NEWTON, Iowa – Alex Palou entered the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race Weekend at Iowa Speedway with points to burn.
He arrived 117 points ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, and with maximum points for each race at 54, there was no way the Spaniard could lose his lead during the doubleheader race weekend.
He also realized that the 0.894-mile Iowa Speedway short oval was the one potential obstacle that stood in his path to a second NTT IndyCar Series championship. That is why Palou said he would be happy to finish eighth in both the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 on Saturday and the Hy-Vee One Step 250 presented by Gatorade on Sunday.
Palou hit his mark on Saturday, driving the No. 10 American Legion Honda to an eighth-place finish as all four Chip Ganassi Racing cars finished in the top 10.
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Josef Newgarden of Team Penske won the race and moved into second place in the standings, trailing Palou by 98.
“We didn’t have the pace on the first 20 laps, but from there we had really good tire deg,” Palou told NBC Sports. “It was probably fourth best. We didn’t risk it too much on strategy. The yellow didn’t help us, but it didn’t hurt us too much either, so I’m pretty happy with eighth.
“We knew our pace. We knew what we could achieve here in Iowa and that is why this finish is great.”
Palou believes he had great pace on the previous ovals at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in April and won the pole for the 107thIndianapolis 500 in May.
Saturday’s race was the third of five oval races on the 17-race NTT IndyCar Series schedule.
“It’s a learning process,” Palou said of Iowa. “I wish we were in Victory Lane right now, but that’s not the case. I don’t think we have the pace and I’m not as comfortable here as other tracks.
“But we’ll come back stronger on Sunday.”
Palou was one of 20 drivers that tested at Iowa Speedway on June 21 and said the team had developed a very good car when the team unloaded on Friday.
He explained why two top-eight finishes were reasonable for this weekend.
“It’s not easy, but not out of our window,” Palou explained. “I think today could have been a little bit better, but that yellow helped Pato O’Ward and Marcus Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood, and Scott Dixon a little bit, and didn’t help us.
“That’s oval racing. That’s IndyCar racing in general. I’m happy with a P-8 and we can make some gains Sunday.”
Palou doesn’t believe his car as the same pace as the three Team Penske drivers but could have the best pace of any of the cars outside of the Penske’s.
“We want more, but we’re making small steps with really good cars all year, so we can’t complain when we don’t have the best car in one race,” Palou said.
If Palou is able to win Sunday’s 250-lap short oval race, he would earn the PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge, worth $1 million split between the driver and the charity of choice.
It goes to the driver who is the first to score victories on a street course and road course this season, and Palou is currently the only driver with a chance at Iowa. Palou’s charity of choice would be The American Legion.
“We have a big opportunity for me, for the team and for The American Legion, but I’m more worried about having enough pace than about the bonus,” Palou said.
Barry Wanser is the team manager at Chip Ganassi Racing and calls race strategy for Palou’s car.
“It’s still awesome,” Wanser told NBC Sports. “We are more focused on doing the best we can at each one of these races. We knew it was a challenge coming into this weekend.
“These are hard races. Short oval racing, it’s fun. It’s great racing here at Iowa. Alex and The American Legion Honda were strong all day. We think we have a little bit more pace. We’ll see what we’ve got. We definitely have something to build on to make the car a little bit better for tomorrow.
“If Alex said he wanted to finish eighth, we got there. Our goal Sunday is to finish higher than that.”
When Palou made his first pit stop, he came in fifth and left eighth.
“There were cars that undercut us and were early pitters and were able to jump us,” Wanser said. “We didn’t want to put ourselves in position. We felt we had a car to run up front with the leaders. When you come in early, you go two laps down and if you are exposed for a yellow and only get one of those back. We were able to stay up front.
“We lost a few positions. We made a couple back.
“That’s what you do in racing. Everything is a risk on strategy and what you do.”
Palou entered the weekend saying Iowa was not one of his better tracks, but so far this season he has been able to make the most of any given weekend.
“That’s how you win championships,” Wanser said. “We’re taking it race by race. Team wide, we have had some success here. We haven’t been the strongest, but we made some gains, and it showed today.
“Across the board, to have all four cars finish in the top 10 in the first race helps the workload to get ready for tomorrow, so we’re looking forward to it.
“The level of talent across the field is strong, even with 28 cars in the race this weekend.”
Wanser will oversee the Chip Ganassi Racing cars go through tech and once they clear technical inspection, the crewmembers will clean the car, change out some parts, put fresh parts on for tomorrow’s warmup.
The team will run about 10 laps during the warmup on Sunday and then get ready for another 250-lap race.
Ricky Davis is the crew chief for the No. 10 car at Chip Ganassi Racing and believes the workload on getting ready for the second race of the doubleheader will be minimized because Palou drove a fairly clean race.
“I’m happy to get out of here with eighth, we’re clean, we’ll get ready for tomorrow and hopefully on Sunday, we’ll get a few spots higher, but we’d be happy with eighth,” Davis told NBC Sports. “We have quite a bit of work to do, probably three or four hours total. We have some parts to change to get ready for tomorrow.
“But Alex is the best and that is why we have to give him the best car we can give him.”
Palou would like to leave Iowa Speedway Sunday night with a 100-point lead. He currently leads by 98 points over Josef Newgarden (who trailed by 126 points before his victory Saturday).
“There are 54 points in play Sunday,” Palou said. “I’m confident we can still keep it that way.”
But what would it take to beat the Penske’s on Sunday at a track where all three drivers so much better than the field?
“A lot,” Palou said. “They honestly have a lot of pace, a lot of speed. We are making small steps, but it’s not close enough.
“Tonight, we will think about what we can do to make it better. With the car we had today, we can make small tweaks, but I will focus more on driving, than on car performance.”
