Alex Palou won his second IndyCar race of the campaign when he seized on Josef Newgarden’s gearbox problems at Road America.
Newgarden had seemed set to complete a race he had dominated throughout, but on the last restart his gearbox was stuck in fifth gear and his Penske vehicle could only chug along.
That allowed Palou to sweep in front just before the first turn, and he extended his lead to pull off an opportunistic win after cutting into and then overhauling Newgarden’s lead that at one point stretched to almost seven seconds.
Penske have now not won a race since last year’s final race in St. Petersburg.
Elsewhere, former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean managed a fifth-place finish as he contemplates extending his participation to oval races rather than just the road events.
Second place on the day went to Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian) and third to Australian Will Power of United States Team Penske.