IndyCar: Palou Wins Xpel Grand Prix at Road America

On the hottest Race Day at Road America, Alex Palou managed to stay in front of Felix Rosenqvist to win the Xpel Grand Prix at Road America.  It was the Spaniard’s fifth win of the season.

“It was a crazy race. I’m not sure how it looked from the outside, but from the inside, it just felt like there was a lot going on. Lots of yellows, obviously, that were shaping how we were looking,” race winner Palou stated.

“We were looking really bad at the beginning, then really good, then terrible, then really good. It was tough to be up there. But yeah, we just had to stay focused on battling against the people that were on our strategy.”

“I didn’t agree with Barry’s strategy call. I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again. It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy. They made it look really good, and HRC that gave us the mileage we needed to gamble and to make it with that stop that we did.”

AJ Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci finished third, with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finishing fourth, 19.18s behind Palou.

Ferrucci dedicated his race to the memory of Marlyne Sexton, a friend of AJ Foyt and a longtime sponsor of the No. 14, who passed away on June 11.

” I didn’t know Marlyne’s  late husband, but he was a very big AJ fan and helped AJ back in the day. Marlyne has been on the car since I’ve been driving for AJ Foyt and for Larry, and obviously I would not have had a full season ride without Larry and her support, and what they’ve accomplished last year is where we’ve brought this team all the way from barely making leadership circle to finishing the 500, top 10 in the points, fighting for top 5s consistently.”

“It’s her support that’s been behind us. So I’m very honored to be running that car with her riding along this weekend. To have the daughters here this weekend, as well, Tracy
and Nicole, was pretty amazing on the grid. It was hard not to be emotional about it. It’s someone that was family to the team had passed away last week.”

Meyer Shank’s Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top five, 19.6s behind Palou.

It was impossible to pick a winner with all the various strategies in play.

The heat did not affect the racing today like we thought it might.  There were 345 passes for position on the track as the drivers passed each other, much like they would on an oval.

Usually, the long road course produces a green race with few yellow laps.  But not today.  There were 12 laps of yellow with five caution periods.

The field made it through Turn 1, but David Malukas and Jacob Abel got off track in Turn 3, which brought out the first yellow.  Both cars continued.

On Lap 4, rookie Robert Shwartzman lost it in Turn 12 and retired.

On Lap 9, String Ray Robb put his car in the tire barrier in Turn 5 and retired.

On Lap 21, Conor Daly with into the gravel in Turn 5.  The AMR Safety Team pulled him out and he continued to pit lane.

On Lap 29, Josef Newgarden hit the inside tire barrier in Turn 14 before pit in.  He drove his injured car into pit lane and retired from the race.

Scott Dixon led 27 laps after going off strategy early in the race.  But the Kiwi was short just a few laps of fuel to finish the race.  On Lap 50, he ducked into the pits and gave Alex Palou the lead.

Polesitter Louis Foster was passed by Scott McLaughlin early and finished the race in eleventh.

Race Results

Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America