Alex Palou – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Palou leads Barber warmup

Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 70s F greeted the NTT IndyCar Series competitors for Sunday morning warmup at Barber Motorsports Park. Alex Palou, who will start 10th in today’s race, led the way in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda with an impressive lap 0.4874s clear of second-placed Meyer-Shank Racing Honda of Felix Rosenqvist. Palou’s fast lap came late in the half-hour session on the primary tire, which was expected to be significantly slower than the alternate (red, this week) compound Firestones, suggesting that, like on the streets of Long Beach, different strategic approaches could be in play for this afternoon’s 90-lap, 207-mile race.

Josef Newgarden, Kyle Kirkwood and Scott Dixon — who will start eighth, ninth and 13th respectively in the race — rounded out the top five.

It was a problematic session for Will Power, who had a recurrence of his Friday issues with his car’s clutch, the Australian having trouble getting the Verizon Chevy into first gear. Power indicated to NBC Sports that he wasn’t sure whether Team Penske will have to make an engine change for the race to solve the issue. Pato O’Ward had a similar issue with his Arrow McLaren Chevy.

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As was the case last time out at Long Beach, tire choices made in yesterday’s qualifying session could again play out in the race, given the limitations on available sets, but both Scott McLaughlin and Power, who swept the front row for Team Penske, said going all out for track position was a price worth paying.

Asked why he chose to make two runs on red (alternate) tires in qualifying, McLaughlin said, “Because we thought it was faster, so we did that. I think pole last year, they did a 2-2 type strategy. That’s exactly what we did, as well. It worked.”

Power — who was handicapped by lacking a lightly used alternate tire for the final stint in Long Beach — faces a similar situation at Barber vs Long Beach winner Dixon, who had two sets of sticker reds left after qualifying

“That is true,” Power said of the handicap. “But you sort of have to take that hit to go for a pole. Yeah, could have saved the first set maybe. I only put one lap on ’em. We’ll start up front is what matters, man.”

Power emphasized that even though it can turn out to be problematic in the event of an ill-timed caution, as was the case in Long Beach, trying to qualify up front remains an emphasis for him, after he felt his races were too often compromised the other way last year.

“Yeah, big-time. That was the problem last year,” he said. “Even the year I won the championship (2022), yeah, was just on the back foot from qualifying. I focused on that pretty hard this year. It makes things a lot easier.

“Obviously it didn’t last week. Like, if I qualified eighth or seventh, it would have been nice because you’re saving your green tires, starting on the hard compound. Literally that yellow last week fell just as bad as it could from that perspective, yeah.”

McLaughlin agreed with Power’s approach.

“Got to live for the now,” he said. “That’s exactly what we did.”

Whichever tire they’re on, McLaughlin says the drivers are in for a workout on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course .

“This is probably one of the hardest tracks physically. Your neck gets a workout, shoulders, all that stuff,” he said. “Yeah, we’ll just have to eat some spinach tonight, see how we go.

Sitting alongside, teammate Will Power wouldn’t let that one go: “That’s not good. It’s red meat.”

“Oh, yeah,” responded the bemused McLaughlin.

“It was the spinach industry that was using propaganda with Popeye to get it out there,” Power explained.

“Will Power, everyone,” McLaughlin said…

WARMUP RESULTS

STARTING TIRE DESIGNATIONS

Palou dominates unconventional Thermal Club tire chess match

Alex Palou led from pole to start the opening 10-lap frame of the $1 Million Challenge for Chip Ganassi Racing and had Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist close behind him in third as they went into the 10-minute …

Once the all-star race was over, the same top three stood atop the podium as Palou controlled the non-points race from start to finish, capturing $500,000 for first place. McLaughlin got $350,000 for second, and Rosenqvist delivered $250,000 for his team.

It was a masterful performance by the reigning IndyCar champion who crossed the finish line with 5.7s in hand over McLaughlin and demonstrated his incredible ability to make speed while saving his tires. The opening race of the year at St. Petersburg was all about fuel conservation, and at The Thermal Club, the trick of the day was tire conservation.

“The car was amazing,” Palou said. “Super proud. All weekend it’s been amazing. I was a bit surprised how the competitors treated the first 10 laps with tire conserving.”

At the back of the 12-car field during the initial 10-lap stanza, Colton Herta went into instant tire-saving mode as he completed the first lap a full 12s off Palou’s pace. With drivers required to use a single set of tires for the two-part 20-lap finale, the strategy deployed for the Andretti Global driver—who started last—was to finish last and start the 10-lap closer with the freshest rubber in the field.

