By JENNA FRYER

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Palou took the ceremonial swig of milk in victory lane at the Indianapolis 500. He allowed his wife to have a sip, she in turn gave a sip to their baby, and team owner Chip Ganassi ended up with the bottle and took a drink, as well.

“I have to tell you, it was the best milk I ever had,” Palou said.

The first Spaniard to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” then took a victory lap with his entourage around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the back of a pickup truck. At one point, Palou climbed onto its roof and raised his arms in triumph, the winning wreath draped around his neck. He briefly lost his balance and Ganassi instinctively reached out to grab his star driver.

No need.

Palou rarely makes a wrong move.

“All my family around, it’s amazing, honestly,” he said, smiling. “All the team around, they make me look really good on the track.”

Palou came to the speedway as the two-time defending IndyCar champion — he has three titles in four years — and had opened this year with victories in four of the first five races. It’s the kind of start not seen since 1964, when A.J. Foyt won the first seven races of the season, including the Indy 500.

But it was win No. 6 that Palou had circled on his calendar. Without an Indy 500 win, he said, his career would be incomplete.

“Like he said last week, if he was to go through his whole career and not win here at Indianapolis, it wouldn’t be a complete career,” Ganassi said. “I don’t want to say his career is complete now — he’s got a lot in him yet. Look at the last five, six races we’ve had. It’s just incredible. He’s on a roll.”

Palou was in fuel-saving mode over the closing laps, following former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson. Palou got tired of staying put with 16 laps remaining and charged ahead — a move Ericsson said “will keep me up at night. What I did and what I didn’t do.” Palou was never challenged from there, taking the checkered flag as a crash brought out a caution.

He stopped the car just beyond the Yard of Bricks, climbing out of it and nearly losing his balance as he raised his arms in triumph. Palou jumped down and took off in a run down the front stretch, pulling off his gloves and tossing them behind him, and ultimately was engulfed by his father, Ramon, and his team in a jubilant celebration.

Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti both hugged him, a pair of former Ganassi Indy 500 winners welcoming him into their exclusive club. He wasn’t sure what the win will do for him Spain, which celebrates Formula 1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr., but Palou said for the first time he can recall he saw throngs of fans with Spanish flags chanting his name at an IndyCar race.

“It makes it extra special that I’m the first Spanish driver to win it,” Palou said. “But honestly, if I was the 50th Spanish driver to win, I would be as happy as I am now.”

Meanwhile, Ericsson climbed from his car in pit lane and pressed his hands to his face, the disappointment of coming oh-so-close to a second Indianapolis 500 victory etched across his face. David Maluks was third for A.J. Foyt Racing.

“It’s pretty painful,” Ericsson said of his second career Indy 500 runner-up finish. “I need to look at it again. You replay it in your head a million times after the finish, wondering what I could have done differently. Second means nothing in this race.”

Josef Newgarden’s bid to win three consecutive Indy 500s ended with a fuel pump issue. He was trying to become the first driver to come from the back row to win because he and Team Penske teammate Will Power were dropped to the back of the field for failing inspection before the final rounds of qualifying.

Power wound up 19th, the highest-finishing Penske driver on a miserable day for the organization owned by Roger Penske. He earlier this week fired his top three IndyCar executives for a second technical infraction in just over a year, and has had to defend the optics of his teams failing inspections when he also owns IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500.

Penske has won the Indy 500 a record 20 times.

It was the sixth Indy 500 win for Ganassi, who has been on a dominating wave since hiring Palou before the 2021 season. Palou won the championship in his first year with the team, added two more titles, and now seems on pace for a fourth one.

“I’ll tell you what, that kid’s a good driver. I think he’s off to a good start,” Ganassi said. “We’re gonna have a good season. It might be OK. Yeah, might be okay. Might be looking at a championship.”

Ganassi also vowed that winning the Indy 500 win “is going to make Alex Palou’s career. It is going to make his life.”

