INDIANAPOLIS – Alex Palou is one very impressive rookie in the NTT IndyCar Series this season.
The 23-year-old Palou put the No. 55 Dale Coyne Racing with Team GOH Honda seventh during Saturday’s opening round of Indianapolis 500 qualifications with a four-lap average of 231.034 mph.
“I think it was an awesome day for us,” said Palou, who joined fellow rookie Rinus VeeKay in the Fast Nine during qualifying Saturday. “Yesterday we showed that we had a lot of speed on the car. Today was just about execution, just doing our thing, trying to make four laps flat and trying to manage the car balance between those laps. We made it.
“I’m super happy. I think the team did an amazing job just because since we started here in Indy, we had a really good car, which has improved the car lap by lap. So, yeah, gaining confidence. Tomorrow is going to be a great day for us, for sure.”
In addition to fighting it out for the Indianapolis 500 pole Sunday afternoon, Palou and VeeKay will both be vying for the fastest rookie award. There has been an increase to that award from $5,000 to $10,000.
“My confidence is growing every lap I do,” Palou said. “But still it’s not the same as going to a road course for me. On a road course, I know what’s going on every time. Here, I’m learning different stuff.
“Like today was the first time we did four full laps on a qualifying run with the speeds we have now. I’m just learning every day.
“Traffic is going to be another thing. The good thing is that we will start at least top nine, so I’ll have enough time to get up to speed without losing a lot of track position.
“I’m just still learning. The biggest challenge I have now is race pace and running behind cars and trying to overtake them.”
Palou’s engineer is Eric Cowdin, the longtime engineer for Tony Kanaan who guided Kanaan to victory in the 2013 Indianapolis 500. Together, the young driver from Spain and the veteran engineer have put together an impressive effort for team owner Dale Coyne.
“Every time I punch with him, I can feel the ring,” Palou said of Cowdin. “He has a lot of experience. He is a really good guy. He knows how to make a really fast car here. It always gives you a lot of confidence having a guy that won the Indy 500 already.”
The question is, do they have enough to challenge the impressive Andretti Autosport quartet of Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe, who were the four fastest drivers Saturday, during Sunday’s shootout?
“I don’t know to be honest,” Palou said. “It’s difficult to say. I thought that our track condition was not perfect when we went out, but then Marco went out after me and did that lap, those laps. Think it’s going to be challenging tomorrow with the Andrettis. They are really quick.
“But I think for top five, we can look pretty strong.”
At 23, Palou has an impressive career in front of him. So far this week, he has been the most impressive Spaniard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The other driver from Spain is a two-time Formula One world champion, Fernando Alonso, who qualified a disappointing 26th Saturday.
“It feels awesome, man. I like it,” Palou said. “Hopefully I can see some news with that thing you said. But, yeah, it’s awesome. It’s really nice.
“The first day, I saw there was a lot of people. All the media was like, ‘Oh, Alonso is top five.’ Then suddenly all the media in Spain went down. No more news about INDYCAR, no more news about Alonso, obviously no news about me.
“I didn’t check yet, but I bet it’s not going to be lots of news like on the first day when Fernando was top five. You always expect that. I expected that that was going to happen. But maybe I expected that having a great result like we had the first day, the second, Fast Friday, also today, I expected a bit more of course.
“That’s Spanish media. Obviously, Alonso won two times Formula One championship, which you can’t take away from him. I think the media, it’s not helping a lot to let the normal people know.
“I think we’ll have to win some championships before they start talking about us.”