Is there anyone hotter in the NTT IndyCar Series right now than Alex Palou?
If this is truly Alex Palou‘s last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, its going to be a year he won’t forget. The 2021 Series champion already had two wins going into Sunday, and if Palou doesn’t get bumped in the pits, he may have won the Indianapolis 500. Yesterday, he lead 10 of the 55 laps to grab his third win in the last four races and his seventh career win at the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America under his belt with still nine races left on the schedule.
During Saturday’s second practice session, Palou crashed his No. 10 Honda hard into the tire barrier in Turn 14, causing significant damage to his car, but before the qualifying session, his crew was able to make the correct repairs to his car to put him third to start the race.
.@AlexPalou is the ONE!
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 18, 2023
The No. 10 is VICTORIOUS at @roadamerica.#INDYCAR // #SonsioGP pic.twitter.com/0X2rQXbtzA
“It wasn’t, it wasn’t. It was great to start up there saving a bit of fuel at the beginning…” Palou said. “I think everybody was in the same situation. Then everything started moving a lot with those cushions. Did a couple of mistakes there with Josef. Lost a position there.”
“But, yeah, we kept on pushing. Great pit stops. Fought for the win at the end. Yeah, the speed that we had this weekend was huge and gave us the opportunity to win today.”
On Lap 45 when Palou grabbed the lead for good, he extended his points lead over fellow Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson by 74 points.
Newgarden was asked to describe his afternoon during the post race press conference, and Newgarden responded with “I mean, it was a pretty good day. Yeah, it was an okay day. Disappointing for the way it finished for us just because there was a great opportunity in the middle to win this race.”
“I think at the end Alex had the field covered. He was very good on that final stint. I don’t think we were going to make anything happen there. In the middle there was a great opportunity, we just didn’t capitalize on it. Got pretty dicey with the restarts.”
“I’m conflicted because on the one hand it was a great recovery for all of us on Team Penske. We started this weekend in pretty bad shape, were really far off the pace. We chipped away at it, did a lot of work, felt like we got really close in qualifying, had a really good race car.”
“From that standpoint I’m elated, but just disappointed. Looked like we had an opportunity today and we weren’t really able to seal the deal. It was a great job for our team.”
Following the front two finishers, was Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward in his No. 5 Chevrolet who started second. After an up and down day, he finished P3.
O’Ward was asked during the post race press conference about his thoughts on today’s race, he stated “It was a hard-fought podium for my #5 camp. We were a bit of a ping-pong ball in the start of the race in turn one and turn three, then got shuffled back even more. So, yeah, we had to pass everybody on track.”
“Obviously happy with the result. But yeah, I think we all need to be better if we want to catch the #10 car. That’s just the reality of it. I think same as Josef, we had a massive opportunity to capitalize and I think to win this race, because I feel like I definitely had the pace. We kind of threw that away in our last pit stop.”
“Yeah, we’re just going to keep on fighting. We win together, we lose together. That’s how it’s always going to be.”
“So, yeah, I’m excited for the nine races to come. It’s still a long championship, lots can happen. We just need to keep improving.”
Finishing outside the top five in today’s race was the pole sitter, Colton Herta. Herta led 33 of the 55 laps in today’s race and a late race strategy miscue, having Herta coming in one lap too early may have taken the win away from him
Next on the IndyCar Series schedule, they roll into Lexington, Ohio for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on July 2nd.
