Alex Palou scored his fourth victory in eight races of the 2026 IndyCar season with a pit stop that broke the Detroit Grand Prix on lap 63, when he and his engineer Barry Wanser brought the Honda No. 10 of Chip Ganassi Racing in to change from the soft alternative tyres to the hard primary tyres just before Santino Ferrucci pushed Rinus VeeKay into the wall. The yellow flag caused by that contact left Kyle Kirkwood in a tight spot because he was leading in the Honda No. 27 of Andretti Global but still owed his stop, and a lap later he was forced by regulation to use the soft tyres. Palou took the lead and held on through four restarts to win by 3.0584 seconds.

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Kirkwood started sixth and by lap 79 was two car lengths behind Palou, ready to attack with the advantage of the red tyres, but Ferrucci intervened again with a mechanical failure that froze the race for the fifth time and cut off Kirkwood’s momentum just when he had used up 10 seconds of overtaking margin. "I was about to throw it in on him and after that I didn't have another shot," explained Kirkwood, who took second place and the runner‑up spot in the championship. Graham Rahal finished third in the Honda No. 15 of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, giving Honda a sweep of the top three spots at Chevrolet's home, with Pato O'Ward fourth in the Chevrolet No. 5 of Arrow McLaren and Christian Lundgaard fifth in the other McLaren.

Will Power led after passing Palou on lap 18 but retired after contact on lap 79, Scott Dixon retired with a mechanical failure on lap 69, and Scott McLaughlin, who fought for the lead in the first stint, got caught up in the incidents of the third restart and finished 19th, four laps down. Alexander Rossi hit the wall on the warm‑up lap, was able to continue, and late in the race touched Romain Grosjean on lap 91, sending him into the barrier and causing the sixth yellow flag of the afternoon.

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In the midfield, Louis Ford provided a positive note with a set of harder primary tyres that allowed him to pass Marcus Armstrong on lap 23 — with a brush that sent Armstrong into the wall — and continue climbing to seventh place, his best result in IndyCar. Felix Rosenqvist, who had just won the Indy 500, finished sixth in the Honda No. 60 of Meyer Shank Racing without getting into trouble, and Josef Newgarden raced with an injury to his left leg from his Indianapolis crash to climb from last to tenth place.

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David Malukas lost the Indy 500 by 0.0233 seconds, crashed in qualifying on Saturday, started 25th, and on Sunday got tangled in Mick Schumacher’s accident into the barrier on lap 73 when both were fighting for third place. Schumacher locked up into Turn 5, and Malukas had nowhere to go, so he finished 18th, four laps down, and dropped to third in the championship with 248 points. Palou leads with 332, and Kirkwood is second with 270, a difference of 62 points — the equivalent of a full race’s worth of advantage. The next round is the Gateway oval on June 7.

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Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix - Race

Pos.	No.	driver	team	time
1	#10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	-
2	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	+3.058s
3	#15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+5.180s
4	#5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+6.242s
5	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+7.263s
6	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+8.193s
7	#45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+8.800s
8	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+9.247s
9	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+9.674s
10	#2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+11.896s
11	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+12.530s
12	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+13.400s
13	#19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+14.188s
14	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+14.952s
15	#6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+15.323s
16	#4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+15.960s
17	#20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+54.044s
18	#12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+4 LAPS
19	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+4 LAPS
20	#18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+9 LAPS
21	#47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+9 LAPS
22	#26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+21 LAPS
23	#14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+22 LAPS
24	#9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+31 LAPS
25	#21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+91 LAPS