The 2023 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear was the seventh round of the 2023 IndyCar season. The race was held on June 4, 2023, in downtown Detroit, Michigan at the Detroit street circuit. This year saw racing return to the downtown street circuit instead of The Raceway on Belle Isle, where it had been since 1992. The race consisted of 100 laps and was won by Álex Palou.
Entry list
KeyMeaningRookiePast winner Driver Team Engine2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Chevrolet3 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Chevrolet5 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren Chevrolet06 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda6 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren Chevrolet7 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet8 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda10 Álex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda11 Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Honda12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet14 Santino Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda18 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda20 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet21 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet26 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda27 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda28 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda29 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda30 Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda45 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda51 Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda55 Benjamin Pedersen A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet60 Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda77 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet78 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing ChevroletSource:
Practice
Practice 1 + Top Practice Speeds Driver Team Engine Lap Time 1 5 Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 01:03.0773 2 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 01:03.1759 3 27 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda 01:03.5140 Source:
Practice 2 + Top Practice Speeds Driver Team Engine Lap Time 1 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 01:03.2317 2 12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 01:03.4627 3 27 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda 01:03.5658 Source:
Qualifying Álex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing won the pole, his second of the season, with his first coming in the last race, the Indy 500.
Qualifying classification Driver Team Engine Time Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Group 1 Group 2 1 10 Álex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 01:02.2431 N/A 01:01.6390 01:01.8592 1 2 3 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske Chevrolet N/A 01:01.7482 01:01.9794 01:02.1592 2 3 28 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda 01:02.1756 N/A 01:01.9018 01:02.2896 3 4 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda N/A 01:02.0602 01:02.0608 01:02.4272 4 5 2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Chevrolet N/A 01:02.1900 01:01.9679 01:02.5223 5 6 8 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda N/A 01:02.0754 01:01.9449 01:02.6184 6 7 12 Will Power Team Penske Chevrolet 01:02.3454 N/A 01:02.1817 N/A 7 8 60 Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda 01:02.3952 N/A 01:02.1860 N/A 8 9 6 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 01:02.5341 N/A 01:02.1937 N/A 9 10 5 Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren Chevrolet N/A 01:02.0470 01:02.2564 N/A 10 11 11 Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 01:01.8558 N/A 01:02.2958 N/A 11 12 27 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda N/A 01:01.5305 01:04.6075 N/A 12 13 7 Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 01:02.5714 N/A N/A N/A 13 14 21 Rinus VeeKay Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet N/A 01:02.1911 N/A N/A 14 15 20 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 01:02.9522 N/A N/A N/A 15 16 77 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet N/A 01:02.2644 N/A N/A 16 17 29 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda 01:03.0017 N/A N/A N/A 17 18 45 Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda N/A 01:02.6495 N/A N/A 18 19 55 Benjamin Pedersen A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 01:03.1599 N/A N/A N/A 19 20 78 Agustín Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet N/A 01:02.9071 N/A N/A 20 21 18 David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda 01:03.2126 N/A N/A N/A 21 22 14 Santino Ferrucci A. J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet N/A 01:02.9589 N/A N/A 22 23 06 Hélio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda 01:03.3879 N/A N/A N/A 23 24 26 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda N/A 01:03.4165 N/A N/A 24 25 30 Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 01:03.7728 N/A N/A N/A 25 26 51 Sting Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda N/A 01:03.7496 N/A N/A 26 27 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda N/A 01:03.8663 N/A N/A 27 Source: Notes Bold text indicates fastest time set in session.
Warmup + Top Practice Speeds Driver Team Engine Lap Time 1 60 Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda 01:02.3615 2 77 Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet 01:02.4818 3 11 Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 01:02.5860 Source:
Race The race started at 3:30 PM ET on June 4, 2023. Report The race started with Alex Palou starting from pole position, followed by Scott McLaughlin on the front row. Twenty drivers started the race on alternate tires (guayule compound), while seven, including the three Arrow McLaren drivers and Will Power, opted for primary tires.
The first attempt at the start was aborted due to a grid lineup problem. On the second attempt, the race got off to a bumpy start when Callum Ilott collided with Kyle Kirkwood at the turn 3, resulting in the first yellow flag. Ilott abandoned the race, while Kirkwood had his rear wing replaced.
The race restarted on lap 7, and Scott McLaughlin tried to regain the second position he had lost to Romain Grosjean at the start, but to no avail.
