Palou Looks To Get Back On Top At Road America
Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
OK, two races where Alex Palou finished 25th after getting punted into the barriers on the tight confines of the Detroit street course and an eighth place finish last Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis hardly qualifies as a slump.
But compared to the way the three-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion started the 2025 season, winning five of the first six races including the Indianapolis 500, it’s definitely been an uncharacteristic stretch. While far from urgent, Palou is looking to turn things around at this weekend’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR.
“Honestly, I'm not concerned. I wasn't happy about St. Louis, obviously, but yeah, it's true, we were lacking -- we had a lot of issues that didn't help us progress. Like it was a very busy race for us. But we didn't have performance, either, although we got the fastest lap. It was just because we had a lot of clean air and we just went as fast as possible.
“But yeah, we were lacking performance and we struggled a lot. It's not concerning, like, urgency, but it's obviously not good.
“We're excited to test in Iowa next week with all other teams to see what we can improve, and then no, there's no urgency. There's always urgency to win. Nobody likes to see somebody else win.
“But I think at the same time,” Palou admitted, “we got used to too much success. Not we as the team but everybody, and expects us to win every single weekend. It's not possible, unfortunately.
“Although Road America is a really good race weekend for us, I love that track, the car has been really good there, so hopefully we can go back there on Friday and practice and have already a good start of the weekend.
“Yeah, I'm excited and I'm hungry to get back on the top, but there's no urgency yet.”
Photo courtesy of Chip Ganassi Racing
Palou has good reason to feel confident returning to Elkhart Lake. Palou, who will drive the No. 10 SOLO Chip Ganassi Racing Honda this weekend, has two wins at the 4.048-mile circuit in 2021 and 2023. Why he’s been so good at Road America, Palou isn’t exactly sure.
“I don't know. I guess I had great cars there. Honestly, even my first year with (Dale) Coyne (Racing), I got my first ever INDYCAR podium there, and I had a great car, great strategy, and then with CGR we've always been running very fast.
“Last year we kind of struggled a little bit, especially in the race with those three Penskes finishing one, two, three, and we were kind of there alone in fourth place. But I feel like this year hopefully we can get back on speed and try and fight for the win.”
The fact that Palou loves everything about the track doesn’t dim his enthusiasm for this weekend, either.
“I honestly love every single corner. There's not one corner that I don't look forward to going. There's sometimes in some tracks that you don't look forward to going to, like Turn 4, because it's like sketchy and you never get the balance right. But actually Road America it's super fun. The way you need to drive the car, the way you are allowed to push, it's just amazing, especially with the new tarmac that we had a few years ago. It allowed all the drivers to just push the limits a lot more.
“Yeah, I just like the combination of really high-speed corners, like you go to 1, and then slow-speed corners like 4, 5, 6. Like the car speed is amazing, as well. We were able to do it completely flat two years ago in qualifying on alternates for just one or two laps.
“It's just a complete track that it's awesome to drive it.”
Photo by Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment
The results of the last two races have allowed the competition to reign in Palou’s lead in the championship standings. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward sits second in the points - 73 behind Palou - with Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, the only other driver to win a race thus far this season, third, two-points behind O’Ward. Despite their creeping closer in the standings, Palou doesn’t intend to change his approach this weekend.
“No, I said it before the 500 and after the 500, that the same way we won like four or five races in like a very short period of time, there could be somebody else could do the same because it's not impossible. We've done it, so somebody else can do it, as well, and we've seen that with Kyle. I think obviously without his penalty at the 500 he would be even a lot closer.
“Yeah, it didn't add any pressure at all just because I didn't ever think that it was done or it was ours or anything like that. I knew that we just had a perfect start of the season, and obviously you could see a big point difference.
“But yeah, I expect that it's going to get very tight. It's going to make it interesting. I just hope that we are there at the end to fight for it.”
While Palou does keep tabs on the standings, it’s not something he focuses on - at least not yet.
“I mean, keeping track of the points, like you always keep an eye on it, obviously. But I would say that focusing on the championship, that only goes on the last two races, whenever it's like you already know that hopefully you're in the fight or not. Hopefully it's only yourself and three other drivers and you know what you need to do or you know who you need to fight for.
“Now we're fighting against everybody, so it just doesn't really make much sense to count points. It's good to have a look at them when you're leading and see that hopefully we can extend a little bit more the gap, but I think now -- the way we got here was by racing hard and going aggressive on strategies and trying to go for wins, and I think that's the way we need to continue racing.
“Hopefully we can have a look at who we're racing against towards the last two, three races of the year.”
Team owner Chip Ganassi said at the start of the season that he feels Palou is continueing to get better and better. A scary thought for the INDYCAR paddock, Palou says there’s always something to improve on.
“Yeah, I would say that you always -- it's the beauty of the sport that you can always get better at everything. You can always get better at going a little bit faster, getting more speed, just saving better the tires, saving more fuel, managing better how you are aggressive in defending or overtaking. There's so much stuff that you can always be a little bit better that I think there's no limit, and you can see that in amazing drivers like (teammate Scott) Dixon, (Will) Power, these guys that have been around for so long, and I think Power said the past weekend that he's been driving the best that he's ever done.
“I believe in that, and I think that it's the beauty of motorsports, that you can always keep on pushing yourself to try and be a little bit better.
"Where do I think I can get better? Well, everything,” Palou offered. “A little bit faster, hopefully better on short ovals, better on qualifying up front and defending moves or overtaking. I think there's always stuff that you can improve on.”
Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
A three-time series champion, and now an Indy 500 winner, the 28-year-old Spaniard has already achieved what any INDYCAR driver would dream of. With those boxes ticked, what’s left for Palou to aspire to?
“I've never had a goal of, like, getting an X amount of wins or championships or Indy 500s. My goal has always been to, first, be able to race and be able to race at the highest level with a great team, and then to win every single weekend. That's what I like.
“It's the feeling that I like the most. It's not when the season is over and you kind of get the trophy and photos and all that stuff. What I like is going to every single weekend, fighting for the race, having fun, getting the car a little bit better, getting myself a little bit better.
“What else can I achieve? Like win this weekend and then the following one. That's what we can still achieve and keep on counting on those wins. Hopefully when we look back in a long time from now, we can maybe count those wins and those championships and Indy 500s."
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.