Alex Palou is human after all, but the INDYCAR title still remains his to lose
Alex Palou is in a slump.
OK, not really.
Palou won five of the first six INDYCAR races — including the Indianapolis 500 — to start the 2025 season before finishes of 25th (when he got wrecked) and eighth in his past two starts.
His points lead with nine races remaining has gone from 112 to 73. More finishes like he had his last two weeks and he won't be the 2025 champion as most expected after such a strong start.
"You always keep an eye on it, obviously, but I would say that focusing on the championship, that only goes on the last two races, whenever it's like you already know that hopefully you're in the fight or not," Palou said. "Hopefully it's only yourself and three other drivers, and you know what you need to do or you know who you need to fight for."
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who has won the last two INDYCAR titles and three of the last four, shouldn't sweat too much. The series heads to Road America (Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX) this weekend, a track where Palou has two wins on his resume.
"The way we got here was by racing hard and going aggressive on strategies and trying to go for wins, and I think that's the way we need to continue racing," Palou said. "Hopefully we can have a look at who we're racing against towards the last two, three races of the year."
Palou has a 73-point lead on Pato O'Ward, 75 points on Kyle Kirkwood (whose three wins make him the only driver other than Palou to win this year), 114 on Christian Lundgaard and 129 on six-time champion Scott Dixon.
"Now we're fighting against everybody, so it just doesn't really make much sense to count points," Palou said. "It's good to have a look at them when you're leading and see that hopefully we can extend a little bit more the gap."
Palou still has what many would say is a comfortable lead. He said he doesn't worry about the last two results when it comes to the standings because, as he said, he hasn't focused on the standings yet.
Kirkwood, who lost 24 points because of a postrace technical penalty following the Indianapolis 500, has won the last two races heading into Road America.
"It didn't add any pressure at all just because I didn't ever think that it was done or it was ours or anything like that," Palou said. "I knew that we just had a perfect start of the season, and obviously you could see a big point difference.
"I expect that it's going to get very tight. It's going to make it interesting. I just hope that we are there at the end to fight for it."
Palou isn't looking for a couple of wins to put the competition for the championship in an impossible position to win the title. He's looking for a couple of wins to, well, win races.
"We were lacking performance [last week] and we struggled a lot," Palou said. "It's not concerning, like, urgency, but it's obviously not good. ... There's always urgency to win. Nobody likes to see somebody else win.
"But I think at the same time, we got used to too much success. Not we as the team, but everybody expects us to win every single weekend. It's not possible, unfortunately.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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2 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Practice Shots: Drivers Start To Tame Beautiful Beast Road America
INDYCAR The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will reach its halfway point midway through Sunday's XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, and with that comes several aspects to assess. Like Alex Palou's pursuit of a third consecutive series championship and fourth title in the past five years. Like the challenges of Palou by Pato O'Ward, Kyle Kirkwood and others. Like how beginning Sunday there will be nine races staged held over the next 11 weekends. There's a lot to consume, for sure. Meantime, drivers and their teams warmed up at Road America with the first practice of the weekend. These three things stood out in the session: The Return to Road America Let's start with this middle-of-Wisconsin facility. You roll through the first half of the season with an assortment of racetracks – some located in prettier settings than others – and then you roll up to Road America, and you wonder why you haven't been camping with the family in years. If an artist were to create scenery around a motorsports venue, he'd proudly draw this place, then celebrate with a brat lathered with mustard. The track is 4.014 miles, with one breathtaking location after another. Canada Corner isn't just the best-named spot in INDYCAR, it's stuck deep in the woods with horsepower reverberating through the trees. Cars sprint to that spot before darting hard right up the hill to what seems like civilization. It's exhilarating. But be warned: Road America can bite like few other tracks in this country. Speeds are high; the trappings consequential. This is beauty and a beast. Turn 1 was the scene of the worst accident of A.J. Foyt's career in 1990. Parker Johnstone barrel-rolled through that corner in 1996. The bridge at Turn 4 is what Memo Gidley smashed in 2001. At the end of that long straight, Bryan Herta was facing backward after a spin in 1998 and watched Alex Barron's car