Palou started the race tied with Pato O’Ward as the co-favorites, listed at +500 by BetMGM Sportsbook. O’Ward finished fourth — the fifth time in six career starts the Mexican has finished sixth or higher. Kyle Larson won’t complete “the double” after crashing out of the Indianapolis 500 before he headed to North Carolina to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Originally Published: May 25, 2025 at 9:24 AM EDT

Kyle Larson wrecked out of the Indianapolis 500 on Lap 92 of the 200-lap race, spinning out on a restart and collecting two other cars. He finished 27th, leaving the track visibly dejected after a difficult month.

But he has to move past that quickly with NASCAR’s longest race directly ahead of him, starting on the outside of the front row for the Coca-Cola 600. During the plane ride, he said in a video message that “more than anything, (just need to) mentally get reset at this point and try to forget about the last hour.”

His Hendrick Motorsports crew chief, Cliff Daniels, met with NASCAR on Prime on how Larson deals with the disappointment from Indy while focusing on what he has to do at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Luckily, we’ve had quite a while together in our relationship and just our competitive career,” said Daniels. “What makes him so good and so special is just that he races so often and he’s able to kind of turn the page. When he has races that end on a high note, he turns the page for the next race (and) likewise if things don’t go well like they didn’t go well today.”

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images

He spoke with Larson as he made the trip from Indianapolis to Charlotte, saying he poked fun at the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and even managed to make him smile.

“I think he’s ready for tonight. Obviously, he was disappointed in the way today went but he’s still very appreciative of the opportunity, as all are to have the support of Mr. Hendrick and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports.”

He went on to say that Larson is no stranger of putting bad races behind him with how often he is driving something, whether it be a World of Outlaws sprint car or an Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in the Indianapolis 500.

“He’s not a rookie at that,” said Daniels. “And even in our journey together, we’ve had experiences where he’s run a lot of different types of race cars on a Cup weekend. The magnitude and the gravity and just all the prep for Indy is a lot different, (but) we’ve been trying to provide an environment here so when he’s at Indy and he’s with the Arrow McLaren guys, he can stay focused on the mission at hand with them … and providing him a space where he (can come) in with us, get up to speed with us and go do business.”

The Coca-Cola 600 is airing exclusively on Prime Video for the first Cup race to air on a streaming platform.

Kyle Larson spun less than 50 laps into the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday.

Larson spun out while leading the race on lap 43. He slid through the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway just a few laps after he hit the wall while running the high line.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — Kyle Larson has arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway and is looking to refocus ahead of the Coca-Cola 600 after his bid to complete “the Double” ended when he crashed at the Indianapolis 500.

“Frustrated and sad, and all of the emotions,” Larson said in brief interview with Amazon Prime after boarding an airplane headed to Concord, North Carolina. “Just try to mentally get reset and try to forget about it.”

Larson arrived at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in plenty of the time for the race — unlike a year ago when he didn’t reach the track until 249 laps had been completed due to rain in Indianapolis that delayed the start of the Indy 500. Larson never turned a lap at last year’s Coca-Cola 600 as the race was called.

Rain again delayed the start of the Indy 500 on Sunday, but the early exit gave Larson plenty of time to arrive and even relax a little before the green flag.

Larson will start on the front row alongside pole sitter Chase Briscoe, looking for his fourth win of the season on the Cup Series circuit.

Larson crashed out of the Indianapolis 500 near the midway point Sunday, ending the NASCAR superstar’s second shot at finishing both “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte in the same day.

Larson had been mired deep in traffic throughout the first half of the race, which was delayed about 35 minutes because of a rain shower that passed over the speedway. He was going through Turns 1 and 2 when his car wiggled on a downshift, sending him into a spin and into the outside wall, ending his race after 91 laps.

“Just a bit crazy there on the restart,” he said. “I got like, tight behind Takuma (Sato). I was really close in. I got loose and kind of got all over the place, and yeah, so it spun. Just hate that I got a little too eager on the restarter. Hate it for everybody else.”