He was soon joined in the heavy slow-down by Agustin Canapino in 11th and Alexander Rossi in 10th. The entire Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team—Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, and Pietro Fittipaldi—also added their name to the tire-saving brigade.

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Fittipaldi, whose No. 30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda was not fully fueled by his team, was disqualified during halftime for failing to follow IndyCar’s instructions to fill the tank. Teammate Rahal was also out of the race after a sticking throttle—believed to be caused by a faulty throttle position sensor—made driving the car nearly impossible.

The sleep-inducing first-half affair set the stage for a proper fight to see who would claim the dollars on offer for the winner. Would Palou, McLaughlin and Rosenqvist, who maintained a faster pace, pay for using too much of their tires’ life in the part of the event that mattered least? They would not.

Palou led the 10 surviving drivers to the green flag in the single-file start with McLaughlin, Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong, Josef Newgarden, and the forward-moving Alexander Rossi. Newgarden actively defended Rossi’s advances and made contact but lost the position to him on lap 11.

The Newgarden/Rossi exchange gifted fifth to Linus Lundqvist and the charging Herta, and on lap 12 Herta took fifth from Lundqvist. Rossi was next to go by, but went off track and ceded the position back to Lundqvist.

Out front, Palou held 2.7s over McLaughlin and Rosenqvist was a full 6.5s arrears in third. Herta and his fresher tires were fifth after passing Lundqvist with a 7.8s deficit to Palou with 13 laps complete. By lap 16, Palou’s remarkable ability to make speed without compromising his tires provided a 4.4s margin of comfort over the retreating McLaughlin as Herta attacked Armstrong for fourth. One lap later, Herta was through.

No significant changes happened afterwards as Palou cruised to victory.

RESULTS

Rosenqvist, Palou convert poles to wins before Thermal feature

Felix Rosenqvist earned Meyer Shank Racing’s first IndyCar pole position and held onto it for the entirety of the first heat race and captured the team’s first win, albeit in a non-points heat race, as the Swede held off Team Penske’s Scott …

With the heat race transfer moving the top six drivers into the $1 Million Challenge, it was Rosenqvist, McLaughlin, Penske’s Josef Newgarden, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino, and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta playing through to the finale.

Contact happened before the 14 drivers arrived at Turn 1 as Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon tipped JHR’s Romain Grosjean into a spin, who pirouetted across the Turn 1 apex and hit Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay who in turn hit Lundgaard. Grosjean and VeeKay were out on the spot.

“Who’s going to pay for the damage?” Grosjean asked. “We do nothing wrong and the car is completely smashed.”

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Dixon was given a drive-through penalty for the infraction, which ended his chances of transferring through to the final. Due to the caution period needed to remove Grosjean’s car, the 10-lap (or 20-minute) race format saw the first heat limited to eight laps.

The second heat was similar to the first, minus the Turn 1 contact, as polesitter Alex Palou led Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong, RLL’s Graham Rahal, Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist—in qualifying order—across the finish line.

The battle in the 10-lap contest was over the final transfer spots as Pietro Fittipaldi, who started sixth, improved to fifth and Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi, who started seventh, barged his way past MSR’s Tom Blomqvist and sealed the all-important sixth place to take part in the run for the money which starts at 10:59am PT.

HEAT 1 RESULTS

HEAT 2 RESULTS

Palou sweeps Friday sessions with quick qualy simulation at Thermal

Alex Palou swept Friday’s test sessions at The Thermal club, backing up his top morning time with another leading run during the three-hour afternoon session. Palou’s 1m39.337s lap in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was well clear of Meyer …

Alex Palou swept Friday’s test sessions at The Thermal club, backing up his top morning time with another leading run during the three-hour afternoon session.

Palou’s 1m39.337s lap in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was well clear of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist (+0.443s) and the rest of the field, which had the two Honda representatives followed by the Chevy-powered Romain Grosjean (+0.812s) from Juncos Hollinger Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay (+0.888s) in another zip code.

Rounding out the top six, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fifth (+0.954s) and Team Penske’s Will Power was another step back (+1.123s).

With the high ambient temperatures and equally high tire degradation to manage, most teams sat out during the peak heat to save their new sets of tires and put in qualifying simulation runs right at the end of the session which closed at 5 p.m. Qualifying for Sunday’s $1 Million Challenge takes place at 5 p.m. on Saturday, which aligns with the point on the clock where Palou, Rosenqvist, and a number of the quickest drivers focused their simulations.

