This week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast tackles a typically wild street course weekend, with Detroit throwing up plenty of controversy on and off track.

Matt Beer joins Jack Benyon to break down Kyle Kirkwood’s win, assess his credentials as Palou’s closest rival long-term, and work out how he went from being rammed in practice to a barnstorming series of overtakes to win.

Speaking of Kirkwood being rammed, the duo analyse IndyCar’s decision not to penalise Will Power for being the perpetrator.

Santino Ferrucci’s post-race weight-rule infraction spurned a discussion over IndyCar penalties more generally, while there’s also time to chat about Rinus VeeKay and the “Einstein” of IndyCar...

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Live from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and overlooking the yard of bricks, Alex Palou joins The Race IndyCar Podcast just hours after he became the winner of the 109th Indy 500.

Palou - with a croaky voice after all of the screaming after the win - breaks down the race winning move and how it was shaped by his 2021 loss to Helio Castroneves.

But we also get into his career path from being discarded on the ladder to F1 and identifying IndyCar as a future option, and how his dad, Ramon, fit into that journey.

We also discuss what's next for Palou in the long-term (winning a third championship in a row) and in the more immediate future (breaking the funk for Indy winners in Detroit), plus there's chat about Chip Ganassi’s role in identifying Palou’s talent, giving him the tools to succeed, and backing him through a rollercoaster few years where Palou tried to leave but eventually recommitted to the team.

JR Hildebrand also joins right after the race to break down Palou’s success, Josef Newgarden’s incredible run in the race, David Malukas’s breakthough podium and more.

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Getting two of your three cars thrown to the back of the Indianapolis 500 grid is a bad look for any top IndyCar team. When you’re the team whose owner also owns the championship and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it’s even more complicated.

Matt Beer borrows The Race IndyCar Podcast Jack Benyon’s host chair so he can quiz Jack on the dramatic developments since Indy 500 qualifying in a bonus mini-podcast.

Exactly what Penske did, the crisis over series regulating the fallout from it has created, whether the bumped Jacob Abel deserves one of Penske’s places on the grid and penalised pair Josef Newgarden and Will Power’s chances of victory from the back of the grid are all debated.

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After a stunning Sunday of Indy 500 qualifying action, Robert Shwartzman and Prema Racing gave us one of the storylines that will go down in the event’s long history, and he’s here to tell us about it.

Shwartzman discusses the difficulty in putting his lap together, how the team went from nothing to being in contention for pole, what set up up to be able to achieve this, and more.

JR Hildebrand - who calls Shwartzman’s Fast 12 run one of the most incredible things he’s seen at the Speedway, listen to find out why - joins to give a fascinating and in-depth look at how the hybrid unit has revolutionised this year’s event as well as breaking down Shwartzman’s performance.

There’s also a run down of some of the other key storylines from qualifying. Please not this was recorded just as the news of two Team Penske cars being put to the back of the grid was announced, so that will be properly addressed in the next episode.

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IndyCar dominator Alex Palou joins this week’s The Race IndyCar Podcast, which also includes a full preview of the first week of Indianapolis 500 action as the event starts this week.

Alex Palou - who has now won four of the first five races of the 2025 season - discusses what it would be like to win the Indy 500, how the new hybrid unit could effect the quality of the racing on track, and how the recent test shaped his expectations for his level of competitiveness at this year’s event.

Indy 500 ace JR Hildebrand - now working for Arrow McLaren for the month - also joins to preview the event in more detail.

He gives his take on how the hybrid unit is being viewed by teams and how it will work in practice, Palou’s recent form, and he and Jack Benyon run through some underdogs and storylines to keep an eye on.

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Romain Grosjean joins this week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast to discuss his plan to turn his reserve role at Prema into a series return, while James Hinchcliffe joins to break down Long Beach.

Grosjean discusses how he’ll help Prema’s drivers, how he’ll balance giving away his secrets against potential future on-track rivals, his desire to get back into the series, plus he even gives his plan for what IndyCar’s next car should look like (if he was in charge!).

Elsewhere, Hinchcliffe helps host Jack Benyon analyse Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti’s position as a rival to Alex Palou, they look at Christian Lundgaard’s rapid assimilation at McLaren, break down how crucial strategies played out at Long Beach, and more.

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Felix Rosenqvist has had another strong start to the IndyCar season with Meyer Shank Racing, and is part of an equally strong line-up on this week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast.

Among other things, Rosenqvist discusses Shank’s high-profile tie-up with the team that has won four of the last five IndyCar championships - Chip Ganassi racing. He outlines how the relationship is working in practice, how it’s impacted results, and suggests where he thinks Ganassi is ahead of McLaren, the team Shank used to have an alliance with.

Jack Harvey also joins the show to discuss his new role as a pitlane reporter, plus his preparations for the Indy 500 where he’ll race for Dreyer & Reinbold in May, plus his desire to return to full-time racing.

Finally, host Jack Benyon quickly rounds-up the Thermal IndyCar weekend and points to what to watch at the next race at Long Beach.

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Two stars of IndyCar’s season opener join this week’s episode of The Race IndyCar Podcast, with Christian Lundgaard and Will Buxton joining the show.

There was plenty of talk surrounding Lundgaard and what he’d be able to achieve entering a McLaren team built around Pato O’Ward, and he discussing that and the expectation he placed on himself before his eighth-place finish which was basically the worst result possible in a weekend that could have been even better.

He discusses his affinity with Barber after a recent test and his transformation there in 2023, plus how the epic first weekend impacts his season expectations.

Buxton joins off the back of making his debut as Fox’s lead commentator for the IndyCar Series. He breaks down how the first weekend went with behind the scenes insight, talks about what to expect for the rest of 2025 and talks season and St Pete storylines with host Jack Benyon.

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