Winners and losers from IndyCar's Road America race
IndyCar

Winners and losers from IndyCar's Road America race

by Jack Benyon
6 min read

An absolutely bonkers Road America race, which at times looked like it was being conducted by 12-year-olds taking over the cars on iRacing, a boiling hot day led to heat under the visor in the cockpit, too.

This was the best race we've seen in terms of wheel-to-wheel racing since the introduction of the hybrid added weight to the car, and the number of cautions meant it was a lottery if you were on the right one or not and if you had to time to rectify it before losing track position or reaching the end of the race.

If the race ran longer, I'm certain all of the five or six strategies we saw could have won.

With that much yo-yoing for positions it meant some drivers were promoted or demoted on fortune as much as doing anything right or wrong. That kind of race always produces interesting winners and losers debates, so here we go!

Losers - Pato O’Ward & Kyle Kirkwood's title hopes

After two races of Alex Palou not winning - I know, sounds impossible - Andretti Global's Kirkwood won those two races and McLaren's O’Ward finished seventh and second to remain in striking distance, which was 73 points. It’s now 93 and looking unassailable again.

O’Ward started 11th, but he was pitted on lap five and that dropped him into traffic and more cautions followed. I’m pretty sure he was the lead driver on his strategy and he ended up 17th. A really disappointing weekend for driver and #5 crew all around, the worst result of the year and without any really obvious fault.

Kirkwood fared better in fourth and his race result generally can be considered a success today, but viewed from the perspective of a Palou win when Kirkwood easily should have been up there fighting for it, it has to be a loss.

Kirkwood didn’t do much wrong. He was nearly nerfed out of the race by Will Power at Canada Corner when the Penske driver was lucky not to end up in Toronto such was his late-braking, and they only avoided a crash thanks to Kirkwood.

Later in the race, Kirkwood drove Power off the track at the same corner, which, on the face of it, I deemed a pointless move which cost Kirkwood race time as well as Power. But given Power rammed Kirkwood at Detroit and then tried that move earlier in the race, Kirkwood needed to show he won’t continue to be pushed around by Power, and maybe it was a necessary long-term thing.

The big loss for Kirkwood was a caution after a pitstop, which cost him track position, and avoiding the spinning Christian Lundgaard - who should also really be on the loser list as Palou’s most likely challenger, but spun trying to overtake Colton Herta. That cost him time to Felix Rosenqvist, who took over the lead of the strategy and finished second. Kirkwood might have had more for the fuel-saving Palou.

Ultimately fourth is a win on a day like today, but not when your runaway title rival wins another one.

Winner - AJ Foyt Racing

Santino Ferrucci chugged a beer thrown to him by a fan after he’d run out of fuel following the race, but not before he’d just brought his average finish to 3.75 over the last four races.

His team-mate David Malukas has made far too many errors in this period but has also shone, taking second at the Indy 500, before shunting Palou at Detroit costing him a chance at a top five and Gateway he fell back in the strategy melee despite leading over 60 laps.

At Road America Malukas spun on the first lap and was in the gravel. Let’s use that as a microcosm for how insane this race was. After getting going again and two pit stops, just 17 laps later!

His seventh was a great turnaround and brings his average to 8.75, which is still ridiculously good for this David vs Goliath team.

Ferrucci especially continues to deliver these ’starting somewhere around 20th and finishing in the top 10’ performances, which are the staple of his IndyCar career. To get this result after long-term Foyt backer Marlyne Sexton passed away was a fitting tribute.

While its technical partner Team Penske seems to be in a results-freefall, Foyt is executing on race day.

Loser - Penske

Fourth, eighth and 10th on the grid. Finished 12th, 14th and crashed. Enough said for this Penske team.

Over the last three races, its average finish across three cars is 16.89.

All three could have won this race. Josef Newgarden cost he and Scott McLaughlin time in a combative Turn 5 overtake, Power spun of his own accord, Newgarden crashed of his own accord and I’m still not entirely certain how McLaughlin ended up 12th, but feel sorry for him as he felt like one of the best in the field for managing aggressive moves versus not smashing people off the track.

This team needs a lightning rod. With no senior management since the Indy 500 qualifying scandal - Kyle Moyer is the first to find a new home as the former Penske general manager is now McLaren’s director of competition and strategist for Nolan Siegel who was the top finishing McLaren last weekend in eighth - the team feels like it needs some good news.

Winner - Louis Foster 

He’s basically on the winners list because of his pole, as finishing 11th isn’t ideal on paper. But the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver probably stayed in the lead and in the top five longer than people expected and while he did drop back, it was mainly through not taking the winning strategy that he was caught out.

It was a big points boost as his fellow rookie rival Robert Shwartzman spun on his own early on. Both rookies now have poles and Shwartzman leads Foster by two points at halfway.

Loser - Robert Shwartzman

Generally Shwartzman has managed the better finishes in 2025 for Prema Racing, but arriving at the series’ toughest road course, it was his team-mate Callum Ilott who shone, qualifying ninth - although Shwartzman’s 17th was far from poor.

In the race, Shwartzman spun out early, so we never got to see if he could turn things around. Ilott managed 15th, comfortably his best result of the year, after Shwartzman’s 10th at Gateway remains the best for Prema so far.

Winner - Rinus VeeKay

Another race, another top 10 for hot driver market prospect VeeKay.

The Dale Coyne driver was struggling with top speed all weekend, which is not ideal at Road America and he qualified 22nd, ended up making four stops after a bizarre race.

He jumped the first restart, so got a penalty for that and went to the back. He then pitted after going to the back, which is not allowed right away, and then later he was pinged for hitting Graham Rahal and had to yield three positions.

How he came out with a top 10 is incomprehensible, but he has, and he’s moving back towards the top 10 he deserves to be in after some cruel misfortune earlier in the season dropped him out of it.

Winner - Alex Palou

What’s left to say? He’s the best driver in the series and has the best crew around him and when they methodically win a race like this it must be so demoralising for his rivals.

Yes, saving fuel while maintaining a really high pace in the final stint was key. But he was as combative as you’re every likely to see Palou in this race, constantly dicing with Power, Kirkwood and the two Penskes, which he cleared after the mid-point of the race and that could have been crucial had Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden stayed ahead.

After being taken out by Malukas at Detroit and finishing eighth at Gateway, normal 2025 service has been resumed for the Chip Ganassi driver.

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