After one of the wildest runnings of the Indianapolis 500 in recent memory, the IndyCar Series kept on rolling to the next stop on the national championship trail.

Following weeks spent training and racing on an oval, the Detroit Grand Prix forced drivers to throw all that out the window and start cranking hard 90-degree turns around its unforgiving street circuit.

With a cascade of crashes, endless yellow flags, and just enough rain to throw a huge wrench in everyone’s plans, it wasn’t exactly good racing, but it sure was memorable. With that in mind, let’s get into all the insanity from Detroit Rock City.

Dixon puts Hockeytown on ice

Winners find a way to win, and once again, New Zealand’s own Scott Dixon was living proof of that phrase. While not the day’s fastest driver by any means, a brilliant strategy call to stay out on slicks, rather than pitting for rain tyres during those few laps of drizzle, created a golden opportunity for the Iceman. Combine an uncanny ability to avoid the day’s chaos, plus one of Dixon’s signature heroic fuel-saves as he led the final 35 laps, and you have the recipe for his second win this year and a record-breaking fourth in the Motor City.

Ericsson rebounds for silver

All three Andretti drivers looked poised to win or at least make the podium at some point in Detroit, but it was ultimately Marcus Ericsson who achieved it, and he may have needed it the most. After a torrid, crash-filled May in Indianapolis, the Swede kept his nose clean and capitalised on the opportunities in front of him all day long, culminating in a clutch pass on lap 99 to secure second place. It’s Ericsson’s first podium for his new team, and hopefully the first step to a major turnaround the rest of the way.

Armstrong takes his first podium

Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin are both constant threats to win in IndyCar, but we may now have a third New Zealand star on our hands. Marcus Armstrong qualified an unassuming 19th, but Detroit was one of his best tracks last year, and he seized this second go-around with aplomb.

Not only did he tear his way up the grid, rising 16 spots to take the bronze and his first career podium – he put up impressive endgame defence against Marcus Ericsson that helped ensure Armstrong’s teammate and fellow countryman Dixon took the win. It’s a major milestone for the young Kiwi, and if Armstrong keeps taking after Dixon, we could be hearing New Zealand’s national anthem after races well into the 2040s.

Kirkwood rises above the hate

The juiciest story of the weekend was the rising tensions between Kyle Kirkwood and Santino Ferrucci. Before race day, Ferrucci nearly hit Kirkwood during practice, shoved Kirkwood afterward, then made homophobic remarks about both Kirkwood and Colton Herta on the first day of pride month. But while Ferrucci did grab TV time in the race, with multiple incidents on his way to ninth, Kirkwood made his new rival a complete afterthought.

The Andretti No. 27 driver stayed in the top five nearly all day long, led 24 laps, and while a podium spot slipped through his grasp at the finish, the 4th-place was still Kirkwood’s best since his win at Nashville last year, keeping him on track for what could be his strongest season to date.

McLaren’s arrows all land near the mark

Minutes before the start of this race, Pato O’Ward told NBC reporters his goal in Detroit was just to survive, and when the rubber hit the road, all three McLarens took that mantra to heart. The trio faced their share of hardships, starting when multiple cars got caught in a lap one pile-up, but kept their heads down and made the most of whatever opportunities presented themselves, and it paid off by race’s end.

Alexander Rossi climbed 11 spots to reach the top five, making him Chevy’s best driver on the day. O’Ward made a five-place climb of his own to reach seventh, keeping his season title hopes on track. Even Théo Pourchaire, in his first drive as a full-time McLaren man, scored his first top-ten finish in IndyCar. Things are looking up for the Orange Arrows, and they’ll hope to hit an even higher gear next weekend.

Power perseveres when other Penskes can’t

It was a rough day for all three Team Penske drivers, to say the least—we’ll get to the other two in due time—but where his teammates tripped and fell, Will Power stood tall. Despite taking four penalties over the course of the race, one of which wasn’t even his fault, Power consistently found ways to stay in the game, and his sixth-place finish was good for silver among Chevys. After saving his team from total disaster, Power will no doubt want some heroics for himself soon, as he chases that elusive first win of the season.

Lundgaard chokes on his ambition

Christian Lundgaard drove like his car was rigged to explode if he didn’t win, and for a while there, it was actually working. He smartly overruled his strategist and stayed out during the rain, leading ten laps as a reward. Even climbing on top of Romain Grosjean’s car and ruining the Frenchman’s promising drive wasn’t enough to truly hold the Dane back, as Lundgaard rebounded to fifth late in the race.

