Indy’s Victory Podium Says Hello, Palou

Photo by Chris Jones, Penske Entertainment

With what turned out to be a better tire strategy than those around him on the starting grid, driver Alex Palou put himself out front early and cruised to a win over Arrow McLaren teammates Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

“Yeah, absolutely. We knew we had a fast car honestly since practice, since we were all off the trailers. The car was really, really good. I was comfortable. We missed a little bit on pole yesterday, but we knew we had a fast car.

“Also in the warmup we found that we were struggling a little bit more than others on the alternate tires, so that's why we went on red, black, black, black at the end to try to get the best from what we had, and it worked. Perfect day for the 10 car.”

For Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew, that 30-minute warmup solidified the decision to start the race on the new (red) alternate tires. Starting in third behind pole-sitter Christian Lundgaard, Palou saw it as an opportunity to get the lead early and hopefully control the race.

“For us it was clear. We were struggling a little bit more than some of the guys on used reds in the warmup. But still it's not like they were amazing. We knew that we didn't want to use used reds. That's why we started on new alternates, try to get the lead, try to get a big gap, like two, three, four, seconds, then work on our pace on blacks.

“Once I saw the starting grid with the tires, we were like, Okay, we're in a good place. Still you have to do it. If you get stuck behind Lundgaard on reds, you're done, your race is over, because you'll have more tire deg, not get the benefit of jumping four seconds, then you're always stuck in traffic on the same strategy as his.

“We knew we were on the right strategy for the 10 car, but you still had to do it on track.”

Photo by Chris Joes, Penske Entertainment

Palou has been close to winning at Indy before. Is a win at Indy more special than the other four tracks where he’s won?

“Yeah, every win is special, honestly.

“We've been close here. We had little bit of bad luck. I know in '21 we had a failure when we were going for the fight for the win at the end. It was the first race that everything came perfectly, the strategy, the tires, the speed of the car, myself obviously.

“Super proud. It's a special place. You can feel that in the car just with the fans that we had already since practice one. There's something about this place obviously. Even if it's not the big one, it's still special.

“So super proud of the first win of the season, first win with the American Legion, as well, and first win at the IMS. Couldn't be better.”

With the win, Palou, the 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion. takes the point lead heading into the biggest race the year, the Indianapolis 500.

“Yeah, that's great. I've always said that we had a good season so far, but we didn't really have a clean day. Today was the first clean day. The speed was amazing, strategy, pit stops, everything went really smooth.

“Yeah, we're not going to stop here. We're going to try and keep the championship lead until the end of the championship, and hopefully get the second one.

“Yeah, thinking about today only, then when it comes to Monday, we'll start thinking about the big one.”

The last two years, Palou has had a car that could’ve won the 500. In ’21, he was leading, only to be passed by Helio Castroneves in the final laps of the race. Then, last year he was caught out by a caution flag that closed the pits as he was running out of fuel. If he could rerun those races clean, could he have won both of those races?

“Not '21 because I didn't have the experience. I did the best I could. Last year, yeah, absolutely. My car was super fast. We went from the lead when we had that. It's not that we were dropping. We were on the lead, managing the field. We went one lap longer than the guys around us. That's why we got on a bad position.

“I'm not worried about the speed of the 10 car at the IMS honestly. I'm just worried about the day that we're going to have ahead of us. We've been really strong at the open test. I feel more confident running here at the ovals.

“As I said, you need the perfect, perfect day. Just having a good day is not enough here.”

Practice for the 107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge begins on Tuesday.