Alex Palou Back On Top With Road America IndyCar Win
Alex Palou ended a long winless streak at Road America on Sunday. Well, it was long for him.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver won his sixth race of nine so far this season after two wins in a row by his top rival, Kyle Kirkwood.
Palou started second on the grid behind pole-sitter Louis Foster, who lost the lead on the third lap to Scott McLaughlin.
Palou would stay up front most of the race, but only led six laps: three mid-race when his teammate Scott Dixon pitted and three at the end when it mattered the most.
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Dixon retook the lead with 10 laps to go in the the 55-lap race, but was stretched on fuel while Palou had gone two more laps before his last stop.
It wasn’t clear how much fuel either had left, but Dixon had to head in for a splash with two laps to go, which meant Palou had enough to make it to the finish. Felix Rosenqvist made a late run at Palou from second, but couldn’t close the gap and came up two seconds short.
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“It was a crazy race. It was a crazy race for us,” Palou said during his post-race interview on Fox. “It was a tough race for everybody, but kudos to the team for an amazing strategy.”
Santino Ferrucci came home in third to notch his fourth consecutive top five finish while Kirkwood took fourth.
The win extended Palou’s season points lead over Kirkwood by 93 points with eight races to go.
IndyCar takes a week off before heading to another road course at Mid-Ohio on July 6, where Palou finished second to Pato O’Ward last year.
Full Results
1. (2) Alex Palou, Honda, 55, Running
2. (12) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 55, Running
3. (18) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 55, Running
4. (3) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 55, Running
5. (15) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 55, Running
6. (23) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 55, Running
7. (7) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 55, Running
8. (13) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 55, Running
9. (25) Scott Dixon, Honda, 55, Running
10. (22) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 55, Running
11. (1) Louis Foster, Honda, 55, Running
12. (4) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 55, Running
13. (24) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 55, Running
14. (8) Will Power, Chevrolet, 55, Running
15. (9) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 55, Running
16. (16) Colton Herta, Honda, 55, Running
17. (11) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 55, Running
18. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 55, Running
19. (19) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 55, Running
20. (6) Graham Rahal, Honda, 55, Running
21. (14) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 55, Running
22. (21) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 55, Running
23. (27) Jacob Abel, Honda, 55, Running
24. (5) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 55, Running
25. (10) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 30, Contact
26. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 9, Contact
27. (17) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 3, Contact