IndyCar Preview: Grand Prix of Road America
- Dan Jones
- Jun 20
- 8 min read
Written by Dan Jones

Just days after the primetime short track action at World Wide Technology Raceway, IndyCar goes back to road course racing, as the show rolls on to 'America's National Park of Speed.' With Álex Palou's championship lead starting to thin and with many drivers coming into the weekend with a point to prove, we could be in for yet another blockbuster weekend. It's time for Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin which will play host to Round 9 of 17 in the 2025 IndyCar Series season.
What happened at Gateway?

Although nothing will beat the spectacle of that at the Indianapolis 500, Gateway certainly put on a show during its primetime television slot under the lights in what has been widely considered as the best race of 2025 thus far. In a race packed with superb racing, unlikely heroes, terrifying accidents, 14 lap leaders and some controversy for good measure, there was one theme that continued.
That theme? Kyle Kirkwood in victory lane. The American claimed his third victory of the season as he shrugged off his 'street course merchant' title with a first oval victory, and incredibly keeps the bizarre start to 2025 going where the series has only seen two different winners at the mid-point of the season.
In a weekend that seemed destined to be Team Penske's, the team ended with no cars at the flag. Will Power suffered a front-right tyre failure on his opening stint, Josef Newgarden walked away from a monstrous accident when trying to avoid Louis Foster and Scott McLaughlin had a mechanical failure toward the end of the race.
It seemed if anybody would challenge the Penske's, it would be the potential driver in the No.12 next year, David Malukas, who once again shone at Gateway until he hit the barrier late-on. Although Malukas had no damage, he limped home in 12th.
Pato O'Ward claimed his fourth podium of the season just half-a-second behind Kirkwood, with Christian Rasmussen claiming a first career podium in third after making his way from the back of the field - twice! Santino Ferrucci claimed a top five for the third consecutive race, as Robert Shwartzman also claimed PREMA's first top 10 finish in the series.
The race claimed 1.012 million viewers an average, an 88% increase on what was achieved in 2024. FOX's viewership figures for 2025 are up 27% on average in comparison to last season.
You can read the full race report here, the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast's race review here and my gradebook here.
Palou's lead was once again whittled down, as he was unable to contend on the short oval - the only type of race track the Spaniard is not one of the very best at. Palou finished eighth, and with his two championship 'contenders' (note the inverted commas) finishing first and second, his lead has since been cut to 73. Top 10 are as follows:
Palou - 335
O'Ward - 262
Kirkwood - 260
Lundgaard - 221
Dixon - 206
Rosenqvist - 190
Power - 181
McLaughlin - 171
Herta - 170
Armstrong - 152
All you need to know about Road America

Gateway is one of the most technical ovals on the calendar, and now the drivers must face one of the most technical road courses on the calendar. Road America has a very fast and flowing nature filled with iconic corners, the circuit is also plentiful when it comes to elevation changes and also provides several overtaking opportunities in the 4.048 mile (6.515 km) circuit.
It's a true drivers favourite, as highlighted by Palou: "I honestly love every single corner. There's not one corner that I don't look forward to going. There's sometimes in some tracks that you don't look forward to going to, like Turn 4, because it's like sketchy and you never get the balance right. But actually Road America it's super fun. The way you need to drive the car, the way you are allowed to push, it's just amazing, especially with the new tarmac that we had a few years ago. It allowed all the drivers to just push the limits a lot more."
Turn 1 is a medium-speed right-hander which saw chaos on the opening lap last season. Drivers head downhill into the Turn 3 right-hander before heading down the Moraine Sweep to the best overtaking spot at the tight right-hander at Turn 5. Drivers head uphill through Turn 6 before going back downhill through Turns 7 and the slow-speed left-hander at Turn 8.
Turns 9/10/11 are some of the most iconic on the venue as drivers navigate the never-ending right-hander of the Carousel before the terrifying flat-out right-hander at the Kink, where Newgarden had a massive accident in qualifying last year. Another great overtaking spot is presented at Canada Corner in Turn 12 before drivers flow by Thunder Valley into Turns 13 and 14 which brings them dramatically back up the hill to the start/finish line.
It's a circuit with grass and gravel on the exit of every corner, and with the track having such fast, flowing complexes, there is very little opportunity to make error without losing huge amounts of time.
Being a road course, and a very technical one at that, it will come as no surprise that Palou is on the roll of honour. The three-time champion has found Victory Lane at the venue in both 2021 and 2023 and claimed his maiden podium in just his third race in the series in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing.
Power took an emotional return to Victory Lane here last season in a weekend Penske dominated as they finished one-two-three to add to his success when the series returned to the circuit in 2016. Newgarden has also won at Road America twice, in 2018 and in 2022 as well as being the Road America runner-up in each of the last two seasons (and in 2017).
And there must be something about multi-time IndyCar champions and Road America, as Scott Dixon has also claimed a pair of victories at Elkhart Lake, his successes coming in 2017 and in 2020.
Felix Rosenqvist's only career win to date came at Road America in 2020 as he denied Pato O'Ward a first career victory after a late race duel. Alexander Rossi is the only other active winner at the circuit when he won in 2019.
Recent success at the track has been fairly divided between the two powerhouses of the series in Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske. Ganassi have taken five victories since the circuit returned to the schedule in 2016 whilst Penske have taken four. No other team has won since Rossi won for Andretti in 2019.
This will be the first race at Road America where the hybrid is in use. Drivers will have access to 200 seconds of push-to-pass with a maximum deployment of 20 seconds in one activation. Firestone will also provide six sets of primary and five sets of alternate to be used during the event.
What to look out for this weekend

