Alex Palou scored his eighth win of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season during Sunday’s (July 27) Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Palou started the race on pole and maintained control from the drop of the green flag until the checkered flag flew. Christian Lundgaard and Colton Herta completed the podium, followed by Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Palou said when asked by FOX Sports how he’s managed such a consistently strong season. “What an amazing job by everybody at CGR, Honda, DHL for giving us everything we needed to be as fast as we were.
“It’s been an awesome weekend, an awesome year, overall, but today was something else. It was super fun to be here, one of my favorite tracks, for sure. I couldn’t be happier right now.”
Toward the end of the race, Lundgaard sought to challenge Palou’s lead on multiple restarts, but without success. Lundgaard had mirrors full of Herta during the race’s final run, which distracted him from his pursuit of Palou.
Herta aimed to capitalize on an alternative strategy by starting the race on the black-walled Firestone Primary tires and stretching them until lap 25 while Lundgaard, conveniently, swapped out his primaries on lap 20. Herta then drove two stints on used Alternate compound tires while Lundgaard used two sets of new Alternates.
Both drivers stopped on lap 70, with Herta taking on his first pair of fresh Alternates and taking a tire advantage over Lundgaard, who only had used Alternates at his disposal by this point. However, it was for naught as Lundgaard was able to hold on, preventing Herta from executing any sort of lunging pass like Lundgaard had pulled off on the No. 26 driver earlier in the day.
The race saw five caution periods, but the fourth of the five was particularly confusing and, according to the commentary team, “insane.”
Ericsson’s No. 28 Andretti Global Honda caught the exit curb coming out of turn 6 and the Swede chased the car up Laguna Seca’s uphill backstretch before it spun to a stop entering turn 7. While he tried to get the car to refire, Ericsson sat stationary just over a blind crest while cars drove by at speed because the yellow flag had not been displayed.
Ericsson’s car sat motionless, facing the wrong direction, on the racing surface for so long that the commentary team of Wil Buxton, James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell derided the interval between Ericsson’s spin and the display of the yellow flag as “insane” and “ridiculous,” among other choice adjectives.
Kyffin Simpson and Felix Rosenqvist triggered the first caution of the day when the came together coming toward turn 6 on the opening lap. Simpson’s No. 8 Honda took a hard impact to the outside wall and Rosenqvist’s No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing entry went nose-first into the barriers. Both drivers were unharmed.
Jacob Abel, Rinus VeeKay and Santino Ferrucci accounted for the remaining three cautions from the day. Abel ran off the course and into the barrier with brake issues. Ferrucci lost the rear under braking and slid through the Corkscrew late in the race.
VeeKay was spun off the front of Kyle Kirkwood and beached his No. 18 Honda in the turn-3 run-off area. Notably, the time between VeeKay’s spin and the yellow flag being displayed drew the same kind of concern and criticism that was later lobbed at race control over its handling of Ericsson’s spin.
2025 IndyCar Laguna Seca Results
As the 2025 IndyCar season winds down, Portland is next up on the calendar. The Series’ venture into the Pacific Northwest will be broadcasted on FOX with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 10.
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.