squarely land on top of his. And then there was Katherine Legge's indescribable ride down the backstretch in 2006. View the replay at your discretion. Palou and Josef Newgarden both crashed at Road America last year. Scott Dixon and Will Power tangled in a big one a couple years back. At these speeds, high alert is advised. Team Penske Needs Bounce-Back The most successful organization in the history of this sport is coming off its worst weekend in more than three decades, and it was maybe worse than that when considering Team Penske drivers finished 24th, 25th and 27th in the 27-car field last weekend in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway. The cars driven by Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Power each failed to finish the race, something that hadn't happened to Roger Penske's team since 1994. But here's the difference between those years: When cars driven by Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy failed to finish that day at Michigan International Speedway, they still finished eighth, 10th and 15th in that 28-car field, and they went on to finish 1-2-3 in the championship. Unser also won the Indianapolis 500 that year. Eight races into this season, Power ranks seventh, McLaughlin eighth and Newgarden 16th in the standings, and each is seeking his first race win of the year. Here's the good connection between those two seasons: The 1994 gang bounced back to finish 1-2-3 in the ensuing race, held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. This Penske bunch stood together on last year's Road America podium with Power winning the race followed by Newgarden and McLaughlin, and they were three of the fastest six cars in Friday's practice. Power and Newgarden are each two-time series winners at Road America. Palou Ready for Road America Palou was the overlooked driver in last week's World Wide Technology Raceway incident that saw Newgarden smash into the wounded car of rookie Louis Foster on the frontstretch. Palou was first on the scene of Foster's lazy spin, but had the advantage of seeing what Newgarden couldn't. 'I was lucky there,' Palou said. 'I had to take a decision of going up (the track) or going low, and I went up because I saw that the car was potentially going to go down, and Josef unfortunately didn't have that option. Those moments sometimes you are lucky and you get it right, and sometimes you don't. I'm glad I was on the right side there.' Palou said the expansive Road America circuit and its numerous passing opportunities could offer a lot of incidents in a race or none at all. But he also has noticed that many of his fellow competitors have started 'playing a little bit more aggressive than probably at the beginning of the season' as goals haven't yet been achieved. Palou's goal is to win at Road America for the third time, and the fact he has won in recent odd years (2021 and 2023) has him optimistic about this visit in 2025. Palou had a pair of subpar results in this season's past two races – 25th after being punted into the tires in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear and eighth at WWTR – but he still holds a sizable lead over second place O'Ward (73 points) and third place Kirkwood (75 points). Kirkwood has been the driver on the charge, winning each of those two races. Kirkwood also posted the fastest lap of Friday's practice (1 minute, 44.9881 seconds). Palou's best lap ranked ninth. Keep an eye on these two drivers and more this weekend. recommended
Fox Sports
3 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Paddock Buzz: Foyt Team Honors Memory of Dear Friend at Road America
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A week later, he was penalized for avoidable contact after rear-ending Nolan Siegel's No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and finished 12th at Detroit. In last Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway, McLaughlin qualified second, ran in the top five, but suffered a mechanical failure on Lap 216, ending 24th. McLaughlin likened this difficult period to his 2015 season in Australian V8 Supercars, though with a more grounded perspective this time around. Becoming a first-time father to daughter Lucy during the offseason has provided emotional balance and perspective. 'Obviously, her college fund has taken a hit, but I think at the same time she's so very refreshing,' McLaughlin said. 'Being a dad and having a life outside of the sport, not that I didn't have that before without Lucy. I mean, I always had (wife) Karly, and she's great at taking my mind of stuff. But the dad part of life is awesome, and I'm probably the most happy I've ever been off the track.' McLaughlin has yet to win at Road America in four starts, but his performance improved each year, climbing from 14th in 2021, seventh in 2022, eighth in 2023 and third after leading 18 laps last year. He was sixth quickest Friday with a time of 1:45.3191 in the No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet. Franchitti, Buxton Shave Foster's Mustache for Charity NTT INDYCAR SERIES rookie Louis Foster made a surprising and charitable style change ahead of the Road America race weekend by losing the mustache he had sported all season. Foster, an English driver for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, wore the mustache as a nod to three-time series champion Bobby Rahal, co-owner of the team. In May, he joked that his look was very 1986 Indy 500 Bobby Rahal, embracing the retro vibe and team pride. 