By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Alex Palou continues to do what Alex Palou does best: Win races.
Palou piloted the No.10 DHL Honda to his fourth win on the season, out of five races ran so far., Saturday’s win is also the third in a row on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for Palou and “The Perfect 10s”. The Spaniard has now amassed a 97 point gap to Kyle Kirkwood in second, three points shy of being two full races ahead.
“I’m sad that it’s going to end at some point, and it’s going to be tough in my career to feel as good as I feel now,” Palou said on the dominate start to the season. “I know that, and that makes me sad, but happy at the same time. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. I know I’m with the best team out here, and they give me the best tools they have, the best people to fight for races every single weekend, and it feels sweet.”
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver started from the pole and led 29 laps en route to his 15th career victory. Palou first took the lead from Graham Rahal on track on lap 58 and never looked back. Rahal had pace all day long, starting from second. The Ohio native was the car to challenge Palou, as Rahal was the dominate driver on the day, leading 49 laps and battled with Palou all afternoon but would fall to finish sixth after an issue on his last pit stop on lap 41.
Joining Palou on the podium was Pato O’Ward and Will Power, who earned his first podium of the season. Following Power was his Team Penske teammate, Scott McLaughlin in fourth and Scott Dixon rounding out the top five.
Power was proud of the result, citing that he “did not pass a car all day”. Power also cited that the extra weight of the current car haltered his ability to pass during the race.
“It is difficult because it’s such a heavy car,” Power said. “I would say coming onto the frontstraight, it used to be quite easy, just wide open. You couldn’t be wide open behind someone. You’re lifting. It was very difficult to get close. I think the weight is affecting the racing a bit.”
In order to shake up the racing at the IMS road course, IndyCar instituted a new tire rule where teams must run two sets of the alternate tire and primary tire during the race. Drivers throughout the weekend offered mixed opinons on the rule, but after the race, O’Ward and Power wanted to see it put in place for the Detroit Grand Prix on June 1 and push it to other street courses.
“I think we need to push IndyCar and force them to enforce this rule for Detroit,” O’Ward told David Land in the post-race press conference. “I really think that rule is going to be the — it’s going to switch things in the racing, and I think it’s going to produce a race that is so much more entertaining.”
“If you would enforce that at Long Beach and St. Pete, it would have been a very different race,” Power said. “Man, because they just don’t, [the tires], they degrade so quickly. Honestly, if you started in the 20s and everyone in front of you were on greens, you would drive to the front. You actually would drive to the front. I know you’re going to have to take your medicine at some point, you know, your poison. That would be a very interesting scenario.”
Palou had built up a 10 second gap to O’Ward after Rahal had the mishap on pit road, but on lap 70, for the first time in 408 laps, a caution flag flew, erasing Palou’s gap.
The No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing car of David Malukas brought out the yellow for going off-course in Turn 8 and could not get the car re-fired. This was the first caution flag since Lap 1 of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 2, a streak that lasted 408 laps.
“I didn’t like that part,” Palou said regarding the caution. “Obviously we lost some time that we had. My car was amazing today once again, and I was able to lead to the end.
On the restart, Palou pulled away from the field, managing to put a five-second gap to O’Ward at the end of the race.
The focus now shifts to the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500, as Palou will certainly be a favorite to get his first oval win. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden will also be a favorite, looking to be the first driver in “500” history to win three-in-a-row.