Alex Palou Wins Pole for Indy Sonsio Grand Prix
Photo Credit: Chris Owens, Penske Entertainment
Two-time and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou will defend his Sonsio Grand Prix win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course from the pole position.
Palou’s lap Friday of 1-minute 09.0004 seconds was good enough to earn his fourth career NTT P1 Award and his first since the Chevrolet Grand of Detroit last June. For Palou, it was a great way to start the month of May at Indy.
“Yeah, absolutely. It's big. It's big for us. Only got -- well, got four poles, which is a lot, but at the same time it's not as much as we've been successful on the races. We've normally struggled quite a lot in qualifying, so it feels special.
“On top of that, today we started a bit slow, struggling a little bit with the car balance in both practices. Yeah, kind of surprised that we are here, but at the same time, we are enjoying the moment and looking forward to tomorrow starting on pole.”
Photo Credit: Karl Zemlin, Penske Entertainment
After the two practice sessions earlier in the day, it didn’t look like Palou had a shot at the pole. But the crew on the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda kept improving the car each session, including qualifying.
“Yeah, practice 1 we didn't really have any issues, and we were like P16 or 17, then P11 for practice 2. Made a small step. Then Q1 I think we were sixth, so made another step, and then we kept on improving every single session that we were in with the car.
“It feels good,” Palou continued. “Hopefully we can find a little bit more for tomorrow for the race. It's going to be tough. Yeah, looking forward to it.”
Even though he’s starting from the pole, Palou and his team will try to find more speed before Saturday afternoon’s race.
“We want to go back, talk to the other (Chip Ganassi Racing) drivers, analyze what every single car did. It's been a hectic day today with two practices and qualifying. We need to understand what made our car improve so much from this morning, and hopefully try one more step for tomorrow just in case there's more speed there.
“But warm-up changes, it's always different for the race, and it's all about managing the tire(s) and still being consistent.
“We're going to go through the race strategies from August last year, May, and even the previous years and see what's the best thing for our car and go for it.”
Photo Credit: Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment
A year ago, Palou won the Indy road course race by a whopping 17-seconds. From there he went on to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500, and win four of the next five races on his way to a dominant championship run. The Spaniard admits winning the pole takes him back to last year when his dominating championship run began.
“Absolutely. Every time you start up front, it makes it feel that way. But especially if it's here. It's the same place that we celebrate now. Not at the same level, but I'm still super happy.
“I don't know, I think it's so hard for us to get poles, and we're not here very often that it makes it so, so, so special.”
For Palou, just being at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway feels special.
“Yeah, we say it's the biggest month. It's our most important month. We have two races, including the biggest race. We spend here a lot of time. I slept last night here at the track, and I'll be spending the full week next week here. It feels like home and it feels special.
“It's very tough, so making -- when something is so tough and you need to go through so many days of like up and downs, up and downs, it just makes you love or hate this place. In this case I fully love it so far. Hopefully we can love it even more for next year.”