The Alex Palou Show rolled through the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey and dominated the field as he led 84 of 95 laps, pushed the lead out to between 5-7s with ease and took his eighth victory of the year at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Five cautions came at a steady pace, and the only time Palou failed to lead was when local product Nolan Siegel stayed out during a yellow and spent 11 laps up front when the race returned to green, but otherwise, it was yet another day – like many others in 2025 – where Palou waited for a challenger to rise and reached the finish line without anyone bringing a fight to the tail of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“Amazing. It was another magical day for us,” Palou said after earning his third win at Laguna Seca since making his first start in 2021. “This was probably the best weekend ever. It felt like we had a big pace advantage. Could not be happier.”
The final restart of the afternoon came on lap 87, after which Palou crossed the finish line 3.7s ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who was aggressive from the outset, pulled off a hard pass on teammate Pato O’Ward and motored from seventh to get another podium with the No. 7 Chevy. Andretti Global’s Colton Herta, who started second, was third, 4.6s down to Palou.
“It was a very similar race to Barber,” said Lundgaard, who holds fifth in the standings. “Always a fun race.”
Herta was pleased to secure his second podium of the season with the No. 26 Honda.
“It was fun, even at the end of the race, too,” he said. “For me, this is my favorite race track in the country and it’s a treasure of its own that we get to bring IndyCar here. We go well together.”
Outside of the podium, O’Ward was fourth but fell to 120 points behind Palou on a day where everyone other than Palou and O’Ward were eliminated from the championship battle. Callum Ilott delivered PREMA Racing’s best finish with sixth in the No. 83 Chevy, and Christian Rasmussen was on a march and took ninth with the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy.
It wasn’t the most exciting race in terms of competition at the head of the field, but in a year where Palou and the No. 10 team are on a historic run, one more triumph fit nicely within everything that’s come before in 2025.
As it happened
The Java House Grand Prix of Monterey opened its 95 laps with polesitter Alex Palou getting a big jump on Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta got by to take P2. Conor Daly and Robert Shwartzman went off in Turn 3 and continued, but the real drama was waiting in Turn 6 where a collision involving Kyffin Simpson and Felix Rosenqvist fired both cars into the barriers. Caution.
Lap 4 under yellow and it’s Palou, Herta, O’Ward, Newgarden, Power, Malukas, Lundgaard, Rahal, Foster, and Rasmussen as the top 10.
Lap 6 restart and Palou on softer alternates accelerates away from Herta on harder primary tires. O’Ward’s on alternates as well as Newgarden and Power.
Lap 7 and Palou has 1.1s on Herta and 1.7s on O’Ward. Lundgaard forced his way past Malukas for P6. Rasmussen takes P8 from Rahal.
Lap 8 and Palou has 2.2s on Herta and 2.4s on O’Ward.
Lap 9 and Rasmussen forces his way past Malukas around the outside of Turn 2 to claim P7.
Lap 10 and Palou has 4.0s on Herta and 4.9s on O’Ward.
Lap 11 caution for Abel who went off at Turn 2.
Lap 12 and Dixon, Kirkwood, VeeKay and others hit pit lane.
Lap 14 restart and it’s Palou leading Herta, O’Ward, Newgarden, Power, Lundgaard, Rasmussen, Malukas, Rahal, and Foster.
Lap 15 and Palou leads Herta by 1.8s and O’Ward by 2.3s.
Lap 16 and it’s 2.5s on Herta and 3.0s on O’Ward. How many laps of optimum grip remain for Palou with the alternates
Lap 17 and it’s 3.8s on Herta and 4.7s on O’Ward.
Lap 19 and Palou is the only driver in the 1m11s range. Just ran a 1m11.372s to Herta’s 1m12.337s. Gap to Herta is 5.0s and 5.6s to O’Ward.
Lap 21 and Palou leads Herta by 7.1s and O’Ward by 7.8s. Newgarden is 9.4s back in fourth.
Lap 22 and Malukas pits.
Lap 23 and Rahal and McLaughlin pit. Palou: 1m11.8s. Herta: 1m12.2s.
Lap 24 and O’Ward pits for alternates again. Palou’s lead is 8.6s on Herta. Palou: 1m12.0. Herta: 1m12.8.
Lap 25 and Veekay is well off the track and stuck in Turn 3 after being nerfed by Kirkwood. Palou pits with a lead of 9.0s on Herta. Palou leaves the box before Herta pulls into his. Oof. Newgarden and Power pit as well. Palou takes used primaries.
Lap 26 and caution to retrieve VeeKay.
Lap 29 and Siegel leads the field with Palou second, Dixon third, Kirkwood fourth, Ilott, Herta in sixth and O’Ward in seventh. Kirkwood is given a rare stop-and-go penalty for the VeeKay hit. Lundgaard takes sixth from teammate O’Ward around the outside of Turn 2.
