After finishing seventh in Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway, Alex Palou’s NTT IndyCar Series championship lead shrank from 101 points to 74. Palou only needs a 55-point gap after next Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland to clinch his second IndyCar title in three years.
Palou’s worst days in 2023 have resulted in two eighth place finishes. In fact, dating back to Palou’s dominant win at Laguna Seca in 2022, Sunday’s result marks the 16th consecutive top-10 finish for the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, a statistic that Palou did not even know.
“It’s tough because you have some races that everything goes amazing and you have some races that you have an engine penalty and you cannot do much,” Palou said. “Yeah, it’s good that we can bring some good results to the team and now at least we know that we’re going to keep the championship in the organization, so it couldn’t be better.”
After Josef Newgarden’s wall contact late in the race, that meant that only Scott Dixon is still mathematically eligible to challenge Palou for the 2023 championship. As for the engine penalty, Palou started Sunday’s race in 14th place after being assessed an engine change penalty on Sunday morning. Still, Palou managed to climb his way to seventh, bringing the championship more into focus and giving Palou more and more confidence ahead of the final two races of the 2023 season.
Palou has victories at the final two tracks on the IndyCar calendar. In 2021, Palou won at Portland en route to his first IndyCar crown. Last season, the Spaniard overcame an engine change penalty to thrash the field at Laguna Seca, winning by nearly 31 seconds despite starting 11th on the grid.
“Heading to Portland and Laguna couldn’t be better, honestly,” Palou said. “It’s great that we’ve been really good obviously with two wins there in the last two years, but it’s going to be tough. Honestly, I’m glad that we have that gap. Hopefully we can bring the championship home for the #10 car.”
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It would take a miracle to take the championship from Palou’s grasp at this point. Then again, anything can happen in IndyCar.
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