The first start was waved off as the pack wasn’t packed enough in the opinion of race director Kyle Novak. At the green, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay made no errors and led into Turn 1 ahead of the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy of Pato O’Ward. Penske-Chevrolet’s Scott McLaughlin got the drop on Chip Ganassi Racing’s champion Alex Palou to claim third, then fended him off into Turn 5. Behind Palou, Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi and the second AMSP car of Felix Rosenqvist ran fifth and sixth, while Romain Grosjean (Andretti) was up to seventh, trailed by Callum Ilott in the Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy.
Ilott was chased by Graham Rahal, while Penske’s three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden fell from seventh to 10th, his gamble of starting on Firestone’s harder primary tire not paying off at this stage. Behind him was Colton Herta, also on the black primaries.