Kyffin Simpson and Sting Ray Robb also were caught up in the crash.

“When Kyle started losing it and checking up, I tried to go around the outside and there was just no grip out there,” Robb said.

If he had made it to the finish in Indianapolis, he would have faced a tight window to make the 550-mile trip because of the rain delay, which soaked up most of the 45-minute buffer that his NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports and IndyCar team Arrow McLaren projected for him.

It was a rough day for Larson even before the crash. He also stalled the car on pit lane, costing him valuable track positions.

Larson took his first shot on one of the toughest challenges in motorsports last season, when even more rain wreaked havoc with his finely laid plans. That Indy 500 was delayed by 4 hours because of heavy rains that saturated Indianapolis Motor Speedway and caused him to be late to Charlotte, where the Cup Series race was underway by the time he landed.

Then, more rain there caused the NASCAR race to be called complete before Larson ever took a lap in his car.

John Andretti was the first driver to try the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double in 1994, and Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch also have given it a shot. Stewart is the only one to complete all 1,100 laps, finishing sixth in the 2001 Indy 500 before the helicopter-jet-helicopter jaunt to Charlotte, where he finished third in the Cup Series race.

“Just bummed out,” Larson said. “Try to get over this quickly and get on to Charlotte. Try to forget about it and win tonight.”

Reed reported from Charlotte, North Carolina.

For the second consecutive year, a bid by Kyle Larson to race the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day was adversely affected by weather.

But as it turned out, a popup shower was only the beginning of his frustrating Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

A light rain delayed the start of the 109th Indy 500 by nearly 45 minutes, and when the race eventually did start at 1:29 p.m., the yellow flag was displayed after multiple incidents on the parade laps.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver will be unable to complete 1,100 miles but will be heading early to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coke 600.

And after a choppy start from a Lap 4 crash, the yellow flag flew again on Lap 19 at 1:50 p.m. for rain. The race returned to green at Lap 30 with Larson restating in 31st after accidentally shifting into second gear while trying to leave the pits.

His second Indy 500 bid ended on Lap 91 after he lost control and crashed in Turn 2 on a restart. He finished 27th.

The green flag had been scheduled to wave at 12:46 p.m.

Instead, the 33 drivers, including Larson in the No. 17 Dallara-Chevrolet of Arrow McLaren, were waiting in their cars with team members holding umbrellas over their cockpits. Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske finally gave the command to start engines at 1:21 p.m. (42 minutes late).

But the race was delayed even further when Scott McLaughlin had a minor crash while trying to warm his tires on the parade laps.

Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon also had a problem, and drivers were left circling the 2.5-mile track for more than 10 minutes behind the pace car as the green and yellow flags finally were displayed together.

The three-time IndyCar champion continues his near-perfect start to the 2025 season

Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan told Fox Sports that Larson had a hard out of 4:07 p.m. to leave for Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the green flag was scheduled for the Coke 600 at 6:27 p.m. ET. If Larson had been unable to start the race, Kanaan (who won the Indy 500 in 2013) would have been the substitute driver.

In Larson’s first Indy 500-Coke 600 attempt last year, a four-hour rain delay precluded the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion from arriving at Charlotte Motor Speedway in time for the Coke 600, which was shortened by rain.

Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon said Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway that Larson would arrive in time for driver introductions at 5:25 p.m. ET in Concord, N.C.

The Indy 500 generally takes at least three hours to complete. Getting from IMS to Charlotte Motor Speedway (which is near a regional airport) takes a little over an hour.

Jeff Gordon addresses Kyle Larson’s travel from the Indianapolis 500 to the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday.

Larson is trying to become the fifth driver to race in the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day, joining John Andretti (1994), Tony Stewart (1999, 2001), Robby Gordon (2002-04) and Kurt Busch (2014).

Stewart is the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles in 2001.