Instant Recall: XPEL Grand Prix at Road America

Fox Sports

5 days ago

INDYCAR
If Alex Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew are going to execute races as they did Sunday at Road America, winning another NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship is a foregone conclusion.
Ranking their six victories this season, including last month's Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, is difficult, but this latest one was massively impressive. Palou certainly had a fast car as he qualified on the outside of the front row, but he had to overcome a regrettable tire choice at the start of the race that dropped him to 14th, mid-pack contact, the fierce battles of two rivals and a fuel strategy that seemed unattainable.
But again, Palou found himself in victory lane, pushing his series lead to 93 points, the equivalent of two full races with eight races remaining.
The outcome of the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR had to be demoralizing to those closest to Palou in the pursuit of the Astor Challenge Cup. Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, for example, had another strong outing and seemed positioned to finished ahead of Palou. He finished fourth and still lost 18 points to the reigning series champion.
Two key moments in the track's famous Canada Corner saw Kirkwood ahead of Palou. In both cases, Kirkwood got caught battling Team Penske's Will Power only to see Palou scoot past. While frustrating for Kirkwood, those weren't the ultimate difference-makers in the 55-lap race.
Under caution on Lap 23, Palou's strategist, Barry Wanser, called the effective race leader to pit road for service. To almost everyone, including Palou, that seemed too early to make the second stop as Palou would need to average 16 laps in the final two segments to get to the checkered flag. Most thought 14 or 15 laps was the maximum the fuel could last.
Palou initially was frustrated by Wanser's decision.
'I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps,' the driver of the No. 10 SOLO Cup Chip Ganassi Racing Honda said.
Said Wanser: 'He doesn't get grumpy, so when he is grumpy, I know he's really mad and questioning what we're doing.'
As usual, Palou made the strategy work, using two caution laps to stretch 17 laps out of the ensuing segment. That left him 15 laps to get home, and home he got.
'We didn't know we were on the right strategy until like 10 (laps) to go,' Wanser said. 'We're reacting based on what we think is happening.'
If that was a gamble, it was a big one. Had Palou needed a late splash-and-go fuel stop, as teammate Scott Dixon did for being two laps short of the target, he likely would have finished on the tail end of the top 10 as Dixon did in ninth. That could have given Kirkwood about 27 points to the good.
Palou breathed a sigh of relief.
'We were looking really bad at the beginning, then really good, then terrible, then really good,' he said. 'It was tough to be up there (knowing how close the car was on fuel). We just had to stay focused on battling the people that were on our strategy.'
Kirkwood must wonder 'what if.' In addition to this opportunity to gain on Palou, the driver of the No. 27 Siemens Honda also is missing a similar number of points from the '500' after his car was deemed outside the rules in post-race inspection. Rather than finishing sixth that day in the spot he saw the checkered flag, he is credited with 32nd place, receiving only five points. Instead of trailing Palou by 93 points, his deficit could conceivably be half of that.
Those are the kind of breaks Palou and CGR keep getting – or making for themselves – and that's the reason they're in line for their third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years.
Next up: The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport on Sunday, July 6 (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
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