{"id":35171,"date":"2025-06-22T17:21:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T21:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35171"},"modified":"2025-06-22T17:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T21:28:05","slug":"road-america-race-day-helps-extend-palous-championship-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/06\/22\/road-america-race-day-helps-extend-palous-championship-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Palou Takes The Top Step After a Chaotic Race at Road America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off their night race in St. Louis<\/a> last weekend, IndyCar was in Wisconsin this afternoon for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Palou Wins His Sixth Race of The Season at Road America<\/b><\/h2>\n

Now that he\u2019s won six out of the nine races we\u2019ve had so far, Palou’s shown exactly why he\u2019s the championship leader in what could be his fourth championship-winning season.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

He started the race second behind rookie driver Louis Foster. Palou dropped down amid all the cautions but found himself back at the top during the race’s late stages. It seemed like Felix Rosenqvist could catch up, but Palou kept him at bay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosenqvist instead finished in second place, followed by Santino Ferrucci. This is Rosenqvist\u2019s first podium of the year and Ferrucci’s second.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

SOLO at the top!<\/p>\n

Alex Palou’s magical season continues with a victory at @roadamerica<\/a>! \ud83c\udf7e pic.twitter.com\/1YP5k9yuZP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Chaotic Set of Caution Laps\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Three cautions were brought out during the first 11 laps of the race. Road America isn\u2019t known to be a caution-heavy race, but things were off to a frantic start this afternoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On lap one, David Malukas<\/a> went off the track and into the sand. A caution was brought out immediately as they worked to get him safely back into the pits. After a pit stop, Malukas was\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

able to rejoin the race since his car suffered minimal damage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after, Indy 500 pole sitter Robert Shwartzman<\/a> found himself in the barrier at turn 12. At Road America, turn 12 is known to be the heaviest braking zone on the track. Shwartzman was under braking and had a rear lock-up up which sent him straight into the barrier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a couple more laps of racing under green, it was Sting Ray Robb who found his race coming to a premature end. Similarly to Malukas, Robb overestimated exactly how much space he had to overtake Marcus Armstrong. He went into the wall at turn 5.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tough Luck For Josef Newgarden\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

One driver who\u2019s been struggling this season is Josef Newgarden.<\/a> It\u2019s important to note that a majority of the issues he\u2019d faced during his races have been out of his control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Newgarden was forced to DNF this afternoon after going wide at turn 14 and ending up in the wall. After his left rear went off the pavement, Newgarden was sent into the tire barrier. His rear wing was gone, and he spent some time in the pits before Team Penske confirmed he would not be returning to the race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of Newgarden\u2019s recent DNFs include his seat belt not working properly, fuel leakage, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time last weekend after Louis Foster\u2019s crash sent his car upside down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Notable Road America Moments\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

On lap 25, Conor Daly went off the track and into the gravel after what\u2019s been a difficult weekend for him. The AMR safety was deployed to help him get back on track. After his car got moving again, he went racing with the safety team\u2019s tow rope attached to the back of his car until he pitted and got it removed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Conor Daly in the gravel trap during the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, June 22, 2025. (Photo by James Black, Penske Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian Lundgaard and Colton Herta<\/a> got close to making contact this afternoon as well. The two were going side by side, but Lundgaard went over the bumps on the edge of the track. He spun around on track, and Kyle Kirkwood was forced off track in order to avoid contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

IndyCar goes green next on July 6. The drivers take on the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. The green flag waves at 1:00 p.m.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read Next:\u00a0Kyle Kirkwood Conquers The Night In St. Louis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Main Photo:\u00a0<\/strong>Travis Hinkle, Penske Entertainment<\/p>\n

Recording Date: 6\/22\/2025<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh off their night race in St. Louis last weekend, IndyCar was in Wisconsin this afternoon for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.\u00a0 Alex Palou Wins His Sixth Race of The Season at Road America Now that he\u2019s won six out of the nine races we\u2019ve had so far, Palou’s shown exactly why he\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5230,"featured_media":35175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,1663],"tags":[1600,398,1656,440,634,1692],"class_list":["post-35171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-indycar","category-ntt-indycar-series","tag-alex-palou","tag-chip-ganassi-racing","tag-david-malukas","tag-josef-newgarden","tag-road-america","tag-sting-ray-robb"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35178,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35171\/revisions\/35178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}