Palou the Hottest Act in Music City
Photo: Chris Owens
/Penske Entertainment
By Dennis Krause
With his fifth victory of the season, Alex Palou moved closer to a fourth consecutive, and fifth career, NTT INDYCAR SERIES title, Monday, at a sweltering Nashville Superspeedway.
The driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda led the last 95 of the race’s 225-laps, a race distance shortened from the original 300-laps due to the extreme heat and humidity. Compared to Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and David Malukas, who finished 2nd and 3rd while racing with injuries, in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix, Palou looked almost fresh as a daisy after the race.
“I'm tired. Like I can feel the heat,” Palou noted. “I think also David probably is driving injured, and Josef as well, right? That doesn't help.
“But yeah, I'm feeling good. I mean, I'm tired. The heat was very high. Especially once I got out of the car, I kind of felt everything. While I was driving, I think with the adrenaline and everything you just continue to go and you don't really feel much.
“Yeah, I can't imagine driving injured like they did.”
Excited by his countrymen’s win in the World Cup final, Sunday, the 29-year-old Spaniard was happy to add to the celebrations in his homeland, albeit a day later, after rain postponed Sunday’s scheduled race to Monday.
“Very cool. I mean, I was following it obviously,” Palou said. “I wanted them to score a little bit earlier so we could go racing [on Sunday]. It's just very cool for the country to get another World Cup. I'm sure that everybody in Spain is going crazy and they're going to celebrate for the next probably six months or so.
“It's great for us to top it off with a race win today.”
Photo: Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment
With the 24th win of his career, Palou extended his lead in the point standings to 83 over Malukas, a gap of well over a race worth of points, as he goes for a record-tying fourth straight title. What looked like a closer championship fight this year after the Mid-Ohio round, has now decidedly swung in Palou’s favor.
“I know it's going to be a tough fight till the end, especially being so back-to-back races. But yeah, we're ready for it. I think we've done obviously the best we could this weekend. I'm very happy we got a win here at a place that probably we didn't expect coming into it.
“Yeah, it's great,” Palou added. “But although we have a good cushion, we need to keep making it bigger and keep it to the end.”
While getting a win at a track he was not expecting to win at, it may look to some like Palou has once again put a stranglehold on the championship.
But, with six races remaining on the schedule, that’s not the way Palou sees it.
“I wish. I don't think so,” countered Palou. “Like, Milwaukee is a doubleheader. Although we were really good last year, we didn't do very good at the test two weeks ago.
“But anyway, even Portland, yeah, we were good, but I don't know about this year. We were very good last year on road courses. Now suddenly we're good on street courses out of nowhere. That's the kind of stuff you cannot really predict much.
“But yeah, having that said, I like the races that we're going to. Markham is a new track. What's going to happen? Are we going to struggle, dominate? Nobody knows. Same for DC.
“There's a lot of unknowns still. It's still very early. I wouldn't trade my points with anyone. But still a long stretch ahead.”
Photo: James Black/Penske Entertainment
Seemingly invincible when it comes to winning INDYCAR championships, Palou admits he still has much to improve upon in his craft.
“A lot of stuff. I think that's the beauty of this sport or every sport or life in general, you can always be a little bit better,” Palou commented.
“I've done mistakes this year that I don't want to do. I can always be a little faster. I think today the race how I did it, I really like. I'm proud because I normally have been struggling. We were on the lead with 30 laps to go, or even 20 laps to go as well last year here, and I lost it because I couldn't move through traffic. Getting that today kind of makes me feel very, very happy.
“But you can always keep on improving on everything.”
Not exactly an encouraging thought to the rest of the INDYCAR paddock.
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.