Exclamation Point Palou!
Photo by Aaron Skillman/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
“I'm an INDYCAR driver now finally!”
So exclaimed Palou, echoing what Team Penske driver Scott McLachlan said after winning his first short oval race at Iowa Speedway one year earlier.
Palou, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship leader, picked up his seventh win of the season in Sunday’s Farm To Finish 275.
Palou now joins AJ Foyt, Alex Zanardi, Juan Pablo Montoya, Cristiano da Matta, Paul Tracy, Sebastien Bourdais, all with seven wins in one season. The record is 10 set by Foyt back in 1964 and the late, great Al Unser back in 1970.
It was the first short oval win of Palou’s career to go along with his Indianapolis 500 and road and street course victories, meaning he’s now won on all of INDYCAR’s four different types of tracks
“Honestly, it's tough. It's tough,” said the driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “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.”
Coming into the season, there were those who were quick to point out that while Palou had wins on street and road courses, he had yet to win on an oval. He ticked that box at Indy. For the 28-year-old Spaniard, it was just as important for him to also win on a short oval like Iowa Speedway.
“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 (Newgarden) was getting through traffic, but at least we know we can do it.”
With a 129-point lead in the standings, Palou can race without worrying about a bad result damaging his chance of claiming a third-consecutive title and a fourth series championship in five years.
“Honestly, that's how we've been racing since Race 1 in St. Pete. We started racing not thinking about the points because it was the first race of the season, and I raced hard today, as hard as I could, risking everything because I wanted to get the win and I wanted to fight hard.
“I don't think we've ever raced for points. The only places I remember was probably Nashville last year and Long Beach in 2021, where you know that if you finish in that position, you can be the champion. That's when you race for points.
“I think all the other races it makes no sense. Like if we change the way they call the strategies or the way I drive just for thinking about points, I think we're going to start dropping towards the back. Yeah, I think we're doing the right thing.”
Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
Still miffed about giving away what looked like a sure win at Mid-Ohio a week earlier, Palou could be sitting at eight wins. Not shying away from the question, Palou thinks tying Foyt and Unser with 10 wins this season is a realistic goal.
“It would have been a little bit closer without my (off track) excursion in Mid-Ohio. But that's the way it is.
“Honestly, it's crazy. It's been an amazing season. When I say I don't really have words, it's tough to describe. It's magical. I think everybody in CGR and the 10 car especially is feeling that, and we don't really know how to describe how happy and how hard they're working to be here.
“It's not that it comes easy, as we saw last weekend at Ohio. I never looked at the end result, honestly. Although it would be amazing to look back and be like, wow, we won 10. If it stops here and we look back and it's like, we won seven, it's going to be quite impressive.
“Yeah, I'm going to work towards getting 10, obviously, but I'm not waking up and thinking about getting 10. I think it's a pretty realistic goal, and it's far, like it's three wins. It seems like it's only three, but it's very far. That's the amount of wins I got in 2023, and that's one more win than I got in 2024.”
Palou with Chip Ganassi Racing senior manager of racing operations Barry Wanser.
Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
Senior manager of racing operations at Chip Ganassi Racing, Barry Wanser, was quick to pour cold water on the idea that the team was going to set the 10-win mark as a goal for the remainder of the season.
“We're not going to look at that goal. We're going to look at the next race. We take it race by race, session by session.
“Alex brought up Mid-Ohio. I know he's still beating himself up, but like I explained to him, he's helped us have a season to make what we're doing look really easy, and he proved how hard it was at Mid-Ohio, so just to have the slightest misstep.
“Today was probably his hardest race,” commented Wanser. “This was hard. It's hard to win a short oval, especially at Iowa.”
Hard enough for Palou to now finally consider himself an INDYCAR driver after his 18th career win.
“It feels amazing!”
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.