However you look at it, it looks very, very difficult to look beyond Palou this weekend. The Indy 500 winner has won all three road courses races thus far in 2025 and has a superb Road America record, even when he was with Dale Coyne Racing. The only occasion where Palou has finished outside the top seven in Road America was when he collided with Marcus Ericsson on the second lap in 2022.
Although Palou's gap has been cut, with Kirkwood halving it since the Indianapolis 500, his 73 point lead to O'Ward remains well clear of a race victory and he does still have a chance to have a few poor weekends between now and Nashville. However, Palou's last two races have been difficult and he cannot afford to let more points bleed with four short ovals still yet to come in 2025. This is one of his best venues of the year, and with how composed Palou is under pressure, it wouldn't surprise me for us to be speaking about him as the champion-in-waiting once again post-weekend.
Although winless, this does remain a strong venue for O'Ward and he'll need a good weekend to stay within touching distance of Palou. O'Ward has taken two podiums and a pole position at the circuit, with his only occasion outside the top 10 since 2019 being when he suffered a mechanical failure (whilst running inside the top 10) in 2022. This has never really been a strong-suit for Arrow McLaren historically though.
As for Kirkwood, his Road America record to date reads 20th, ninth and fifth - the American improving year-on-year. He'll need that upward trajectory to continue to similarly remain in touching distance of Palou.
I said this last week and I'll say it again. This is a monumental weekend for Team Penske. The team, along with Chevrolet, remain winless so far in 2025 - a far cry from the standards that we're so used to with the team. Although none of the retirements could have been prevented, Gateway felt like an opportunity that slipped away from the team to turn their season around.
But, the Penske trio dominated proceedings here last season, and you rather feel we'd need to have those events again for the team to salvage 2025 from what has been an awful first half of the season where they have claimed three podiums in eight races. On Newgarden's side, he has not finished in the top eight since the opening round of the season.
It's been a similar disaster for Ericsson who has only finished inside the top ten once this season - and that was in St. Petersburg. The once-so-reliable Swede lies 19th in the standings. The good news for Ericsson is that he has not finished outside the top 10 at Road America since 2020 and he needs a similar result to turn around the worst run of form he has had in his IndyCar career. With both Dennis Hauger and Lochie Hughes impressing for Andretti in Indy NXT, Ericsson needs several strong weekends to secure his future.
I'd keep an eye out for Herta too. He has two poles at Road America and has never finished outside the top eight at Elkhart Lake. Results haven't really matched how Herta has performed in 2025 but this is a venue that he can usually rely in for good results. With Kirkwood's run of form at the minute, will Herta see it as important to prove himself as the top dog in the team again?
Small mention to A.J. Foyt Racing too. They had an awful start to the season but have really come to life in the last three races. Santino Ferrucci has finished fifth, second and fifth in the last three rounds and it'd be a similar story for Malukas if not for slightly clumsy moments in Detroit and Gateway. The promise the team showed last season is finally being unveiled in 2025 - it is just a case of if they can continue that into Road America.
Keep an eye on Graham Rahal too. It's not been a great year for Rahal, and Gateway he was embarrassingly slow. But his Road America record reads well, only finishing outside the top 11 on a singular occasion - when he retired in 2020. That was even after he spun on the opening corner of the race last season. He's had a torrid time of things recently, but it's a chance for Rahal to secure a good result.
Timings:
Practice 1: 15:35 CT (21:35 BST) Friday
Practice 2: 10:05 CT (16:05 BST) Saturday
Qualifying: 13:35 CT (19:35 BST) Saturday
Warm-up: 09:02 CT (15:02 BST) Sunday
Race: 12:40 CT (18:40 BST) Sunday
DIVEBOMB will bring you all the news and updates throughout the weekend as well as post-race analysis. Can Palou pull out his championship lead again? Will this be the weekend that Penske's fortunes turn around? The packed mid-season schedule continues and it's all to play for at Road America.
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