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Detroit Race Day

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Todeay’s schedule- all times Eastern

9″30 am IndyCar Warm up- FS!

10:30 am IndyNXT race FS!

12:30 pom IndyCar Grand Prix of Detroit FOX Green flag at 12:52

Chevrolet added a new wrinkle to today’s Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit, changing five engines overnight in addition to the three that were changed during practice yesterday. Seven cars enter the rac with new power plants. Christian Lundgaard lost an engine during practice, changed he engine for qualifying, and that engine was changed again last night.

You can read Chevrolet’s statement here:

Wholesale Engine Changes for Chevy

Alex Palou has yet to win from pole in his three in a row pole streak. I think that record stays intact as Will Power breaks through for his first win with Andretti Global. How cool if he wins in a Honda in Roger Penske’s backyard.

I’ll be back later this morning after the teams select their starting tire choices.

Wholesale Engine Changes for Chevy

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Chevrolet issued a statement concerning engine changes for some of their IndyCar teams this evening:

According to David Land, the cars of “Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, Nolan Siegel, Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas are all undergoing engine changes tonight.”

This engine change is Lundgaard’s second of the day. He lost an engine during practice and used a replacement engine for qualifying. Chevrolet has had multiple engine issues this season.

The five changes brings the total number of Chevrolet engine changes today to eight. I’ll have more3 on this story as it develops.

From earlier:

Palou Sweeps May Poles

Palou Sweeps May Poles

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Maypoles used to be for dancing around, but Alex Palou took them all. Palou won the pole for tomorrow’s Detroit Grand Prix with a lap of 1:01.9017, beating Will Power by 0.12 seconds in single lap Fast Six qualifying.

Scott McLaughlin will start third, Scott Dixon fourth, Christian Lundgaard fifth, and Kyle Kirkwood sixth.

The pole is Palou’s third consecutive top starting spot. He finished fifth in the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course and seventh in the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Group 2 of Round 1 and the Fast 12 second round were the two best qualifying rounds I have ever seen. The top spot and the final transfer position were in doubt for the entire ten minutes. The drama of the preliminary rounds made the single lap Fast Six a bit of a letdown.

Would Palou have won the pole in a conventional qualifying procedure? Possibly, but Kyle Kirkwood seemed to need more than one lap to get his best lap in.

Hustle Award

The crew of Christian Lundgaard’s car changed the lost engine after practice, had the car ready to qualify, and got it into the Fast Six. Great work!

FOX Fails Again

Every broadcast, FOX never fails to disappoint the viewers. From last Sunday’s annoy doorbell to introduce radio communications to this this week’s failure to once again not show sector times, the broadcasts consistently lack a complete package.

Today’s final round faux pas was compounded by only showing the time elapsed for Scott Mclaughlin. The ghost car is not a substitute for a ticking clock.

Tomorrow’s schedule begins with IndyCar Warmup at 9:30 am Eastern, followed by the IndyNXT race at 10:30. both on FS1. The IndyCar race broadcast begins at 12:300 with the green flag at 12:52 on FOX.

Results

Kirkwood Leads Choppy Session

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Kyle Kirkwood emerged with the fastest lap of the weekend in a morning practice interrupted by several red flags.

Rinus VeeKay lost an engine to bring out the second stoppage of Detroit Grand Prix practice. The first one was to retrieve a blue flag dropped by a corner marshal.

Christian Lundgaard lost his engine during the first group practice. It has been a difficult month for Chevy engines beginning with the Open test in late April.

Kirkwood had scraped the wall with his right rear tire, but he returned before the end of the group round to set the quickest lap. Just 4 tenths of a send separate Kirkwood from fourth place Alex Palou.

Results:

Qualifying Groups;

Group 2 looks brutal. One contender might get knocked out.

Saturday at Detroit

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SATURDAY, MAY 30

8-8:45 a.m. INDY NXT by Firestone practice #2, FS1(live)

9:05-10:25 a.m. NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice #2 (45 minutes all car session followed by two 10-minute group sessions), FS1 (live)

Noon-12:30 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying (Two groups, 10-minute session), FS1 (live)

1-2:30 p.m. NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying for NTT P1 Award (Three rounds of knockout qualifying), FS1 (live)

IMSA Race 4pm NBC

Practice Groups

Group A goes first in the split sessions following the entire grid period.

Notes

For the 2026 season to date, five drivers- Palou, Kirkwood, Newgarden, Lundgaard, and Rosenqvist- have won races. The drivers represent five different teams- Penske, Andretti, Ganassi, Arrow McLaren, and Meyer Shank. At this point last year only Palou and Kirkwood had won races.

Indianapolis 500 leftovers:

Sincde 2020 only four different teams have won the Indianapolis 500- Rahal Letterman Racing (1) Team Penske (2), Meyer Shank Racing (2), Chip Ganassi Racing (2).

Six different drivers have won the race, none from the pole.

