Alexander Rossi has won the NTT IndyCar Series race from the Indianapolis road course, breaking a nearly three-year winless streak in the process.
Rossi led 44 out of the 85 laps on offer, and cruised to victory by a large margin in the closing laps. The 30-year-old described his win as a relief, as he prepares to depart Andretti Autosport at the end of the season.
The win is also Rossi’s first at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since his memorable Indy 500 win as a rookie in 2016.
Coming across the line in second was the rookie Christian Lundgaard, who ran a masterful race to earn his first career podium in the series.
This race was the site of the Dane’s first IndyCar attempt last season, and he showed his knack for the 2.44-mile course even then. His taming of the tire strategy was key to his strong result on Saturday, however, and he is able to expand his lead in the rookie of the year standings.
Rounding off the podium was Will Power, who has enjoyed the IMS road course for many years and almost always scores in the top positions on IndyCar’s home track.
The veteran survived a three-wide clash with Helio Castroneves and David Malukas early in the race to earn his fourth podium in the last five races.
At the start of the race, Felix Rosenqvist was able to hold the early advantage for the first few laps, but was quickly overtaken as he just did not have the race pace to keep up. He eventually fell down to ninth in a disappointing afternoon for the Swede.
Colton Herta was the driver that overtook the Swede for the top spot on lap eight, after climbing quickly from his starting position on the fifth row.
Then, while leading the race, Herta suddenly lost all drive in his Andretti Autosport Honda. It appeared that a drive over the curbing knocked his gears out of alignment, and was yet another mechanical disappointment for the young talent.
Marcus Ericsson started at the very back of the field due to and engine failure in qualifying, but used his fresh power plant to work his way all the way to 12th. He still lost the points lead to Power, however, who now leads the standings by nine points.
Josef Newgarden was seemingly symptom-free after recovering from a likely concussion last weekend, and maintained his fifth place starting position through to the end of the race.
IndyCar’s busy summer schedule continues next week, with a trip down to Nashville for the second time racing on the tricky downtown streets.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps Led | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexander Rossi | 01:48:39.1825 | 44 | 53 |
| 2 | Christian Lundgaard | -3.5441 | – | 40 |
| 3 | Will Power | -14.8481 | 7 | 36 |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin | -15.9694 | 10 | 33 |
| 5 | Josef Newgarden | -18.4253 | – | 30 |
| 6 | Rinus VeeKay | -22.9626 | – | 28 |
| 7 | Graham Rahal | -23.3542 | – | 26 |
| 8 | Scott Dixon | -23.6130 | – | 24 |
| 9 | Felix Rosenqvist | -24.4659 | 7 | 24 |
| 10 | Alex Palou | -27.6401 | – | 20 |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | -35.0774 | – | 19 |
| 12 | Pato O’Ward | -43.0641 | – | 18 |
| 13 | David Malukas | -50.1868 | – | 17 |
| 14 | Callum Ilott | -51.9201 | – | 16 |
| 15 | Takuma Sato | -57.1069 | – | 15 |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | -59.0527 | – | 14 |
| 17 | Conor Daly | -60.1316 | – | 13 |
| 18 | Devlin DeFrancesco | -61.7880 | – | 12 |
| 19 | Helio Castroneves | -63.4684 | – | 11 |
| 20 | Jack Harvey | -64.5997 | – | 10 |
| 21 | Dalton Kellett | -1 lap | – | 9 |
| 22 | Jimmie Johnson | -1 lap | – | 8 |
| 23 | Kyle Kirkwood | -1 lap | – | 7 |
| 24 | Colton Herta | -43 laps | 17 | 7 |
| 25 | Simon Pagenaud | -51 laps | – | 5 |
