INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou’s choice in tire selection to start Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway left his competitors seeing red.
Make that, Firestone Reds.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver started Saturday’s race on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the softer alternate tire and it paid off in a big way. He passed pole winner Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in Turn 14 of the opening lap and had the lead.
He led the first 17 laps, but was able to build up a big enough lead that Palou basically was in charge of the outcome once the race played out. He led four times for 52 laps in the 85-lap road course contest, including the last 21, to easily score his fifth career NTT IndyCar Series win and his first at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He defeated Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 16.8006-seconds and took over the NTT IndyCar Series points lead heading into the 107th Indianapolis 500 on May 28. Palou leads O’Ward by six points and teammate Marcus Ericsson by 19 heading into the biggest race of the year on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
Starting on the new Reds left his competitors seeing red with envy. But the race winner was surprised more drivers didn’t make the same selection to start the race on the Reds instead of the harder Firestone Blacks.
“It did. It did,” Palou emphasized. “For us it was clear. We were struggling a little bit more than some of the guys on used Reds in the warmup. But still it’s not like they were amazing. We knew that we didn’t want to use used reds. That’s why we started on new alternates, try to get the lead, try to get a big gap, like two, three, four, seconds, then work on our pace on blacks.
“Once I saw the starting grid with the tires, we were like, ‘Okay, we’re in a good place.’
“Still, you have to do it. If you get stuck behind Lundgaard on Reds, you’re done, your race is over, because you’ll have more tire deg, not get the benefit of jumping four seconds, then you’re always stuck in traffic on the same strategy as his. We knew we were on the right strategy for the 10 car, but you still had to do it on track.”
It was a bold gamble. An aggressive move.
But it paid off.
“Well, we were going to do a bigger gamble before warmup, which was starting on used Reds,” Palou said. “We knew that since practice, honestly, that we wanted to start on reds. I was surprised that no other people at the front started on reds. But it worked for us.”
O’Ward pretty much knew he couldn’t get his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet close enough to Palou to make a difference. At that point, he was racing to preserve second place from his charting teammate, Alexander Rossi, who started 10th and finished third.
It was O’Ward’s third second-place finish this season.
“Super stoked for the team,” said the driver from Monterrey, Mexico. “We put three cars in the top five. Fricking hard to do in this series with how competitive it is. Just stoked for everybody in the organization, for our 5 crew. We made our strategy really work, right? I just think today Palou and Ganassi were very, very strong, so we couldn’t quite get them there in the end.
“Historically this hasn’t been the best of tracks for us. So, this is awesome to see just the massive step forward we’ve taken here in race pace. Super happy to see that. Rolling with some great momentum into our Super Bowl.”
That Super Bowl, of course, is the 107th Indianapolis 500.
Palou finished second to Helio Castroneves in 2021 and O’Ward finished second to Marcus Ericsson last year.
Alexander Rossi, however, knows what it is like to win the Indianapolis 500. He won it in his first attempt in 2016, setting the stage for what has proven to be a fairly solid career in IndyCar.
Rossi finished third, his best finish yet since he made the big move from Andretti Autosport to Arrow McLaren in the offseason.
“Like Pato said, to get three cars in the top five is near on impossible these days,” Rossi said. “Arrow McLaren has done a phenomenal job all year. You can’t talk about how challenging it is to add a car in the off-season. They’ve done it with relative apparent ease. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes.
“Really proud to get the first podium for the team, the first one as part of Team Chevy. It was a good day. We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays.
“The pieces are coming together. I’ve got an awesome team, awesome teammates around me.”
Pole winner Lundgaard led 13 laps, but finished fourth. He was disappointed with the outcome, but happy that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had a rebound weekend after very slow start to the 2023 season.
Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist was the third driver from that team in the top five with a fifth-place finish.
Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was sixth.
There was just one caution for three laps and that was on lap 2 when David Malukas and his teammate Sting Ray Robb — teammates at Dale Coyne Racing — took each other out in Turn 7.
“That was a very short race for us,” Malukas said. “We did about a lap and a half. The unfortunate part about it is that it was teammates. Sting Ray was battling Romain Grosjean and they both seemed to brake late going into the corner and unfortunately, I was collected in it. No bad feelings towards Sting Ray.
“Now we move on to the 500 and I’m very confident in our car and the team heading into practice and qualifying next week.”
With the win, Palou got to experience victory lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Every win is special, honestly,” Palou said. “We’ve been close here. We had little bit of bad luck. I know in ’21 we had a failure when we were going for the fight for the win at the end. It was the first race that everything came perfectly, the strategy, the tires, the speed of the car, me obviously. I’m super proud. It’s a special place.
“You can feel that in the car just with the fans that we had already since practice one. There’s something about this place obviously. Even if it’s not the big one, it’s still special. So super proud of the first win of the season, first win with the American Legion, as well, and first win at the IMS. Couldn’t be better.
But in his mind, he wants to experience that thrill in the biggest race on the planet on May 28.
“I wanted to win at the IMS because it’s a special place, but it’s not like I’m relaxed,” he said. “I want to win the big one. We’ve been close. I know that being close is not enough. There’s been drivers trying for years and years. It’s a tough race to do — 200 laps, five pit stops. You need to have a perfect, perfect day there.
“We’ll keep working. We’ll keep digging. Hopefully comes. Yeah, it’s the big one that I’m waiting for, obviously without forgetting about the other ones. This means a lot today. I’m only focused on the GMR GP today.
“When it comes on Monday, I’ll be thinking on the Indy 500.”