INDIANAPOLIS — Alex Palou’s first win on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway fueled his second IndyCar Series title run a year ago.
He’s hoping another dominant victory in Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix produces a similar result — perhaps even a more monumental win in two weeks at the same site but on the historic 2.5-mile oval for the prestigious Indy 500.
The 27-year-old Spaniard beat his top two challengers off pit row on his final stop and outmaneuvered three-time race winner Will Power on the only restart of the day to beat Power to the yard of bricks by 6.6106 seconds. Christian Lundgaard finished third, more than eight seconds behind Palou on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile course.
“It’s tough, but it’s one of those races that you’re not really limited on the tires, so you can just go hard,” Palou said. “I would say we had a lot more advantage last year than this year, but I would still say the fact we can go 100%, pushing every single lap, maybe that’s why we see bigger differences.”
For Palou, it was another milestone moment in his fifth IndyCar season.