IndyCar: Alex Palou dominates GMR Grand Prix

In front of almost 50,000 fans, Alex Palou drove his Chip Ganassi No 10 The American Legion Honda powered car to victory for his first win at the IMS road course in the GMR Grand Prix.

The 26-year Spaniard, who hopes to move up to Formula 1 in 2024 and proved today why he belongs in F1, took the lead on the first lap, passing the pole sitter Christian Lundgaard who started on the harder black tires, and dominated the race, leading 52 of 85 laps.

Palou registered a 16.8006 margin of victory, the 2nd-greatest in track history behind only teammate Scott Dixon (19.9469 seconds in 2020). It was Palou’s fifth career INDYCAR victory, all coming on road courses. He has now recorded a victory in each of his three seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou became the 5th different winner of 2023.

Pato O’Ward and his Arrow McLaren Chevy teammate Alexander Rossi were a distant 2nd and 3rd.

Lundgaard hung on for 4th in his #45 RLL Honda after winning his first pole yesterday.  I guess his mustache will stay after not getting the win today.

Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top-5 in the third Arrow McLaren Chevy.

“We’ve always been really strong on Sundays,” said Rossi. “We just haven’t really gotten the results we deserve for the performance of the car. But the fact that McLaren got three cars in the top-five in this field, and this competition, that’s a huge testament to the organization and what we have going on here. It’s a big confidence boost in good momentum going into the most important race of the year.”

“For us, I mean, we were two, three and five as a team, that’s pretty freaking phenomenal,” reflected O’Ward. “The guys gave us a great race car. We were kind of just running our own race today. We were there fighting with (Christian) Lundgaard between all of us teammates. Once I got in front of him, I just had to try and minimize the gap I had with Alex (Palou), but I just think they were very strong today.”

Alex Palou

Palou has consistently been in the top 10 for the first four races of this season.

“We knew we had a fast car honestly since practice, since we were all off the trailers. The car was really, really good. I was comfortable. We missed a little bit on pole yesterday, but
we knew we had a fast car.”

“Also in the warm up we found that we were struggling a little bit more than others on the alternate tires, so that’s why we went on red, black, black, black at the end to try to get the best from what we had, and it worked. Perfect day for the 10 car.”
“We knew with the alternate tires, it was a lot easier to get temperature in. I knew it was only for the first couple of laps, otherwise it would have been tough to pass. Had to go for it, it worked, so happy. ”

Pato O’Ward

The 24 year old Mexican has been second twice this season, at the Grand Prix of St Petersburg and at the Texas Motor Speedway.  O’Ward was asked if he feels a win will come soon.

” I mean, honestly, if we’re second for the rest of the season, we’re chilling.  Yeah, they will fall. Is it going to fall the next one, in two, three, four, five? Who knows. Is it going to fall until next year? You never know.”

“I sure know that what we’ve been doing, we’ve been knocking on the door every single weekend. Like, there hasn’t been one weekend where we’re lost, no. There’s been some weekends where we haven’t started off that strong. We make changes and we’re right there.”

“I’m just really enjoying it. We’re growing massively as a team. We get to work with some pretty cool people. I mean, I know Zak (Brown) is having a total fan moment right now over there. I know he’s pumped to get to the 500. There’s been so much going into not just that race but for all three cars, all four cars for the 500, but all three cars for a full
season.”

Alexander Rossi

The 31 year old American is in his first year of driving with Arrow McLaren after being with Andretti Autosport for seven years.

“My car , it’s a very different car than I’m used to.  I just haven’t quite found my happy spot for like the ultimate lap.  It’s close. It seems like we’re permanently qualifying 10th, 11th or 12th. It’s not a disaster. We’re certainly much better in race pace, or have been so far this year.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll get there. It’s competitive, and you can’t be missing a 10th of a second.  Ultimately that’s what we’re missing.  We’ll keep our heads down.”

“Really proud to get the first podium for the team, the first one as part of Team Chevy. It was a good day. We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays.”

“Like Pato said, to get three cars in the top five is near on impossible these days. Arrow McLaren has done a phenomenal job all year. You can’t talk about how challenging it is to add a car in the off-season. They’ve done it with relative apparent ease. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes.”

Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 115.234 mph
Time of Race: 01:47:56.7003
Margin of victory: 16.8006 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 3 laps
Lead changes: 12 among 8 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Palou, Alex 1 – 17
Lundgaard, Christian 18 – 19
Rosenqvist, Felix 20 – 22
Ericsson, Marcus 23
Rahal, Graham 24 – 30
Lundgaard, Christian 31 – 41
Palou, Alex 42 – 43
Ericsson, Marcus 44
Dixon, Scott 45 – 47
Palou, Alex 48 – 59
O’Ward, Pato 60 – 61
Rossi, Alexander 62 – 64
Palou, Alex 65 – 85

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 174, O’Ward 168, Ericsson 155, Grosjean 134, McLaughlin 133, Newgarden 131, Dixon 127, Power 122, Lundgaard 111, Rossi 108, Kirkwood 108, Herta 107, Rosenqvist 97, Ilott 92, Rahal 86, Malukas 79, Armstrong 77, VeeKay 64, Canapino 56, Castroneves 53, Harvey 53, Ferrucci 51, Pagenaud 50, Daly 49, DeFrancesco 46, Robb 42, Pedersen 40, Ed Carpenter 17, Takuma Sato 5