Dixon led Marcus Ericsson over the line by less than a second to win his 58^th race in the NTT Indycar Series, in a race riddled with cautions and clumsy driving on the streets of Detroit. 

Marcus Armstrong came home in 3^rd for his first Indycar podium, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood and Alexander Rossi. Will Power was penalised on five separate occasions and still managed to salvage 6^th place, ahead of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist who recovered from lap 1 incidents to finish 7^th and 8^th. 

Santino Ferrucci was involved in a lot of drama of the course of the weekend, exchanging words with Andretti drivers Kirkwood and Herta on Saturday, before crashing into Helio Castroneves and receiving a stop and go penalty. Despite this, he finished 9^th, ahead of Theo Pourchaire who was 10^th. 

There were a total of thirteen penalties issued and eight cautions throughout the race, as a mid-race downpour and a wet surface on the inside of turn three caused chaos. Indy500 winner Josef Newgarden and series champion Alex Palou were the two most high profile drivers to come to grief at turn 3, when they came together on lap 70. 

Palou finished outside the top eight for the first time since the penultimate race of 2022, finishing 6^th and surrendering the championship lead as a result.

Scott McLaughlin and polesitter Colton Herta both suffered incidents in the rain at turn five, taking them out of strong positions as the streets of Detroit proved tough to tame. As a result, Scott Dixon has moved into the championship lead after his second win of the season, moving 18 points above Palou and 31 over Will Power in 3^rd. 

Scott Dixon pulls off another fuel saving masterclass to secure victory 

Scott Dixon thrives off chaos. When all others around him lose their heads, Dixon makes sure his remains calm, and this has led him to victory multiple times over the last two seasons, most notably at the Gallagher Grand Prix in August 2023 which saw him go from last to first. 

Amid the eight cautions and a downpour over the course of the 100 laps in Detroit, Dixon and strategist Mike Hull consistently made the correct decisions to keep Dixon in the top five. They did not pit for rain tyres like the majority of the field on lap 38, and most of the field got rid of them on lap 43, as the rain ceased to fall. 

From there, Dixon pitted for the final time on lap 57, hoping to stretch his final fuel stint to 44 laps. The master of fuel saving had put himself in a position to do it again, and suddenly his competitors felt like they were watching Long Beach all over again. Scott Dixon had snuck his way to the front, and was set on not giving it up. 

Aided by fellow Kiwi and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong, Dixon was able to keep enough pace in the tank to hold off a charging Marcus Ericsson. Dixon’s rear-gunner Armstrong defended hard from the Swede for multiple laps. 

During this time, Dixon passed Ericsson’s teammate Colton Herta who was a lap down and backing Dixon into Ericsson, allowing Dixon to streak away into the distance. Ericsson passed Armstrong with only a lap and a half to go, and although he made up two seconds on Dixon, he lost out by just 0.8 seconds. 

Dixon said ‘It was definitely action packed today. I think so many ups and downs. It’s a bit of a roller coaster. Obviously for us, we took a pretty wild strategy to pit I don’t even know how many laps, maybe 40 laps from the end.’

‘I think Long Beach, we took an aggressive approach. If we were lucky, we would have had some caution. We had to do it the very difficult way of having no caution. Today it kind of played out that way a little bit, but it was tight.’ 

‘A lot of people on our strategy didn’t make it. Herta made it difficult for us there. We knew they were going to be two or three laps short, but they threw the Hail Mary of getting their lap back. Had to push on him. The cars from behind were starting to encroach on us.’

[When asked if this was a vintage Scott Dixon win] ‘I don’t think there’s a style or a classic way of winning. Honestly, you just take any win you can get.’

Marcus Ericsson fights his way to the front to revive his season 

After a challenging Month of May to compound a tough start to the season for Marcus Ericsson, the Swede arrived in Detroit outside the top 20 in points standings and with a point to prove. The 2022 Indy 500 champion and 2023 runner up had to go through Last Chance qualifying to make the field at Indianapolis, before then being taken out by Tom Blomqvist at the opening corner of the race. 

Ericsson hit the wall on Friday in practice, but made the Fast 12 on Saturday to qualify in 9^th. He raced his way into the top six in the opening portion of the race, before following Scott Dixon in not pitting for rain tyres on lap 38, elevating him into the top 3. 

