Palou Extends INDYCAR Championship Lead With Road America Win
Image by James Black, Penske Entertainment
Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou extended his NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship lead winning Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America. Palou led 10 of the race’s 55-laps on his way to his third win of the season, and third in the last four races, finishing 4.5610-seconds ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward rounded out the podium finishers.
As the series nears the midpoint of the season, Palou has a commanding 74-point lead over Ganassi teammate Marcus Ericsson in the championship standings. It’s the largest point gap a leader has enjoyed in over three years at this stage of the season since Scott Dixon’s 117-point lead after eight races in 2020. Dixon went on to win his sixth championship that season. But that doesn’t mean the Spaniard feels like the title is now his for the taking.
“No, I mean, everybody can win seven races in a row. It's tough in INDYCAR, but we can do that. Somebody else could do that.
“We're going to focus on each weekend. Each weekend is different. It's like the work starts from zero. We're taking that mentality this year. I think it's working, it's paying off.
“So yeah, I'm glad that we have those points in our camp, and we don't have to catch other people, but I'm not relaxed by the points gap at all because it's INDYCAR. If it was another series, yeah, maybe I would be a bit more relaxed. In INDYCAR you can’t.
“We're going to keep pushing and trying for the wins, focus on the championship the last couple races.”
Image by James Black, Penske Entertainment
“I would understand racing for points on the last two races,” Palou continued. “But it's too early. We did eight races. There's still eight or nine left.
“Yeah, I mean, somebody else can do the same amount of points that we did, or even more, with the races that we have left.
“Yeah, we're going to focus on scoring wins because that's the way we can score more points. That's the best way. Honestly, there's some races coming up now that are still really good for us and we know we're going to have a car and my confidence to fight for wins.”
Image by James Black, Penske Entertainment
Given Road America’s recent repave, much was unknown about how Sunday’s race would play out. While the racing line had more grip than ever before, offline was a different story. Practice and qualifying featured numerous off track excursions as drivers came to grips with the new track surface and uncertainty about how the primary and alternate compound Firestone tires would work.
However, Sunday’s race featured 444 on-track passes, 386 for position, 110 in the top 10 and 32 in the top five, all INDYCAR records at Road America since its return to Elkhart Lake in 2016.
In short, there was a lot of action. Newgarden, a two-time winner at Road America, agreed.
“I mean, it was an unbelievable race. I think as a driver, not always what you want. You want to be just out front, kind of green from start to finish, just an easy day. But if you're a fan, this is a very difficult race. There was just a lot that happened.
“People were shuffling forward and backwards. Restarts were bringing different action. The tires were bringing something different for people. It was possible to pass, like very much so. It raced really well.
“There was a lot of unknowns going into the new surface on how it would race. I think today, I don't know how you could have asked for much better of a race. From that standpoint it was more stressful for us. Hopefully the fans really enjoyed the action of it.”
Image by Karl Zemlin, Penske Entertainment
After drivers complained about the lack of grip offline on Friday and Saturday, why was passing doable in Sunday’s race?
According to Newgarden, a lot of it came down to the tires.
“You had degradation in the tire, particularly early in the race. As the track gripped up, that got tougher because you had less deg at the end of the race.
“Early on with different compounds, the red was weaker, which gave opportunities. Even on the primaries, they would wear out. That gave people opportunities.
“I think just in general, the cadence of the driving and the track with this tire grip, there was still great opportunity to pass people. There was a lot of drag on the car, so you could get runs on people. You could use overtake and it was effective. There's just a lot of reasons why. Not one thing or another.
“We're definitely going to leave here going, yeah, this place races really well. You can start 15th and pass forward. Doesn't mean you're going to win, but you could pass forward today.”
Neither Newgarden nor O’Ward are willing to concede the championship to Palou just yet. When asked what it would take to catch Palou, O’Ward just smiled.
“Win races. If you win nine more races, yeah, you can do it.
“I'm excited for the nine races to come. It's still a long championship, lots can happen. We just need to keep improving.”
Image by James Black, Penske Entertainment
Newgarden agreed.
“Probably win by 200 points if you won nine races straight. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty wide open still.”
Having won the championship two seasons ago while protecting a point lead, Palou is more confident now about how to handle the rest of the season.
“Yeah, absolutely. I feel a lot better. In '21, everything was new for me. I didn't really know how to manage stuff. It was all new for me.
“At least now I have some more experience both on track and off track. Hopefully we can maintain that gap.”
That can’t be welcome news to the INDYCAR paddock.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid on Sunday, July 2 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Columbus, Ohio.