IndyCar Iowa: Palou benefits from caution periods to win again

Alex Palou benefitted from two timely cautions to beat Josef Newgarden and David Malukas to victory in the second IndyCar race at Iowa Speedway.

The runaway championship leader had started from pole, but was overtaken twice by Newgarden during Sunday’s race.

But using Honda’s supreme fuel mileage and some misfortune for Andretti Global proved key. After Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta each suffered separate right-front tyre failures, both times after Newgarden had come into the pits, it trapped the Tennessean a lap down.

After the first one, on lap 130, Newgarden took the wave around and marched from 13th back to the front. He passed Palou with 35 to go, taking Malukas with him, and figured to contend for the win. But the caution flew again with 22 laps remaining, after Newgarden and Malukas had already stopped.

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

That gave Palou the advantage he needed. The Indianapolis 500 winner stopped for fresh tyres, emerged with the lead and marched off over the final 11-lap run for his seventh win of 2025.

“I cannot really believe it, honestly. Winning here is super special,” Palou said. “I struggled on short ovals for so long. Today, although the strategy helped us a little bit there at the end when we were P3, we were still trying everything that we could. That worked for us.”

The late caution significantly shifted the final running order, as Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon followed Palou to the finish to give Chip Ganassi Racing a 1-2 result, with Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong completing an all-Honda podium.

Malukas rallied over the late stint to rise from eighth to fourth, with Pato O'Ward completing the top five. Newgarden was unable to make similar late progress and finished down in 10th.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

Just as it had on Saturday, the first caution came out on the opening lap. Devlin DeFrancesco lost control of his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda in the pack and spun around, clipping Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the process. Both drivers were knocked out of the race.

A second caution followed on lap 50, when Sting Ray Robb hit the wall hard between Turns 1 and 2 for Juncos Holliger. Nolan Siegel suffered a similar crash on Saturday and missed Sunday’s race for Arrow McLaren with mild concussion, but Robb was released from the medical centre with no reported issues.

Will Power saw his day undone by an engine failure in the early stages, making it another race to forget for all three Team Penske cars, after an apparent breakthrough after the trio had finished in the top four on Saturday.

Palou now leads the drivers’ standings by 129 points from O’Ward – the pair effectively trading results over the Iowa weekend with one win and one fifth apiece – with just five rounds remaining.

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	Mph	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10		275	1:48'39.2641		135.761	4	54
2	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9		275	+0.5280 1:48'39.7921	0.5280	135.750	4	40
3	M. Armstrong Meyer Shank Racing	66		275	+2.7436 1:48'42.0077	2.2156	135.704	4	35
4	D. Malukas A.J. Foyt Enterprises	4		275	+4.0007 1:48'43.2648	1.2571	135.677	4	32
5	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5		275	+4.8250 1:48'44.0891	0.8243	135.660	4	30
6	C. Lundgaard Arrow McLaren	7		275	+6.4378 1:48'45.7019	1.6128	135.627	4	28
7	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60		275	+6.9021 1:48'46.1662	0.4643	135.617	4	26
8	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	21		275	+7.8354 1:48'47.0995	0.9333	135.598	4	24
9	R. Shwartzman Prema Racing	83		275	+9.0457 1:48'48.3098	1.2103	135.573	4	22
10	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2		275	+10.1300 1:48'49.3941	1.0843	135.550	4	21
11	J. Abel Dale Coyne Racing	51		275	+11.8122 1:48'51.0763	1.6822	135.515	4	19
12	R. van Kalmthout Dale Coyne Racing	18		275	+11.8317 1:48'51.0958	0.0195	135.515	3	18
13	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	8		275	+13.4066 1:48'52.6707	1.5749	135.482	3	17
14	L. Foster Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45		275	+14.5475 1:48'53.8116	1.1409	135.458	4	16
15	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14		274	+1 Lap 1:48'51.5595	1 Lap	135.012	4	15
16	C. Daly Juncos Hollinger Racing	76		274	+1 Lap 1:48'52.0537	0.4942	135.002	4	14
17	A. Rossi Ed Carpenter Racing	20		274	+1 Lap 1:48'54.3555	2.3018	134.955	4	13
18	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27		274	+1 Lap 1:48'54.8519	0.4964	134.944	3	13
19	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15		272	+3 Laps 1:48'40.8258	2 Laps	134.248	4	11
20	C. Herta Andretti Global	26		252	+23 Laps 1:37'16.2420	20 Laps	138.966	3	10	Accident
21	C. Ilott Prema Racing	90		173	+102 Laps 1:07'32.3124	79 Laps	137.399	2	9	Accident
22	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28		127	+148 Laps 48'59.6159	46 Laps	139.044	1	8	Accident
23	R. Robb Sting Juncos Hollinger Racing	77		48	+227 Laps 19'01.5353	79 Laps	135.329		7	Accident
24	W. Power Team Penske	12		21	+254 Laps 15'15.1680	27 Laps	73.851		6	Mechanical
25	D. DeFrancesco Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30		0	+275 Laps 4.1402	21 Laps	0.000		5	Accident
26	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3		0	+275 Laps 4.4384	0.2982	0.000		5	Accident
27	N. Siegel Arrow McLaren	6		0					3
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Aaron Bearden IndyCar

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