INDIANAPOLIS — Already the face of IndyCar as a three-time sequence champion and probably the most dominant driver in 2025, Alex Palou will quickly have his face hooked up to the Borg-Warner Trophy because the winner of the 109th Indianapolis 500.
He grew to become the primary driver from Spain to win the Indianapolis 500 because the Chip Ganassi Racing driver from Barcelona discovered a lesson from Helio Castroneves in 2021 and put it to make use of within the closing laps of Sunday’s Indy 500.
The lesson that Castroneves used to defeat Palou and change into the fourth four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 was utilizing lapped vehicles to draft and pull the lead automobile ahead by simply sufficient that the second-place automobile couldn’t move.
The second-place automobile in 2021 was pushed by Palou.
4 years later, Palou remembered that lesson and used it on 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson of Andretti International.
“He was a tremendous trainer,” Palou mentioned of Castroneves. “It was an costly class, actually. Sure. I might have preferred to nonetheless win 2021.
“I might say there’s a part of luck, as nicely. Like you have to have the site visitors on the proper time, and sure, you want to have the ability to learn it, however all the pieces was falling to my method after which I needed to overtake Marcus, however I don’t know if he thought he was protected or if he was not pondering that site visitors was taking part in a giant function on the race or not, however yeah, glad that the 2021 class paid off.”
Palou bought his Ph.D. within the Indianapolis 500 from Professor Helio and continued his unimaginable streak of success within the NTT IndyCar Sequence by profitable for the fifth time within the first six races this season.
The one race he didn’t win, he completed second within the Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy Seaside in April.
Palou is taken into account a generational expertise, however he’s having fun with historic success and his best victory of all got here in Sunday’s Indy 500.
“It’s unimaginable,” Palou mentioned. “Actually, I believe I get lots of credit score since you see that I’m the one one driving the automobile. However there’s an enormous workforce behind that’s making me look excellent on monitor. We’ve got quick vehicles each single weekend, and that’s actually powerful to do right here in IndyCar, particularly these days.
“I used to be simply taking the possibilities that we’ve had thus far this season. Every time we’ve had the possibility to win, we’ve been in a position to execute. And that’s considering not solely the setup, however the methods, the pit stops that they did immediately as nicely.
“It’s unimaginable. And I do know, I’ve been telling you guys that I do know that this isn’t regular. However I’m glad that it didn’t finish immediately and that we bought the wave till the five hundred a minimum of.”
The closing laps have been a head-to-head battle with Ericsson, his former teammate when each have been at Chip Ganassi Racing.
The 2 drivers have large belief that one another would have a clear battle to the end.
“I used to be glad to battle in opposition to Marcus,” Palou mentioned. “He’s very gifted. He’s a tremendous driver. I knew that he was going to be truthful, like me. Like he’s going to go for it. He’s going to go to the restrict, however he’s not going to go loopy.
“I knew it was going to be a great battle in opposition to him, and yeah, I simply wished to complete first as a result of he already has one, so he can wait a few years to get one other one.
“However yeah, it was cool to play in opposition to Marcus.”
Palou additionally returned decorum and dignity to victory lane on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by not dumping milk on himself. That was a practice that Castroneves started in 2001.
“There’s been lots of people that had informed me not to try this, after which I used to be like, okay, possibly I get too excited, and I do it,” Palou defined. “I used to be shut, however then I believed, ‘oh, man, I’m going to be with the milk throughout me for like the following 5, six hours.’
“However there’s been lots of die-hard followers which have informed me that, and I respect that. Ricky Davis, my crew chief, informed me that when, and I used to be like, all proper, I’ll attempt to not do it.
“I’ve to let you know; it was one of the best milk I’ve ever had. It was tremendous candy. I don’t know in the event that they put something in it. But it surely tastes so nicely, and I didn’t pour it into my head. I hope it’s OK with you, as nicely.”
From a season standpoint, Palou his already in comparison with the likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Alex Zanardi and different nice drivers who’ve had dominant seasons.
By profitable the Indianapolis 500, he’s now in even higher firm as a winner of the most important race on the earth.
“It’s wonderful to listen to that stuff,” the winner mentioned. “I by no means thought that I might have my identify — that someone would say my identify round these names. They don’t seem to be, like, legends of IndyCar, they’re legends of motorsport worldwide.
“Yeah, I don’t suppose that we’re with them but. They’ve much more work completed than us. But it surely’s for positive very encouraging to listen to my identify round them.”