Alex Palou began to distance himself at the front of the race. In just two laps after the restart, he took a 2-second lead over Grosjean and, in five laps, widened the gap to 5 seconds.
Marcus Ericsson's alternate tires started to lose performance, which was taken advantage of by Will Power and Felix Rosenqvist, who moved up to fifth and sixth place respectively. Pato O'Ward also overtook Ericsson and moved up to seventh place. Ericsson made his stop on lap 17 to change to primary tires.
Power continued to show great pace and made impressive moves in Turn 3, passing Scott Dixon for fourth and then overtaking McLaughlin for third. On lap 22, Power managed to overtake Grosjean and moved into second position. Meanwhile, Palou was still leading the race with a 9.9-second advantage over second place, without suffering too much wear on the alternate tires. However, Power reduced the gap to Palou significantly. Meanwhile, the McLaren drivers, who followed the same strategy as Power, were unable to overtake either Grosjean or McLaughlin.
On lap 29, Grosjean overshot at Turn 8 and then pitted. On the following lap, Palou and McLaughlin made their stops. Dixon took advantage of McLaughlin's stop on lap 25 to overtake him with an undercut strategy.
The drivers who started on primary tires began to make their pit stops. Power made his pit stop on lap 35 to change to alternate tires and came out just behind Palou. O'Ward and Alexander Rossi also made their stops on lap 36, but there were problems with O'Ward's left rear tire, which caused him to be stopped in the pit lane for a lap before he could return to the track. O'Ward wasn't the only one with pit road issues, as Josef Newgarden had fuel hose difficulties.
Pato O'Ward tried to overtake Santino Ferrucci, but made a mistake and hit the wall in turn 9 on lap 44, generating the second yellow flag. This situation neutralized the advantage Palou had gained over Power on the primary tires.
During the yellow flag, Ericsson, Conor Daly, Hélio Castroneves, Jack Harvey and Benjamin Pedersen took the opportunity to make their pit stops.
The race restarted on lap 49. The top positions were maintained, although there were difficulties to get away from Ferrucci. Immediately after, the yellow flag was shown due to a Sting Ray Robb incident in the Turn 3 run-off. Meanwhile, during the neutralization period, Graham Rahal and Pedersen hit the wall in Turn 1. Pedersen managed to continue the race, but was two laps down, while Rahal had to retire.
Before the impending restart, Palou was informed to use the emergency mode and shut down the car due to gearbox problems. The race restarted on lap 56. Will Power managed to overtake Palou in Turn 3 and took the lead.
The drop in performance of the Power's alternate tires became evident, and Palou took advantage of the situation to attack Power. Power made a mistake in turn 3, allowing Palou to retake the lead on lap 65.
The leading drivers began to make their pit stops to change to primary tires for the final stint of the race. Dixon made his stop on lap 65, followed by Palou, Power and Rosenqvist on lap 66, and finally Rossi and Grosjean on lap 67. Ericsson moved ahead of Palou and Power after making one of the stops during one of the previous yellow flags.
There were several on-track incidents, including contact between McLaughlin and Grosjean as the latter exited the pits, the incident in which Rosenqvist pushed Rossi into the wall, and contact between Grosjean and Newgarden. Ericsson made his final pit stop on lap 76, being relegated tenth in the running order. Palou remained in the lead, 5 seconds ahead of Will Power, who focused on protecting himself from Dixon's attacks.
With 19 laps to go, Grosjean crashed in turn 4, causing the fourth yellow flag. The race restarted with 14 laps to go, but immediately the fifth yellow flag was displayed due to a David Malukas crash in Turn 9, on an unfortunate day for Dale Coyne.
Another restart occurred with 10 laps to go. Palou held on to the lead, while Power and Dixon got tangled up in touches, allowing Rossi to take second place. Power took third, followed by Rosenqvist in fourth and Dixon in fifth. However, an incident between Robb and Ferrucci in Turn 3 led to the sixth and final yellow flag.
The last restart came with 5 laps to go, with Palou holding the lead and Power regaining second place. Rossi fought for the last podium place. In the midst of the madness, Rosenqvist pushed Rossi into the wall to secure third place, and Dixon took advantage of this situation to take fourth.
Alex Palou crossed the finish line as the winner of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, taking his second win of the season and his first on a street circuit in his IndyCar career. The podium was completed by Power, who had his best performance of the year, and Rosenqvist. Race classification