With Four Wins in Five Races, Alex Palou is Writing His Name in IndyCar's History Book
Last year, Alex Palou won the Indianapolis Grand Prix to start the 'Month of May'; at the time, Chip Ganassi Racing hoped that Palou might finally secure an Indianapolis 500 victory to end the month. One of the only accolades in IndyCar that the Spanish driver is lacking. This year, after starting on the pole and losing the lead to Graham Rahal in the opening corner of the IMS road course, he starts IndyCar's month-long stay in Indiana the same way.
This was Palou's fourth win in five races for a driver's best start to a season since AJ Foyt in 1964. That season, Foyt won 10 of 13 races with an average finish of 5.8 through the first five races, Palou now has an average finish of 1.2, and leads by 97 points.
A lot happened at the start of the race as Josef Newgarden went to the pits before the start with a broken radio, falling from sixth to the back. Newgarden would end up having one of the drives of the day to rebound to 12th.
All three Rahal Lanigan Racing drivers made the Fast Six in qualifying and were able to hold their own up front due to an interesting strategy. This race weekend marked the first race where both sets of hard tires and two sets of soft tires were required for the race, ensuring that all drivers would be on a three-stop pitstop strategy.
The RLL drivers chose to go soft-soft for their first two stints, gaining speed and holding position early. The only problem was is that means they would have to try to hold position late against a field on the preferred softer tire at the end of the race.
The race started under yellow as the first start was aborted, while not a proper caution, it was a preview of what was to come. Seventy laps into the race, IndyCar had its first caution after 400+ caution-free laps. Meaning the last three races were decided strictly on pitstop strategy, qualifying, and speed.
Palou was out front by 10.2 seconds when the caution came out shortening his lead, The race resumed with 13 laps to go.
Palou took the win over the McLaren of Pato O'Ward by 5.614 seconds. O'Ward started eight and steadily made his way through the field. Will Power rounded out the podium after starting seventh, followed by his teammate Scott McLaughlin.
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