"It hasn't stood out to me": IndyCar veteran downplays Honda’s dominance over Chevy despite Alex Palou's surge

Honda lost the Manufacturers’ championship to Chevrolet during the 2024 IndyCar season despite Alex Palou winning the Drivers' title. However, HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) has dominantly begun the 2025 IndyCar season, securing 9 victories in the first 9 races of the season. However, IndyCar Veteran Marshall Pruett recently downplayed HRC’s dominance.

Alex Palou has managed to win six races out of the first nine during the 2025 IndyCar season as he leads the championship with 386 points. Andretti Global star Kyle Kirkwood is the only other driver to win a race except for the Spaniard, with three wins to the #27 driver.

Chevrolet, on the other hand, hasn't managed a single victory. Even the iconic Indy 500 was won by the #10 Honda this year, whereas Chevrolet dominated the 2024 Indy 500. While many have pointed out Honda’s dominance, Chevrolet has been there or thereabouts when it comes to performance, but has failed to convert the performance into good results.

Last weekend's race at Road America is a great example of the same, where Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden were running for the lead of the race. The Kiwi driver’s strategy was messed up by an untimely caution, whereas Newgarden spun around and crashed out of the race.

Motorsport reporter and IndyCar insider Marshall Pruett recently came out and spoke about the same on his podcast, as he downplayed HRC’s dominance. He said,

“Strictly talking about Honda though, I think we could agree that at a number of races it could have easily been a Chevrolet winning. Could have been last weekend, could have been the weekend before, Gateway, Detroit certainly could have been a Chevy race, the Indy 500 could have been a Chevy. So Honda has won all these races straight, which is phenomenal. But I would say it hasn't stood out to me that the Chevy is behind.” (33:00 onwards)

Marshall Pruett detailed the area where Honda made gains on Chevrolet coming into the 2025 season

The current engine regulations in IndyCar are over a decade old, meaning the engines have reached the peak of their development, with little to no margins of improvement. However, coming into the 2025 season, HRC made changes to the engine, which seem to have put them on par with Chevrolet, if not better.

Marshall Pruett came out and detailed the changes made by HRC, which have led to the recent dominance. He said,

“The areas that they told me they really made progress in, reliability. There was a big area last year where there were a number of problemos and set them back quite a bit.”

“Other areas which is just obvious, but they've been pushed internally like mad to find the power deficit. Always been pretty good on torque, but find the power deficit,” he added

The Chevrolet, on the other hand, has struggled with reliability and driver errors, making the performance look worse than it is. Scott McLaughlin crashed during the warm-up laps at the Indy 500, whereas Josef Newgarden faced a fuel system issue.