As expected, lap 1 chaos in Detroit was ever present, Colton Herta led the field to green before the first of many cautions came out thanks to a collision at turn one.
Going into the first corner, Will Power, who started P8, was caught unaware by Christian Lundgaard who launched an aggressive move to the inside, which left Theo Pourchaire, who was stuck in the middle of the two, to collide with the left rear of Power.
The contact spun the Australian into the wall, which created a pileup that included 2 Arrow McLaren cars of Alexander Rossi and Pato O’Ward, as well as Santino Ferrucci as and three or four other drivers who started further back.
Once the green flag came back out, the alternate tyre runners of Alex Palou and Lundgaard looked to have pace early on.
It did not last long however as the softer alternates dropped off very quickly, Palou the first to make a pit stop on lap 11, after dropping from P2, where he started, to P7 in only a couple of laps.
Lundgaard was the next to hit pit road, on lap 15, which luckily for the Dane was the same lap the second caution of the race came out, only just ducking into pit lane before the caution flew.
The caution was brought out by a collision once again for Ferrucci who rear ended the returning Helio Castroneves, who in turn was collected by Kyffin Simpson. Ferrucci was given a stop-go penalty for the incident.
The strategy employed by the front runners was to extend the first stint, knowing the power of the overcut and how difficult it is to warm up the tyres coming out of pit lane.
The next incident came on lap 33 where Scott McLaughlin, who was running P2, lost the rear going into T1 bringing out a caution as his number 3 car was stuck in the barrier, the Kiwi was restarted but back in 24th.
Chaos then ensued as rain arrived, despite it not being on the forecast, it caught out net race leader Colton Herta who pitted a lap later for Wet tires, a group of drivers consisting of Lundgaard, Kyle Kirkwood stayed out on dry tyres.
Predictably, the restart was a mess, and the caution came back out after a collision between Rinus Veekay and Will Power in T1. Power was deemed at fault and was made to drop to the back of the field.
The caution allowed for the wet runners to go back onto dry tyres. While in the pits, last week’s Indy 500 winner caught the wheel gun of the garage in front, drawing him close to the wall, inches from making contact with crew members of the 45. Newgarden was handed a drive through penalty for the incident.
The saying cautions breed cautions was once again true, this time for polesitter Herta who went too deep into turn five, hitting the barrier as he tried a rather opportunistic move on Palou, with Vautier somehow avoiding a wreck. Whilst he was able to continue, the 26 went a lap down to the rest of the field.
When the race was restarted on Lap 53, it was once again went back to caution just as early as it had restarted, Lundgaard locking up into T1, going into the side rear of Romain Grosjean, spinning him, and mounting his car onto the Juncos machine. The forty-five car was given a stop and go penalty for the crash.
Pourchaire was lucky to avoid causing another on the restart, going deep into T3 and hitting the Juncos of Augustin Canapino. The McLaren driver managed to continue but sustained damage and a three-place penalty to add to his misery.
Not to be one to miss out, Sting Ray Robb brought out yet another caution after he was ushered into the wall by McLaughlin at turn 5.
Another one, the caution came back out the same lap the race restarted, this time the championship leader Palou involved as he was caught up in Newgarden’s incident.
In all the chaos, it was Scott Dixon who looked to be in control, the master of fuel saving once again using his magic.
The aim was to make the fuel he got under the lap 53 caution to last until the end of the race.
Herta, who put himself back on the lead lap after overtaking Dixon at the restart, became a mobile roadblock coming into the last ten laps which looked to bring an exciting end to the race as the top three was at one point separated by only 1.6 seconds.
It was Dixon who would hold on however, his second of the season and 58th in his IndyCar career, The Kiwi now takes a commanding 18-point championship lead over teammate Palou as the Spaniard struggled for pace at the end.
The chequered flag came just in time for Dixon as a charging Marcus Ericsson came home less than a second behind after passing Marcus Armstrong with two laps to go at turn 3.
Armstrong took the last spot on the podium for the first rostrum appearance in his young IndyCar career.
