STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — A 74-point lead in the NTT IndyCar Series standings before the Fourth of July is a huge advantage for Alex Palou as he enters this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
But the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who won the 2021 IndyCar Series championship, isn’t taking his large lead for granted.
“It’s IndyCar,” Palou told SPEED SPORT Friday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “Anything can happen.”
There are nine races remaining in the season and the Spaniard has established himself as the driver to beat for the championship.
“We’ve had fast cars since the start of the season, we’ve had good luck on our side,” Palou said. “Everything is going well. Hopefully, we can keep it going.
“We know how hard it is in IndyCar and how difficult it is to have this amount, of good races in a row, but hopefully we can continue it through the end of this season.”
Palou, the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion, has a 74-point lead after eight races. He has won three of the last four IndyCar races, including two-in-row with victories in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on June 4 and the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America on June 18.
Next up is Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2023 Accord Hybrid.
“It feels amazing,” Palou said. “You said it, three wins in the last four races. We had obviously really fast cars throughout all the year, and we were able to maximize and get those wins that we were maybe lacking last year.
“Hopefully, it doesn’t stop here. Hopefully ,we can keep it going. We have a couple of races now coming up that we were really strong last year as well. We feel very confident. So, hopefully we can add some more wins this year.”
Palou has finished second and third the past two seasons at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural road course that includes elevation changes, high-speed corners, flowing corners, tight corners, a narrow (40 feet) racing ribbon and a challenging entry to pit lane.
It’s also where Palou climbed into an Indy car for the first time.
“It was my first IndyCar test at Mid-Ohio,” Palou recalled. “I like it. It’s a really short track and really tight. Like you cannot really breathe a lot. But it’s amazing. It just feels very, very nice, especially sector two, sector three areas.
“I like it. As I said, it’s extra special because it was my first test there, and we had good cars the last couple of years. Hopefully, we can try and improve it a little bit more and get one step higher than what we did last year.”
Palou believes momentum matters in motorsports and he certainly has the momentum in IndyCar at the moment. However, he realizes the season is just short of halfway and much can happen over the next 2-1/2 months that can affect the battle for the title.
“I just think that everything is working really good for us now,” Palou said. “I feel like we were as strong as we are now at the beginning of the season, but we had some ups and downs during the races. Long Beach was a clear example where we were running in the top four, got caught up on an accident, dropped back to 15th and still finished fifth.
“Our performance is there. It’s just we’re able to get the results and get clean weekends, which is not real easy to do very often in IndyCar.
“I feel like we have momentum. Momentum in motorsports matters a lot for driver confidence, team confidence, mechanic confidence. Everybody want to get the win, just like you are asking for more and more. It just gets better and better.
“Hopefully, we can keep the wave big or even bigger. Hopefully, we can continue having some success.”
What makes the IndyCar Series unique is the first three months of the season are heavily focused on the biggest race on the planet, the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend.
When the calendar turns to June, however, the attention shifts to the championship.
Although every race pays the same number of points and the first race of the season means just as much as the last, more is discussed about the championship after the Indy 500 than before.
“Obviously when you’re leading the championship, you think about the championship, right?” Palou responded. “In all the interviews, they ask you about it. But driving on a different way I would say only on the last race in the ’21 year where we drove a little bit under the limit to try and secure points.
“I don’t expect to think about securing points until the last race or the last couple of races. I think we should keep it that way. We should try and score more points, get even a bigger gap. The best way to do that is by winning races.”
Next up is Mid-Ohio, where starting up front is very important because passing is difficult on the challenging track. That makes qualifying very important.
“It’s huge at Mid-Ohio,” Palou said. “At the same time, I don’t think it’s everything. We saw I think last year, started in the back, had an accident, dropped to last, but made it back at Mid-Ohio. You have different strategies.
“If you have clean air, you can make some advantages by being short on some strategies, being a bit longer. That’s the beauty of IndyCar.
“Yes, qualifying matters a lot and it helps you a lot if you have a fast car. If you have a fast car and you are not starting on the right position, you can still make up ground.”