Graham Rahal continued his resurgence in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this season with a third-place finish Sunday in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear.

Rahal (photo, top) charged from 12th at the start in No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, earning his third podium result of the season. It marks the first time since 2020 that Rahal has collected at least three podium finishes in a season.

“We had a lot of pace when we needed it,” Rahal said.

The result gives Rahal five top-10 finishes through eight races and moves him from 11th to ninth in the championship standings entering next Sunday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway.

He finished seventh in points in 2021 but 11th or worse for five straight seasons entering 2026.

“Yesterday, the car did not feel great to me,” Rahal said. “Long Beach, it wasn't very good, and we finished eighth. Those are the weekends you want. If you want to be a contender, that's what you need. The bad weekends need to be better.”

Rahal’s podium bid appeared in jeopardy on Lap 38 when Kyffin Simpson spun him while he was running 13th, dropping him to 23rd.

“I was fast today, and I knew that,” Rahal said. “That's what made me most mad. I was able to truly motor through some guys early, and I felt really good. So, when I got hit, I was just ticked.”

The veteran recovered through strategy and speed. After making his final pit stop on Lap 61, Rahal caught a break when a caution involving Santino Ferrucci and Rinus VeeKay flew on Lap 66. The yellow cycled him into fifth position, and he capitalized by charging to third at the finish.

The podium was Rahal’s fourth top-eight result in the last five races and his third third-place finish during that stretch, joining podiums at Barber Motorsports Park and the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

“We'll take it,” Rahal said. “I'm not going to sit here and say we weren't a little bit lucky today, but I'm not going to say this happened by luck because we had the speed and we played the strategy for exactly what happened.”

O’Ward Earns Another Top-Five Finish

Pato O’Ward scored his sixth top-five finish of the season Sunday, bringing the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet home fourth.

Four of those six top fives have come on street circuits. His previous street-course results this season were fifth-place finishes at St. Petersburg, Arlington and Long Beach.

“We have some work to do,” O’Ward said. “Just not as good as we need to be to try and find our way forward today. I do think we definitely did our best out there. So, just short of a podium again and would love to finally get one, hopefully soon.”

O’Ward leaves Detroit fifth in the championship standings, 107 points behind leader Alex Palou.

Felix Rosenqvist

Rosenqvist Backs Indy Win With Sixth Place

Felix Rosenqvist charged from 16th to finish sixth in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Honda.

The result marked his third top-six finish in the last four races, including a victory in the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

“It's good, man,” Rosenqvist said. “I feel like we're operating so well. Good pit stops, great strategy calls, good pace. We're just doing really well. I'm excited because I feel like we're coming to some of my favorite tracks, especially once we're over St. Louis. Hopefully we can get some more wins and keep rolling.”

Rosenqvist (photo, above) entered the April 19 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach 14th in points with a 14th-place average finish and 15th-place average starting position through the opening four races to the season. Over the last four races, he has averaged a sixth-place start and eighth-place finish, climbing to sixth in the standings entering next Sunday's Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway.

After the WWTR oval, the series heads to Road America (June 21), a spot Rosenqvist where finished second last year. Then it’s on to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (July 5), where the Swede finished sixth last year.

“It's in the details,” Rosenqvist said. “We definitely made some changes for Long Beach that really suited us. Me and my engineers know each other well enough now that we bounce back quicker when we're not doing well.

“I feel like I'm more relaxed, flowing a bit more and not overdriving the car. The speed is still there, and I think those things are making us more competitive.”

Rosenqvist is in his third season with MSR, having spent his first two seasons (2019-20) with Chip Ganassi Raicng and the three seasons after with Arrow McLaren.

Louis Foster

Foster Enjoys ‘Favorite Day in a Race Car’

Louis Foster delivered a career-best street-course finish, placing seventh in the No. 45 Droplight Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

The result was Foster's (photo, above) second top-10 finish in the last three races, matching his seventh-place run in the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course. After starting 11th, Foster climbed through the field for the second top 10 of the season and his young INDYCAR SERIES career, which started last year.

“This was my favorite day in the race car,” Foster said. “We made some moves, we were competitive, and we earned it based on track performance. I'm super happy.”

That’s saying something for a driver who won 10 races across two INDY NXT by Firestone seasons driving with Andretti Global, including a 2024 championship.

Foster credited improved tire management and growing NTT INDYCAR SERIES experience for the recent uptick in performance.

“It’s also confidence in racing these cars a bit more and kind of understanding what I need to do as a driver to make these tires last a bit better,” Foster said. “I'm busy in the car, adjusting things, because I have to.

“We need to spend time as a team to figure it out, because it's a massive deficit, like this race, for example, on the blacks (primary tires) I knew that was my only chance to overtake cars. As soon as I went to the reds (alternate tires), it was all about conserving where I currently was because if I try and never take a car on the reds, I'll kill tires, I'll have to pit early, and it’ll ruin my race. So, it's really difficult to manage.”

Will Power

McLaughlin, Power Tangle Ends Strong Runs

Detroit's 1.645-mile, nine-turn street circuit produced another round of contact-filled racing, with the most notable incident occurring on Lap 77.

Will Power and Scott McLaughlin made contact entering the Turn 3 hairpin while battling for third position, lifting Power's No. 26 TWG Motorsports Honda off the ground and ending both drivers' chances at a podium finish.

Power (photo, above) had passed Josef Newgarden for sixth on the Lap 76 restart and was challenging McLaughlin when the incident occurred. McLaughlin limped home 19th in the No. 3 Clarience Technologies Team Penske Chevrolet, while Power retired on Lap 79 and was scored 22nd.

“I don't know what I did to piss Will off,” McLaughlin said. “I got a little sideways before that and closed the hole more aggressively than I wanted. Then he got by me, and I was happy to let him go because he was faster.

“Going into Turn 3, he locked the right front. I got alongside him and was going to go around the outside, but he just kept turning in. I felt like he gave me no option. I have so much respect for Will. He's helped me so much over the years, and we'll talk about it. I'm just super frustrated because I think we had a great car.”

Odds and Ends

  • Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood have won all four street-course races this season and finished first and second, respectively, in Detroit.
  • Sunday marked Palou’s 10th career victory from the pole. He has earned 16 NTT P1 Awards in his INDYCAR career.
  • Christian Lundgaard has improved his finishing position in each of his four Detroit starts, progressing from 16th to 11th to eighth to fifth. The last two results have come in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
  • Track officials said after the race that all grandstands were sold out Sunday. The event was contested under sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-70s.