Alex Palou returns back to victory lane in INDYCAR. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Chip Ganassi Racing drew first blood on the anticipated and intense rivalry with Arrow McLaren during the Month of May at Indianapolis.
Alex Palou made a daring opening lap move to get by pole sitter Christian Lundgaard for early command. As the race unfolded, long runs reigned supreme for the Spaniard as he won Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix in convincing fashion over Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi.
Leading 52 of 85 laps with a margin of victory of 16.8006 seconds, nobody was able to catch Palou once he was out front. Certainly, Palou’s fifth career INDYCAR victory boosted his morale as he will enter the 107th Indianapolis 500 as the championship leader by six points over O’Ward.
“We knew we had a fast car honestly since practice, since we were all off the trailers,” said Palou. “The car was really, really good. I was comfortable. We missed a little bit on pole yesterday, but we knew we had a fast car.
“In the warmup, we found that we were struggling a little bit more than others on the alternate tires, so that’s why we went on red, black, black, black at the end to try to get the best from what we had, and it worked. Perfect day for the 10 car.”
Not a single car in sight for Palou. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
When asked about battling Lundgaard and knowing he began the race on the softer red compounds (Palou began with alternates), the charge on Lundgaard was important as the grand prix circuit places a premium on track position.
Although Palou did not win the immediate battle into Turn 1, he was able to get past Lundgaard several corners later and as the race progressed. From that point on, Palou never looked back.
“We knew starting on the alternates we needed to go hard and try and get the lead as fast as possible. I think the alternates had two, three laps that they were a lot better. Afterwards, you kind of got stuck behind,” Palou explained.
“I tried in Turn 1. He went really aggressive. It was right, it was perfect what he did. I wanted it to be something easier. We were able to get it on the last corner. That was good.”
Opening lap madness between Palou and Lundgaard. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
Once again, O’Ward was a bridesmaid in terms of reaching the top step of the podium as Saturday’s race marked his third runner-up finish in five races this season. He knew Palou was tough to beat and had to be cautious on his battles, notably how he managed his Firestone tires and dealing with lapped traffic.
“I was happy with my strategy. I just think right when we were I believe second-to-last stint, I just blew too much push to pass. I could have used some more to keep Palou behind us, which I think we might have been able to do,” said O’Ward.
“You got to pick your battles. I was like, You know what, at this point of the stage of the race. I think that was the defining moment of the race because a yellow never came out. If a yellow did come out, I would have been in very big trouble.
“I just played it safe, yeah, (I) chose my battles cautiously. Super happy, content with the solid points that we got today.”
Despite the glaring statistic, O’Ward was genuinely pumped on the result, the organization’s superb race and being able to produce a strong result on the road course.
“Super stoked for the team. Just stoked for everybody in the organization, for our 5 crew,” said O’Ward. “We made our strategy really work. I just think today Palou and Ganassi were very, very strong, so we couldn’t quite get them there in the end.
“Historically this hasn’t been the best of tracks for us. So this is awesome to see just the massive step forward we’ve taken here in race pace. Super happy to see that. Rolling with some great momentum into our Super Bowl.”
O’Ward finished second for the third time in 2022 and will enter the Indy 500 second in points. (Photo: Steve Conley | The Podium Finish)
Rounding out of the podium was Rossi, who got his first podium since joining Arrow McLaren over the off-season. He felt the pieces coming together for the No. 7 squad. Perhaps more elated from his result was the three-car organization finishing in the top-five with Felix Rosenqvist finishing fifth and the trio running together throughout the day.
“To get three cars in the top five is near on impossible these days,” said Rossi. “Arrow McLaren has done a phenomenal job all year. You can’t talk about how challenging it is to add a car in the off-season. They’ve done it with relative apparent ease. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes.
“Really proud to get the first podium for the team, the first one as part of Team Chevy. It was a good day. We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays. The pieces are coming together. I’ve got an awesome team, awesome teammates around me.”
Alexander Rossi caps off an Arrow McLaren top-five day with a podium. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
A race known for chaos and costly incidents, the 85-lap race was relatively tame. As a matter of fact, the sole caution of the entire race unfolded on the opening lap of the race involving the Dale Coyne Racing organization.
Coming into the seventh turn, a rookie mistake by Sting Ray Robb ruined his and teammate David Malukas’ afternoon and wound up at the bottom of the running order.
Malukas was disappointed on the early exit, more so that it was his teammate who ended up causing the consequential incident.
“I just went left and got smashed in the rear,” said Malukas. “It was unfortunate and seemed like he was going on the inside of (Romain) Grosjean. Went too deep and was at a completely different part of the track and clipped my rear.”
Now with the grand prix etched into the record books, the ultimate game begins at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All the focus shifts on the Indy 500 for the sixth round of the championship trail on Sunday, May 28. But first, the field must qualify for the 500 as 34 drivers are fighting for 33 spots next weekend at IMS.
For Palou, leading the championship going into the 500 provides joy to him and hopes to extend his points lead by improving one more spot from his runner-up effort in 2021, a race where he was passed by eventual four-time 500 champion Helio Castroneves with two laps to go.
In the meantime, Palou will celebrate the win and have his traditional chicken meal. Then come Monday and Tuesday, he will focus on bringing Chip Ganassi Racing back-to-back 500s and the sixth for the organization.
“Until now, I was only focused on the GMR Grand Prix. I just wanted to do the best we could here. Tomorrow we will rest. On Monday we’ll go back to work,” said Palou.
“Honestly with how the schedule is, it looks like we have a lot of track time. We actually don’t have as much as the engineers think, because they want you to try an amazing list of setup stuff to try to get the best car. We just try and do small work each day, try and get our targets, then race day is suddenly there.”
Palou hopes to take the checkered flag in the Indy 500 after finishing second in 2021. (Photo: Steve Conley | The Podium Finish)
2023 GMR Grand Prix Results
- 10 – Alex Palou
- 5 – Pato O’Ward
- 7 – Alexander Rossi
- 45 – Christian Lundgaard
- 7 – Felix Rosenqvist
- 9 – Scott Dixon
- 2 – Josef Newgarden
- 8 – Marcus Ericsson
- 26 – Colton Herta
- 15 – Graham Rahal
- 28 – Romain Grosjean
- 12 – Will Power
- 21 – Rinus VeeKay
- 27 – Kyle Kirkwood
- 11 – Marcus Armstrong (R)
- 3 – Scott McLaughlin
- 29 – Devlin DeFrancesco (-1 lap)
- 77 – Callum Ilott (-1 lap)
- 20 – Conor Daly (-1 lap)
- 30 – Jack Harvey (-1 lap)
- 78 – Agustin Canapino (R) (-1 lap)
- 06 – Helio Castroneves (-1 lap)
- 14 – Santino Ferrucci (-5 laps)
- 55 – Benjamin Pedersen (R) (-6 laps)
- 60 – Simon Pagenaud (Mechanical)
- 18 – David Malukas (Contact)
- 51 – Sting Ray Robb (R) (Contact)
