Bruce Martin
Special to FOXSports.com

DETROIT — For many of the 350,000 fans that attended the 109th Indianapolis 500 and the peak audience of 8.4 million viewers that watched on FOX, they wondered why the winner of the race was the third car that crossed the finish line and the fourth car on the track was scored as second.

It was a rare situation that happens on ovals when the last two cars on the lead lap are actually running ahead of the leader and haven’t been lapped yet. Because they are fighting to stay on the lead lap, they do not have to yield their position to the race leader, per INDYCAR rules.

At the end of last Sunday’s Indy 500, those two cars were raced by Devlin DeFrancesco of Toronto and Louie Foster, a rookie from Odiham, Hampshire, England.

Both drivers race for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and both were fighting to complete all 200 laps of the Indianapolis 500 on the lead lap.

But in the final 16 laps of the race, Alex Palou masterfully used the two cars on the end of the lead lap to improve his speed the draft. That meant Palou’s No. 10 DHL Honda could run faster while saving fuel.

Marcus Ericsson was running second at the time after Palou boldly passed him for the lead on the inside of Turn 1 on the 187th lap. Because Palou was being aerodynamically towed by Foster and DeFrancesco, the car fourth in line experienced turbulence and could not get a run to attempt to pass Palou for the win.

When the checkered flag waved, Palou was the winner of the race and Ericsson was scored second. 

Ericsson would later get bounced to 31st place by INDYCAR officials after his No. 28 Honda failed post-race technical inspection because of illegal modifications to the engine management system cover. Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood was also penalized for the same infraction after finishing sixth and he was moved to 32nd in the final results.

Although Foster and DeFrancesco were both racing ahead of the leader based on the rules, many drivers believe the spirit of the rules should have seen those two drivers move over to let Palou and Ericsson by.

Also, Palou knew his car performed better with another car in front and chose to stay behind the two to maintain his position as the leader, rather than give Ericsson a chance on the track.

“We had two cars that were almost a lap down right in front of us,” Palou explained to me in an exclusive interview the day after winning the Indy 500. “They were breaking the air in front of me, so I had a tow on the straight, so I was going a lot faster on the straight than if I was alone leading the race. 

“The only bad part is that on the corners, you’re losing down force and you’re losing grip, so you cannot go as fast. 

“It was the same for Marcus on the corners, but at least Marcus couldn’t really get a big difference with the tow on me to overtake me on the straight.

“It’s similar to what Helio Castroneves did to me in 2021. 

“I’m glad it worked out for me this time.”

In the 105th Indianapolis 500 in 2021, Castroneves went to the outside to pass race leader Palou with two laps to go at the start-finish line. As they encountered a pack of lapped cars out of Turn 4, it gave Castroneves the drafting advantage. 

The cars at the tail end of the lead lap that ran in front of the two drivers fighting it out for victory were Ryan Hunter-Reay in the DHL car, Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske and James Hinchcliffe of Andretti Autosport.

Castroneves knew to draft behind those cars to disturb the aero on Palou’s No. 10 Honda on the final lap, as he became the fourth four-time Indianapolis 500 winner.

Ironically, Hunter-Reay’s sponsor on the No. 28 Honda in 2021 was DHL — the same sponsor for Palou’s No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in 2025.

David Malukas was scored as third on Sunday but moved up to second place on Monday after Ericsson was penalized.

After the race, Malukas claimed that “lappers spoiled the party.” 

At Monday night’s Indianapolis 500 Victory Awards Celebration at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, he took a much more open view of the end of the race. He said neither Foster nor DeFrancesco did anything wrong. It was just bad timing for some of the drivers fighting it out for the win that they caught up to the tail end of the lead lap near the end of the race.

“I understand it from both sides,” Malukas told me. “It’s more of just an unfortunate situation that they get to be there at that final battle. 

“You take those lap cars out of the scenario, and now it’s a four- or five-way battle for the lead. It’s not like if lapped cars weren’t there, it’s a guaranteed win. 

“To be fair, we could have probably finished even worse and could have been fifth, but … it just makes for a very good ending.

