Palou was quite flattered at Dixon’s positive assessment.
“Wow, I didn’t know he felt like that, so that’s really cool,” Palou said. “That’s amazing. I’m just in a happy place. I am racing cars in the U.S. I’m driving Indy cars and I’m driving for the best team. They gave me the opportunity to be here talking with you guys and winning races, so that’s why I’m always smiling, always positive, and I’ll keep like that as long as I keep racing.”
When he drove the No. 10 Honda to victory in his first-ever start for Chip Ganassi Racing, he joined Michael Andretti and Dan Wheldon as the only drivers to win in their CGR debut.
That’s something that such greats at Juan Pablo Montoya, Alex Zanardi, Scott Dixon, and Dario Franchitti were unable to do.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “I think those names you said, they won more than one time, and they won championships. They are 10 steps ahead of me. It’s just a start. It’s just the beginning. But for sure we couldn’t start better with Chip Ganassi Racing.”
When he won at Barber Motorsports Park, he became the second Spaniard to win an IndyCar race, 16 years after Oriol Servia.
Palou is confident he will be in the battle for the NTT IndyCar Series championship, which this year will be decided at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sept. 26.
“It’s achievable,” Palou said. “That’s the end target, but that’s not what I’m thinking now. I’m thinking about Mid-Ohio, free practice, qualifying, and hopefully gets lots of points and hopefully be on the podium and hopefully win the race.
“This championship is so long that you need to take it one race at a time, and yeah, maybe when it’s three races to go we can start talking about what’s really the championship or how is it going. But at the moment let’s focus on Mid-Ohio, try to do the best result we can there.
“If we have a car to finish fifth, try to finish fourth, and that’s what we’re going to try to do all year.”