Chip Ganassi Racing began the ‘Month of May’ in perfect fashion as Alex Palou dominated the race around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

Despite qualifying third, Alex Palou looked the most assured driver of the field, and this assurance was justified as he led 52 of the 85 laps at the Brickyard to secure his first win of the season by over fifteen seconds. This is the second largest margin of victory in Indycar since the 2021 season, when Palou himself annihilated the field by well over 30 seconds at the season finale in 2022.

Behind him were the McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi, with polesitter Christian Lundgaard in fourth, and Felix Rosenqvist underlined Mclaren’s strong day finishing in fifth. Scott Dixon meticulously worked his way up to sixth, Josef Newgarden was the first Team Penske driver in seventh, Marcus Ericsson lost the championship lead as he finished eighth, with Colton Herta and Graham Rahal rounding out the top 10.

Palou begins Month of May in style

Heading to Indianapolis every year is special, not least because the Month of May concludes with the ‘Greatest spectacle in racing’. Although the GMR Grand Prix is a vastly different discipline to the Indianapolis 500, carrying momentum throughout the month is key.

Chip Ganassi Racing were the strongest team at the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in 2022, with four of their cars qualifying in the top six, as Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and eventual winner Marcus Ericsson dominated the race.

There is a real chance that Ganassi are once again the strongest team for the prestigious event, and Palou gave himself the best shot of sweeping the Month of May by winning the GMR Grand Prix in scintillating fashion.

Palou leads the championship by 6 points ahead of Pato O’Ward, with Marcus Ericsson demoted to third. O’Ward produced a brilliant display of driving to come home in his third runner-up position of the season, as the 2022 Indianapolis 500 runner up will look to go one better in 2023. Ericsson lost out on big points despite a strong qualifying session because the combination of starting on primary tyres and the early caution period meant all primary tyre runners lost out.

Fascinating strategic race feutres thrilling conclusion

In a race which featured two vastly different strategic options, those that started on the softer tyres made the most of them at the beginning of the race, and at the restart after the collision between the two Dale Coyne cars early in the race.

This allowed Palou to take advantage and take the race lead on lap thirteen. Although pole-sitter Lundgaard fought back at the end of the first stint, the race win was always in the hands of a dominant Alex Palou.

Behind him, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden also made big gains on their alternate tyres, resulting in Rossi ending up on the podium, and Newgarden rectifying his weekend after a bad qualifying.

Big contenders hit trouble

Will Power was involved in a controversial incident with Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood, with Kirkwood harshly penalised for avoidable contact at turn 1 after Power shoved him off the race track in a forceful defensive move. Power recovered from a spin in the incident to finish 12th, as Kirkwood came home in 14th.

Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin, the top 2 from the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, also hit trouble, as they finished 11th and 16th respectively.

Jack Harvey had his best ever qualifying of the season ending up starting on the second row, but an innocuous spin at turn 2 midway through the race saw him drop to a lap down, and meant hopes of a finish comparable to his 2019 3rd placed finish here were washed away in an instant.

His teammates at Rahal Letterman Lanigan had a more positive weekend, as Rahal recovered from a puncture on the opening lap to finish 10th, whilst Lundgaard won the NTT P1 award in qualifying and eventually finished 4th.

The result now means that heading into the Indianapolis 500, Palou leads the championship by 6 points to O’Ward, with Ericsson 21 points behind in 3rd. Grosjean, Mclaughlin and Newgarden all fell to over 40 points back, but with 12 races to go in 2023, it is still anyone’s guess as to who will win the Astor cup come September.