Alex Palou benefits from late caution to win Race 2 at Iowa

Alex Palou led 194 laps and won from the pole. That’s what the record will say. That, however, doesn’t tell the story.

The driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda lost the lead to Josef Newgarden with 35 laps to go, after the latter made up a five-second gap in 15 laps to go from third to first. Then Newgarden pitted from the lead with 28 to go and a caution flew with 22 to go that trapped Newgarden a lap down, but gave Palou back the lead. Which he held onto after a restart with 11 to go and drove to victory in the Farm to Finish 275 Race No. 2 at Iowa Speedway.

“Honestly, it’s tough. It’s tough,” Palou said. “That’s why it’s so fun to race in INDYCAR with these teams, with these different tracks. It’s different challenges that you have. You go to a street course and you need different techniques than on a road course, and then you go to an oval and you have superspeedways, and then you come here and it’s completely different to IMS.

“It’s super fun, keeps you awake, keeps you having to push every single weekend, and honestly, I was already super happy yesterday with our first pole here. But to be able to get our first win here and fighting on track, it’s been a good day. It’s been super fun.”

It’s his 18th career victory in 93 career NTT INDYCAR Series starts and eighth of the 2025 season.

Scott Dixon brought his No. 9 CGR Honda home to a runner-up finish and Marcus Armstrong rounded out the podium in his No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.

“Yeah, it was definitely an interesting weekend for us,” Dixon said. “I think all the cars yesterday weren’t typically great on the high lines. On the 9 car side at least we threw the kitchen sink at it, at least try something different, use it as a bit of a test session.

“It was a bit iffy at the start. We were a bit off on COP and bars and all that kind of stuff, but once we got it dialed in, it was pretty good. I think we were able to manage the stints quite well, tire life was quite good, and that enabled us to save a bunch of fuel and extend the windows when we needed to. I think today for most people it was about catching the caution and going as long as possible.

“The undercut was not great for us. The overcut was a bit better. Obviously you could run really fast times at the end. I don’t know, I think we worked on the car all day and got it pretty good, and another stint I think we could have had a really fun race with the 10.”

David Malukas and Saturday’s winner, Pato O’Ward, rounded out the top-five.

Christian Lundgaard, Felix Rosenqvist, Christian Rasmussen, Robert Shwartzman and Newgarden rounded out the top-10.

Alex Palou benefits from late caution to win Race 2 at Iowa

Race summary

Palou led the field to green at 1:20 p.m. ET, but caution flew on the first lap when Devlin DeFrancesco got loose and spun into the Turn 4 wall. He collected Scott McLaughlin in the process.

Back to green on Lap 12, Palou caught the back of the field on Lap 32. Caution flew on Lap 50 when Sting Ray Robb hit the wall in Turn 1. Everybody pitted under the caution. Shwartzman dropped to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road.

Back to green on Lap 65, Newgarden overtook Palou on the high line exiting Turn 4 for the race lead. Unlike Saturday, Newgarden lapped cars with greater ease. He pit from the lead on Lap 130, as caution flew for Marcus Ericsson, who suffered a right-front tire failure and hit the wall in Turn 4. This gave the lead back to Palou and trapped Newgarden a lap down. Which he got back when the field pitted under the caution.

Back to green on Lap 142, the race settled into a green flag run. Until caution flew on Lap 176 when Callum Ilott broke loose and rear-ended the Turn 4 wall. Kyle Kirkwood stayed out to take the race lead.

Back to green on Lap 191, Palou jumped to the high line to fight Kirkwood for the race lead. Kirkwood edged him out at the line on Lap 192, but Palou completed the overtake for the race lead on Lap 193. Newgarden, who with 50 laps to go was five seconds back, overtook Palou into Turn 1 to retake the lead with 35 laps to go. He pitted from the lead with 28 to go and momentarily stalled it on exit. Malukas cycled out ahead of him and Palou took the race lead. Caution flew with 22 to go when Colton Herta hit the wall in Turn 2.

Back to green with 11 to go, Palou drove onto victory.

Alex Palou benefits from late caution to win Race 2 at Iowa

What else happened

Will Power dropped off the pace from fourth on Lap 21 and made an unscheduled stop. An engine failure ended his race.