Alex Palou Leads Honda Contingent at Road America

  • Alex Palou finishes fourth at NTT INDYCAR SERIES XPEL Grand Prix of Road America
  • Kyle Kirkwood scores second-consecutive top-five finish
  • All three Andretti Global cars score top-10 results

It was Alex Palou leading the Honda field in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, bringing his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda home fourth in today's race.

Palou started seventh and avoided damage in a chaotic first corner—and first quarter of the race—to advance through the field to the fourth position.

Finishing fifth was Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood. This is Kirkwood's second top-five finish, scored at consecutive weekends. He moves up to a tie for fifth in the points with the result.

Kirkwood's Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta finished sixth after an adventurous day. The Californian driver was spun on lap one, turn one, followed by a secondary off on the subsequent restart. That sent the #26 Honda to the rear of the field, but the Andretti Global team utilized an alternate strategy to finish sixth at the line.

EXPEL Grand Prix at Road America Honda Race Results

  • 4th Alex Palou   
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 5th Kyle Kirkwood 
Andretti Global Honda
  • 6th Colton Herta
Andretti Global Honda
  • 9th Marcus Ericsson
Andretti Global Honda
  • 10th Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 11th Christian Lundgaard 
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 12th Linus Lundqvist-R
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 14th Felix Rosenqvist
Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 16th Pietro Fittipaldi
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  • 19th Helio Castroneves
Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 21st Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 22nd Luca Ghiotto-R
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 25th Jack Harvey
Dale Coyne Racing Honda
  • 26th Marcus Armstrong
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda [Did not finish – mechanical]
  • 27th Kyffin Simpson-R
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda [Did not finish – contact]

R – Rookie

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers' Championship (unofficial, after 7 of 17 rounds)

Chevrolet        567 points
Honda  551 points

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers' Championship Standings (unofficial, after 7 of 17 rounds)

1. Will Power, Team Penske   236 points
2. Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing  -5
3. Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing  -11
4. Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren -52
5. Scott McLaughlin -57
5. Kyle Kirkwwod, Andretti Global     -57

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished second: "It was a good solid day for the #10 DHL Honda. We made up some positions, but it was just a shame we didn't have the ultimate car speed today. Overall, a good result, and we've gained some points in the championship as well."

Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Global Honda) finished sixth: "I'm not happy with sixth place with the car that we had and the pace that we had. We had a little bit of damage from the incidents and that did make it harder to get back up there. But, because of our strategy, we were able to go so much longer on fuel and get so much more clean air that it just kind of worked in our favor. It's disappointing for everybody on a weekend that I feel like we could have won. It's disappointing for our team, and for Honda, that we aren't at least on the podium." 

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) finished fifth: "A decent day. Of course, you always want to win, especially when you lead some laps here, but top five is always a good result, and that's what we got here today. The Honda had great fuel economy, we just couldn't make the tires last to actually use all the fuel. But as I said, a decent day, and we're still fifth in the points, so we'll go on to Laguna Seca happy with the finish."

Kelvin Fu (Vice President, Honda Racing Corporation USA) on today's XPEL Grand Prix at Road America: "We had a great qualifying this weekend at Road America, 1-2-3-4 for Honda showed a lot of promise and we hoped to continue that all the way to the checkered flag. Unfortunately, racing is racing and we can't predict how these events will pan out. As always, thank you to our men and women at HRC for all their hard work and to all of our Honda teams for the effort they put in this weekend. We will certainly be pushing for more at Laguna Seca." 

Fast Fact:

  • Honda Indy car drivers have scored nine victories at Road America, most recently in 2023, which was won by Alex Palou, in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, en route to his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship in the last three years.

Next
After a string of five consecutive May-June weekends, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES now takes next weekend off before heading west to central California for the June 21-23 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

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