As others began to lose their heads and make rash moves that caused incident, Ericsson kept his cool, making his final pitstop on lap on lap 65. From there he passed teammate Kirkwood, before setting about catching Armstrong and Dixon. 

Despite some resolute defence from Armstrong, Ericsson soared through on lap 99, leaving just a couple of miles of the race to chase after Dixon. Despite being ultimately unsuccessful in the pursuit of his former teammate, Ericsson recorded his best result of the season so far, establishing some confidence in the #28 camp. 

Ericsson said ‘It was a really tough month of May, like you said. We had habit of a tough start. St. Pete and Long Beach, we showed we were fast. Should have been top five, top six in both those races.’

‘We all talked together and said let’s reset, press that big red button, reset, get our 2024 2.0 going. That was the mindset coming into this weekend.’ 

‘We had some issues in practice, but the car felt great all sessions really. Qualifying was decent. Today we showed in the race that we had the pace to fight up front all day.’

‘Really, really proud of the team. It was not an easy race. Everyone [made] good decisions. Well-deserved to be on the podium.’

Streets of Detroit prove tough test amid dramatic down-pour 

After the chaotic opening stanza of the Indianapolis 500 seven days ago, the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix was equally as dramatic, if a little clumsy. 

At the opening corner of the race, Christian Lundgaard made an ambitious lunge on multiple cars having started 11^th, making contact with the rear wing of Will Power and causing a blockade which hampered the races of O’Ward, Rossi and both Dale Coyne Racing cars as the outside half of the track was blocked. 

On lap 16, the caution flag flew again, as Santino Ferrucci hit Helio Castroneves, sending the Brazilian into the oncoming Chip Ganassi racing car of Kyffin Simpson. Ferrucci was penalised with a stop and go penalty for the incident, but the race would have so many more twists that the American would finish in 9^th. 

Suddenly the race turned when the rain began to fall on lap 29, and when this light sprinkling became a downpour, Scott McLaughlin was caught out the worst, with the Kiwi ending up in the wall at turn 5 and out of the running having gone 2 laps down. 

This caused many to pit for rain tyres on lap 38, only for the caution to appear once more after the restart saw an incident between Rinus Veekay and Will Power. Power was penalised for the contact, and dropped to the back of the field. 

Colton Herta had been cruising in the early portion of the race, but his switch onto wet weather tyres was ill-fated, and dropped him to 10^th. In a move of desperation on lap 46, Herta tried to pass Palou, but misjudged the slippiness of the track into turn 5, taking himself out of the running. 

There would be yet more cautions as Christian Lundgaard crashed into Romain Grosjean who had been running 5^th, and just 11 laps later Sting Ray Robb was put into the wall by Scott McLaughlin, bringing out 7^th caution of the day. 

Finally, the two largest names in Indycar came together at the penultimate restart, as Josef Newgarden spun trying to avoid Alexander Rossi, and collected Alex Palou. Palou would finish in 16^th, his first finish outside of the top 8 since Portland in 2022. 

The final stint of the race would remain uninterrupted, allowing Scott Dixon to lead home Marcus Ericsson in a chaotic race that saw 47 laps of caution, plenty of overtakes and many incidents. The three drivers who kept their noses clean in Armstrong, Ericsson and Dixon were all rewarded with podium finishes in a truly bizarre race.

Championship fight in full swing as Indycar heads into intense mid-season stretch 

After the intense race in Detroit, Scott Dixon now leads the points standings by eighteen points over teammate Palou, and Will Power somehow finished 6^th despite changing his entire rear wing assembly and suffering four penalties throughout the race.

Pato O’Ward is 56 points back after a tough race in Detroit, whilst Alexander Rossi drove brilliantly after being caught up in the lap 1 incident to recover to 5^th at the flag. Kyle Kirkwood maintains his impressive run of not finishing outside the top 11 all season with a strong 4^th place, as Colton Herta, Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were the biggest losers of the day. 

Indycar heads into its road and street course section of the season following the Indianapolis 500, with the streets of Detroit preceding the classic road courses of Road America, Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio sports car course.

With six of the last eight rounds being on ovals, rivals must find a way to pull clear of Josef Newgarden, who should come into his own at the tail end of the season. The NTT Indycar Series continues on Sunday, at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.