After his newest outrageous show of circuit possession, we could as properly rename Laguna Seca (Dry Lake) Lake Palou in honor of its latest winner.
In his 4 visits to the legendary highway course located simply exterior of Monterey, Alex Palou has by no means completed off the rostrum. He opened with a second-place in 2021, ran away and hid in 2022 when he put 30.3 seconds between himself and Josef Newgarden whereas demolishing his rivals on the way in which to victory, and took third final 12 months.
His most up-to-date efficiency at Laguna Palou felt loads like 2022, and whereas three cautions within the final 20 laps prevented him from constructing a ridiculous lead, Chip Ganassi Racing’s two-time champion toyed with the sphere and cruised dwelling to a different demonstrative win.
The consequence additionally returned Palou to the highest of the Drivers’ standings, which he led after the Indianapolis Grand Prix that he received and once more after the Indy 500, however the championship clock is ticking for the 27-year-old from Spain.
With a tidal wave of ovals on the horizon, supreme highway racers like Palou who’ve but to assert an oval win are about to expire of alternatives to flex their strongest muscular tissues. He’s constructed a 23-point lead over Will Energy, who stood on podiums at Iowa in three of the final 4 races and has wins at Milwaukee and World Broad Know-how Raceway on his resume. Teammate Scott Dixon is 32 factors again and has a menacing file of wins on ovals — he might simply take half of the six oval races — that await the sphere from July-September.
Pato O’Ward in sixth (-77 factors) and Arrow McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi in seventh (-87) are additionally able to profitable at Iowa, WWTR, Milwaukee, and the season finale at Nashville’s 1.33-mile oval, and will draw down Palou’s lead if the Ganassi driver doesn’t make large strides at these 4 occasions.
On the optimistic facet, Palou has one other highway course up subsequent at Mid-Ohio the place, since becoming a member of CGR in 2021, he’s positioned third, second, and first. The wildcard to acknowledge is the NTT IndyCar Collection’ option to introduce its new vitality restoration techniques at Mid-Ohio, so whereas Palou has been the perfect driver on the monitor in recent times, there’s no telling how reliability points at IndyCar’s first hybrid powertrain race would possibly have an effect on him or any of the opposite drivers on the entry listing.
If all the things holds collectively in Ohio, it ought to give Palou an opportunity to shine, however the overarching be aware to think about leaving Laguna Seca is how Palou can’t pad his lead sufficient earlier than we get to the doubleheader at Iowa, which falls immediately after Mid-Ohio. And Iowa can’t get right here quick sufficient for Josef Newgarden.
Wind the clock again to 2022, and of the 11 oval races held by IndyCar, the two-time Indy 500 winner has claimed a mind-boggling eight victories — that’s 73 % — from 11 possibilities. Newgarden’s oval strike price is the factor that may simply dismantle Palou’s title hopes, offered the second half of his season is smoother than the primary.
Taking a look at the place his championship acquired its correct begin with a fourth at Lengthy Seashore, the 2017 and 2019 IndyCar champion has been using a rollercoaster with dips to sixteenth at Barber and seventeenth on the Indy GP, an enormous rise to first on the Indy 500, then an enormous drop to twenty sixth at Detroit, one other spike to second at Highway America, and an error-filled plummet to nineteenth on Sunday at Lake Palou. Over the identical span, Palou’s ending file has a single blemish as he’s positioned third, fifth, first, fifth, sixteenth, fourth, and first.
Newgarden heads to Mid-Ohio, a monitor the place he’s received on two events since 2017, holding ninth within the championship with a big deficit of 104 factors to Palou — the equal of two race wins — and might begin to carve into that hole with a powerful run.
After which it’s onto Iowa, the place Newgarden has received three of the final 4 races, and it could possibly be four-for-four if it weren’t for the suspension failure that fired him into the wall whereas main the second race in 2022. Then the sequence motors to Toronto, the place Palou completed second final 12 months with the entrance wing dangling from the nostril of his No. 10 Honda, however Newgarden has a pair of wins on the Canadian avenue course as properly, so he can’t be missed.
A late August journey to Portland – a highway course the place Palou has received two of the final three races – is his final likelihood to use a highway racing benefit. In every single place else earlier than at WWTR, and the three ovals after to shut the season with Milwaukee’s doubleheader and the large roll of the championship cube at Nashville Speedway, actually play to the favor of Newgarden, Energy, and Dixon.
As Palou informed RACER after the Indy 500, “I must win a oval race. We’ve been fortunate sufficient to win two championships with out profitable in a oval, however we’d like we have to win there.” Due to the shift in how the schedule was made, the vast majority of venues the place Palou has distinguished himself shall be accomplished lengthy earlier than 2024 is farewelled.
And that’s the present that awaits IndyCar followers. Simply because it’s simple to see how the Newgardens, Powers, and Dixons can erase Palou’s championship lead as soon as the ovals begin hitting each few weeks, the oval-heavy near the season additionally presents Palou with a chance to get his first oval win — and perhaps extra — and show to himself and his fiercest rivals that he’s greater than a highway and avenue specialist.
Final 12 months, three of the final 9 races have been on ovals, which allowed Palou to clinch the title with one race to go. This 12 months, six of the ultimate 9 races are on ovals, which received’t present the identical consolation or relative lack of strain.
Is that this the 12 months the place Palou ranges up and turns into a whole IndyCar driver, or will the handful of all-discipline monsters chasing him ship a reminder that he has extra work to do to succeed in their lofty standing?
Every IndyCar champion is topped as the perfect to grasp the 5 distinctive circuits they face on calendars constructed with highway programs, avenue programs, quick ovals, intermediate ovals, and superspeedways, nevertheless it’s truthful to say Palou has by no means been pushed to his limits on the ovals in an effort to seize his titles in 2021 and 2023.
That’s about to alter, and it needs to be a captivating plot for followers to observe till the checkered flag waves over the sphere on Sunday, Sept. 15, in Tennessee.
