LEBANON, Tenn. — Alex Palou’s poor qualifying run and pending engine penalty dramatically tightened the IndyCar championship battle the day before the 2024 season finale for the American open-wheel series at Nashville Superspeedway.
Palou, a 27-year-old Spaniard who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, has a 33-point lead over Team Penske’s Will Power — a 43-year-old Australian who won IndyCar crowns in 2014 and 2022 — and needs only to finish ninth on the 1.3-mile oval Sunday to win his third title in four years.
However, after Saturday’s slow qualifying run, his cushion will be deflated to a meager seven points based on “points as they run” when the race begins.
“Yeah, that wasn’t ideal,” Palou said after qualifying. He said the car was far more comfortable in morning practice and his No. 10 crew would try to figure out went wrong before Saturday’s final practice session. Rain limited the final practice to a 15-minute session, and Palou wound up 10th on the speed chart. Power was back in 19th.
“The first lap wasn’t so bad. The second lap was just really, really bad,” Palou said. “Not what we wanted. Not what we needed. But, yeah, we need to move from 24th tomorrow.”