Kirkwood and Newgarden went at it from the start, with the Andretti driver holding off the Penske man after two laps side-by-side. Power and Malukas cleared Rosenqvist.
On the reds, Power started to struggle quite quickly, and he was passed by Rosenqvist, Herta, Malukas, Daly and O’Ward to drop to P8.
It was a great start for Alex Palou as he moved up to P17 from 24th on the grid by lap 10.
Kirkwood, Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Herta, Malukas, O’Ward, Daly, Power, VeeKay and Armstrong was the top 10 at that point.
CGR’s Linus Lundqvist almost ended up in the fence as he went three wide with VeeKay and teammate Armstrong.
The championship took a dramatic twist on lap 13 as Will Power was forced to pit as he had a loose seatbelt. He went 5 laps down. It moved Scott Dixon into 10th.
As that was going on, Palou moved up to P12 to continue his superb charge. The first driver towards the front pitted on lap 44 as Pato O’Ward dumped his alternates.
At the end of lap 54, Kyle Kirkwood boxed from the lead and switched to the reds.
The caution appeared a couple of laps later as Felix Rosenqvist crashed from P3. It was not the Swede’s fault as his right front tyre gave up and was a passenger from there.
Newgarden, Herta, Malukas, Ericsson, Lundqvist, Ferrucci, McLaughlin, Rossi and Grosjean pitted under caution, leaving them as the top 9. Kyle Kirkwood was all the way down in P10. Alex Palou was 15th, with Will Power a further eleven spots back.
The race restarted on lap 68, with Herta immediately having to fend off Malukas.Polesitter Kyle Kirkwood started to make his way back through, passing Grosjean, Rossi and McLaughlin to move into 7th.
The second caution came on lap 90 as Katherine Legge crashed, gently hitting the wall. She had been passed by Pietro Fittipaldi, picked up dirty air behind the RLL and lost the car.
As Alex Rossi did not pit, he led on the restart, ahead of Newgarden and Malukas. Colton Herta went on the rampage, passing Ericsson, McLaughlin and Malukas to quickly work his way back into P3.
Ferrucci was forced to give up two spots as he overtook Kirkwood below the boundary line, dropping to P7.
Alex Rossi eventually came in on lap 25 from the lead, switching to alternates. He rejoined in P14.
Running in P4, Scott McLaughlin had a huge moment out of turn 2, and he dropped two spots. He got up in the dirt but avoided disaster.
Unfortunately for Marcus Ericsson, he was not so lucky. Already having a moment the previous lap, Ericsson got up the track and made contact with the wall, ending his day.
Most of the key runners pitted, and Newgarden remained in front of those who boxed. Malukas jumped Herta, with Kirkwood, Lundqvist, McLaughlin, Armstrong, Ferrucci and Harvey running in the top 10. Pato O’Ward led the way as he did not pit.
When the race resumed, Malukas and Herta quickly cleared Josef Newgarden to take a net P1 and P2 in the race.
On lap 151, Colton Herta overtook Malukas down towards turn 3 after the MSR driver had covered into T1.
Kirkwood continued to show Andretti’s great speed, clearing Newgarden and McLaughlin to move into P4. The Kiwi then passed his teammate for 5th.
A charge came from Santino Ferrucci as he passed Lundqvist and Newgarden to move into the top 5. Pato O’Ward boxed at the end of lap 162 from the lead, but he was in a very strong position at this point.
Herta led Malukas, Kirkwood, McLaughlin, Ferrucci, Newgarden, Lundqvist, Armstrong, Daly and Palou.
Polesitter Kirkwood cleared Malukas for 2nd and made it an Andretti 1-2 with 30 laps to go.
Newgarden, McLaughlin, Herta and Ferrucci all pitted for fuel and tyres as they could not get to the end.
The two Penskes went at it hard, and McLaughlin so nearly lost it out of turn 4 as they went side-by-side for a lap.
Kirkwood, Malukas, Palou, O’Ward, Armstrong, Herta, Newgarden, McLaughlin, Daly and Ferrucci was the top 10 with 15 laps remaining.
Kirkwood, Malukas and Palou had to bail and pit. It left O’Ward and Herta to duke it out for the win.
As they lapped Sting Ray Robb, Herta pulled off an incredible move to pass O’Ward with 5 laps to go. He went for the inside, with O’Ward going high.
The Andretti driver pulled away to take his first oval win, beating O’Ward and Newgarden to the win. Kirkwood, McLaughlin, Ferrucci, Armstrong, Lundqvist, Malukas and 2024 IndyCar champion Alex Palou completed the top 10.
The Spanish driver is now a three-time champion.
