Team Penske’s McLaughlin made a clean start from his first-ever pole position in the series, but team-mate Power, the only driver in the top 10 to start the race on the harder tyres, appeared to spin up coming out off the final turn and lost places to both Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta and Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing.
The race was thrown its first curveball with a caution period on lap 25, as David Malukas on his IndyCar debut pounded the wall at the exit of Turn 3, his broken car coming to a halt in the centre of the track.
When the pits opened, McLaughlin led the majority of the frontrunners into pits, Marcus Ericsson being released as Graham Rahal was alongside him and Romain Grosjean on his outside.
New strategist Brian Barnhart elected to leave Alexander Rossi out front, the only drive to have not pitted. Before the lap 35 restart, Ericsson was ordered to the back of the field for the unsafe release in the pits.
When the green flag waved, Rahal passed Herta, and just ahead of them further around the lap Palou got around Power. The #12 Penske then had his mirrors full of Herta, who re-passed Rahal.
Rossi made his pitstop on lap 37 leaving the Dixon, O’Ward and Newgarden in the top three spots.
Newgarden was first of the three-stoppers to pit for a second time on lap 42 and Pagenaud and Rosenqvist would do the same a lap later. O’Ward went to lap 48 before his second stop, Dixon a lap later, leaving VeeKay leading Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott by 1.3s. Right behind them were the two-stoppers, however, namely McLaughlin, Palou, Herta, Power, Rahal and Lundgaard.
Herta also made his second stop next time by and to avoid being put in the danger zone were a yellow to fly, McLaughlin then pitted next time by, and then Palou and Rahal pitted too, to see McLaughlin remain ahead of Palou. Power went a lap longer, and rejoined ahead of Herta who had been stuck behind Pagenaud until the Frenchman made his final stop on lap 69.
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
A spin for Kellett prompted Arrow McLaren SP to pit O’Ward for the final time but the track remained green as the Foyt driver was able to rejoin before retiring.
Dixon made his third and final stop and ceded the lead to the two-stoppers, with McLaughlin leading Palou by 2.3s, with Power a further 4.5s back. That gap was then reduced, however, as Power was given a bit more leash fuel-wise, and by lap 85, with 15 to go, he had that gap to just under three seconds.
VeeKay had fallen to six seconds back as he tried to eke out his fuel, but stayed ahead of Herta who was having to be similarly feather-footed and just hanging on ahead of Rahal.
With 13 to go, McLaughlin got held up by Jimmie Johnson, allowing Johnson’s team-mate Palou to close to within 0.7s of the leader. The Penske driver kept his cool, however and by lap 94 his lead was back out over one second. His cause was aided by Palou being warned he needed to conserve fuel for the end.
A lap later however, it was McLaughlin who lost time, and Palou was only half a second behind him. With two to go, McLaughlin and Palou were stuck behind rookie Devlin DeFrancesco, but the three-time Supercars champion held on to become an IndyCar race-winner, taking the victory by half a second.
Will Power completed the podium for Penske 1.9s back, as Herta got around VeeKay to grab fourth with three laps to go. Grosjean also pulled off a late-race moves on Rahal and VeeKay for fifth.
Scott Dixon led the three-stoppers in eighth place ahead of Chip Ganassi team-mate MEricsson, with Dale Coyne’s Takuma Sato completing the top 10.