Race Highlights | 2026 Indycar Detroit

Alexander Rossi has already hit the wall here. Oh my goodness, that's actually quite a big hit. Trying to warm his tires at the exit of this corner. There's a big step off here, listen. We wait for the flag, everybody lining up, two by two by two, and we get the green and will power immediately. Ducks into the toe of Alex Pelot on the run down to what is turn three, but for the sake of the start is turn one. Pelot has the inside line, keeps that nicely covered, and it's actually pretty tidy behind. Collette with a little bump of the car in front of him, but all neatly through. It looks like McLaughlin up front maybe got ahead as we open. Frozen Quest going in a little bit hot there as we see him too wide down the hill into turn five. This is a tight section of racetrack. Drivers being so careful here not to hit each other or concrete and damage their cars early, but it's a tall order as Pelot leads easily. And McLaughlin has got ahead of will power on this opening lap. Full course caution for Christian Rasmussen in ECR whose horrible month of May continues after all three cars retired from the Indianapolis 500. Here's a replay. Oh, and it's a big boom out of one. That's a big hit front right at an angle. Suspension done, day over. Looking back from Lundgaard's McLaren to the Andretti of Kirkwood. Last year's race winner shaping up will have to go the long way around as will power moves up the inside of Scott McLaughlin and nab second place from him. Kirkwood is side by side with Lundgaard. Little nudge and Lundgaard. That's a wonderful defensive piece of driving. Back on board with Lundgaard. He covered the inside nicely, but you always knew that Kirkwood was going to have more grip on the softs and on the racing line. Try to do the high low got so close to clearing them, but just had enough overlap. Oh, but it's the lead. Power jumps up the inside of Alex Pillow and snatches the lead away. That is a hugely significant moment in Will Powers career with Andretti taking the lead decisively over the best in the business. He does it by simply outbreaking him up the inside of the hairpin. And that was from a good distance back to Belen. He kept it tight. He kept it controlled. That was a really, really good execution. Let's listen. Oh, different postcode. And you look back at the live pictures, he's absolutely driving away. Louis Foster and Marcus Armstrong. That fight ultimately resulted in a late bit of braking from Louis Foster. There's getting your elbows out, and then there's being a little bit naughty. And I think this is under review now because Foster possibly just crossed over that line as Lundgaard makes the move on the inside of Scott Dixon. That had a little bit of cheekiness to it as well. Will Power holds on to the lead, but it's now from Scott McLaughlin. Christian Lundgaard. Alex Pillow has fallen down to fourth. Here comes McLaughlin. He's moved out of the tow and is side by side with Will Power who looks across. McLaughlin gets tucked back up and now moves wide. Will have to go the long way around, bumping in the braking zone. And Power with the defensive drive again, edges McLaughlin wide. Here comes Lundgaard up the inside of both. McLaughlin to the lead. Lundgaard to second. Power drops to third. Rear tires on Power are absolutely wasted. Here comes Pato O'Ward on Scott Dixon. Dixon who didn't appear happy with those tires for as long as 10 laps maybe, but he's fighting and making O'Ward go a wrong way around in which he does now. The McLaren driver moves up to second place. We're under caution and that is because Graham Rahal got spun around in an on-track moment with Kiffin Simpson. Simpson right into the back of him, turns him round. Yellow immediately out. Side by side. Santino Ferrucci on Newgarden. Well, Siegel thinking about it. These two going side by side and now Rosenquist is getting in the mix. Newgarden with that left foot, severely injured. Oh, and contact with Rosenquist. And up the inside slips Rhenus VK. Oh, and there we go. And that's the full course yellow. And Kyle Kirkwood and Brian Hurta are caught in the danger zone. Rhenus VK, Santino Ferrucci. Ferrucci getting in just a little bit hot. Oh, man. Loops around. The GHR driver heads up driving there from that Stingray who had to get around. And Will Power talked yesterday about Alex Pillow always getting good luck. So he's frustrated with this. He's going to the hard compound. So is Scott McLaughlin. They both get shelved. 100% renewable fuel, Jack. Kyle Kirkwood is in and has already done his stop. It looked a little slow at the end. They wanted to get a turn of front wing in. I didn't catch if they actually did or not. We have green. We have racing. Let's go in Detroit. And Malukas already all over the back of Mick Schumacher on the rundown into one. The rookie defends. The penalty for Rossi. Oh, there's contact. The penalty for Rossi is going to be a drive-through. So he'll be getting out of the way here next time by. But now Schumacher having to defend against Malukas. And here comes Malukas as Kirkwood pops out to have a look at Rahal. A wiggle on the rear from David Malukas. Schumacher defends late on the brakes, hard on the brakes. Malukas has to go the long way around and Schumacher does a very tidy job of defending as Newgarden has to do the same to defend from his teammate, Scott McLaughlin. But McLaughlin breezes past and almost into the back of Graham Rahal. Graham Rahal has been punched around today. He got hit by Newgarden and hit by McLaughlin. Oh, no, no. Malukas and Schumacher go deep and Schumacher's into the barrier trying to defend the position. Just listening, struggling to get the power down. Just pure wheel spin. No. Mick just goes long and unfortunately, you can't turn in if you're Malukas. There's a car in the way. And it is 23 laps to go until we finish this race in Detroit. Power has a look and has the move, has the position on Newgarden. McLaughlin up the inside of Graham Rahal. Contact with the barrier. Can Rahal find his way back through? McLaughlin keeps its run in. Here comes power. Here comes power indeed. That's lovely. Late on the brakes. Up past McLaughlin who tries to switch back. They'll go too wide on the exit as Newgarden again loses a couple of positions. Power keeps it though. Car power keeps that place. This is the replay. Oh my goodness. That is a huge hit. I cannot believe that they're still on the racetrack. Let's take a look at McLaughlin's onboard here. He's going to cross up and push his old teammate off the road. Off the road and into the air. Will Power is out of the race and is understandably devastated by that because he had a hell of a day. Potential issue with the rear tow link on McLaughlin's car after the impact. You can see it flopping around after that contact with Will Power. So McLaughlin now brutally has to come to the pit lane with just 10 laps to go. So if he didn't... Oh wow. That was a secondary impact. Dalek Rossi has a look one way then the other and punts Roman Grosjean into the wall. That allows Nolan Siegel to get past as the caution is out for Grosjean. Check out the battle for third guys. Pono Ward. Rahal putting up a defensive masterclass. No push to pass just has to make his car as wide as humanly possible. And Alex Pelot will run home to win the Detroit GP. Kyle Kirkwood comes home second. It is a third podium of the season for Graham Rahal. It's Pelot, Kirkwood and Rahal here on the streets of Detroit.