It’s good to be a motorsport fan in the American Midwest this time of year. The end of May brings one of the biggest races in world to the forefront of the motorsport season — the Indianapolis 500 — and just 300 miles northeast, and a few days later, IndyCar arrives in Detroit for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix weekend.

“All the drivers coming here [know it] is definitely a different animal. You know, it’s quite a small track,” Scott Dixon tells Motorsport.com. “It’s quite tight. You’ve got the big straight, which is very inviting into the hip. And so, I guess it’s, you know, probably the motto for here is trying to stay out of trouble. I think it’s very inviting to get yourself into a situation.

“Can they make the track a little bit better over the next few years? For sure. I think maybe a little bit longer, a bit wider in some areas, but it kind of puts on a bit of a showcase, which is good.”

A unique challenge

The Detroit track is now held in the city’s downtown, on a very technical, tightly-woven 1.7 mile street course with traces of Michigan’s unforgivable road conditions — and as many as 215 manhole covers for additional track surface obstacles.

For some drivers it makes for a brutal back-to-back race weekend coming off a long ‘Month of May’ with no reprieve. For others… it’s a challenging, but a fresh start going into the latter-half of the IndyCar season.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

“It’s kind of a nice reset for the second part of the season, or the start of it, at least,” Scott Dixon says. “You just turn a page and you kind of focus on the next event, which for the majority of us is good.”

“I think for the rest [of the] drivers, they actually really enjoy getting straight back at it. If you’ve had a good or bad (Indy 500) race, but you don’t win it, then you know, nothing really matters. I’m sure everybody’s pretty excited, maybe apart from Alex, who would like to have a weekend.”

Keep in mind, this is coming from a driver with 14 starts in Detroit and a record to boot — 10 are top-5 finishes, which 5 are podiums and 3 of those wins (2012, 2018, 2024). The No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing driver seems to be naturally in tune with the Detroit race — a master of both the former Belle Isle course and the new(er) Detroit street circuit. 

Recovery after Indianapolis

Race winner Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

The one driver not getting as much time to prepare for what Detroit offers this weekend is Dixon’s teammate — the newly crowned Indy 500 Champion, Alex Palou. Since crossing the yard of bricks at IMS last Sunday, he’s been on a whirlwind 500 media tour. His No. 10 team is also behind in the team’s typical race weekend routine as they, too, take part in the celebratory festivities.

“The issue is just I haven’t had time to, prepare [for] the race, like normal. Like, normally, I go to the shop, I have my engineering meetings, and you have your time to just go over stuff that happened in the past races. Then you have time to go to the simulator, work a little bit, and kind of get your mind working on what you need for Detroit.

“But I’ve just had my mind on the 500 and media and New York and, yeah, I would say that the only hour I had to for myself to relax was one hour ago, when I when I landed in Detroit, and last night as well. As soon as I was done, I was like, ‘Okay, this is one hour is for me.’ So, I’m tired, but I think it’s a good challenge to have. … it’s a good opportunity for us to see what we can do.”

If Palou can convert his Indianapolis 500 success to another race win this weekend, there’s little in the remaining IndyCar season that will put as much wear and tear on teams, cars, and drivers like the notoriously challenging circuit in downtown Detroit.