It was seventh heaven for Alex Palou on Sunday as the Spaniard took another step towards his fourth IndyCar title by winning at Iowa. The significance of him claiming his first win on a short oval should not be underestimated either.
Starting on pole position, the 28-year-old had a lot of pace on Sunday, although he was overtaken twice by Josef Newgarden. Cautions went the way of the title leader twice against the Team Penske star, enabling him to get back out front. Tyre failures for Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta cost Newgarden dearly, with Malukas getting badly shafted by the second one as well.
The different challenges faced in IndyCar
Superspeedways, short ovals, street tracks and permanent circuits means anyone who wants to contend for IndyCar championships must be at least decent on every type of venue.
While Alex Palou had not won on an IndyCar oval until the Indy 500 back in May, he is now a two-time winner on them following his victory at Iowa yesterday.
Palou talked about the immense challenges the series presents and the different techniques required at these various tracks.
“Honestly, it’s tough. It’s tough. That’s why it’s so fun to race in INDYCAR with these teams, with these different tracks. It’s different challenges that you have.
“You go to a street course and you need different techniques than on a road course, and then you go to an oval and you have superspeedways, and then you come here and it’s completely different to IMS.
“It’s super fun, keeps you awake, keeps you having to push every single weekend, and honestly, I was already super happy yesterday with our first pole here.
“But to be able to get our first win here and fighting on track, it’s been a good day. It’s been super fun.”
Alex Palou going on the attack instead of defending
While ovals have been seen as a relative weakness for Palou, particularly outside of the 500 even before his win this year, the Spanish star would consistently finish in the top 10 and bag vital points for the championship.
At the weekend, however, he elevated his game. A solid P5 in race 1 was the maximum as O’Ward and Team Penske had unbelievable speed.
Nonetheless, yesterday was a very different story. Along with Malukas and Newgarden, he was right up amongst the fastest in race pace. According to IndyCar, he made 28 on track passes.
Speaking about the overtakes, the Chip Gansssi racer was very happy to be on the front foot on a short oval this time.
“Nice. Yeah, I think that’s my max [number of passes].
“I was passing so many cars I felt like I was Lightning McQueen or something. It’s the first time that I’m not getting overtaken every single lap on a short oval.
“It was fun. It was very fun.
“There was a lot of traffic, which it was good. It was fun getting to see different people struggling in different areas, then you would get to another car and he would be running the line that you liked, and then you would struggle for five, ten laps.
“But it was fun.”
The battle for the lead with Josef Newgarden
On lap 65, Josef Newgarden passed Alex Palou for the lead for the first time in IndyCar race 2 at Iowa. However, a caution came shortly after he pitted and he was back in 13th.
The driver of car number #2 came storming back through to take the lead from the Spaniard again with an aggressive move into turn 1 with 35 laps to go. Pitting before the final caution ultimately ended his victory hopes, however.
Race winner Palou explained his second battle with Newgarden and the berry different strategy calls that went on.
“Yeah, it was hard. It was hard racing. I think we got small contact heading into 1 when he passed me. It wasn’t bad. It was good enough to be in the marbles.
“But yeah, you had to fight hard. I think he knew that, without that, that I would have been able to be side by side in Turn 1 and kind of hold the position. But it was tough.
“Then in strategy, sometimes it goes like that. Honestly, we knew that we’re not going to gain much by pitting early, especially the first pit stop. He kind of had a super big lead into us, and I did not expect him to pit that lap. It worked for us, and it worked for us as well on the last one.”
Incredible racing with David Malukas
As previously mentioned, Malukas, Newgarden and Palou had the best pace on Sunday. While cautions hurt the AJ Foyt and Penske drivers, the Spanish star extending his stints to avoid those potentially pitfalls was a key factor.
He also had three separate and brilliant battles with Malukas throughout the 275-lap contest as they went side-by-side for multiple laps. The three-time champion explained the importance of holding car #4 off.
“It was tough. It was really tough.
“I think we got side by side for, I don’t know, like laps. But like three times, just three different times throughout the race, and I was like, ‘man, I cannot let him go’ because he was really, really fast and I wanted to stay in the lead, I wanted to stay up front.
“I’m glad that it worked out, but it was really tough. We had to risk it all the time.
“He was super fair, honestly. We never had any contact. He always gave me enough room for me to not be in the marbles. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully he thinks the same.”
Alex Palou and his team had a different mentality for IndyCar race 2 at Iowa
In race 1 there was certainly more caution regarding the high line as it was mostly Conor Daly using it to work his way through, particularly on restarts. Fuel saving was also a primary focus.
On Sunday, however, it was a very different story. The high line was used by plenty of drivers to try and make moves, a lot of them successfully. Saving fuel was also less of a concern.
Palou explained how the mentality switch inside CGR was important to show their full speed at Iowa.
He also explained how hard it got in the closing quarter of a stint, praising Newgarden for the job he did through that period. The American was exceptional through traffic when he was P1.
“I felt we learned from yesterday, and we knew that we didn’t want a race that was going to be slow and fuel saving and just waiting for something to happen.
“We wanted to go fast. We wanted to show the speed that we had. I think we’re really, really good the first 70 percent of the stint, and kind of at the end I was always struggling a little bit on balance and not knowing how to drive properly, like one lane, one and a half, two lanes. It was tough for me to judge.
“Josef was a lot better there, and yeah, he was driving excellent towards the end of the stints.”
Areas to work on for Alex Palou after his first IndyCar win on a short oval at Iowa
While he was clearly delighted to make a significant breakthrough, like any great champion he is aware more learning needs to be done on these kind of tracks to be right up there with the likes of O’Ward and Newgarden on a regular basis.
“Oh yeah, getting a short oval win, it’s huge. It’s huge.
“Already getting the 500 and getting my first oval win was like, ‘man, it’s great’. I can already say that we’ve won on an oval.
“But short ovals, it’s different. It’s like a different animal. For me it’s like the same difference as road course and street course. It’s that different.
“Getting a win here, it’s huge. It’s going to give me the confidence to know that I’m able to do it.
“I know that there’s still a lot of work ahead to try and be as good as some of the guys, like Josef was getting through traffic, but at least we know we can do it.”
