Scott Dixon and Will Power, who finished second and third in the Honda Indy 200, have been unstinting in their praise of Alex Palou, who at Mid-Ohio notched up his third straight victory.
Between them, this trio has captured the last three IndyCar titles, but with nine races gone in the 17-race season, Palou’s points lead is out to 110 points over second-placed Dixon, and 151 over seventh-placed Power. Neither of these two veterans has won a race yet this year.
Said Power, who took his third podium of the season, “Obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but… that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in the championship this year. He is so on point in every respect. He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series. To be extremely fast, there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, qualifying… It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”
Dixon said: “As Will commented, it’s not just Alex, but Julian (Robertson, race engineer), the whole No. 10 car group are just doing a phenomenal job… Barry (Wanser, strategist) as well. It’s never a single person. The effort is big I think on all the cars in Chip Ganassi Racing right now, but they’re firing on all cylinders.
“It’s hard. I think we had a pretty good race today, but obviously we still didn’t have enough to overcome that. I think had a few things changed, same as with Will, same as anybody out there, could have been a bit more racier. Yeah, it’s going to be tough to beat.”
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“Yeah, just from a strategy standpoint as well, which I know from the first time he won a championship, that group on that car is very smart,” added Power. “They’re putting it all together. Yeah, it’s an absolute team effort, but he is also nailing it.
“I think Ganassi in general seems to have a very good package right now, all-around. So they’re a tough group, all good drivers, obviously a very strong team. I think we all have a little bit of work to do.”
Asked what he’d seen from inside the team that made Palou special, Dixon replied, “I think he is just covering all bases. As Will alluded to there, the qualifying is solid, the race pace is solid, strategy is solid. It’s just a really good all-around package right now.
“It’s never only one thing, but having quick pace is something that is huge, obviously, with how tight the competition is now, but even today we didn’t qualify on the front. We were fourth and sixth, but he was still able to overcome the three possibly quicker cars in qualifying.
“Some others may have had some problems on pit road or just whatever it was. He has done a hell of a job to cover all bases.”
Asked to compare him with four-time champion Dario Franchitti, with whom Dixon was teammates for five seasons, Dixon said: “I think it’s always different. The racing is definitely different from what we had back then. So the guy we obviously know is a big talent. You see some talents come along that just really are quick but maybe inconsistent or something like that, but he is definitely the full package.
“Dario is a legend of the sport and won a ton of races – big races – and obviously a ton of championships, too. It’s early in Alex’s career. He has a big, wide runway to go yet to see what comes. We’ll see if he even sticks around in IndyCar.”