“I think everyone’s holding onto tires because it really counts tomorrow — especially tomorrow,” Power said.

The first red flag of the event was required after 45 minutes of running when Christian Rasmussen’s car came to a halt, but the rest of the session was relatively clean. Action resumes at 9 a.m. PT on Peacock.

RESULTS

Palou leads IndyCar morning test at Thermal Club

Chip Ganassi Racing’s strategy to send its drivers out early in Friday’s 9-11am opening test session gave the defending champions an opportunity to learn the track in the same conditions it will face Sunday morning in the $1 Million Challenge …

Reigning champion Alex Palou put down a quick lap of 1m39.515s on his fourth lap, and with a 9:36am start for the first heat race, the Spaniard and those few who joined him at the start of the two-hour session gained valuable insights on how to tune their cars for the competition that awaits them on Sunday.

Palou’s No. 10 Honda was followed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard (+0.182s), Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong was third (+0.216s) for a Honda 1-2-3, and behind them, Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi (+0.241s) and Pato O’Ward (+0.396s) were the leading Chevy runners. Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist completed the top six (+0.405s) amid temperatures in the mid-70s were experienced for most of the outing.

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Thanks to the 3.0-mile, 17-turn road course’s unique layout which features a number of fast and sweeping corners that place high side loading on the cars for extended periods of time, tire degradation was the main topic of interest Friday morning.

“It’s tough to really learn much; the tire deg is really high,” Lundgaard said. “I think everyone’s dropping a half-second to seven-tenths [per set].”

Other than a few trips into runoff areas, no caution periods were required. Action resumes from 2-5pm PT on Peacock.

RESULTS

Ahead of IndyCar opener, Palou already focusing on 500

Alex Palou has achieved almost all of his IndyCar goals since joining the series in 2020. With two championships to his credit and pole position at last year’s Indianapolis 500, the Chip Ganassi Racing has trophies and all manner of keepsakes from …

Earning that Indy 500 winner’s ring is the last major accomplishment left for the Spaniard, and with the start of a new season just days away, the next chance to drink the milk and be crowned as the winner of IndyCar’s most important race will be here in May.

“Obviously the 500, it’s the first big target that we can achieve. We’ll fight for it. It’s the main goal, but it’s not the only goal,” Palou said Friday morning at St. Petersburg.

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The 26-year-old has become an annual threat to win the Indy 500, all despite being an oval racing novice when he arrived in IndyCar. He’s won plenty of road and street course events, but his first oval win is another goal for Palou. He has an opportunity to accomplish both on May 26 in the No. 10 CGR Honda.

“It’s the main goal because it’s in May, coming up quick, and it’s our biggest race of the year,” he added. “But yeah, I’ll keep knocking on that door. I know we’ll have fast cars. It’s just if everything fits on that day.”

Palou keeps Cadillac ahead in second Rolex 24 practice

Alex Palou scored the quickest lap in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R from Chip Ganassi Racing, keeping the team on top for consecutive sessions in practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Palou’s 1m35.589s was almost half a second quicker than …

“It’s been a good day so far for us for the 01 car,” said Palou, who will be competing in his second Rolex 24. “I believe we were fastest this morning with Dixon in in the car and also with Seb [Bourdais], then this afternoon with Renger [van de Zande] and I, so pretty cool. Lots of learnings. Every time you go out on track, it’s very different with conditions, traffic and so on. I’m just learning as much as possible from the traffic and also from the car trying to get the most we can for for the race.”

Felipe Nasr set the second-quickest time of 1m35.724s in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, 0.03s ahead of the Proton Competition 963 in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni. Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963 completed the top five, pushing BMW out of the top five for the first session of the Roar and Rolex weekends combined.

The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras continue to struggle, the No. 10 managing only an eight-quickest time, and the No. 40 once again more than a second off the GTP field’s best time.

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Clement Novalak had the top time in LMP2 with the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA at 1m39.416s, but No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR driver Toby Sowery’s time this morning was quicker to hold the fastest time of the day so far.

“Setting the fastest lap, it’s easy to get carried away and think that you’re the best out there, but there’s so much more to endurance racing,” said Sowery, who will run his first 24-hour race. “The expectation from APR and CrowdStrike is to win this event. Every event that we attend we come to win so setting that is is always a milestone. But come Saturday a lot of things can go wrong, so it’s about putting a lot of those laps in and keeping the car in one piece.”

