LONG BEACH, Calif.– The last time Alex Palou competed in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, he had a lot at stake. It was the final race of the 2021 season, and he was closing in on his first career championship.
Wednesday was a bit different.
He was poolside at Long Beach, soaking up the sun and the unseasonably warm temperatures that will hit this Southern California coastal city for the next three days. It’s expected to be 96 degrees on Thursday, 93 on Friday and in the 90s on Saturday before temperatures cool off to an expected high of 68 degrees on Race Day.
For Palou, soak up the sun before turning up the heat in his No. 10 NTT DATA Honda at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I’m happy with … the weather,” the driver from Spain said. “I might jump in the pool after we finish, but, yeah, it was not my idea.
“I’m super excited for Long Beach. Obviously, it’s super special for me. It was my first time here last year but getting the championship here was just amazing. Everything I did before in preparation and the days I spent after it with the media tour and all that stuff, so super excited.
“The best memory was winning, obviously. When we were in victory — well, it’s not victory lane, but when we had all the team there celebrating with the trophy, it felt really special. We had a good start of the season so far.
“I can’t wait to try and get the first win of the season.”
Palou was able to capitalize on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Because of an unusual situation involving the COVID-19 Pandemic, the annual Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was moved from its traditional date in April to the end of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season. The 2021 championship finale was held on the streets of St. Petersburg, creating one of the best settings to celebrate a career-defining moment.
The Spaniard made the most of this unusual set of circumstances. Palou started 10th and finished fourth in the final race of the 2021 season to claim the first in what he hopes will be many IndyCar Series championships.
“For me, it was amazing,” said Palou, who turned 25 on April 1. “A championship is always a championship, but if you have the opportunity to celebrate it at one of the biggest events of the year, it makes it more and more special. It was a great weekend with lots of fans, a great event and it was awesome to celebrate around Long Beach.
“It had all of the good stuff of celebrating a championship at an amazing venue.
“It was special. It was always going to be special being the first one. Hopefully, the first one of many. But the atmosphere you get when you are there makes it really, really special. Also, the history IndyCar has at Long Beach makes that a big race.
“I’m happy I got the opportunity to do that at Long Beach.”
Palou was able to celebrate the 2021 IndyCar championship in true Long Beach style. Although he is from Spain, Palou loves fried chicken after a race victory. Colton Herta of Santa Clarita, California won the race, but champion Palou rewarded himself with a trip to one of Long Beach’s more famous eateries the next morning with his favorite dish.
“At Long Beach, I got to celebrate at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles on Monday morning,” Palou said. “It was the perfect celebration after the championship. Then, we did media around the track and didn’t get to go to other places. So, we had our championship celebration at Roscoe’s.
“We didn’t go to Los Angeles. We had the media come to where we were.”
It was Palou’s first trip to Long Beach, and he made the most of it. The 2020 race was cancelled because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In order to ensure the largest crowd possible in adherence to the policies of California, the 2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was held on Sept. 26.
As a rookie driver in 2020 competing for Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, the much-accomplished Palou had looked forward to his first Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. He had to wait 17 months to experience all of the qualities that makes this North America’s greatest street race and the second greatest street race in the world, just behind the Monaco Grand Prix.
“It is one of the best places to walk to the grid,” Palou said. “There are some areas where we are not around the fans and they can’t see us, but all the fans are on the line where we have to go before jumping into the car.
“I had never been to Long Beach before. It was my first time there, which made our weekend a little bit more intense in terms of checking data and videos and working with the engineers to get up to speed. It was good that we were able to make it happen, and I can’t wait to go back there knowing how the track is.”
On the track, Palou discovered the street course is quite a challenge, but the Spaniard has never met a challenge he couldn’t face.
He quickly learned the art of racing the course in the early stages. Palou entered the race as the points leader with Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP second and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden third in the standings and the only drivers still in championship contention.
When O’Ward was involved in a crash in Turn 11 that also involved Callum Ilott and Sebastien Bourdais, his championship hopes were over with a 27th-place finish.
Newgarden raced his way up to second place, but Palou was just two cars behind at the finish to win the championship by 38 points.
“It’s really tough,” Palou said. “All of the street courses are tough. But the combination of long corners with really high braking zones makes it super, super tough. But it wasn’t crazy difficult to pass. We had some overtakes there. We started 10th and finished in the top five and did it on the track, so that was a lot of fun. It was a great track for racing and for overtakes while still being a street course.
“I thought it was a really interesting race for everybody. Even if we had the championship or not, it’s always intense racing at Long Beach. Having the fans cheering for every driver that was fighting for the championship – Newgarden, Pato and I – we had amazing support. You could see that before the race and after the race.
“It was super fun and super special. I got to meet some new fans there and had a really good relationship there.”
A fast start to the 2021 season helped propel Palou to the IndyCar Series championship. He won his first race with Chip Ganassi Racing in the season-opener, the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
In the 2022 season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Palou finished second to Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who won his first career IndyCar race.
He started 11th and finished seventh at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval on March 20.
“We are super happy how we started,” Palou said. “St. Pete, we started struggling a little bit at the beginning of the weekend, but we ended up with second place, which felt really good. I was really close to the number 3 (race winner Scott McLaughlin) there at the end with a great fight. It was fun.
“Then Texas was not the best weekend for me. I struggled a little bit during the race and also during qualifying and stuff, so I was happy with the result we got there. It was the typical weekend where we could have left there with a 15th place or something like that, like a terrible weekend, but we ended up seventh, so if all the bad weekends are like that, we can have a good year for sure.
“My crew chief says you cannot win them all, unless you win the first one,” Palou continued. “If you have a good start, that is going to help you throughout the season because of the points, energy, and momentum that it gives you during the season. It’s very important to get a win at the beginning of the season.
“It was amazing the start of the season we had in 2021, but when we get to Long Beach the season will start going super-fast. We need to get a good momentum at Long Beach on because it is pretty important for this kind of championship. I’m looking forward to Long Beach and the races after that in the championship.
“We got a good start to the season, but we need to continue with a good start to the season and use that to help in the championship.”
Palou’s return to Long Beach is just 6-1/2 months after he celebrated the title in this beautiful coastal city in Southern California.
Perhaps those memories can spur him on to his first win in the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
“It was not long ago that we won the championship,” he said. “I’ll remember celebrating there. But at the same time, we start from new. That’s over. We are proud of what we did last year, but we want to do it again. We have to get back to work and we can be better with the experience we have now.
“One of the best things about being a champion is you will always be introduced as a champion.
“Now, we need to work to make sure we can be introduced like that after this season. I know some teams will be even stronger, but hopefully, we’ll be even stronger this year.”
If Palou is successful in defending his championship, he will accomplish a feat that hasn’t happened in IndyCar since Dario Franchitti won three-straight championships from 2009-2011.
“It’s super tough in all sports, especially in IndyCar,” Palou said. “We’ll do everything we can to make sure that happens again. I would say the key is to elevate our work, the level we delivered last year, and do it even better.
“But I’m hungrier than I was last year.”
It’s a hunger that only winning – and some fried chicken – can satisfy Palou.