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In their first race together at Detroit, Cannon's input, especially on braking, helped VeeKay qualify seventh. The next race at WWTR, the No. 18 askROI Honda cracked the top 10 and finished seventh thanks to fuel-saving strategy devised by Cannon. Cannon spent six years (2014-19) at DCR, engineering a range of drivers. He also has served as an engineer in recent seasons for Chip Ganassi Racing and AJ Foyt Racing, delivering immediate improvements to those teams, especially on ovals. 'Working with (Scott) Dixon in the past, he gave me some tricks to improve the fuel mileage,' VeeKay said. Odds and Ends Championship leader Alex Palou has new colors on track this weekend with SOLO Cup sponsoring his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. He was ninth quickest in the opening practice session. Team Penske swept the podium in last year's race and had all three drivers in the top six during Friday's practice session, led by defending race winner Will Power (1:45.1795) in third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Two-time Road America winner Josef Newgarden (1:45.2228) in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet was fourth, .0433 of a second behind Power, with McLaughlin sixth. The top 15 drivers in Friday's speed chart were separated by less than a second. Saturday features NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice at 11:05 a.m. ET and then qualifying to set the 27-car lineup for Sunday's race at 2:35 p.m. ET. Both air on FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. 2012 INDYCAR SERIES champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Ryan Hunter-Reay served as a booth analyst for FOX's INDY NXT by Firestone practice coverage Friday. recommended
Fox Sports
4 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Kyle Kirkwood Turns Up Heat in First Road America Practice
INDYCAR Two heat waves are arriving this weekend at the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR. One is a weather system expected to hike air temperatures into the mid-90s Saturday and Sunday at the iconic Road America circuit in Wisconsin. The other is named Kyle Kirkwood. SEE: Practice Results Kirkwood, who has won the last two NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, continued his hot form Friday by leading the first practice with a top lap of 1 minute, 44.9881 seconds in the No. 27 Siemens Honda fielded by Andretti Global. Kirkwood is third in the series standings, two points behind second-place Pato O'Ward and 75 behind leader Alex Palou. 'Good start,' Kirkwood said. 'Definitely a session that was hindered a little bit by the red and the timing (of red flag). Happy to be quick once again here. We were quick last year, so I guess that's a good positive to take away from today, and hopefully that trend continues. 'But the weather is going to be so much different tomorrow that I'm not sure what we learned from today is going to be applicable tomorrow or the next day. We'll see what happens.' The air temperature, in the low 80s Friday, is expected to climb at least 10 degrees into the mid-90s Saturday and Sunday. That will reduce the grip of the Firestone Firehawk tires and test the stamina of drivers. Devlin DeFrancesco, 25th in points, ended up a surprising second at 1:45.1414 in the No. 30 Manitou Group Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Team Penske began its rebound from a tough event last Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway by placing third and fourth on the 14-turn, 4.014-mile natural-terrain road course. Reigning Road America winner Will Power was third at 1:45.1795 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, while two-time Road America winner Josef Newgarden was fourth at 1:45.2228 in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top five at 1:45.2246 in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Scott McLaughlin helped Penske's recovery by clocking in sixth at 1:45.3191 in the No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet. McLaughlin, Newgarden and Power finished 24th, 25th and 27th, respectively, last Sunday night on the oval at WWTR. Championship leader Palou was ninth at 1:45.3664 in the No. 10 SOLO Cup Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou led with seven minutes left in the 75-minute session, but nearly the entire field pitted late for Firestone Firehawk alternate tires, which provide more grip and speed but have less durability. That shuffled the order considerably until the checkered flag, although a red flag with five minutes left caused by a trip into the Turn 1 gravel by 2019 Road America winner Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet interrupted some late attempts to dash up the speed charts. Up next is pre-qualifying practice at 11 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:30 p.m. ET. FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network will provide live coverage. The 55-lap race starts at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). recommended
