Oilpressure

A very topsy-turvy race ended up with a very predictable result. As he has done six times already this season, Alex Palou won the 2025 XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. It’s not highly unusual for this race to run caution-free, as it did in 2019 when Alexander Rossi ran away from the field after Turn Three of the opening lap. Things were a little bit different today. Altogether, there were five caution periods.

It all started on Lap One. We always watch the start of the race here from the inside of Turn One. This year, the field got through Turn One fine. But just as the field went out of our view, I could hear the gasps of the crowd that had a TV view. I later learned that was when David Malukas lost it and ran off in Turn Three. We were making our way to Turn Five, as the race restarted. We stopped of for some ice cream, when I heard the engines running slowly again after only two laps. The second yellow in four laps was when Robert Shwartzman ran off into the gravel in Canada Corner.

Just before we made our way to Turn Five, Sting Ray Robb made his way into the Turn Five tire barrier, bringing out the third caution in the first ten laps, setting the stage for most of the cars to pit. In fact, seventeen of the remaining cars pitted on Lap Twelve. It was a little early, but still within the pit window. I happened to be leaning against the fence when Conor Daly came barreling through trying to make a move on another car. To say he went wide in Turn Five, would be a gross understatement. Daly essentially went straight into the gravel trap, and hit the tire barrier head-on. He was pulled out by the AMR Safety Team, then he took off along with the tow-rope they used to pull him out. He received a ten-second penalty, but he was still able to stay on the lead lap. Such is the luxury of a 4.048-mile track.

After twenty-three laps, ten of them had been run under yellow. Chaos and unpredictability make for a very entertaining race. There were different tire strategies in play and by about the halfway point, I had absolutely no idea who might win, and who might end the day in bitter disappointment.

The last caution came on Lap 30 just past the halfway point, when Josef Newgarden inexplicably crashed in Turn 14. Newgarden’s nightmare season continues, and just past the halfway point in the season – Newgarden finds himself trailing Kyffin Simpson by four points in the championship.

From there, it became a fuel-mileage race, as there were no more yellows to help those short on fuel. Although he started near the back, Scott Dixon led the most laps (27) and seemed to have things under control after Lap 45. But he had to pit on Lap 53, handing his teammate Alex Palou the lead with two laps to go, and ultimately the win.

We are now nine races into a seventeen race season. Alex Palou has won six of them, and Kyle Kirkwood has won the other three. That’s it. This is the first time with only two winners this deep into the season, since 1980, when Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser were the only two winners at this point. It makes for a not-so-interesting championship, but you can’t begrudge Palou. He is just doing his job. It’s up to the other teams to figure how to beat him.

TV Coverage: I didn’t hear much of the coverage this weekend, but I did hear complaints in the media center about how FOX was sharing stats that were just flat-out wrong. My friend and fellow-Nashvillian, Russ Thompson quietly retired after the Indianapolis 500. In the forty years he has been providing stats to the TV booth, I never recall anyone complaining about so many incorrect stats in a given race weekend. It’s tough to replace a legend.

Taste Great, Less Filling: The comic relief for the weekend was when Santino Ferrucci ran out of fuel just after taking the checkered flag for a hard-earned third-place finish. His car coasted to a halt in Turn One, where fans offered him a Miller Lite. Given the heat he had been driving in for two hours, he did not hesitate and chugged it. When asked about it in the media center after the race, he said he was hoping someone would offer him a Spotted Cow, since we are in Wisconsin. Of course, Miller Lite is brewed in Milwaukee.

Tribute Car: Ferrucci was driving a car with a special livery. Marlyne Sexton passed away on June 11. Not only was she the sponsor of the famous No. 14, but she was also considered family to the team. Sexton Properties has been the primary sponsor on Ferrucci’s car since he joined the team. AJ Foyt Racing ran a solid black car without the usual orange trim. The numbers were solid gold, and there was gold script on the top of the sidepods saying “In Honor of Marlyne Sexton”. Ferrucci said it was hard not to get emotional before the race, as her two daughters were there on the grid with the team.

Her late husband, Joe Sexton, had been tight with AJ since the early 60s. he passed away in 2002. Marlyne Sexton had been becoming more and more involved with the team before passing away earlier this month.

Foyt Revival Continues: I don’t normally devote so much race recap space to one team, but the resurgence at AJ Foyt Racing continues to impress. Earlier this season, we were wondering why the team was posting such disappointing results. With the change in engineering staff, I guess it took a few races for each team to gel. But since May, both cars are on a roll. Malukas seems to be the better qualifier than Ferrucci, but both of them are excelling with their race craft. Ferrucci is now ninth in points, and Malukas is now twelfth – and they are both climbing. This is going to be a fun team to watch this summer.

Unmet Expectations: For the last few seasons, Graham Rahal and teammates had a history of qualifying poorly, and then racing their way to decent finishes. The common phrase was if only they could learn how to qualify, they could really post some good results.

Well, this weekend rookie Louis Foster qualified on the pole and Rahal started sixth. This was the opportunity for Rahal Letterman Lanigan to finally have a breakout weekend. Instead the team laid a huge egg. Foster finished an unremarkable eleventh, while Rahal finished twentieth. Ouch! Only Devlin DeFrancesco finished in the same position where he started – nineteenth. They can only build from here.

Becoming a Trend: It is now becoming common to see the Penske cars that finish a race, finish in mid-pack. Josef Newgarden crashed on Lap 30 and finished twenty-fifth. Scott McLaughlin finished twelfth and Will Power fourteenth. This was following a race where no Penske cars finished at Gateway. I’ve said it before, but I think Team Penske may be sitting on the edge of just about to fall into the abyss. You cannot fire three top people like the ones they fired, and not expect a significant drop-off.

Drive of the Day: Had he won the race or even finished on the podium, I was ready to give this coveted award to Scott Dixon. We knew he had a fast car, but was penalized after surviving Round One of qualifying and was relegated to the back of the grid.

After starting twenty-fifth, Dixon led the most laps and was poised to win the race. But after pitting for a splash of fuel with two laps to go, Dixon finished ninth. It was a nice result, but not worthy of the Oilpressure.com “Drive of the Day”. That award now goes to Santino Ferrucci, who started eighteenth and finished third.

All in All: While the prediction of high heat came true for the weekend, it did not have near as much bearing as many people, including myself, thought it would. It was a whacky race that featured a lot of passing and a lot of attrition. But in the end, it was a very familiar face on the top step of the podium. Alex Palou now leads Kyle Kirkwood in the championship standings by 93 points.

But whether it is hot and sunny, or cold and rainy – we have never had a bad time at Road America, now after ten trips up here. We are already looking forward to next year. Please check out Susan’s photos below from Race Day, and thanks to those that followed along all weekend. We had a blast!

George Phillips

Please Note: From here, Susan and I are headed north to Sturgeon Bay in Door County Wisconsin for a week of rest and relaxation. Therefore, I can promise you there will be no post here for all of next week, and probably not one early the following week. But I will have something here before the Mid-Ohio race on July 6. In the meantime, Susan and I hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July!

This entry was posted on June 22, 2025 at 5:40 pm and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.