Pole-sitter Alex Palou lost the lead on Lap 1, used an alternate pit strategy from the other contenders and weathered three late cautions to win Sunday's IndyCar Series race on a track he likes.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver took the checkered flag 1.9780 seconds clear of Colton Herta for his second points-paying win of the year and 11^th of his career, pushing him ahead of Will Power for the points lead just short of the 2024 season’s halfway point.

Here’s how he did it:

Early strategy call turns table for Alex Palou

Alexander Rossi was the first contender to pit, coming in on Lap 24 and using the undercut – pitting early and gaining a clear track – to jump from 4^th place to the lead, jumping Herta and Kyle Kirkwood (who pitted one lap later) as well as Palou (who came in on Lap 26). After the entire field had pitted, Rossi, Kirkwood, Herta, Palou and Scott Dixon made up the top 5.

Race recap: Alex Palou holds off Colton Herta in IndyCar Series race at Laguna Seca

By Lap 30, Rossi had a 4.7-second lead over Kirkwood, with Herta 6.1 seconds back in 3rd and Palou 7.2 seconds back in 4th.

But the race would flip on Lap 36, as Dale Coyne Racing’s Luca Ghiotto spun coming through Turn 4, slamming into a tire barrier and bringing out the race’s first caution. Rossi, Herta, Kirkwood, Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenqvist and others pitted under yellow in hopes of saving fuel over the final two-thirds of the race by shortening their second stint.

Palou remained on track to stay on more conventional stint lengths, allowing him to run all-out the rest of the race while his fiercest competitors needed to feather the throttle the final 55 laps or so.

Herta jumped to the lead of those who pitted under caution but was 14th on the Lap 41 restart. Arrow McLaren rookie Nolan Siegel spun and stalled coming through Turn 2, bringing out another brief caution, and the race resumed in earnest on Lap 43.

Post-race, Palou acknowledged to the NBC Sports broadcast he initially wasn't sure strategist Barry Wanser had made the proper call holding him out on-track during the caution.

"That was a chaotic race, man. The strategy was a bit risky for the position we were in, but we knew we had the pace and just had to execute," he said. "That was fun, but much too intense at the end with those restarts, but overall an amazing win.

"At the time (of the call), I doubted a little bit, and I didn't know if my radio was working or not, but everything ended up fine. I'm sorry I didn't have that trust in his call for those 10-20 seconds, but overall an amazing day for the Ganassi team."

Alex Palou's advantage takes shape

By Lap 44, Herta had carved his way up to 10^th, but Palou built a bigger lead, to 10.9 seconds on Herta on Lap 46 as he ran roughly 1.5 seconds a lap faster than those who’d recently pitted. By Lap 51, Palou led Herta by 17.9 seconds and Rossi by 19.4 seconds. By the time the two-time champ dove into the pits on Lap 55, Palou led Herta by 21.7 seconds, Rossi by 22.7 seconds and Kirkwood by 25.3 seconds.

When Palou popped out of the pits, Herta and Rossi blended ahead of the No. 10 Honda, with the eventual race-winner splitting Rossi and Kirkwood. Herta led Palou by 3.6 seconds. Within seven laps, Palou had carved ahead of Rossi and stood just 1.1 seconds back of Herta. By Lap 64, Palou overtook Herta for the lead, proving his CGR crew had made the correct early strategy call.

By Lap 67, Palou led Herta by 5.7 seconds and Rossi by 6.5 seconds just as the pair and others made their final stops.

Palou holds off Herta, Rossi in 3 late restarts

Palou pitted on Lap 70 for the final time. Coming out, he led Herta by 11 seconds with under 25 laps to go before a trio of cautions that would bunch the field and keep Palou from running away with his second win in four starts at Laguna Seca.

The first, on Lap 75, came from contact between CGR’s Marcus Armstrong and RLL’s Christian Lundgaard, as Armstrong blended out of the pits and was nudged off and stalled. The race went back to green on Lap 79 and stayed so despite multiple spins and off-track excursions from McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden and Lundgaard. Just before the race went yellow again on Lap 83 for Jack Harvey’s mechanical failure, Palou had again built a 3.4-second lead on Herta and a 4.4-second cushion on Rossi.

The race returned to green at the end of Lap 85 but went yellow for the final time on Lap 87, after CGR’s Kyffin Simpson appeared to suffer a flat tire after contact with Agustin Canapino, sending Simpson spinning into Graham Rahal's path.

For the third and final time, Palou held off Herta on a restart and drove away for his second win of 2024 and back into the championship lead. He led the points after winning the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course.

The rest of the top 10: Herta (2nd), Rossi (3rd), Romain Grosjean (4th), Kirkwood (5th), Dixon (6th), Power (7th), Pato O'Ward (8th), Santino Ferrucci (9th) and Marcus Ericsson (10th).

"It's a good result. We chose the strategy we chose, and we did a really good job with what we chose," said Herta, who won at the track in 2019 and 2021. "We had a lot of pace, and it sucks not to win here. I really want to win at this place, but you have to be happy with 2nd-place."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Alex Palou retakes IndyCar points lead with Laguna Seca win, holds off Colton Herta