Race Report: Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS (May 25, 2025) -- For the first time since 2000, A.J. Foyt, along with a sold-out crowd, witnessed his two cars finishing in the top-10 in the Indianapolis 500. David Malukas earned an Indy 500 career-best third, while Santino Ferrucci claimed seventh at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon.

Cool temps and light rain delayed the start of the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 by 30 minutes. The caution flag flew before the green flag when Scott McLaughlin, starting 10th,  tagged the inside wall while warming up his tires on the pace lap.  The race was started under yellow flag conditions.

Casey Irsay-Foyt, married to A.J. Foyt IV, was named the honorary starter in tribute to her father Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts and philanthropist, who passed away on Wednesday. She waved the green and was no sooner finished when the yellow lights came on for Marco Andretti's accident in Turn 1. He escaped unharmed.

Malukas started eighth in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet and only dropped out of the top 10 for seven of the 200 laps during a pit stop cycle. A few laps past halfway, he was never out of the top three! He moved into second on lap 60 and held that point until lap 86. On lap 120, he again rook over second before taking the lead on lap 133 with his teammate Santino Ferrucci behind in second. They ducked into the pits the next lap.

Malukas receives a congratulatory hug from his teammate after the race.

Malukas climbed back to second on lap 164 for five laps behind Ryan Hunter-Reay and took the lead for a lap before pitting for his final stop. He came out in fourth and claimed third with 26 laps to go to score his best Indy 500 finish in his third try. A fast car, fast pit stops, strong strategy and a smooth driver, combined for a fantastic showing at the biggedt race of the year.

"I mean, we did everything right," said an emotional Malukas afterwards. "The guys, the team, they did an incredible job. And, man, it's just bad timing at the end there and they got us. We tried to get that set up to where it needed to be on that final run, but I've never been in that final situation before, so we kinda made a guess with the wing (adjustment). Look, I'm really happy. It was an incredible run for us.

"In fact, it was an incredible job from the whole team, Clarience Technologies, Foyt guys," the 23 year-old Chicagoan said. "But, yeah, we missed out on that end there. Third and seventh for this team. That's a pretty strong finish in Indy.  I was looking the whole time, and I saw the 14 car also up there. I mean, it was, like, p 3, p 5 at times. It goes to show these guys really care for this, and they did an incredible job. We were cutting everybody off in the pit stops. These guys were on it. I kinda feel like I let them down on that final run. But, yeah, a lot of positives to take away."

Ferruccii contdinued his streak of finishing in the top-10 of every Indy 500 he has started--taking seventh place in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet after starting 15th. It was not without a struggle however as several fasteners on the right sidepod came out which made the car more difficult to drive.

The No.14 crew managed to get a fastener in on the fourth of five pit stops without losing too much time. Ferrucci came back to fifth and ran there until his final stop which had a small hiccup dropping him back a few spots. He rallied to get back to sixth but with just nine laps to go, he relinquished that position to Kyle Kirkwood.

On Saturday, Ferrucci poses with some of the Veterans who were guests of ABC Supply, which donated the livery to Homes For Our Troops and pledged to match the first $1M in dinations..

"I was overdriving it and wore my tires out at the end," Ferrucci explained about slipping to seventh.

"We kept the record alive (top-10 finish in every Indy 500 he started). Honestly, the crew did an amazing job. They got the sidepod bolted back on the car during a green flag stop, which was, I mean, damn impressive and we needed it on. So, 120 laps of it flapping in the wind wasn't great. But the last stop, we had an issue and we just lost some time, it kind of pulled us outside of the top five. Nothing we can do from there. Crew did a great job. I mean, strategy was great. It gave us kind of what we deserved. It would be nice to come back here in a year and just have a perfectly clean month. (Have you ever had a perfectly clean month?) 2023. Perfect.”

Foyt congratulates James Schnabel, the No. 4 race engineer, (center) while performance engineer Colin Hendershot and crew chief Nick Cooper look on.

Team President Larry Foyt was thrilled with the team's top-10 performances. The last time the entire Foyt entry list finished in the top 10 was in 1999 when Kenny Brack won, Billy Boat finished third and Robbie Buhl finished sixth. Two of Foyt's three entries finished in the top 10 the following year.

"It was a great day for Foyt Racing but one of those days that leaves you wanting more.," said Larry Foyt. " I’m so proud of this team for getting both cars in the top 10, and one even in the top 3, but we all want to win, and we all feel that way. David drove an amazing race and the crew was on point to give us a chance for the win. Santino drove through some adversity with a car body issue that the team did an amazing job to fix in the pits, but made the win difficult. Still, it was a great team effort and shows what we are capable of. I’m looking forward to this momentum for the rest of the season."  

A.J. Foyt who came to Indianapolis for the Grand Prix just two days after a stent procedure was happy with his team's efforts today.

"I thought the boys and the crews did a great job," summed up A.J. who was participating in his 68th consecutive Indy 500. "I was hoping the way they started off running, it would be a little further up, but all in all, we had a good day. Neither car crashed and the boys got in the top ten so what else can you ask for after 500 miles?"

Alex Palou continues to dominate the NTT INDTYCAR Series by claiming his fifth victory in six races. He passed Marcus Ericsson with just 13 laps to go to score his first oval track victory. Trailing Ericsson and Malukas were Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist.

The teams head north to Detroit this week for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix which will be held on Sunday.