Alex Palou claimed victory in a chaotic edition of the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. In a race filled with numerous cautions and an even wider variety of strategies, Palou crossed the finish line just ahead of Felix Rosenqvist. Santino Ferrucci surprisingly finished third, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood.

At the start of the race, polesitter Louis Foster managed to hold onto the lead, as the field made it cleanly through Turn 1. The same couldn’t be said for Turn 2, where David Malukas locked up, hit Christian Lundgaard’s car, and spun into the gravel. In the chaos behind, Jacob Abel also spun in the same corner. After being pulled out of the gravel by the AMR Safety Team, both Malukas and Abel were able to continue.

Behind the leading Foster, Alex Palou had a disastrous start, dropping from second to seventh in the opening corners. Scott McLaughlin moved into second behind Foster, with Kyle Kirkwood running third.

On the restart, McLaughlin managed to pass Foster for the lead. Behind them, an exciting battle unfolded between Will Power and Palou. Palou got by Power in Turn 1, only for Power to take the position back in Turn 5. Heading into Canada Corner, Palou launched another attack. Power braked way too late and shoved Kirkwood off track, allowing Palou to slip past both drivers.

Less than two laps after the restart, the yellow flag waved again. This time, it was Robert Shwartzman who braked too late heading into Canada Corner, spun, and ended up in the tire barriers after bouncing through the gravel. During the first two caution periods, several drivers from the back of the field made pit stops, creating a split in strategy early on.

The pace car was called out for the third time on lap 11, following a crash involving Sting Ray Robb. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver was caught off guard by Marcus Armstrong braking ahead of him. Robb veered into the grass and slammed into the wall. This caution provided the leaders with the opportunity to make their first pit stops, which handed the lead to Scott Dixon, followed by Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi.

The chaotic race continued with another crash in Turn 5, this time involving Conor Daly. The American attempted to pass Malukas but braked too late and ended up in the gravel. During the resulting caution, the Safety Team pulled Daly's car out — only for Daly to drive off with the tow cable still attached! He was later handed a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident.

Several front-runners opted to make their second pit stops during this caution, though it was too early to comfortably complete a three-stop strategy. Others stayed out, which gave the lead to Lundgaard, followed by Kirkwood and Foster.

The final caution of the day came on lap 32, after none other than Josef Newgarden lost control of his #2 Team Penske car exiting the final corner. He managed to limp back to the pits, but the team ultimately decided to retire the car.

Lap 43 was seen by many teams as the point from which a final stint to the checkered flag was feasible. However, most drivers fell just short of making it that far. On the alternate strategy, Dixon was among the first to pit, while Palou managed to stretch his fuel one lap further than his rivals. Of the front-runners, only Kirkwood and Rosenqvist managed to hit lap 43 before making their final stops.

After the final pit stops, Dixon emerged as the leader, just ahead of Palou. But having pitted two laps earlier, Dixon was forced to make a late splash-and-dash two laps from the end. Palou, who had saved fuel while running behind Dixon, made it to the finish and secured his sixth win of the season.

Immediately after the checkered flag, it became clear just how little fuel many drivers had left. While Palou was able to complete the cool-down lap, several others — including Ferrucci — parked their cars on the front straight.

Full results of the race on Road America