Alex Palou Continues Historic IndyCar Season With Sixth Win

ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. — The thing you must understand with IndyCar racing is that you can never watch how a race is playing out and assume someone has it in the bag. Believe it or not, that saying still applies despite the fact Alex Palou has won two-thirds of the races run so far this season.

Even at Road America on Sunday, Palou was not assured his sixth win in nine races until the final two laps. His fuel strategy was a risky one, but it saw him in the right place as the right time as he took the checkered flag of the Xpel Grand Prix of Road America.

“It was a crazy race,” Palou said. “There were moments I thought we were losing a ton of positions. It was a tough race for everybody. Kudos to the team for the amazing strategy and Honda for giving us the fuel mileage we needed at the end to make it.”

Palou started on the outside of Row One, right next to the surprise of the weekend heading into the race in Louis Foster. The rookie for Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing and reigning Indy NXT champion paced the field during qualifying on Saturday to grab his first-ever pole position.

Foster would not be up front for long though as a myriad of cautions in the races first 20 laps shook up the field and the strategies that would follow.

Daring to do things differently and trust his ability to save fuel, Scott Dixon was among a handful of drivers to pit once the first caution came out on the first lap for David Malukas getting stuck in the gravel of turn two. Ditching his first set of primary tires, Dixon would enact a strategy that had him up front for 27 laps. Those were the most led by any driver on the day.

But, he would be at the mercy of the field all day long as he needed caution periods to be plentiful for him to save enough fuel.

Christian Lundgaard, on the other hand, was another driver in the mix on a different strategy that saw him pit very late on his first stint. He was among drivers who needed as few cautions to happen as possible, the complete opposite of Dixon.

Palou’s strategy had him essentially two laps behind Dixon, his Ganassi teammate.

With all these different strategies at hand, there were nine different drivers who led a lap and over four dozen passes for position. Many of those passes for position were made by Josef Newgarden, who one point in the race had gained 13 spots and ran as high as sixth.

Newgarden, and Team Penske for that matter, were desperate for a good weekend as they have had what can only be frankly described as a miserable season. It stayed miserable as Newgarden would crash coming to the pits on Lap 30.

The caution was timely for the likes of Dixon and Palou. Not so much for Lundgaard. After another round of pitstops, during which some driver stayed out for track position, Dixon once again found himself in the lead. He made his next pit stop two laps after the restart giving the lead back to Palou. Palou then pitted two laps later and cycled back behind Dixon.

Enter Felix Rosenqvist, who enacted an amended version of Lundgaard’s strategy. This strategy put him in the lead with 15 laps to go needing to pit just one more time. He did so with 12 laps remaining, more than enough for him to go full song to the end.

But, he would need to chase down the Ganassi teammates, who were in a desperate spot needing to save enough fuel to make it. The laps wound down and Rosenqvist inched closer and closer, all the while Dixon provided an aerodynamic tow for Palou which helped him save fuel.

Dixon would end up having to pit once more for a splash of fuel, but his sacrifice left the race for the taking for Palou. Despite a fierce push by Rosenqvist, Palou held on for another win and another rung in the ladder climbed towards an IndyCar championship.

Palou admits he was not a believer in the strategy call initially.

“I didn’t agree with Barry’s strategy call,” Palou said. “I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again. It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy.

Rosenqvist was second and pushed himself into the top five in the championship standings. Holding on for his second podium finish of the season was Santino Ferrucci, who literally ran out of gas as he crossed the finish line. He was able to celebrate with fans in turn one who offered him a celebratory beer to chug next to his lifeless AJ Foyt machine.

Kyle Kirkwood was in the mix for a minute, but struggled to get his strategy to gel. He came home fourth and is now second in the points, 93 points behind Palou. The day was probably the worst for Pato O’Ward. Coming into the race second in the points, his strategy was an utter disaster that had him finish 17th.

O’Ward is now 111 points behind Palou in a distance third.

With the season now more than halfway over, time is beginning to dwindle for the rest of the field to catch Palou. He is now the first driver since AJ Foyt in 1975 to win six of the first nine races of the season.

Another opportunity presents itself in two weeks at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 6th.