Lap 30 and Siegel on alternates leads Palou by 1.1s. Dixon on alternates is pressing his teammate.
Lap 31 and Kirkwood pits. It’s Siegel, Palou down 1.2s, Dixon down 2.5s, Ilott, Herta, Lundgaard, O’Ward, Newgarden, Rasmussen and Shwartzman.
Lap 33 and Siegel’s alternates are slowing. The gap to Palou is 0.6s and Palou is faster on newer primaries.
Lap 36 and the lead for Siegel over Palou is 0.5s and both turned 1m13.0s laps.
Lap 37 and Palou passes Siegel for the lead around the outside of Turn 3, which almost never works without getting pitched into the gravel. Siegel pits at the end of the lap.
Lap 38 and Palou leads Dixon by 4.3s, Herta by 4.9s, O’Ward by 7.5s.
Lap 39 and Herta takes P2 from Dixon whose tires are surrendering. Lundgaard rips P3 from Dixon into the Corkscrew as Dixon pits at the end of the lap.
Lap 40 and Palou leads Herta by 5.6s and Lundgaard by 7.6s. Palou is the only driver in the top 20 with the harder primaries.
Lap 41 and Ilott pits from P4, promoting O’Ward to the position. Herta’s cut Palou’s lead to 5.0s.
Lap 42 and the lead is 4.9s. Palou: 1m12.1. Herta: 1m11.8.Lap 45 and the lead is 5.0s. Palou: 1m12.1. Herta: 1m12.1. O’Ward pits for primaries.
Lap 47 and Palou leads Herta by 4.6s and Newgarden by 16.6s. O’Ward is P14.
Lap 50 and Palou’s lead is 4.8s on Herta and 19.2 on Newgarden. Rasmussen is 21.1s back in P4.
Lap 51 and Newgarden pits for primaries. Palou pits at the end of the lap along with Herta. Palou takes used alternates as does Herta, whose right-front wheel nut drops and rolls away. Power inherits the lead.
Lap 52 and Power pits.
Lap 54 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 4.4s and Herta by 5.5s and Dixon by 9.3s and O’Ward by 18.1s. Palou through Dixon are on faster alternates.
Lap 55 and Armstrong passes McLaughlin and Newgarden in succession to claim P10.
Lap 57 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 4.8s and Herta by 5.6s.
Lap 60 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 6.7 and Herta by 7.3s.
Lap 63 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 8.3s and Herta by 9.4s. Palou: 1m11.6. Lundgaard: 1m12.2. This is ridiculous.
Lap 66 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 8.5s and Herta by 10.3s.
Lap 68 and Dixon pits from P4 and takes new alternates.
Lap 69 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 8.8s and Herta by 13.8s and O’Ward by 31.8s and Rasmussen by 36.2s. Ilott pits.
Lap 70 and Lundgaard pits from P2 and takes used alternates. Herta puts as well and takes a set of new alternates. O’Ward also pits for new alternates.
Lap 71 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 32.5s and is getting slowed by traffic. Perfect time to pit, but chose to stay out.
Lap 72 and Palou pits at the end of the lap for used alternates. Fast stop.
Lap 74 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 7.4s.
Lap 76 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 7.9s and Herta by 11.6s. Palou: 1m12.1. Lundgaard 1m12.7.
Lap 77 and Marcus Ericsson is spun and sideways near the Corkscrew.
Lap 78 and it’s still green. Palou leads Lundgaard by 9.6s and Herta by 11.1s. Caution.
Lap 82 restart and Palou leads Lundgaard who runs wide at Turn 11, Herta, Dixon, O’Ward, Ilott, Rasmussen, Power, Armstrong and Newgarden.
Lap 83 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 1.0s and Herta by 1.4s.
Lap 84 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 2.1s and Herta by 2.6s.
Lap 86 and caution for a spun and stuck Ferrucci at the Corkscrew.
Lap 87 restart and Palou leads away with ease. Dixon runs with at Turn 2 and hands P4 to O’Ward.
Lap 88 and Palou leads Lundgaard by 1.3s and Herta’s on the attack. McLaughlin takes P10 off of Newgarden. It’s Palou, Lundgaard, Herta, O’Ward, Dixon, Ilott, Rasmussen, Power, Armstrong and McLaughlin.
Lap 90 and Palou’s lead is 2.1s on Lundgaard and Herta’s down by 3.0s.
Lap 92 and Palou’s sitting on 3.2s over Lundgaard. It’s his race to win.
Lap 95 and Alex Palou wins his eighth race of the season by 3.7s.
Source link
