LEEDS, Alabama – Alex Palou’s charge to the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series championship began with his impressive victory in last year’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
With the win, Palou joined the late Dan Wheldon and Michael Andretti as drivers who won in their first race with Chip Ganassi Racing.
This weekend, Palou is back at Barber Motorsports Park, the beautiful 2.3-mile, 17-turn road course owned by former Dairy owner George Barber. For this race, Palou will be driving a Honda sponsored by The American Legion.
Palou is hoping to continue his success at Barber. In last year’s race, Palou led 56 of 90 laps and held off Team Penske’s Will Power for the victory.
“It was a fun weekend, first weekend with the Ganassi team, first weekend of the season last year, and it was great, obviously, getting that win,” Palou said. “It’s our first road course race of the season now, which feels strange. Like we’ve done already three races and haven’t done any road courses yet. So, I cannot wait for that.
“Hopefully we can have a good weekend, as well, with the American Legion car. First time of the year as well that they are with us, and, yeah, hopefully the car looks good on track.”
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Palou was able to use his victory in what was the first race of the 2021 season to catapult himself to a championship season. He would add victories at Road America in June and a victory at Portland from the pole to give him three wins in 2021. He also finished second behind winner Helio Castroneves in the double-points paying 105th Indianapolis 500.
This year, Palou is third in points, just 15 behind the leader, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. Another Team Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, is second in points, just 10 ahead of Palou. The third Team Penske driver, Will Power, is fourth, one point behind Palou.
“I think it’s been great for us, but it’s not like it’s been easy,” Palou said. “We struggled a little bit St. Petersburg with speed but we made it work for the race. We got speed every session and we were able to finish in second place, which I thought was the maximum we could achieve there.
“At Texas, we had really good cars. We had four drivers in the top seven for the team, so it was good. I was just struggling a bit more than normal, but it was still okay, let’s say, if it was a bad weekend for us.
“And Long Beach, we were close there with Josef. I think we had a good car. We had speed at Long Beach. It just didn’t play out well for me. I tried an overtake that was not the smartest maybe, and then at the end the yellow caught us and put Grosjean with red tires and more overtake than us and he just got us.
“I think so far so good. We started fighting for races, which is what you want. You cannot always win, like Penske guys have been doing so far this start of the season.
“But yeah, we’ll try and stop these guys at Barber. It’s not going to be easy. They were strong there last year, as well. But we need to focus on us, and I think we’re doing a good job.
“The win is going to come whenever. It’s not like it needs to come now at Barber. As long as we keep on improving and being ourselves and being consistent and having fight, we’ll be all right.”
So far this season, Team Penske has won all of the races, including the Newgarden’s two wins in a row at Texas Motor Speedway on March 20 and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 10.
Although Palou is impressed with Team Penske’s performance, he isn’t intimidated.
“They’ve done an amazing job,” Palou said. “They were also there last year. They were fast — I think Newgarden started like P5 last year at Barber, but he had the spin and the crash and then they had some issues. So, they were there; they just had a bit of bad luck, which sometimes happens in racing. You expect them to be there.
“I think obviously they were super strong at Texas. I don’t think we had the pace they had at St. Pete, as well. At Long Beach I think we caught them. We were right there. I didn’t win the race not because of the car or our speed; I think it was more of the strategy and that overtake that didn’t play out.
“They just were better overall that day.
“We will try and stop them, but there’s a lot of drivers on different teams. We have to stop the Andrettis, as well. They are super-fast, and with Romain Grosjean there.”
When Palou joined Chip Ganassi Racing last season, he had yet to win a race or a championship.
In one season, he was able to achieve both.
“It was the first race with Ganassi, with a big team,” Palou recalled. “I remember that I didn’t really have a really close relationship with Scott Dixon or Jimmie Johnson yet, which for me was like ‘Oh, my God, I’m racing with these guys and in the trailer with them.’
“Now, that’s just a bit more normal.
“I’m just more comfortable with the team, with the car, with the series, obviously with myself just knowing that we had an amazing year last year.
“It’s the same mindset. Everything starts from new. It’s not like we started with one more point than everybody else. We started with the same points, and we just need to try and make it the best we can every weekend.”