MONTEREY, Calif. — For the second-straight year, Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing turned WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca into his own personal playground.
The dominant driver from Spain started on the pole and toyed with the field, leading all but 11 laps in the 95-lap race to claim his eighth IndyCar Series win of the season.
The all-time IndyCar record for wins in a season is 10 by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970. Mario Andretti won nine times in 1969.
Drivers with eight wins in a season include Tony Bettenhausen in 1951, Mario Andretti in 1966 and 1967, Michael Andretti in 1991, Al Unser in 1994, Sebastien Bourdais in 2007 and now Palou.
He stretched his lead in the NTT IndyCar Series Championship to 120 points over fourth-place Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren, giving him a 2-1/2 race lead in the championship with three races remaining.
If Palou finishes the Aug. 13 BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland with a 108-point lead over O’Ward in the championship, he will clinch his third-straight IndyCar Championship, his fourth overall.
Palou and O’Ward are the only two drivers left in mathematic contention for the championship as third-place Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was eliminated after finishing fifth.
Although there remains a mathematical chance, the odds are astronomically in Palou’s favor.
Palou defeated second-place finisher Christian Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren by 3.7965 seconds.
“Honestly, what an amazing job by everybody at CGR, Honda, DHL to give us everything we needed,” Palou said. “Today was super fun. I couldn’t be happier right now. We had to push and be ready for those yellows. We were able to open a gap for the win.”
Lundgaard scored his fifth podium after starting seventh.
“I knew the pit sequence is a key around here,” Lundgaard said. “We didn’t know if this would be a Red race or a Black race and it ended up being a Red race and we couldn’t be happier.”
Colton Herta was third in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda followed by O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet, Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda and Callum Ilott’s Chevrolet.
Ilott made up 18 positions in the race, the most of any driver.
“It’s a real treat to come out here and score a podium,” Herta said. “It’s a real drivers track and to leave here with a podium, I hope we can continue the momentum on to Portland.”
Palou had a tremendous start heading into Turn 1 and maintained the lead in Turn 2.
Conor Daly and Robert Shwartzman went off course out of Turn 6, but it remained greet. A few moments later, Kyffin Simpson and Felix Rosenqvist both crashed in Turn 6 with both drivers getting a hard whack into the wall. It appeared that Simpson ran into the back of Rosenqvist’s Honda.
The yellow flag waved on Lap 1 with Palou ahead of Colton Herta, O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, Will Power and David Malukas.
Daly and Shwartzman both pitted during the caution. Rosenqvist made it back to pit lane where his Meyer-Shank Racing team tended to the damaged Honda with a new front nose and wing assembly. He returned to the race one lap down.
The race restarted on Lap 7 and Palou once again got the jump, driving away from Herta and O’Ward.
Rookie Jacob Abel went off course and stuffed the No. 51 Honda into the tire barrier in Turn 1 for the second caution of the race on Lap 12.
When the pits opened, Scott Dixon, and Nolan Siegel pitted for the Firestone Reds and Rinus VeeKay pitted for the Firestone Blacks as tire strategy came into play.
Dixon had chosen the strategy he has used for so many of his victories by pitting out of sequence and stretching the fuel mileage.
Palou led the field to the restart on Lap 15, leading Herta, O’Ward and Newgarden.
By Lap 18, Palou led Herta by 5.05 seconds, and O’Ward by 5.90.
After 23 laps, Graham Rahal and Scott McLaughlin pitted for softer Red tires. O’Ward pitted one lap later along with Malukas and both chose Firestone Reds.
On Lap 25, more drivers came down pit lane, but Palou stayed on track one lap longer and pitted on Lap 26. Chip Ganassi Racing bolted on the harder Firestone Black tires, just before VeeKay was punted from behind by Kyle Kirkwood, lost control of his car and spun into the gravel in Turn 3.
Race Control kept the green flag out so the other drivers battled for the lead could make their stops.
Finally, the yellow flag waved, and Colton Herta was rewarded for getting into the pits just before the caution light came on.
Once he was towed out of the gravel, VeeKay made a pit stop to repair the damage. Kirkwood received a stop and go penalty for avoidable contact.
Racing resumed on Lap 30 and Nolan Siegel was the leader ahead of Palou, Dixon and Kirkwood. Three of the four drivers were on the undercut strategy while Palou was on the overcut.
The drivers that stopped on Lap 12 could conceivably make it the rest of the way on just two stops but needed a few cautions to make it happen.
Palou regained the lead when he passed Siegel to the outside in Turn 3 on Lap 38. At the end of that lap, Siegel pitted for the softer Reds.
Dixon was running second until he was passed by Herta on Lap 40.
Lundgaard was the next to pass Dixon, who came into the pits to get off the softer Red tires. That put Lundgaard in third place with Ioltt fourth and O’Ward fifth.
On Lap 41, Palou had a 5.385-second lead over Herta and 7.715 over Lundgaard.
O’Ward pitted for a set of Firestone Blacks on Lap 45.
At the halfway point of the race on Lap 48, Palou was firmly in control with a 4.5-second advantage, leading 37 laps. Siegel led the other 11 laps.
Further back in the field, O’Ward and Ilott were involved in a fierce fight for 14th place but racing through the field. O’Ward pushed so hard, he went into the gravel coming wide out of a turn.
On Lap 50, O’Ward’s lead over Herta was 4.853 seconds. Newgarden was third, 20.358 seconds behind the leader.
Newgarden pitted on Lap 51 for Black tires. One lap later, Palou came into the pits for Firestone Red tires. Herta pitted soon thereafter had a right wheel nut fall out of the air gun and roll up pit lane.
That put Will Power in the lead for a lap before he pitted on Lap 53. Once Power pitted, Palou was back in the lead by 5.1140 seconds over Lundgaard, who had yet to pit. Herta was third.
Dixon was up to fourth after running 29 laps on his set of tires before he made his final pit stop on Lap 68. Off came one set of Reds and on when another set as he was in and out of the pits and back to racing.
Ilott pitted on Lap 69 and Herta and Lundgaard both pitted on Lap 60 taking off the used Firestone Reds and putting on a set of “sticker” Red tires.
Palou made his final pit stop on Lap 73 for another set of Reds. The star driver had a great pit stop after he built a 32-second lead over second-place Lundgaard.
When he returned to the track, Palou was still in the lead by 7.4127 seconds over Lundgaard.
On Lap 78, Marcus Ericsson went off course going into Turn 6 and came to a stop. But O’Ward nearly made contact with Ericsson at full speed while that portion of the race course was green flag racing.
Finally, after a lap, the full course caution was issued.
Palou nailed the restart with 14 laps to go, and he led Lundgaard into Turn 1.
It was Palou, Lundgaard, Herta and Dixon as the front four with O’Ward in fifth.
With 12 laps to go, Palou still has 78 seconds of push-to-pass left for him to use.
Siegel and Louis Foster had contact in the Corkscrew sending Siegel into a spin. He was able to get the car pointed in the right direction and continue in the race.
Santino Ferrucci spun and went through the gravel at the top of the Corkscrew, creating another caution.
With eight laps to go, Palou was in front at the restart and the perfect run continued. O’Ward went to the inside of Dixon and took over fourth place.
As for the winner of the race, it was pretty much decided when it began.
