Palou holds off Power in fierce battle on the streets of Detroit

By David Malsher-Lopez June 4, 2023 6:07 PM

By David Malsher-Lopez | June 4, 2023 6:07 PM ET

The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix was won by polesitter Alex Palou's Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, but only after surviving a caution-strewn race and holding off the Penske Chevy of Will Power.

The 2021 champion took his second victory of the season after leading 74 laps, and moved into a 51-point lead in the championship. Considering the Penskes didn't look a match for the Ganassi cars this weekend in terms of tire life, Power will take satisfaction from beating three of the CGR cars after going a different way on tire strategy, despite being nudged onto two wheels during a late restart.

He finished ahead of a bruising fight between the Arrow McLaren Chevys of Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi, which eventually resulted in the latter striking a wall and allowing Scott Dixon to slip past into fourth. Kyle Kirkwood, whose car was damaged at the start, staged a brilliant fightback to finish sixth.

The first start was waved off when only the first eight cars were lined up properly, but the second start was given the green, and Palou led the field into Turn 3, which serves as the first turn for starts and restarts. Tucked up behind him was third place starter Romain Grosjean, who easily slipped down the inside of front-row starter Scott McLaughlin to claim second, while behind him Marcus Ericsson got the jump on Ganassi teammate Dixon, and Power — the only driver in the first four rows to start on Firestone's primaries — passed teammate Josef Newgarden to claim sixth, as the latest Indy 500 winner lost momentum by tagging the rear attenuator on Dixon's car.

Under braking, Juncos Hollinger Racing's Callum Ilott mounted the rear of Kyle Kirkwood's Andretti machine, breaking its rear wing, while skating on into the tire wall himself. Out came the first caution. Colton Herta, Graham Rahal and Devlin DeFrancesco took the opportunity to pit, get off the soft green sidewalled tires and grab primaries.

On the restart at the end of lap 6, the drivers behaved themselves, although Grosjean had to fight off McLaughlin, while Dixon stayed abreast with Ericsson around the outside of Turn 3 to give himself the inside for Turn 4 and claimed fourth.

Palou immediately started stretching his advantage over Grosjean out to 2s in two laps. Behind Newgarden, Rosenqvist in the highest of the three Arrow McLarens ran eighth on primaries ahead of Pagenaud's Meyer Shank Racing Honda. The other two Arrow McLarens were 10th and 11th, O’Ward appearing to be less comfortable on the primaries than the closely following Rossi who had the fourth Ganassi car of Marcus Armstrong filling his mirrors.

By lap 12, Palou had his lead out to over 5s and, with the 2021 champ as the exception, on lap 13, the primary tired cars were starting to shine. Power passed Ericsson for fifth, Rosenqvist passed Newgarden for seventh and O’Ward passed Pagenaud. Then Rosenqvist then also zapped Ercisson, O’Ward took Newgarden, and Rossi got around Pagenaud.

Ericsson was the first of the frontrunners to give up on the alternates and pit on lap 17. A lap later, Power outbraked Dixon into Turn 3 to grab fourth, leaving Dixon to try and fend off the primary-tired McLaren trio. It was going to be a tough ask. Power's momentum continued and he passed teammate McLaughlin for third on lap 20. Next up was Grosjean, who fell victim to the No. 12 Penske on lap 22. Could he close on Palou, who now had a highly impressive 9.9s lead?

The same lap, Rosenqvist got around his friend Dixon who then pitted to grab primary tires.

By lap 27, Power had Palou's lead to under 5s and a lap later it was 3.3s. Eight seconds back, under pressure from McLaughlin, Grosjean ran long into Turn 7 before he ducked into the pits for his hard tires. Next time by, McLaughlin also pitted and emerged in front of Dixon but the six-time champion braked extremely late for Turn 3 and just about held on to have the inside into Turn 4.

Palou had also now stopped, handing the lead to Power, and emerged 21s behind in sixth, behind Power, the three McLarens and Newgarden, who brilliantly made his alternates last until lap 33.

Rosenqvist pitted on lap 34, and Power stopped a lap later and came out behind Palou, but up to second, ahead of Dixon. Rossi and O’Ward hit pitlane on lap 36 but only Rossi emerged as scheduled, the Mexican ace stalling with a loose right-rear wheel and needing his crew to rescue him on pit exit. He finally emerged a lap down.

Up front on lap 40 of the 100 laps, Palou held a 5s lead over Power who was trying to nurse his alternate tires, 2.5sec ahead of Dixon, while both Rosenqvist and Rossi had vaulted McLaughlin in the pitstop exchange. Grosjean ran seventh ahead of Ericsson, Armstrong and the Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy of Rinus VeeKay. A refueling issue had knocked Newgarden back to 11th.

