Alex Palou celebrates after winning the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. Photo by Chris Owens

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

INDYCAR superstar Alex Palou is operating in a league of his own.

Palou’s numbers as four-time/reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion stand as undisputed statistical evidence. But also consider this observation from series regular Graham Rahal in the aftermath of Palou’s latest victory in Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating in some ways, but you’ve got to respect it. It’s impressive. It’s absolutely impressive,” Rahal said after finishing third to Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew on the tight, bumpy and unforgiving 1.645-mile/nine-turn circuit in Downtown Motown. “The team, it’s not like they’re…today it’s not like he blew anybody’s doors off, but he does everything extremely well. The pit stops are extremely good. The strategy is always on par and it’s hard to beat people that operate like that.

“Obviously when you start up-front (on-pole), it’s easier to do. But they made the right pit decision to pit about the same time I did on the early side of the window and it played out for them, as well.

“They just do everything to a very, very high level, and you’ve got to respect that tremendously.”

Indeed, Palou prevailed in a full-contact race filled with various tire strategies en route to his fourth victory in eight races this season. Palou drove his No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 3.0584-second victory over the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.

It was the 23rd victory of Palou’s career in 106 starts _ a remarkable strike-rate of 21.7 percent. Palou now has won 12 of the last 25 series races _ a 48 percent win-rate _ dating to the start of the 2025 season.

Need more evidence? Palou led 71 of the scheduled 100 laps/170 miles to secure his second win in the Motor City and third street circuit victory of the season. Alex’s 23rd career win tied him for 20th all-time with the legendary Tommy Milton. And the victory extended Palou’s championship lead to 62 points over Kirkwood, which equates to more than a race’s worth of margin. The 29-year-old Spaniard clearly is poised for an INDYCAR record-tying fourth straight title.

“Yeah, I wish we were in a league of our own, but we struggled a lot. You can see that it’s very tough to win races,” Palou said during his post-race presser along longtime Team Manager Barry Wanser. “Like we have to work so much, and everybody in the team has to work so much to be here.”

That said, Palou added, “I feel very confident. I feel that I’m in a great moment in my career where I feel super-comfortable with what I’m capable of doing with the car. The car responds to me, talks to me the way I want.

“I have an amazing group around me that whenever I struggle with the car, they can fix it for me. Like here at Detroit, we were not super-happy last year. We came with a car that was similar to last year and kind of changed it to make it a lot better and we were on-pole, so we had the fastest car.

“Not only that, I did a couple mistakes on track on the first stint and the team alone, they put me from fourth to first, and that was just with a strategy call, which that’s our first step. But then you need all the crew, as well, to execute and to give you a great pit stop.

“For sure we have a great package. I don’t know how long that’s going to last. Like my feeling or the crew’s feeling or the strategy feeling, like you never know when it’s going to end. You need so much to go right for you to the end.”

SEE: Race Results

Rahal’s third-place finish in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was the 37-year-old Ohioan’s third podium result of the season, as Honda-powered machines celebrated in the shadow of the General Motors Renaissance Center.

Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard of Denmark finished fourth and fifth in the No. 5 and No. 7 Chevrolet-powered cars, respectively.

“It was a pretty entertaining race,” said O’Ward, a 27-year-old native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio, Texas. “I would have loved to have been up there on the podium, but we’ve got work to do. Hats off to the crew for all the hard work that went on (Saturday) to change the engines. We did our best to fight our way forward today. Just short of a podium again but I’d love to go get one soon.”

Lundgaard termed his drive in the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet as “really frustrating. It wasn’t the race that we expected to have. We had some sort of hybrid issue on that last stint-and-a-half, so we couldn’t use hybrid then. With the engine changes (Saturday), it wasn’t the situation we wanted to find ourselves in. But it proves just how well everybody is working together and how good of a team this is.”

Palou took the lead for good on Lap 69 when Kirkwood pitted from P1 for the last time and stayed out front on restarts on Laps 72, 76, 83 and 93 after full-course yellows bunched the field.

The move to the front was paved a few laps earlier when strategist Wanser and Palou decided to make their final pit stop at the end of Lap 63, switching from the faster but less durable Firestone Firehawk alternate (red) tire to the primary (black) tire. Wanser didn’t want Palou to get caught on-track under caution and lose track position.

Wanser’s decision proved prescient on Lap 66 when Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Racing nudged the rear of Rinus VeeKay’s No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet into a spin in Turn 5. Kirkwood was leading but still had to make his final stop, which he did under yellow on Lap 69 and was forced to use a set of Firestone alternates per INDYCAR rules that require at least two sets of the softer rubber to be run in street-circuit events.

“Of all the variables that happen in INDYCAR street-course racing, I think we had them all,” Wanser said. “Obviously the tires were a big factor, the difference between the alternates and the primaries. We kind of figured that the crossover was about 15 green laps before the primaries were better.

“Yeah, it was a very challenging race certainly even on the strategy, when to pit. We caught a break being in the pits, but we’d hope more…we were actually in the pits at the time so the leaders didn’t have such an advantage when everyone came in and they kind of followed in behind us. Yeah, it was great.”

