It has been a chaotic street circuit race in Detroit as Scott McLaughlin, Scott Dixon, and Marcus Armstrong all had to battle through a race filled with cautions and crashes.
At the start, McLaughlin was immediately able to jump former teammate Will Power to move into second. Dixon was able to maintain fourth, while Armstrong had to defend hard from Marcus Ericsson in eighth.
All three Kiwi drivers remained in their positions until the first caution came out on lap eleven after Christian Rassmussen hit the wall out of Turn 1 and broke his right-hand side suspension.
When the race restarted, Power was able to get past McLaughlin immediately, and soon moved forward to take the lead from Palou after a heavy, decisive move at the end of the long straight. This meant that McLaughlin moved back to third, just ahead of Dixon. Armstrong had cycled back to ninth after Ericsson took eighth.
By lap thirty, while McLaughlin still held third, Dixon had cycled back to fifth, and Armstrong had moved back to eleventh. Soft tyre drivers needed to extend their stints, and race leader Palou was the first to pit on lap 35.
McLaughlin was able to cycle into the lead, but it was short-lived as Power tried to make a move for the lead. Both Power and McLaughlin headed into the lane a lap later, with Dixon following them in.
Drivers on the harder compound tyres started to cycle to the front as their stints lengthened. Armstrong was able to cycle to the lead on lap thirty-eight, ahead of his teammate and recent INDY-500 winner Felix Rosenqvist.
The second full-course yellow came out on lap thirty-nine as Graham Rahal was spun at the end of the straight, which brought Armstrong straight into the lane. At the time of the caution, Armstrong was in second, ahead of McLaughlin in sixth and Dixon in tenth.
Armstrong soon moved to the back after it was revealed he had entered a closed pit lane, meaning he had to go through again, and he was also given a penalty for his efforts. Kyffin Simpson also received a penalty for his contact with Rahal, sending him down the order.
The race restarted on lap forty-seven, and all the Kiwi drivers were able to hold position. McLaughlin was able to pull a gap to Kyle Kirkwood to comfortably remain in third, while Dixon chased down O-Ward. Armstrong remained the last driver on track, about twenty seconds behind Rahal.
Dixon then made an uncharacteristic mistake into turn 8, overshooting the entry and heading down the escape lane. He quickly was able to get back on track, emerging just ahead of Nolan Siegel in eleventh.
The race stabilised as drivers extended their stints on the harder compound tyres. Another full-course yellow came out on lap sixty-eight as Santino Ferrucci got into the back of Veekay, causing both drivers to spin.
Nearly the whole field headed into the double-sided pit lane on lap sixty-nine, and McLaughlin was able to re-emerge near the front. Dixon entered the lane but was unable to leave, as a battery issue stranded him in his pit box, ending his race.
It was a chaotic restart as Schumacher ran wide and took Malukas with him, bringing out another full-course yellow. The race restarted on lap seventy-seven and made easy work of getting past Rahal to move into third, just ahead of Power. Power and McLaughlin soon collided as Power rubbed up against the wall, sending the front of the Australian’s car into the air.
Kirkwood soon closed up to Palou as the alternating strategies started to cross over. Yet another full-course yellow came out as Ferrucci had stopped on track, and Power came into the lane at the same time to retire from the race.
On the restart, McLaughlin had shuffled down to seventh while Armstrong held sixteenth. Kirkwood began to close back in on leader Palou and put pressure with six laps to go.
McLaughlin soon headed into the lane to retire after suspected damage from his crash with Power, leaving only one Kiwi in the race.
Pole sitter Palou was able to sustain the pressure from Kirkwood to win for the fourth time this season. It was a trickier race for the Kiwi trio, with no driver getting through unscathed.
It is a quick turn around for INDYCAR as they race next weekend at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois, on June 8th (NZST)