But his fuel number dropped too fast too late, and a late splash-and-dash meant he slid all the way to 11th in the final scramble. Lundgaard is clearly Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s fastest man—he’s led 53 total laps this year—but he and his crew need to start playing chess, not checkers, if they want to convert that pace into consistent results.

Palou finally stumbles

Álex Palou came to Detroit looking to repeat his victory from last year, but the choice to start on used alternate tyres backfired almost immediately. The moment those started to fall apart, the Spaniard lost several places, forcing him into the first of five pit stops. Despite that, he hung in there for a while, running in the top 10 and threatening to go higher, but he ran right into a spinning Josef Newgarden, effectively ending both their days.

After starting the year with nothing but top-fives, Palou finished the day in 16th, coughing up the National Championship lead in the process, and if he wants it back, he can’t let this happen again next week in Wisconsin.

Herta undone by desperation

Colton Herta started off brilliantly, collecting his first pole position of the year, posting the day’s fastest lap, and leading the first 33 laps uninterrupted. But when he and his team made a bad bet that the rain would last longer than it did to try and avoid using the underperforming alternate tyres, it set Herta back enough places to make him revert to his old hyper-aggressive ways. That blew up in his face when an attempted pass on Álex Palou sent Herta screeching past former Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up Tristan Vautier.

Herta still played a role in the outcome, obstructing Scott Dixon in an attempt to give the other Andrettis a better shot at victory, but on a day where Herta should’ve won he instead finished 19th.

Ex-“Bus Bros” crash out of contention

Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin may have started the race sharing the second row of the grid, but while their fates stayed similar throughout the day, it wasn’t exactly in the way they would’ve hoped. McLaughlin was the first to threaten for the lead, but his hopes ended on lap 33, when he spun into the tyre barrier. During the ensuing caution, Newgarden took the lead for a lap, but his day was soon undone thanks to consecutive disastrous visits to pit row.

First, the team’s main fuel hose failed, forcing a Sauber-like extended stop. Then, on his way out of the next visit, Newgarden ran over a wheel gun, which narrowly missed his own crew, but struck one of Christian Lundgaard’s personnel instead.

A few laps after Newgarden took a drive-through penalty for that, it was McLaughlin’s turn to screw up again, as he sent ‘Sting Ray’ Robb into a tyre barrier and picked up an avoidable contact penalty. Two laps later, we got the day’s final caution, as Newgarden, who’d seemingly recovered from his earlier troubles, botched a pass around the hairpin on Kyle Kirkwood and spun 180 degrees, causing Palou’s aforementioned crash. In all, McLaughlin and Newgarden respectively finished 20th and 26th, putting severe dents in both their title ambitions.

The Sicko’s Guide to Everything: IndyCar goes Wacky Racing

Somehow, for all the chaos and crashes we saw, the only DNF of the day was Christian Rasmussen’s Chevy going up in blue smoke. If nothing else, Detroit was evidence that the Dallara DW12 is still a great chassis after all these years.

So instead, let’s get into some other ways this was a deeply stupid race. Race control handed out 12 penalties, including five on lap 60 alone. That lap was the first one since lap 32 to take place entirely under green. In all, 47 out of 100 laps were under yellow, meaning pace car driver Oriol Servià technically led more laps than any of the actual drivers. Most damningly of all, they had to refuel the pace car. If those words appear in that order, you know this event was off in Wackyland, and after two such outings on the new RenCen circuit, it might be worth asking if these are the right streets of Detroit to race on.

Championship Collage: Dixon’s rising tide lifts Honda’s boat

For the second time this season, a win on a street circuit puts Scott Dixon atop the IndyCar standings. He now holds an 18-point lead over Álex Palou, who in turn sits 13 ahead of Will Power. Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi rise to fill out the top five, and Kyle Kirkwood takes a four-spot jump to get ahead of Colton Herta.

Chevrolet went into their home race with the Manufacturers’ Cup lead after an excellent Indy 500, but an embarrassing ice-out from the top four means the pendulum once again swings Honda’s way. The West Coast outfit now leads by 16, and they’ll certainly hope this chase finally calms down enough for them to keep their advantage next week.

Finally, in our Nations’ Cup tally, New Zealand extends their lead by 20 points, the USA and Mexico hang on to the 2nd- and 5th-place spots they snagged at the 500, and for the first time all year, every country on the list stays exactly where they were going into the weekend.

Future Flames: the road to Road America

Next weekend’s Grand Prix at Road America marks the first of three races in Wisconsin this season. It’s also another exercise in contrast, as we go from IndyCar’s shortest street circuit to its longest road course, with four winding miles per lap. Drivers who thrive on its demanding curves will have plenty to look forward to, and with four previous winners here currently sitting top five on the year, we could have an absolute slugfest on our hands.