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.