Alex Palou claims Mid-Ohio pole, as others stare at championship that could 'start drifting very fast'

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

LEXINGTON, Ohio — Despite a 93-point gap to the two-time defending series champion and runaway title leader at the 2025 IndyCar season's halfway point, Kyle Kirkwood came to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course still feeling he was in the game.
But the driver sitting second in points through nine races and the other driver in the paddock to win this year not named Alex Palou knew on Friday ahead of the weekend-opening practice that the clock was beginning to tick on whittling down the deficit to the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.
Though he said it's not yet time in the title fight to dictate his team's in-race strategy on what Palou isn't doing, finishing ahead of the driver who's won six times already through nine races this year is becoming paramount to maintaining any hope in the race for the Astor Cup. More than ever, it's about execution and maximizing speed and tracks where Andretti Global has it in spades.
'We need to get good finishes at places like this,' Kirkwood told IndyStar on Friday, referencing the track where Palou is yet to finish off the podium in his four starts with Chip Ganassi Racing, including a win in 2023 and a runner-up from pole a year ago. 'I'd say the only think we're focused on with (Palou) is we know he's really good at road courses.'
Saturday afternoon, Palou yet again proved exactly that, snagging his third pole of the season (no other driver has more than one) and the ninth of his IndyCar career. Ahead of this weekend, Palou has won six of the eight previous poles, not including his exhibition victory a year ago at The Thermal Club where he led the field to green.
And yet, in the wake of his experience a year ago, where Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward started alongside Palou on the front row and watched on as the race's polesitter opened up a six-second lead in the first stint, only to be able to eat up virtually all that deficit in the second stint and then jump Palou in the final pit exchange, Palou said Saturday his starting spot isn't nearly as important as the overall performance of the car he'll wield.
'It's one of those tracks where you think it's huge (to get pole), and it's a very, very big advantage, but it's not one of the most. For sure it's good, but I think a fast car or a fast pace, car and driver, is more beneficial,' he said. 'The other years, I've never started on pole, and we were still able to make it on pace.
'I like where we start for sure, but I know it's just going to make it easier the first lap, hopefully.'
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Palou leads IndyCar in average starting position (4.2 after his pole Saturday) by more than two spots (Colton Herta is closest at 6.8). As so often has been the case this year, the IndyCar points leader will start Sunday with a multi-row gap to all his closest championship challengers, with Kirkwood narrowly missing out on a Fast Six appearance and settling for seventh and O'Ward (third in the championship, starting 15th Sunday), Felix Rosenqvist (fourth; 16th) and Scott Dixon (fifth; ninth) a ways further back.
After a rough stretch of five races, including 24th last time out at Road America, that followed his three consecutive podiums early in the season, Christian Lundgaard finds himself 158 points back of Palou in sixth, meaning barring a truly historic gap from the points leader, his hopes of title contention have disappeared, despite starting with Palou on the front row Sunday.
With perennial front-runners like Team Penske's trio starting a ways' back Sunday (Josef Newgarden 18th, Scott McLaughlin 21st and Will Power 22nd) and the addition of 10 laps to the Mid-Ohio race length, Sunday's action is bound to be a high-intensity affair at a track where early yellow flags are more than common. Add in a pair of unexpected second-year drivers making their first (Kyffin Simpson) or second (Nolan Siegel) Fast Six appearances in their careers, and the combination of veterans trying to work their way up and young guys attempting to hold them back could make for some fireworks and perhaps some surprise results after the checkered flag falls.
In that sense, at least, Palou being able to start ahead of the fray could be a saving grace, he said.
'Racing at the front is kinda a different animal,' Lundgaard said. 'As soon as you're starting to check out, it's the small details that matter. Some of the (younger drivers) haven't been exposed to that in the past, and that's why I think you see the veterans always kind of making their way forward in the race, even if they're having a bad qualifying.'
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O'Ward, who sits 111 points back of Palou at third in the championship entering this weekend, said Friday he knows a track like Mid-Ohio that he counts as one of his best is pivotal to his title hopes, knowing that tracks like Toronto, Laguna Seca and Portland — all where he's yet to stand on a podium — loom ominously in the distance.
'We had pretty sporadic wins last year and are yet to have one this year, so this month is going to be huge with the championship,' O'Ward said. 'There's only three more races after this month, so this will be a big tell. If Palou wins another two (races) this month, they should just give him the championship.
'There's some challenging tracks coming up for us and some good ones as well, so if we can somehow find a way to get on the winning train here, I think it could be pretty big for our championship. But if (Palou) keeps finishing on the podium every race, those chances will start drifting very fast.'