However, O’Ward was flying and passed not only Palou and VeeKay but on lap 70, his teammate Rosenqvist too, as the pair ran behind RC Enerson of debutant team Abel Motorsports, running not quite a lap down. The McLaren drivers seemed happy to be up front, but still able to briefly save fuel behind Enerson. Further back, the No. 2 Penske crew had jumped Newgarden ahead of Ericsson in the pit stop exchange, while just outside the top 10, local hero Conor Daly was up to 11th for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Palou lost fourth to Ferrucci on lap 76, but still the top nine were blanketed by only four seconds, while Sato’s loose car had fallen to 2.5s off the back of Ericsson.

Rosenqvist drafted past O’Ward to lead on lap 79, the pair of them planning to swap back and forth to take turns at saving fuel now that Enerson had pitted for a third time. He would retire on lap 76. However, there was no guarantee that they’d get to pick and choose when to pass, since as O’Ward took over from Rosenqvist at the front, Ferrucci passed VeeKay for third.

As Rosenqvist took the lead on lap 91 and Rossi passed Palou, Sato suddenly slowed, forcing Scott McLaughlin’s Penske and Kanaan’s McLaren to take evasive action, Kanaan putting all four wheels in the grass out of Turn 2 to pass McLaughlin. Much further back, Rahal unlapped himself from Sting Ray Robb, but the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda tried to hang on around the outside, hit some marbles and slid up the track into the wall. That was the first caution of the race.The leaders hit pitlane at the end of lap 94, but on emerging from his pitbox, VeeKay had to tighten his steering as there were cars already in the outside lane, namely Power and Newgarden. VeeKay got sideways and slapped Palou into the left-side wall as the polesitter was accelerating hard out of his pitbox.
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Rosenqvist led O’Ward, Ferrucci, Power, Newgarden, Rossi, VeeKay, Ericssson and Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport-Honda) out of the pits, but they would all be trailing the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy of Callum Ilott, who had just pitted when the yellow flew. Meanwhile, Palou had been able to get back to the pits for a new nosewing assembly and emerge still on the lead lap, but now down in 28th.

Ilott was immediately passed by Rosenqvist and O’Ward, but further back with the track cleared of marbles, Ericsson surged forward on the high-line with a three-wide pass on Rossi and VeeKay to claim fifth, while another driver excelling was Newgarden, who jumped forward and into the top six as the cars fanned out three and four wide down the back straight. The big loser in this kerfuffle was Power who dropped to 16th in the space of a lap, while Herta moved into the top six by lap 110 ahead of Rossi, the falling Ilott, Daly and Kyle Kirkwood in a second Andretti car. VeeKay would soon have to serve a drive-through penalty for his pit road contact with Paloul

Kanaan was up to 11th ahead of Sato, Carpenter, Dixon (another driver to have a strong restart), McLaughlin, Power and Palou — up 11 places from the drop of the green.

Through the fourth stint, Rosenqvist and O’Ward continued the McLaren shuffle at the front of the field, just ahead of Ferrucci, Newgarden, Ericsson and Herta, but on lap 125, Rossi drafted past Herta for sixth into Turn 1, while Carpenter fell back behind Dixon, McLaughlin, Power, Palou and Romain Grosjean. However, the pace had dropped to some 208mph in order to try and make it on just two more stops, and now the Ganassi cars started moving more rapidly. In short order, Dixon passed Kanaan, Palou passed Power, and Kanaan, and Ericsson drafted past Newgarden for third on lap 130. That was because O’Ward had ducked into the pits a lap earlier.

Rosenqvist pitted from the lead at the end of lap 132, and emerged well ahead of O’Ward. Meanwhile Andretti’s hopes took a dive when Herta was sent out of the pitbox into the side of his teammate Grosjean. His time loss would be magnified, of course, by a drive-through penalty.


Ganassi’s No. 8 crew had rapidly turned around Ericsson and he had emerged in third. However, he passed Newgarden and then took the lead from compatriot Rosenqvist on lap 137. Two laps later, Newgarden, too, had passed Rosenqvist to run second in Ericsson’s wheeltracks. Half a second behind Ericsson ran Rossi who had demoted Ferrucci, while O’Ward was sixth, the No. 5 McLaren team warning him that his car was using up too much fuel. The surprise was Carpenter, who appeared to have been short-filled for he had jumped to seventh in the pit stop exchange ahead of Kirkwood, the recovering Palou and Sato.

On lap 149, out came the second caution, as Grosjean lost control out of Turn 2, sliding out of the groove and into the SAFER barrier, before bouncing across the track and into the infield grass. As the DHL car was scooped onto the flatbed, O’Ward, Carpenter, Sato, McLaughlin, VeeKay, Kanaan and Power were among those who hit pit road.

On lap 156, the green flew again, and Newgarden drafted past Ericsson into the lead, while Ferrucci passed Rossi and Rosenqvist for third, and the following lap Ferrucci was past the No. 2 Penske into second, and into Turn 1 next time by, the Foyt car went up the inside of Ericsson into the lead.

Behind Rosenqvist and Rossi, Kirkwood ran sixth ahead of Palou, Daly, Dixon, Sato, Simon Pagenaud, O’Ward and Power. Then on lap 164, Kirkwood passed the man he replaced at Andretti, Rossi, to claim fifth, and the following lap Daly drafted past Palou for seventh. On lap 166, Kirkwood moved again, getting around Rosenqvist for fourth, and on lap 167 he passed Newgarden around the outside for third. Meanwhile, Power slid wide at Turn 2, and broke a toelink on the wall.