2-tenths, quicker than the blink of an eye. That’s the margin by which Alex Palou took his historic third pole position in a row, at the Detroit GP. Following a tough Indy500, where he was leading the race and lost due to strategy and picked up a post-race penalty, Palou looked on fire in the Motor City.
“It’s great. It’s tough now with this Fast Six style to know what you’re going to get when you head into a Fast Six. I remember Arlington, I thought that we had a great car, we can fight for the pole. Then we were not. Same for Long Beach.
“Here, it was the opposite. I thought we had a great car, but maybe not like his speed or Scott’s or Kyle’s. Yeah, very happy. Very happy with my lap. There was a lot more grip than I thought on Fast Six. Happy to get that Honda up top.”
Despite thinking that his No. 10 CGR car didn’t have the speed of Kirkwood, the defending race winner and street-track specialist, or McLaughlin, Alex Palou was very happy with his car heading into Sunday’s race.
Honda strong in Chevrolet’s backyard
It was a Honda 1-2, with Palou pipping pole position from Will Power, who runs a Honda engine in his No. 26 Andretti Global car. Consequently, Honda powered cars usually do quite well around the Motor City Circuits. Palou’s Chip Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon has racked up 4 wins between the downtown circuit and the old track on Belle Isle. In addition to Dixon’s record around the Detroit streets, the most recent winner of it, Kyle Kirkwood, also pilots a Honda powered IndyCar at Andretti.
In a post-qualifying press conference that included Pit Debrief, Palou was asked if there was a particularly special feeling taking pole here, at Chevy’s home race. He chuckled as he answered.
“Honestly, no. It’s fun to talk about it and stuff. At the end of the day it’s just another race, another city. I think it’s great that there’s some tracks that are like Honda and some tracks that are like Chevrolet so we have that head-to-head.
“We don’t go mindset-wise, we’re like more aggressive here to try and make it. Yeah, I think it’s a great rivalry that we have between both manufacturers. Obviously it’s great to have the Honda on pole.”
A good stretch
Alex Palou has put up a performance in his last few IndyCar seasons that is rather unprecedented. In the 2025 season, he won 8 of the 17 races and picked up his first oval-track win at the 109th Indianapolis 500. And it doesn’t look like hes slowing down any time soon.
However, when asked what he might do if he ever hit a patch where the results just didn’t come, the 4-time champion didn’t bat an eye. He even went so far as to say that CGR had a plan, with Will Power beside him, implying that “his time would come.”
“We have the processes, but you know the time will come. I agree with him. I hope he’s wrong and I hope I’m wrong.
“That’s life. Yeah, you go through a good stretch. I’ve been saying it the last two years. Hopefully it goes another four or five the same way. Yeah, I agree with him [Power]. I’m just in a moment where I feel super confident with myself, the team is giving me the fastest cars, and I feel very confident with the car, the team, with everything.
“I’m on that sweet spot. Hopefully it’s long and it’s tall. It could just go wrong tomorrow.”