On lap 43, out came the full course caution. O’Ward had just unlapped himself from Palou, but as he passed Ferrucci he missed the Turn 9 apex and struck the concrete wall on the exit of the corner, mangling his front left suspension.

Considering he was on the harder primaries, Palou made a strong restart on lap 50, deterring Ferrucci from trying to unlap himself, and Power was happy to just clear Ferrucci who then tumbled down the order and got ushered into the pitlane entrance by the cars passing him. A spin and stall for Sting Ray Robb at Turn 8 caused the caution to emerge again — a mercy for Christian Lundgaard who had slipped down the Turn 7 escape road and had to spin and rejoin.

But as the field ran under this new caution, Graham Rahal understeered into a wall and ripped apart his right-front suspension. The scene was so unexpected that, as his stricken car sat there just beyond a blind apex, it was rammed from behind by the AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of rookie Benjamin Pedersen.

Frustrating end for @GrahamRahal.

The No. 15 had issues during the full course caution.#INDYCAR // #DetroitGP pic.twitter.com/RrkbbmB2iJ

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 4, 2023

The green flag waved again on lap 56, and after threatening to try to pass on the outside of Palou, Power flicked left to dive down the inside of the Ganassi car to snatch the lead into Turn 3. Taking advantage of his grippier, albeit more fragile alternate tires, Power put the hammer down and pulled out a 2.8s lead, while Palou did just enough to hold off Dixon and Rosenqvist.

Power needed to make his alternates last a few more laps, however, so he couldn't go wild, and the alternates started losing their edge soon afterward. Palou, who had suffered a gearbox issue under yellow and had to go into emergency mode, started coming back at Power with some extremely fast laps, and on lap 65 he forced Power to lock up into Turn 3 and snatched the lead from him.

Dixon then ducked into the pits, and next time by Palou and Power did the same, and emerged just ahead of the Ganassi legend. Behind this trio, Rossi emerged from the pits just in front of Rosenqvist, but the Swede got muscular with his teammate and snatched the position and pulled away. Newgarden made a late stop and emerged between these two McLarens but Rossi passed him and Grosjean followed him through, demoting Newgarden to ninth.

Up front, the off strategy No. 8 Ganassi car of Ericsson led at three-quarter distance but would require many more laps of caution to get to the end without another stop. Two seconds behind him was Palou, who had a 5.5s margin over Power who still had Dixon filling his mirrors. Then came Rosenqvist and Rossi, 5s apart, while Kirkwood had staged a remarkable comeback to climb to a legitimate seventh ahead of Grosjean, Newgarden and Armstrong.

Colton Herta was nursing a broken front-right wing after encountering an obstructive Agustin Canapino, ahead of McLaughlin who’d grazed the wall and briefly lost gears after an overambitious passing attempt on Grosjean failed to pay off.

Ericsson's tactical optimism ended on lap 78 when he pitted, re-emerging in 10th.

On lap 81, the field was bunched up by a caution once more when Grosjean bounced off the curbs on the inside of Turn 4 and his Andretti car was spat into the outside wall.

The lap 86 restart was abortive, as David Malukas understeered into the Turn 9 wall, trying to catch up with the pack, and brought out the sixth caution.

WHAT. A. RESTART. @AlexanderRossi all the way up to P2.

WATCH LIVE: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/8p5r7CJ9JY

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 4, 2023

At the end of lap 90, the field got the green once more and Palou locked up into Turn 3 while Power was on his outside. As the Penske driver tried to do the over/under, he was nerfed into the air by the front wing of Dixon's car, prompting his anti-stall to kick in. That gave Rossi the chance to slip up the inside of both of them to snatch second. Dixon almost cleared Power too, but once the Chevy found a gear once more, the two-time champion fired it down the inside of the six-time champ at Turn 4, and the Ganassi car just about stayed off the wall on exit, but not before Rosenqvist slipped through.

Out came the yellow yet again to rescue Robb after he got together with Ferrucci.

With five laps left, the field got the green, and while Palou got a good break away from Rossi, Power was under pressure from Rosenqvist who dived down his inside. However, being forced to the outside, Power got the throttle open sooner and suddenly dived down the inside of Rossi to snatch second.

Rossi and Rosenqvist then went hard at it, allowing the lead pair to escape while they bounced off each other. Rossi seemed to have it until the penultimate lap at Turn 3 when Rosenqvist dived inside his teammate, and the No. 7 car bounced off the outside wall. He lost momentum, and Dixon pounced to claim fourth.

Palou passed the checkered flag 1.18sec ahead of Power, who had 4.77sec over Rosenqvist.

Behind Dixon and Rossi, Kirkwood claimed sixth ahead of Kiwis McLaughlin and Armstrong, with Ericsson ninth and Newgarden rounding out the top 10.

Palou now holds a 51-point lead in the championship ahead Ericsson, with Newgarden third a further 19 points back.

RESULTS

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, Detroit GP, IndyCar