LEXINGTON, OH - The summer of Alex Palou continued Sunday after the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series champion dominated the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio and won his third race in a row.
“The car was really fast [today]. It was great to be able to do everything that we planned and all the pit stops and everything was fine,” said Palou in the post-race press conference.
Palou’s victory is his fourth in the last five races. He has dominated the series since the beginning of May and now holds a 110 point lead over teammate Scott Dixon.
Dixon took over second place in the championship following teammate Marcus Ericsson’s lap one incident with fellow Swede Felix Rosenqvist. Ericsson’s last place finish dropped him from second in the championship to fourth. He now trails Dixon and Josef Newgarden in the overall title race.
With the seemingly insurmountable lead Palou now has in the points race, his championship rivals are starting to sweat. Even in an era where anything can happen in any given IndyCar weekend, Palou appears unstoppable.
“[Palou] definitely has a pretty big championship lead at the moment, which is going to be definitely tough to overcome,” noted Dixon.
Third place finisher Will Power currently sits 7th in the championship and doesn’t see Palou slowing down anytime soon.
“Obviously everyone needs to beat Palou, but that's going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in a championship this year,” said Power. “He is so on point in every respect, in every respect. He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series to be extremely fast, which there are a lot of guys that are, but then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel saving, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, the qualifying. It's bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”
Colton Herta and Graham Rahal started on the front row of the grid and looked like the two drivers to beat early on. The great qualifying performance and quick start was much needed for Rahal, who’s team has struggled immensely so far this season.
Unfortunately for Rahal, disastrous pit stops hindered a potential top-5 finish. While the Ohio native was disappointed settling for a 7th place finish, it did mark his best finish since the season opening race in St. Petersburg where he finished 6th.
“We win as a team and we lose as a team,” said Rahal to NBC Sports following the race. “I thought our car should have been further forward today but it’s a quick reminder we need to be better in every phase of the program.”
“Look, I’m disappointed, that’s a fact. It’s going to sting to think about it over the next couple of weeks.”
Herta once again showed impressive pace, but a pit road speeding penalty late in the race dropped him out of the top-10 and out of contention to win the race.
The misfortune for Herta and Rahal handed Palou the race on a silver platter. His pace outmatched that of his teammate Dixon and it seems like nothing can slow down Chip Ganassi’s No. 10 entry.
“In go-karts I had a good couple of races, but I don't think I had three big wins in a row or in the last five and always being up there,” said Palou. “This is the best moment of my career so far.”
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