Palou rocketed away from Alexander Rossi’s No. 20 Java House Chevrolet of ECR on the restart on Lap 72. Rookie Mick Schumacher of Switzerland and David Malukas were engaged in an intense duel for third on the restart, with Schumacher missing the corner in Turn 5 and nosing into the barriers in his No. 47 ENVE Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Malukas had nowhere to go and ran wide in his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, with the incident triggering another full-course caution on Lap 73.

By this point, Kirkwood had worked his way back to third after his final pit stop and had to make the most of the added early grip of the alternate tire before the increased durability of Palou’s primary tires prevailed in the closing laps. Kirkwood passed Rossi and then set his sights on Palou, knowing this was his best chance to win.

Kirkwood pulled to within two car-lengths of Palou on Lap 79 and appeared to be ready to pounce for the lead when Ferrucci’s car slowed in Turn 4 with a mechanical problem, triggering the fifth full-course yellow of the race on Lap 80.

“We took a little bit of a gamble on tires there, being the only guy on reds (alternates) at the end,” said Kirkwood, a 27-year-old resident of Jupiter, Fla. “It nearly paid off. It was so, so close. There were two untimely yellows.

“We almost covered Palou when we were on primes, which would have been phenomenal, and then we had that other yellow where I had him lined up. I was ready to make a dive on him, and, of course, (the yellow) comes out after I burned 10 seconds of overtake. From there, we just didn’t really have another shot at it. I think I just used up my tires too much to make that one pass.”

Palou kept the lead on the restart on Lap 83, but Kirkwood continued to push and forced Palou into a flat-spotting tire lockup on Lap 88. Palou gathered himself and his car and started to pull away, building a lead of 1.8929-seconds by Lap 91.

However, there was one more restart for Palou to manage after Rossi clipped the rear of the No. 18 BMax Honda driven by Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing and sent Grosjean into the outside wall approaching Turn 3 on Lap 91. That triggered the last of six full-course yellows. Palou pulled away from Kirkwood and the field on the Lap 93 restart and was never threatened despite the 173 on-track passes recorded _ a high for a street circuit this season. 

“Being able to be up front was key,” Palou said. “On the first stint, I started struggling and kind of put myself in a bad spot and lost two positions with Lundgaard and (Scott) McLaughlin. I lost us positions there, but the team made a great call to be safe with the yellow. It kind of worked out for us.”

Ferrucci’s afternoon of adventures featuring Dutchman VeeKay placed Santino 22-laps down at the finish and in 23^rd.

“The start was good, made up a lot of spots,” said Ferrucci, a resident of Dallas who turned 28 on Sunday. “We got hit a bunch. It was just moving bumper cars out there. Strategy was good. The guys did a great job in the pit lane. Then we got taken out by the same car that hit us at the start, tried to put us in the wall, bent the front suspension.

“We came to the same car again, and he’s blocking, blocking, but no penalty. He was so loose that when we got to the corner, I don’t think I even touched him and he spun on his own.  We got the drive through. Then we had a part failure on the pedal throttle and it just stopped.”

Rookie Caio Collet of Brazil, Ferrucci’s teammate at Waller, Texas-based Foyt Racing, finished a lead-lap 16^th in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet.

Next NTT IndyCar Series race is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Sunday, June 7, from the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval in Madison, Ill. Live coverage of the season’s first night race starts at 9 p.m. (EDT on FOX, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

Myles Rowe, Enzo Fittipaldi and Tymek Kucharczyk – Detroit Grand Prix – INDY NXT by Firestone – Photo by James Black

Enzo Fittipaldi returned his famous surname to Victory Lane in the Motor City for the first time in 35 years Sunday, winning the INDY NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix despite driving nearly the entire distance with a damaged front wing and nose cone.

Series rookie Fittipaldi won the race _ originally scheduled for 45 laps but switched to a timed event _ under caution in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports car after starting seventh. It was his second victory of the season and vaulted him into the championship lead in INDYCAR’s developmental series, seven points ahead of Nikita Johnson of Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR and eight ahead of HMD teammate Tymek Kucharczyk of Poland.

SEE: Race Results

The victory also was the first by the legendary Fittipaldi name in Detroit since his grandfather and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil won INDYCAR races on different downtown street circuits in 1989 and 1991. Fittipaldi won the Indianapolis 500 driving for Patrick Racing in 1989 and for Team Penske in 1993.

“Emmo” launched his successful INDYCAR career after winning Formula One World Driving Championships as “Fitti” with Team Lotus in 1972 and McLaren in 1974.

“I just pushed as hard as I could,” said Enzo Fittipaldi, a 24-year-old native of Miami. “I found pace. I was really, really fast. Just so happy to get the win. I love to race; I’m a racer.”

Series veteran Myles Rowe finished a season-best second in the No. 99 Abel Motorsports with Force Indy machine, with rookie Kucharczyk completing the podium in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports entry.