Alexander Rossi led the way in GTD PRO with the Pfaff Motorsports, McLaren 720S GT3 EVO. Jake Galstad/Lumen

Klaus Bachler set the fastest time of the GT cars in the GTD-class No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at 1m47.045s, followed by Dennis Olsen (GTD No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3), Alberto Costa Balboa (GTD No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3) and GTD PRO leader Alexander Rossi in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo at 1m47.144s.

In the morning session, Katherine Legge set the fast GTD time in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX Evo22, which held up for fast time of the day so far. But the car was only 21st in the afternoon, likely in part due to it being the warmest part of the day. Temperatures today are more than 20º F warmer than they were last Saturday during the Roar Before the 24.

“For us being twin turbo, [the heat] significantly impacts our straight-line speed,” Legge explained. “Normally aspirated cars aren’t affected as much as we are. And we’ve seen it in the data. It’s been big. The car, also, handling-wise, always feels more sloppy when it’s warmer, although Michelin have done a really good job with the tires. And this new tire seems to manage that significantly better. So while we’ve seen a big drop in lap time and straight-line speed, I think I think in the race it’s going to be noticeably different from the heat of the day to the chill of the night. And you have to obviously just survive the night and set the car up for the day because that’s what we’re going to finish in.”

UP NEXT: The only night session before the race, critical to drivers who are required to complete some night running in order to drive in the dark during the race. The 90-minute session begins at 6:35pm.

RESULTS

Palou joins Cadillac GTP lineup for Rolex 24 At Daytona

Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou will return to race at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R. Palou will join Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande, who raced together as a group previously in the No. 01 …

Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou will return to race at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R.

Palou will join Sebastien Bourdais, Scott Dixon and Renger van der Zande, who raced together as a group previously in the No. 01 Cadillac at the 24 Hours At Daytona in 2022.

“I’m very excited to return to Daytona after competing with the team in the DPi era in 2022. I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the new Hybrid and it will be a great way to start the year early with such a great team and with such great teammates,” said Palou.

“I’ve had the privilege of racing with Scott, Sebastien and Renger, and I’m sure with all the preparation and knowledge that the team has, we’ll be able to fight for a win and maybe bring home some new watches at the end of January.”

Chip Ganassi Racing and Cadillac Racing are gearing up for the Roar Before The Rolex 24 qualifying weekend taking place January 19-21, before turning the page to the Rolex 24 At Daytona where the IMSA SportsCar Championship season officially kicks off on January 27-28.

DHL switches to Ganassi as primary sponsor for Palou

With The American Legion shifting from Alex Palou’s No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the No. 8 Honda of new teammate Linus Lundqvist for 2024, the team has announced the signing of DHL as the primary sponsor for the Spaniard’s car. The movement …

The movement of DHL to CGR comes after the international shipping and logistics company spent more than a decade with Andretti Global. DHL is expected to be featured on Palou’s No. 10 Honda at most, but not all, of the 17 races on the calendar.

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“I am extremely proud to welcome DHL to the Chip Ganassi Racing family,” said Chip Ganassi. “It is an honor to partner with an organization that shares our fundamental values of teamwork, growth, responsibility, and the pursuit of excellence. Together, we are committed to embodying those values both on and off the racetrack. I am looking forward to Alex and the No. 10 team defending their 2023 title with DHL on board. The road ahead holds great promise and potential, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Palou earned his second IndyCar title in a three-year span with CGR and enters the new season with an eye on delivering another championship for the team, and the first for DHL since former Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay secured the IndyCar crown in 2012 while wearing the company’s colors.

“It’s super exciting to announce our new partnership with DHL, representing such a successful and widely recognized brand is a true honor,” said Palou. “Their iconic yellow and red colors not only stand out, but they also remind me of my native Spain’s colors. As our team looks back at our remarkable success last year, we are eager to carry that momentum forward and aim for a third title with the support of DHL. I am especially thrilled to hit the ground running alongside the dedicated men and women of our 10-car crew in 2024.”

Portland Victory Lap with Alex Palou

New NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett for a stiff celebratory beer and shares his thoughts on winning the Portland Grand Prix and earning his second IndyCar title since 2021. Or click HERE to watch on YouTube.

Or click HERE to watch on YouTube.