Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
MONTEREY, Calif. — Alex Palou didn’t have the right strategy last week at Toronto, but he had the best strategy Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The strategy? Just win, baby.
Alex Palou celebrates after winning the NTT INDYCAR Series Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
OK, it wasn’t that simple.
He did have the strategy he needed to dominate in leading 84 of the 95 laps to capture his eighth victory of the season. That’s the most for an INDYCAR driver since 2007, when Sebastien Bourdais won eight races.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver extended his points lead to 121 over Pato O’Ward, who finished fourth, with three races remaining.
“It’s never over until it’s over,” Palou said. “I think I proved that [with a mistake] at Mid-Ohio, and we have seen that previously as effectively.
“Truthfully, I might not commerce our factors for anyone. I might not commerce our place, and I might not ask for something extra or something much less. However it’s not accomplished till it is accomplished. We nonetheless must win it. We nonetheless must maintain our heads down and attempt to win extra races.”
Alex Palou celebrates his win at Laguna Seca
Palou doesn’t must win extra races, although. He simply must common a Sixteenth-place end over the ultimate three. He would clinch the title with a 108-point lead following the subsequent race in two weeks at Portland Worldwide Raceway, a street course the place Palou has two profession victories.
The ultimate two races come on the ovals at Milwaukee and Nashville.
If Palou wins at Portland or finishes second and earns a bonus level for the pole or main a lap, he would clinch the title it doesn’t matter what O’Ward does in that race. O’Ward is the one driver who mathematically has an opportunity on the title.
“It’s a tall job, however nonetheless mathematically doable,” O’Ward stated. “Is it seemingly? In all probability not, however we will carry on pushing. … We by no means actually received worse than fifth this month. So 5 races within the prime 5 and two of these being wins. That is fairly superior.
Pato O’Ward throughout INDYCAR’s race at Laguna Seca
“Portland’s additionally been very troublesome for us. So it is one other monitor, sort of like this one, the place hopefully we’ll have a very good qualifying after which simply attempt to have a very good race on from there.”
O’Ward matched his greatest end at Laguna. In some other season, the Arrow McLaren driver can be thought of to be having a stable 12 months.
“We’re second within the championship, however we’ve been the most effective of the remainder,” O’Ward stated. “The ten automotive [of Palou] has had a reasonably unbelievable season.”
Palou has gained the final two championships and three of the final 4. However this season, he has reached one other stage.
“Even when he makes a mistake, the group makes a mistake, they make it up someway, which I really feel like we’re all sort of struggling to do in a way,” stated O’Ward teammate Christian Lundgaard, who completed second on Sunday. “They’re there each single time. You need to give them kudos for being that aggressive each time, and so they’ve raised the bar.
Christian Lundgaard previous to the inexperienced flag at Laguna Seca
“I assumed I had a tremendously good begin to the season, and I used to be nonetheless approach behind the ten automotive [of Palou] within the championship after 5 races, and I had three podiums. The one distinction is he gained 4 out of these.”
Now he has eight of these. The file is 10 by A.J. Foyt in 1964 and Al Unser in 1970.
Palou thinks 10 is feasible and doesn’t thoughts speaking about it, in comparison with speaking about whether or not the championship is over.
“It appears that evidently it is quite a lot of work to make it, however I do not thoughts listening to that [possibility],” Palou stated. “Everytime you hear that you’re in an opportunity of constructing one thing that is so historic and so robust to do, it motivates us.”
There might need been some motivation after a Twelfth-place end at Toronto, the place the group’s technique when it got here to when to placed on the laborious and delicate tires ended up biting them. That was due to extra cautions than they’d predicted.
Palou had no points Sunday in main the ultimate 59 laps, together with holding off the sector on two restarts within the last 15 laps at certainly one of his favourite tracks, one the place he now has three profession victories.
“In all probability the quantity of laps I did on the simulator right here after I was a child helps,” Palou stated. “It was my favourite monitor after I was a child.
“I believe it is probably the most iconic — if not essentially the most iconic — street course that we’ve.”
Whereas Palou made it look straightforward, O’Ward, in ending fourth, embraced the wrestle.
“I used to be attempting to get absolutely the most out of the automotive. Each level counts. And simply capitalizing on folks’s errors,” O’Ward stated. “I had rather a lot quicker guys behind me.
“Our greatest hope when it comes to tempo was going to be a prime 10, however we salvaged the fourth. I felt very, very weak on the market. I simply could not get efficiency out of it.”
And Palou received most efficiency, simply as he has accomplished a number of instances this 12 months.
“It is loopy efficiency,” O’Ward stated. “He’s performing on the highest stage that anybody can ask him to do. He is actually been the category of the sector to date this 12 months and has been the previous few years.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years masking motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seashore) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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