Rookie Max Garcia tied his season-best finish by placing fourth in the No. 12 Abel Motorsports machine, with veteran Seb Murray of Scotland completing the top-five in the No. 27 Megatron car of Andretti Global.

Frenzied action started from the drop of the green flag on Lap 1, as Lochie Hughes of Australia made an aggressive move into the Turn 3 hairpin with his No. 26 Andretti Global car, punting pole-sitter Alessandro de Tullio into a spin from the lead in the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing entry. Hughes received a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

Fittipaldi nudged another car in that chain-reaction melee, which damaged the right side of his front wing and punched a large hole in his nose cone. Kucharczyk took the lead from that point, keeping it on the restart on Lap 8. Kucharczyk built a lead of 3.324-seconds over Fittipaldi by Lap 13, with Rowe climbing to third by Lap 18. Rowe dove under Fittipaldi for second on Lap 20 and started to chase down Kucharczyk.

By Lap 21, Rowe pulled to within 0.5477-seconds of leader Kucharcyzk, slicing 1.6-seconds from the Polish driver’s advantage in just three laps. But the complexion of the race changed on Lap 26 when the second of four full-course yellow flags flew for debris on the 1.645-mile/nine-turn temporary street circuit.

The restart came at the end of Lap 27, with Rowe trying to dive under Kucharczyk for the lead immediately after the green flag in the Turn 3 hairpin. The move forced both cars wide, leaving an opening along the inside curb for Fittipaldi. Enzo took it, squeezing past Rowe and Kucharczyk and never trailing thereafter. Fittipaldi stayed out front on another restart on Lap 34 after Niels Koolen of The Netherlands nosed his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing machine into the barrier in Turn 8.

“I got it done,” Fittipaldi said. “I knew Myles was going to go for a lunge there, and I just prepared my mid-(corner) to exit of Turn 3, and he went on the lunge on Tymek, and I was able to do the crossover and got the lead. I had the pace to stay there, and I was actually pulling away.”

The decisive move was one of 141 on-track passes, including 124 for position _ both INDY NXT records for any circuit on which the series has competed in the Motor City.

Fittipaldi expanded that gap to nearly six-tenths of a second when Andretti Global’s Max Taylor also nosed into the barrier in Turn 1 in his No. 28 Susan G. Komen car with about four minutes, 20 seconds left in what had become a timed race, triggering the final caution. Taylor’s car could not be cleared in time to restart the race, with the field finishing under yellow.

“I was losing quite a lot of time through (Turns) 6 and 7,” said Fittipaldi, addressing the damage to his car. “It was quite difficult. Down the straight, I could feel the air coming through my legs and I said, ‘Man, this is not good. We’re definitely dragging a lot on the straight.’ It was hard to keep that lead and keep up with the guys.”

Next INDY NXT event is Sunday, June 7, on the 1.25-mile oval at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., in the shadow of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It’s the first of three series oval races this season.

NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 327; 2, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 265; 3, David Malukas, Team Penske, 248; 3, 4, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 226; 5, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 220; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 205; 7, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 192; 8, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 187; 9, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 186; 10, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 174;

11, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 173; 12, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 153; 13, Rinus VeeKay, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 143; 14, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 140; 15, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 138; 16, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 129; 17, Dennis Hauger, Dale Coyne Racing, 128; 18, Will Power, Andretti Global, 121; 19, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 121; 20, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 110;

21, Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing, 102; 22, Caio Collet, A.J. Foyt Racing, 90; 23, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 78; 24, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 76; 25, Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 75; 26, Derek Daly, Dryer & Reinbold Racing, 24; 27, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 20; 28, Jack Harvey, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 8; 29, Jacob Abel, Abel Motorsports, 6; 30, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, 5;

31, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 5; 32, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Arrow McLaren, 5; 33, Katherine Legge, HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing, 5.

FOX SPORTS’ 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST SCHEDULE/(RACE WINNER)

Note _ All times Eastern

Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, March 7 _ Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Ariz., (Josef Newgarden, Team Penske)

Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, April 19 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course, (Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren)

Sunday, May 24 _ 110^th Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval, (Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian)

Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., 9 p.m.

Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., 2 p.m.

Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., TBA

Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, 4 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 16 _ Streets of Markham, Canada, Noon

Sunday, Aug. 23 _ Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., TBA

Saturday, Aug. 29 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 1, West Allis, Wis., 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 2, West Allis, Wis., 1 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 6 _ WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., 2:30 p.m.

Note _ Dates and times subject to change.

2026 INDYCAR NXT BY FIRESTONE SCHEDULE/(RACE-WINNER)

Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)

Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Max Taylor, Andretti Global)

Saturday, March 28 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)

Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alessandro de Tullio, A.J. Foyt Racing)

Friday, May 8 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 1, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 2, (Tymek Kucharczyk, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)

Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill.

Saturday, June 20 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 1

Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 2                        

Saturday, July 4 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 1

Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 2

Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn.

Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway

Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis.

Saturday, Sept. 5 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 1

Sunday, Sept. 6 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 2