I’ll be back with Practice 2 results and qualifying groups later today, and qualifying results this evening.

Palou Tops Detroit Practice 1

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Alex Palou was fastest in Friday practice for the Detroit Grand Prix, just edging defending race winner Kyle Kirkwood by 19 hundredths of a second. Will Power was third quickest, 22 hundredths of a second behind Palou.

Palou is seeking his third pole in the month of May. He won the pole at the Sonsio Grand Prix, where he finished fifth, then took the coveted Indianapolis 500 pole position for the 110th running. Palou finished seventh last Sunday.

“Good start,” Palou said. “It’s just super tough to get a lap here when everything feels good. Although we looked very good, I think we need to work on the car and try to make it a little bit better because I think there was a ton of people that couldn’t really get a good lap.”

Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist was 11th fastest in today’s practice.

Tomorrow is a short, ,packed day with practice at 9 am Eastern and qualifying at 1 pm. IMSA then has the track for the rest of the day.

Results

Detroit Has a Tough Act to Follow-

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Against the tide of a lingering Indianapolis 500 hangover, the Detroit Grand Prix begins today with a practice at 3 pm for the IndyCar series. The Detroit race on the downtown streets usually presents a less than scintillating show, and its place on the schedule does the event no favors. IndyCar goes from a 220 mph drag race for the Borg-Warner trophy to a sub 100 mph tour in the Motor City.

This weekend is the fourth edition of the Detroit race since its move from Belle Isle, a track where the racing became decent in the late 20 teens. I used to wish the series would not race there because the contests were dull processions. Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

Detroit is the eighth race on the 18 race calendar for 2026, and unlike the last two years, the potential for a title fight remains. David Malukas has moved into second place, trailing Alex Palou by 37 points. Kyle Kirkwood has dropped to third, 49 points behind. Kirkwood lost 32 points to Palou in May.

Here are some things to watch for:

Andretti Rebound

Andretti Global had a difficult May at IMS, but the team returns to the discipline which is their strength. Kirkwood has won three street course races since 2025, and he is the defending winner at Detroit.

Will Power has been a winner on several street courses, and Marcus Ericsson also has a street victory to his name.

Look for this trio, especially Kirkwood, to be at or near the front the entire weekend.

Rosenqvist 500 Hangover

Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist might have the ultimate post=race hangover following a week of activities honoring the new Indianapolis champion. The race might be his most relaxing time of the past eight days.

Winners of the 500 don’t traditionally fare well in the race following the 500. It was true in Milwaukee, and it remained true in Texas and continued to Detroit.

Malukas Momentum?

David Malukas remains agonizingly on the cusp of his first series win. He has an average finish of 7.3 this season in the three previous street races. AS result in that range will keep him in the title hunt. I think he gets his first win at Gateway next weekend.

A solid result on a course that is not Malukas’s strength will go a long way toward erasing the pain he felt at the end of the race five days ago.

The Indianapolis 500 is a tough act to follow no matter which race is next. There have been rumblings this week about giving everyone in the series a break after the 500. The schedule is hard on the crews and staff, and this year there are consecutive weekends following the 500. IndyCar is afraid of losing momentum by taking a week off, but a break would allow about 12 days to celebrate the winner of the biggest race in the world and promote the rest of the season.

If the series wants to build on the momentum of the 500, an oval race should be the next contest. Gateway and Detroit should swap dates on the calendar.

I see Kyle Kirkwood reestablishing his street course dominance with a victory on Sunday, inching closer to second place and gaining on Palou.

I will be covering the race from home with results of all sessions and reports on anything else I hear.

Indianapolis 500 Purse Payout

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1. Felix Rosenqvist $4,340,500

2. David Malukas $1,682,500

3. Scott McLaughlin $1,414,500

4. Pato O’Ward $1,279,000

5. Marcus Armstrong $1,206,500

6. Rinus VeeKay $1,178,500

7. Alex Palou $1,399,000

8. Santino Ferrucci $1,164,000

9. Romain Grosjean $1,150,000

10. Takuma Sato $137,000

11. Nolan Siegel $1,132,000

12. Conor Daly $138,000

13. Marcus Ericsson $1,125,500

14. Kyffin Simpson $1,183,500

15. Scott Dixon $1,218,500

16. Kyle Kirkwood $1,102,000

17. Christian Lundgaard $1,105,500

18. Mick Schumacher $218,800

19. Dennis Hauger $159,800

20. Graham Rahal $1,105,500

21. Louis Foster $1,105,500

22. Jack Harvey $102,000

23. Sting Ray Robb $155,300

24. Jacob Abel $103,000

25. Helio Castroneves $102,000

26. Caio Collet $1,126,500

27. Christian Rasmussen $1,110,000

28. Josef Newgarden $1,105,500

29. Will Power $1,105,500

30. Alexander Rossi $1,141,000

31. Ed Carpenter $102,000

32. Ryan Hunter-Reay $105,500

33. Katherine Legge $102,000