From pole position, Palo’s Chip Ganassi Racing Honda started strong, but Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood overtook him and passed him on the outside in Turn 2 to take the lead and take the inside line for Turn 3 . Behind Pallo, Felix Rosenqvist retained third place. Meyer Shank Racing, followed by the Arrows McLaren of Alexander Rossi, overtook the Andretti Global Honda of Colton Herta on the outside of Turn 3.
The biggest casualty in the opening laps was Power who got hung up in the dusty air on the outside through Turn 3 and fell into the dirt and dropped to 25th. Conversely, Ganassi’s Scott Dixon moved from 10th to seventh behind Christian Lundgaard’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda, and ahead of Scott McLaughlin, despite Penske being the highest-starting car running the No. 3 Firestone Alternative. At the start of the second lap, Marcus Armstrong passed Romain Grosjean at Turn 2 to claim ninth place and immediately closed in on McLaughlin.
On lap six, Rinus Veeck spun and fell behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Christian Rasmussen. At this stage, Pallo was still chasing Kirkwood hard, 0.8 seconds behind him, and trailing Rosenqvist, Rossi, Herta and Lundgaard. By lap 13, Pallo was filling Kirkwood’s mirrors and Rosenqvist was within a second of the Ganassi machine.
Regarding pit stops, Marcus Ericsson was the first to blink, switching from primary to alternate at the end of lap 17. The power went out at the end of lap 18, leading to the same move from black to red. Pato O’Ward, who was running 12th, pitted next and went for a fresh red. McLaughlin replaced his red color with the more commonly used red color.
By lap 22, Kirkwood was clinging to the lead and his lap time dropped to 1m11.0778 seconds, while Rossi was in the pitlane to change primaries for substitutes, with Rosenqvist following the same move the next time. Did. Kirkwood, Herta and Lundgaard all lost next time but their slow pace due to worn tires meant they lost out to Rossi. Pallo’s extra lap on track was enough to jump Kirkwood, but not Rossi. Surprisingly, the two-time champion took another set of primaries and Kirkwood and Herta wasted little time in overtaking him.
Further back, the charging McLaughlin dived inside Lundgaard at Turn 9, and the RLS car went into the gravel, collecting an advertising board that was twisted around its right front wing.
Rosenqvist was second who lost time in the gravel up the Corkscrew hill and is now in ninth place. Josef Newgarden lost time when he was given a drive-through penalty for making an unsafe pit exit. However, although he dropped to 24th, his time loss was mitigated by Luca Ghiotto taking out his Dale Coyne Racing Honda, bringing out the first yellow flag of the race.
Newgarden moved up to 11th when several drivers, including Rossi, Kirkwood and Herta, chose to pit under caution to make their second stops. Dixon bounced a curb while entering the pits and struck the pit wall with his right front, and McLaughlin tagged the left rear of the Ganassi car. Pallo stayed out on his primary, and O’Ward moved up to second on the alternate, but was passed at Turn 2 on the lap 39 restart by Grosjean, who spun out on the fresh primary and made the move.
David Malukas finished fourth in his first race of the year for Meyer Shank, followed by Armstrong and Ferrucci. Mid-pack, Herta’s crew had put him ahead of Rossi and Kirkwood. The race went under yellow for two laps after Nolan Siegel spun and he needed a strong start.
At the lap 42 restart Paulo moved away from Grosjean, O’Ward and Malukas, clearly needing two more stops, while those pitted under caution were hopeful that they would be able to make it on one. .
O’Ward slipped from third place at the end of lap 47, and Malukas and Pietro Fittipaldi (RLL) stopped next time, but Fittipaldi made the same error as Newgarden, running onto the sand at the pit exit and from the mixing line. Missed, and standing.
Pallo was now gaining relative to Herta – who led the group on the second strategy – with 22 laps on him before Pallo stopped on lap 54 as Herta tried to make up his fuel numbers. Pallo did not get enough of a gap to maintain the lead, but he emerged third behind Herta and Rossi and slightly ahead of Kirkwood. He was followed by McLaughlin, Dixon, Power, Grosjean, Rosenqvist and Lundgaard.
Power on Alternatives took Dixon to the inside primary at the top of the Corkscrew to claim sixth place on lap 58 so he could begin chasing his teammate McLaughlin.
At the front, Pallo dived on the inside of Rossi at Turn 2 on lap 2 to claim second place, and rapidly closed on Herta, while Power overtook McLaughlin for fifth a lap later. On lap 64 Pallo passed Herta up the hill exiting Turn 6 and was well ahead by the time they reached the turn for the Corkscrew. Herta got no relief, because immediately Rossi was in his mirrors.
Kirkwood and Dixon made their final stop on lap 66, and then Herta, Rossi, Power, McLaughlin, Lundgaard and Rosenqvist pitted. Pallo again stayed out longer and turned in his fastest lap of the race, but then fell behind Rasmussen for half a lap and lost 3 seconds. At the end of lap 70, Ganassi called him into the pits where he took part in the primary and overtook Herta. Grosjean, who was sitting on the same lap as Palou, did not have enough temperature in his tires to avoid Rossi at the top of the Corkscrew and potentially lost the podium.
Caution flags waved on lap 75, when Lundgaard went into Turn 4 on the inside of Armstrong, who had just emerged from the pits, and pushed him to the outside. The green Ganassi car spun and stopped.
IndyCar allowed everyone to pit before the caution, and off-strategy Newgarden was able to claw back from the lead and emerge in second place ahead of Herta, Rossi, Grosjean and Power.
On the restart, Palou maintained the lead but Penske suffered a double blow. Newgarden ran off the track at Turn 6, allowing Herta, Rossi and Grosjean to take the lead, while at Turn 5, McLaughlin made a late dive on Power, sending him wide but then spinning himself as he got back on the throttle. Before he could serve his drive-through penalty, his car appeared to be struggling too slow on the hill and he had to pit. Then the fourth caution for Jack Harvey’s Dale Coyne Racing Honda ended on the main straight, even though Harvey made it back off the track into the pitlane.
Things are getting wild in the finale!
: #firestonegp on CNBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/4wR6yoV2p8
– NTT IndyCar Series (@IndyCar) 24 June 2024
Pallo held off Herta at the lap 86 restart, while Rossi and Grosjean were followed by Newgarden, Kirkwood, Dixon, O’Ward, Power and Ferrucci. It didn’t take long for the fifth caution to arrive – lap 87, in fact. At Turn 5, Kiffin Simpson was pushed by the Juncos Hollinger car of Agustín Canapino and it was enough to deflate the left-rear tire of the Ganassi car and send it into a spin. Across the track, he was hit hard by Graham Rahal, who had previously dodged a bullet by swerving around Armstrong’s spinning car, but this time he was eliminated on the spot.
The cautions and low number of green flag laps eased Herta’s fuel concerns. The race restarted with four laps to go, and while remaining largely calm, Pallo easily overtook Herta, who in turn dropped Rossi. Grosjean came under pressure from Newgarden, while Kirkwood and Dixon gave chase. Power passed O’Ward on lap 93, and then set sights on Dixon. However, on the final lap, he was gifted another position when Newgarden again ran wide at Turn 6, dropping half a turn to 19th.
Pallo won by 2 seconds over Hertha, with Rossi, Grosjean and Kirkwood completing the top five. Dixon finished ahead of Power, O’Ward and Ferrucci, while Ericsson finished 10th despite two major failures.
Result
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