Following intense on track action with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood and Will Power, Alex Palou stood second on the podium at the end of the inaugural IndyCar race in Arlington on Sunday.
The Spaniard is also now 2nd in the overall standings, sitting 26 points behind the Florida native.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets following the race, the 28-year-old gave his thoughts on the new track and how the race was a fight from start to finish.
Close but no cigar
Despite leading 16 laps of the inaugural IndyCar race in Arlington and controlling a good portion of it, Alex Palou eventually lost P1 to Kyle Kirkwood on lap 55. It was a stunning and aggressive overtake that earned the Andretti man his win.
As the Spaniard spoke to the media following the race, there were no hard feelings to be found. He acknowledged the Andretti man was simply too fast.
“Yeah, I tried hard, man. Kirkwood was really fast,” Palou said in the post-race presser.
“I could see already on second and third stint that I was pushing as much as I could, using OT to try to get gaps. He was closing 3, 4 tenths on me. I was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s going to be tough’.
“He just passed me incredibly. It was a very awesome overtake. Should have obviously defended a little bit better. It’s very easy to say now.
“Honestly I didn’t really have much for him. I think I’m really happy getting on the podium and trying to steal a little bit of Andretti’s party this weekend. Will was incredible on those alternates as well, making them last. They told me he had to do 12 laps more. I was like, In two laps he’s just going to die. Very impressive.”
A fight he lost despite holding the lead
Despite holding command of the Arlington race for a good while and at one point sitting ten seconds clear of the eventual winner, Alex Palou was never certain of a win. Following a pit cycle, the No.10 pilot assumed the lead on lap 46 from Kirkwood’s Andretti Global teammate Will Power. However, Palou had to keep more of an eye on Power then Kirkwood, due to a difference in race pace between the two.
Palou denied feeling like he was control of the race following the podium ceremony, explaining how the pace of Will Power on the two-stop fuel save was already alarming him. Kirkwood then hauled that big gap before nailing him.
“No, because I was fighting with Will on the other strategy.
“It was getting tough. Like, normally when you have someone on a two-stopper and you’re on a three-stopper, you catch him easily. He was matching the pace that I had. He obviously just had less fuel and had to pit a little bit earlier.
“Yeah, I thought at first I needed to fight with the 26. I saw that Kirkwood was just closing on us. I said, ‘All right, maybe on clean air we’ll be able to match him or pull a gap’. He was getting half a second closer, 6 tenths closer. I thought it was going to take him a little bit longer to get through us. I think also they were very trimmed, all the Andrettis. We were not.
“I was better on all the corners, but I couldn’t really use it as much as what they were gaining on me. Yeah, I never felt safe this race, never.”
IndyCar at Arlington a 10 out of 10 for a first time race, says Alex Palou
The NTT IndyCar Series battled on the streets of Arlington for the first time in 2026, to massive success. The race boasted massive viewership, and sold out grandstands on race day. Additionally, across the weekend the drivers had high praise for the circuit.
Chatting on Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Alex Palou called the whole weekend “very impressive”, and agreed with fellow Honda-powered driver Will Power that it could be the start of something big.
“Incredible. As Will said, already I would say on Friday it felt like a big, big event. You can see the facility. You can see how the track was built. You can see we have a long street track, which is what we’ve been pushing for. It’s been a 10 out of 10. There’s nothing you can say that this was bad.
“The attendance was incredible. The fans were incredible. They stayed until the end, like when we were just pitting in now after a full-course yellow. Everybody was just there being happy. Yeah, it’s incredible to be part of this.”
