef 67 – 68, Kirkwood, Kyle 69, Ericsson, Marcus 70 – 76, Palou, Alex 77 – 100.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148, Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5
NTT INDYCAR SERIES at Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear June 2-3
Palou Pads Points Lead with Precise Winning Drive in Detroit
DETROIT (Sunday, June 4, 2023) – Precision paid off for Alex Palou on Sunday in Detroit.
NTT P1 Award winner Palou used his smooth driving style to prevail on one of the toughest circuits in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, capturing the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on the streets of Detroit. Spaniard Palou kept the lead during two late restarts in the No. 10 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda of Chip Ganassi Racing and beat the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power to the finish by 1.1843 seconds.
It was the sixth career victory for 2021 season champion Palou and his second in the last three races this season, as he also won the GMR Grand Prix on May 13 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“The No. 10 Ridgeline Lubricants car was on point today,” Palou said. “Super proud of the job we did. It was tricky there at the end, man, with those (worn) tires couldn’t really get to temperature (on restarts).”
Felix Rosenqvist finished a season-best third in the No. 6 onsemi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet after muscling past teammate Alexander Rossi during a spirited duel in the closing laps on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street circuit.
Six-time series champion Scott Dixon finished fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, putting two CGR cars in the top four. Rossi rounded out the top five in the No. 7 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Palou led from the drop of the green flag in the 100-lap race under sunny skies. He stretched his advantage to 9.1 seconds by Lap 21 after starting on the Firestone alternate tires, whose softer compound has more grip but less durability. Power started seventh on Firestone primary tires and used the longer wear on those tires to cut Palou’s lead to 1.5 seconds by Lap 29.
At that point, Chip Ganassi Racing elected to call Palou to the pits for Firestone primary tires, the same rubber as Power. Six laps later, Power pitted for the first time, opting for his mandatory run on Firestone alternates that use sustainable rubber from the guayule shrub, and handed the lead back to Palou.
After Power blended back into the race from his stop, Palou gradually built his lead to four seconds. But that gap evaporated on Lap 43 when Pato O’Ward crashed in Turn 9 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Palou held off Power on the restart on Lap 49, but the caution flag flew during the first lap of green after the restart when rookie Sting Ray Robb went deep into the runoff area in Turn 3 in the No. 51 biohaven Honda.
The ensuing restart on Lap 56 was about the only spot of bother all day for Palou. Power, on grippier alternate tires, dove under Palou for first in the Turn 3 hairpin at the end of the long back straightaway. Palou’s car seemed to pause at the exit of that corner, apparently due to a problem that forced him to cycle through the emergency electronics mode on the wheel before normal service was restored.
Reigning and two-time series champion Power had pulled away to a 2.8-second lead over Palou two laps after that restart. But Palou collected himself, focused forward and dove under Power in Turn 3 on Lap 65 to regain the lead.
“We had an issue that was probably my fault, but then we got stuck there,” Palou said. “I couldn’t really upshift. Proud that we got it back and that we got another win this year.”
After the field cycled through its final pit stops, Palou led by nearly five seconds when Romain Grosjean crashed in Turn 4 in the No. 28 DHL Honda on Lap 82, triggering another full-course caution. Palou held off Power on that restart on Lap 87, another on Lap 91 after David Malukas crashed in the No. 18 HMD Trucking Honda during the previous restart and yet again on a final restart on Lap 96 after Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet and Robb’s car went deep into the Turn 3 runoff while dueling for position.
There was plenty of muscular driving and contact over the last five laps, including Dixon running into the rear of Power’s car on the final restart and spirited, aggressive swaps of position by Arrow McLaren teammates Rosenqvist and Rossi. Palou levitated in front of the mayhem and cruised to victory, leading 74 of the 100 laps.
“I did everything I could to get Palou,” Power said. “He was just too quick, man. Too good today.”
Palou will split $10,000 with Chip Ganassi Racing and his chosen charity, The American Legion, for his victory as part of the PeopleReady Force For Good Challenge. He has won two of the three legs needed to earn a $1 million bonus, with a win on the road course at IMS and the street circuit at Detroit. Palou can secure the bonus with a win in any of the three remaining three oval races, a doubleheader July 22-23 at Iowa Speedway and Aug. 27 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR on Sunday, June 18 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear Race Results
DETROIT – Results Sunday of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 1.645-mile Streets of Detroit, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
- (1) Car 10 Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
- (7) Car 12 Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (9) Car 6 Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (4) Car 9 Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
- (13) Car 7 Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (12) Car 27 Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
- (2) Car 3 Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (11) Car 11 Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
- (6) Car 8 Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
- (5) Car 2 Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (24) Car 26 Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
- (17) Car 29 Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running – Canadian
- (8) Car 60 Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
- (20) Car 78 Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (15) Car 20 Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (18) Car 45 Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
- (25) Car 30 Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
- (14) Car 21 Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
- (23) Car 06 Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
- (19) Car 55 Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
- (22) Car 14 Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
- (26) Car 51 Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
- (21) Car 18 David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
- (3) Car 28 Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
- (27) Car 15 Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
- (10) Car 5 Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
- (16) Car 77 Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph
Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171
Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds
Cautions: 7 for 32 laps
Lead changes: 10 among 7 drivers
Next INDYCAR Event: Sunday, June 18 Road America USA Network, Peacock
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