The race was held on August 26, 2017 at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Missouri.

IndyCar's return to Gateway Motorsports Park marked the first premier-level open-wheel race in the Greater St. Louis area since 2003.

[3] In July 2017, the entire racetrack was resurfaced as part of an effort by the track to update and upgrade the venue.

Other major upgrades to the venue included new catch fences, paving part of the inside track, and expanding the SAFER barrier.

[6] The newly repaved track surface, which had impressed drivers during testing,[7] quickly became a source of concern after multiple incidents at the beginning of the race.

Tony Kanaan's car spun on the pace lap and made contact with the SAFER barrier in turn 2.

As Takuma Sato and Ed Carpenter attempted to avoid Power, the two cars made contact with each other.

Although his crew was able to restart his car almost immediately, the long stop dropped Castroneves from leading the race to fourth place.

During the caution, Chilton's teammate Tony Kanaan was called to the pit lane by team owner Chip Ganassi.

Simon Pagenaud gained the race lead over Josef Newgarden on lap 206 when both drivers made pit stops under caution.