Alex Palou Tallies Third Consecutive Win, Dominates Honda Indy 200

Alex Palou may want a turkey after earning his third consecutive win in the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

LEXINGTON, Ohio – In the case of Alex Palou and his No. 10 American Legion Dallara Honda team, when it is your season, it is simply your season.

The 26-year-old Spaniard added to an already sparkling season with his dominant performance in last Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Before the 80-lap race, Palou won the GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix circuit, the Detroit Grand Prix and Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.

Much like his 2021 NTT INDYCAR Series championship season, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver has been the consistent, fast and rarely putting a foot wrong. Even when he encounters problems like in this year’s Indianapolis 500, he is able to bounce back as evident with his fourth-place result.

Entering last Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio with a savage average finish of 3.5, Palou was ready to sharpen his knives once more. Starting fourth in the 27 driver field, the seven-time INDYCAR race winner wasted little time to assert himself into the picture.

While the first 26 laps of the race were led by pole sitter Colton Herta, Palou’s decision to opt for the black primaries paid dividends during their first pit stop. Initially taking the lead on Lap 28, Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon briefly took command a lap later.

However, the race was essentially in Palou’s hands once he took the lead on Lap 31. Save for the last pit stop cycle between Laps 54 to 56 for the frontrunners, Palou was the man to beat at Mid-Ohio.

Like Starship sang, “Nothing’s gonna stop us now.” (Photo: Logan Skidan | The Podium Finish)

About the only impediment for Palou in last Sunday’s race was lapped traffic, particularly with rookie Benjamin Pedersen’s questionable blocks at the midpoint of the race.

Regardless, that was not going to meddle with an otherwise trademark dominant victory. On this occasion, Palou drove to a convincing 5.0242 second victory over Dixon, leading 48 of 80 laps.

Even if it was a decisive triumph, Palou was genuinely jubilant to win his first Mid-Ohio race, especially with his engine manufacturer sponsoring the race.

“All right! So third win in a row for the No. 10 Honda,” Palou said. “It was super special to win here in Ohio. We’ve been good here in the past (finishing second in 2022) and it’s a special weekend for Honda obviously.

“We had all the power and fuel mileage we needed to make it work. And our strategy – a long first stint so we could run really fast the rest of the day. We did it! Now we just need to keep it going.”

Even six-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Scott Dixon had no answers for Palou and company. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

Dixon may have come up a spot short of his first win of the 2023 season. Still, he tipped his cap to Palou and his team on sustaining their incredible momentum.

“It’s not just Alex, but Julian, the whole 10 car group are just doing a phenomenal job. Even with Barry as well,” Dixon said. “It’s never a single person. The effort is big I think on all the cars in Chip Ganassi right now, but they’re firing on all cylinders.”

Despite racing for the same Ganassi umbrella, Dixon observed how Palou and his team will be the ones to beat in the final eight races of the year.

“It’s hard, he said. “I think we had a pretty good race today, but obviously we still didn’t have enough to overcome that. I think had a few things changed, same as with Will, same as anybody out there, could have been a bit more racier. Yeah, it’s going to be tough to beat.”

Power recognized the intangibles that are in Palou’s favor this year. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | the Podium Finish)

Power, who rounded out the podium finishers, recognized how Palou and the No. 10 team have covered all the bases in terms of another title contending effort.

“Obviously, everyone needs to beat Palou, but I don’t think — that’s going to be a very tough challenge to beat him in a championship this year. He is so on point in every respect, in every respect,” Power said.  “He is not missing a thing, which is very difficult in this series to be extremely fast, which there are a lot of guys that are.

“But then being able to do all the disciplines as well plus the intricacies of fuel save, tire conservation, in-and-out laps, the qualifying. It’s bloody hard to have that all nailed, and he is doing it.”

No matter the reason or catalyst behind Palou’s sensational 2023 season, the former series champion pointed to his team and equipment, not himself, as the reasons for winning at Mid-Ohio, his third consecutive victory in the past month.

It was a hard day’s effort for the Mid-Ohio podium finishers of Palou, Dixon and Power. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

“I had a good car and good strategy, honestly,” Palou said. “We’ve got a really fast car, (but) we knew we needed to try something different to the guys starting up front. That’s why we started on primary (tires). Everything went well. The strategy, the pit stops and our pace was pretty good.”

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Race Results