Alex Palou‘s win in the 2025 Indianapolis 500 helped further cement his legacy among modern IndyCar greats while also reminding us that anything can certainly happen on race day when we least expect it.
Just ask Scott McLaughlin. He was supposed to start 10th but lost control of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet while trying to warm up his tires on the pace lap. Contact with the inside wall on the main straight meant that the 2024 Indianapolis 500 polesitter was out of the race before it even started.
Cooler temperatures were the probable culprit for the spin, as under warmer weather, McLaughlin’s car likely wouldn’t have lost traction with a warmer track surface.
Here's an on-board look at what happened during Scott McLaughlin's crash during the pace laps of the #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/EvSpnIgGBB
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 25, 2025
That was just the start of what was a drunk first half of the race. Between restart crashes, a massive pit fire for Alexander Rossi, Robert Shwartzman hitting his pit crew and Rinus VeeKay having brake failure and crashing on pit road, there was a little bit of chaos for everyone throughout the field.
Even for defending two-time 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who was out of the race with a fuel pressure problem.
But Palou seemed to avoid all issues on his way to claiming his first win in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Seemed, indeed. As Palou went to pit road for his final pit stop, the Spaniard nearly lost control of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
El “Pit lane 👍🏼” después de entrar así a la última parada en boxes me tiene dando tirabuzones 😭
— Fran Moreno 🧱 (@FJMoreno14) May 27, 2025
Llego a ver esto en directo y me da un infarto jajdjksajdjajksj https://t.co/x4JMTjfwEc pic.twitter.com/CUv4jRDtoU
Think about what would’ve happened had Palou lost control in pit lane. Marcus Ericsson would have won his second 500.
Or would he?
The day after finishing second to Palou, IndyCar announced that Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood and Callum Ilott had all failed post-race technical inspection. All three cars were dropped down to the final three positions in the running order, so it begs the question.
If Ericsson crossed the finish line first, would he be sent to the rear of the field for failing post-race technical inspection? That’s a question that nobody wants to know the answer to.
But let’s look further back in the field for some random tidbits here and there.
Santino Ferrucci‘s fifth-place finish gives the Connecticut native his seventh top-10 finish in his seventh 500 start. He’s the only starter in 500 history to record that achievement.
Conor Daly‘s eighth-place finish may have been an impressive result for the Noblesville, Indiana, native but Daly felt like he could have finished higher. Daly was running second when he felt a vibration before his final pit stop and the team told him his right rear tire pressure was slightly high.
That caused his fall through part of the top 10 before his final stop, which happened early. As a result, Daly had to save more fuel and his fight for the win was over.
Takuma Sato and Helio Castroneves finished ninth and 10th, respectively. Sato led a good portion of the first half of the race before sliding too far in his pit box during one of the pit stop sequences, dropping him in the top 10.
Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster finished 11th and 12th on the lead lap, which was a good result for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. A lot of attention was funneled their way because of their fight to remain on the lead lap late in the race ahead of Palou and his battle with Ericsson.
Which brings us to an uncomfortable truth about IndyCar racing. Cars that are fighting to stay on the lead lap late in the race have every right to fight to maintain their position in case of a late race yellow flag. That would put them back on the lead lap so they could fight for the win.
However, their fight to maintain their position on the lead lap effectively ended any battle for the race lead once Palou got ahead of Ericsson in the race’s final 40 miles. Is there a way to satisfy both the leader’s and backmarker’s wishes? There may not be a satisfactory answer to that question.
Foster was the race’s highest finishing rookie ahead of Nolan Siegel in 13th place. This was a source of contention for some on social media after it was announced that polesitter Robert Shwartzman was the 2025 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
The only way Shwartzman was not going to win ROTY was if he crashed early in the race and another rookie won the race. Media members were given four names to vote for in 2025 and here’s how their races went.
The first rookie won pole position and crashed into several of his crew members on pit road when he locked up the brakes for a pit stop. The damage from that collision knocked that rookie out of the race.
The second rookie was the highest-finishing rookie but had two pit road speeding penalties that knocked him back in the running order. The third rookie underperformed in qualifying compared to his teammates and crashed on the final lap of the race (Siegel) and the fourth rookie didn’t even make the race (Jacob Abel).
Of those four rookies, it’s easy to see why Shwartzman won ROTY. Becoming the first rookie to win pole position since Teo Fabi in 1983 made voting a bit less complicated for the media members who made the selection.
Colton Herta finished 14th. A pit road speeding penalty put the hard charger a lap down early. It was still a good showing for Herta, who was in a backup car following a big crash during qualifying weekend.
Graham Rahal finished 17th. On an early restart, he dropped over a dozen positions as he struggled with pace. The car got better as the race went on, but the damage was already done.
Scott Dixon finished 20th. What looked like a brake fire early in the race delayed the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner for a few laps, and his race never really got better. Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 21st and was looking good for a top result but he ran out of fuel going to his final pit stop and the fuel lines drying up meant he had no power for the rest of the race.
Kyle Larson‘s second attempt at the Double ended with a crash on a Lap 91 restart involving Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb. That ended a bad 2025 for Larson at Indianapolis that involved a crash at the April open test and another bit of wall contact during the week of practice.
And the only other person who had a worse race day than Scott McLaughlin has to be Marco Andretti. After having to qualify in the Last Row Showdown the Sunday before the race, Andretti’s race was over before it effectively began after contact with Jack Harvey caused Andretti to spin at the first turn, hitting the wall and ending his day.
Rough luck, but that’s how racing goes.
To the winner go the spoils, or in Palou’s case, over $3.8 million. He’ll also deal with a New York City media tour, which will pull him in every direction before the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday.
Let’s see if he can make it six wins from seven races on Sunday.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.