“It’s a high-octane finish. People are going left, right, back and forth, pushing. But when you have lapped cars racing up to speed and you have the leader just towing up behind them, nobody can do anything with 15 laps to go.

“Everybody knew that.”

Team Penske’s Will Power believes INDYCAR officials should revise the rule and force the tail end of the lead lap to move over and let the drivers fighting it out for the victory get by.

“If the leader is coming up behind you, get the F out of the way,” Power told me Monday. Night. “That’s certainly one way to do it. 

“Just get out of the way. Your day is done. There are 15 to go. People are fighting out for a win. 

“Come on.”

Power won the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and has often criticized race officiating for not having slower cars move over to keep the leaders out front.

“There would have been a lot of passing for the win if there weren’t two back markers racing in front of them,” Power continued. “All the people watching and they’re just watching two back markers for the last people on the lead lap fight it out which is wrong. 

“I just think maybe with 20 to go, you need a blue flag rule or something because everyone’s there to see the leaders fight it out. For me it’s been a huge problem with INDYCAR for a long time. Why should you fight with a person in last place, who is still running?”

Barry Wanser calls the race strategy for Palou at Chip Ganassi Racing and he is the team manager for the six-time Indy 500 winning team. 

He was adamant that it was the circumstance of the race that the drivers fighting it out for the win encountered the end of the lead lap.

“They were definitely not lapped cars,” Wanser told me. “They were the tail end of the lead lap, which means if a yellow came out, they would be packed up at the back of the pack and they’d be racing for a higher position when it goes green. So, they were doing exactly what they were entitled to do. 

“It benefited us. You don’t know what is going to happen during the race that will hurt you or benefit you. That helped us. 

“We lost to Helio in 2021 because he passed us and then caught the traffic in front of him. And then that makes it much harder, and we had to settle for second. 

“This allowed us to run technically in third as the leader with those two cars in front of us, which helped us.”

Wanser also cleared up the misconception that INDYCAR should have used the blue flag, for Foster and DeFrancesco to move over. 

On the ovals, INDYCAR uses the 105-percent rule.

“If you are not maintaining at least 105 percent of the leader’s pace, then you’re required to make a pit stop and change the car,” Wanser explained. “On road courses, street courses, we have the blue flag rule, but you have to be a lap down to the entire field until you’re a blue-flag eligible.”

Ricky Davis is Palou’s crew chief at Chip Ganassi Racing and prepared the race-winning machine that won.

“They didn’t spoil it,” David told me, referring to Foster and DeFrancesco. “Well, they didn’t spoil our party. They might have spoiled it for Ericsson and Malukas, and we were certainly appreciative of that.

“Those cars are still in lead lap, so they did not have to move over. If they were off the pace, they would have moved over. But the thing is, they were running as fast, if not faster, than we were.”

Palou’s latest win came in the biggest race on Earth and gives the popular driver from Spain a 112-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship.

It was also Palou’s fifth win in the first six INDYCAR races this season.

Team owner Chip Ganassi realizes this combination is historically special and credits Palou with understanding the situation that helped him win.

“There was lots of racecraft going on in his head while he’s driving around,” Ganassi told me. “We won the race, and we lost the race by those same sort of circumstances, as you said. 

“It’s just one of those things that happens in motor racing, when you’re on a closed circuit and you have other cars that are going to be involved in the outcome of a race sometimes.”

It was Castroneves that schooled Palou to become the fourth four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 2021.

Four years later, Palou remembered that lesson and used it on 2022 Indy 500 winner Ericsson.

“He was an amazing teacher,” Palou said of Castroneves. “It was an expensive class, honestly.

“I would say there’s part of luck, as well. Like you need to have the traffic at the right time, and yes, you need to be able to read it, but everything was falling to my way and then I had to overtake Marcus. But I don’t know if he thought he was safe or if he was not thinking that traffic was playing a big role on the race or not.

“But yeah, glad that the 2021 class paid off.”

With his latest triumph, Palou has certainly moved to the head of the class in INDYCAR.

Bruce Martin is a veteran motorsports writer and contributor to FOXSports.com. Follow him on X at @BruceMartin_500.

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