Dre’s Race Review: IndyCar’s 2025 Grand Prix at Road America

“That. Damn. Spaniard”

Welcome back to the second part of another Dre’s Race Review double header. And in this edition, we’re looking back at the ninth race of the IndyCar calendar, as the series heads to Milwaukee for Bratwurst, Tater Tots, and the Xpel Grand Prix of Road America. I love this place, it’s my favourite track on the entire calendar and it has a knack of producing great racing. And while this race flirted more with the chaotic side of what the series can produce, it was still an absolutely thrilling time and matching Gateway for the best the series has to offer. Let’s get into it.

An Economy Run

First of all, some flowers to Louis Foster. Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing chose Road America for a make-believe qualifying “joker” like they were back at the Indy Road Course. They were the only team to get two cars into the Fast 6 round, and Louis Foster beat Alex Palou by a tenth of a second to take pole position, the first of the Hampshire man’s career. Palou never matched his brilliant 1:44.4 in Round 1 that would have got him pole, but alas, a great Saturday for RLL. If you’ve been reading my work for a while, I told you all from his rookie season in Indy NXT, that Foster had talent, and while he’s had a tough go of his rookie season, he’s starting to punch some good results in. I hope it continues. 

The race was defined by fuel strategy and navigating chaos. Foster didn’t even get to lead a full lap before the first caution came out – David Malukas locking up into a gap that was always going to close, hitting the back of Christian Lundgaard’s McLaren and ending up in the gravel. The AMR Safety Team got him going again but he fell to the back.

We got a second whole green flag lap in before the race’s second caution – This time it was Robert Shwartzman spinning out on the back straight and crashing into the outside wall. We tried again, but on Lap 10, Sting Ray Robb overcompensated for Marcus Armstrong breaking early for Turn 4 and swerved into the outside wall and deep into the tyre barrier.

As a result of these three early cautions, we had a lot of strategy gambles. Scott Dixon led the charge, having started from the back of the grid due to a Qualifying disqualification for blocking Devlin DeFrancesco. Dixon, Alexander Rossi and Pato O’Ward became the alternate fuel runners, with Dixon and Rossi in on Lap 2, with Pato in on Lap 5. When the majority of the field boxed on Lap 11 after Robb’s crash, it shuffled that group up to the front.

All hell broke loose on the restart. The Penske’s were beefing with Alex Palou on the harder compound, Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood had a game of “Anything you can do” with them both running each other off the track at the end of the back straight. Christian Lundgaard shuffled to the front of the chasing pack on conventional fuel running, but strangely lost that lead off camera to Alex Palou off camera – Normally I’d hassle TV production here, but there was so much going on, I’d struggle to keep up with it. 

Caution #4 came around on Lap 22 after Conor Daly completely missed his braking point into Turn 4 and ran into the outside wall*, leading to another round of pitstops. Given Road America is a 55 lap race, and a fuel tank of fuel is good for 14 push laps, it opened up the possibility of drivers like Dixon being able to stretch his fuel to only needing one more stop to finish, but he’d need a lot of yellow flag running help in order to do it. 

For a little while, Dixon thought he’d got his wish – Josef Newgarden spinning out on Lap 30 and crashing into the inside wall of the final corner. That window for Dixon just got a little bigger. It left the race beautifully poised. Dixon had to take what he was hoping was his final stop on Lap 39 – Meaning he’d have to go 17 laps on a 14 lap tank to make the end. Alex Palou, leader of the more conventional strategy, came in on Lap 41, meaning he’d have to go 15 laps to the flag. There was also a threat from behind – Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist, who came in on Lap 43 and could push to the end flat out. 

The final stint was exhilarating fuel strategy drama. Dixon was doing just enough to hold off Palou behind him at barely a second, but also trying to save fuel. The numbers didn’t make sense for Dixon to stretch his stint that far, especially given a lap of Road America is nearly 110 seconds long. I think it was that belief in Dixon being so immensely brilliant at fuel saving in years past that you just kinda willed yourself as a viewer into believing he just might do it. Alex Rossi, who had come in 2 laps earlier, gave up the ghost with 4 laps to go, and you’re still half doubting yourself thinking: “Surely not?” Mike Hull, Dixon’s lead strategist, even changed his mind with three laps left… but with two to go, Dixon finally had to come in, clearing the way for Palou to take the lead, one he wouldn’t relinquish.

Palou still had to hold off Rosenqvist right at the end, but his final lap pace was excellent, winning by 2.1 seconds, despite Felix hitting the fastest lap of the race right at the end. This was Palou’s 6th win of 2025, and 17th of his career and this one may have been his most impressive yet. He was roughed up early on by starting on the Primary tyre, as the field got very scrappy behind him. He didn’t have a great start, trying to tuck in behind Foster when the outside line was the ticket. But he managed the back half of the race beautifully. Picked off the key contender in Kyle Kirkwood when his red mist descended. Carved through another industrial bout of Penske silliness. Got to the front, and let’s not forget – saved enough fuel while in Dixon’s dirty air to squeeze out a 15th lap to win, hold off Rosenqvist from behind and STILL had enough fuel to do a full cool-down lap back to the pits, when half a dozen cars were immediately parked due to running on fumes.

And he did it all while spending 43 laps on the harder Primary tyre. Only Christian Lundgaard came close on 37. HE BEAT SCOTT DIXON AT HIS OWN GAME. And yes, I need to upgrade my Yu-Gi-Oh jokes about what Alex Palou is doing in this car. He’s no longer the Dark Magician. He’s the Magician of Black Chaos. He is in another plane of existence in IndyCar right now. Is there a better race car driver in the world?

The Lightning Round

Josef Newgarden… What in the Cinnamon Toast fuck is going on with you? After his latest crash, the former series champion now sits 17th in points, 249 points off the lead of the standings and behind Christian Rasmussen, Kyffin Simpson and Rinus Veekay in a Dale Coyne. This is becoming genuinely sad to watch. And while some of this has been horrendous luck for the American, on any level this season he has not been good enough. I’m not calling for his head, he’s owed at least the chance to figure this out. But I’ll remind you one more time – Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves were moved on for less than this.

Even when David Malukas has a solid comeback and finishes seventh amidst the craziness, his teammate outclasses him with another podium finish and his fourth straight Top 5 finish. And fair play to ol’ Ramen-head, but getting out of his out of fuel car and immediately skulling a beer from the crowd like he was Stone Cold… was funny. Fuck. 

Kyle Kirkwood has been sensational this season but you cannot under any circumstances retaliate when you’ve been hard done by, like he did with Will Power. If that was Max Verstappen we’d have buried the Florida man alive for it. That corner was a nasty one though. As much as IndyCar takes pride in not being F1, some track limits for the outside of that corner wouldn’t have hurt, it led to needlessly aggressive racecraft and an avoidable spin out for Christian Lundgaard. 

Pato O’Ward finally lost out on one of his team’s wacky strategy calls and ended up 17th. That’s a huge, potentially title costing blow for the Mexican, who now sits 111 points back with eight races left. 

S.O.S: Callum Illot. Someone get that man some help. 

The Verdict: 8/10 (Great) – I love Road America and I love this race. It was an awesome blend of action, drama, and the anticipation of that final stretch of Dixon, Palou and Rosenqvist all on different strategies converging at the end made it a tense and thrilling finale. As good as Gateway as IndyCar’s best race of 2025 and some genuine momentum for the series after a really tough start. See you in Ohio.