Latest news with #Palou
Fox Sports
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Fans Can Vote for Alex Palou To Win ESPY as Best Driver
INDYCAR Three-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou was one of four competitors nominated in the Best Driver category of the annual ESPYS, and fans can vote for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver now. Palou earned his second consecutive series championship last season, adding to his crown in 2021 during his first season with CGR. He won two races and recorded 13 top-five finishes in 17 starts. The good times have continued to roll this season for Palou, who has won six of the first nine races. He earned his first oval victory in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on May 25 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Fans can click here to vote for Palou, who leads the series standings again this season. Voting is open until 5 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 16, three hours before the ESPYS will air at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Other nominees in the Best Driver category are NASCAR Cup Series driver Joey Logano and Formula One drivers Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. in this topic
Fox Sports
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
Test Patterns: Conor Daly on Point in Prep for Vital Iowa Weekend
INDYCAR There's no question the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is the race that every NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver circles on their calendar for its magnitude. But the Sukup INDYCAR Race Weekend on July 11-13 at Iowa Speedway isn't that far behind on that list of important events for one reason -- it's the only doubleheader on the 2025 schedule, so drivers can climb or fall in the standings on this .894-mile oval more quickly than any other race weekend. 'It feels like a double-points race because we have two races here,' Andretti Global driver Colton Herta said. That points reality placed even more importance on a team test June 25 at Iowa, with 21 of the 27 full-time drivers in the series turning laps to prepare for the Synk 275 on Saturday, July 12 and the Farm to Finish 275 on Sunday, July 13 (both races live on FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). This wasn't an Open Test, so no times and speeds were released, but it's still time for some itemized deductions: Daly Set for Breakthrough Win? Conor Daly's name appears near the top of any list of most likely first-time winners in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and that dream may be closer to reality after this test. Daly was the fastest overall in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet. There are more signs pointing upward for Daly at Iowa. One, his only career pole came at this track, in 2020. Two, his best races this season have come on ovals, finishing eighth in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and sixth earlier this month at World Wide Technology Raceway. He led 13 laps at Indy and 36 at WWTR. While Daly is beyond eager to break his 124-race winless drought, he hopes part of practice is reserved for getting rubber down on the higher line of the asphalt racing surface, allowing for more car setup and passing options. 'I love this track,' Daly said. 'P1 today is nice. A really good learning experience for us. Not really sure what to say when it comes to race trim. I think a lot of people were trying to run in packs. 'I think we can follow close, but I think we need our high-line session. We love our good high-line session, so when we come back here, let's run our high-line session the whole time. That would be sweet.' Palou Right in the Mix Three-time series champion Alex Palou finally broke through with his first career oval victory in May at the Indianapolis 500 but followed with a challenging next oval race June 15 at WWTR, battling back from going nearly a lap down to place eighth, 14.1018 seconds behind winner Kyle Kirkwood. So, was the Indy win an exception to the rule, or was the WWTR race an anomaly? Probably the latter, at least when looking at Palou's results at this test. The Spaniard was second fastest behind Daly in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Newgarden, Penske Searching for Speed Six-time Iowa winner Josef Newgarden said before yesterday's test that he and the No. 2 Team Penske crew had a dual focus on this test, splitting their minds on qualifying setup and long runs to simulate the race. That focus on qualifying may seem odd, considering a Team Penske driver has won the pole for 11 of the last 13 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races at Iowa. But Newgarden had a point: He started 22nd and 14th for the two races of the Iowa doubleheader last year, and it's tough to climb to the top amid all the traffic and chaos of this bullring starting that far back. Newgarden ended up finishing third and seventh, respectively. Pace has been an issue for Team Penske all season, as the team has no victories and two poles. That worrying trend continued at Iowa, as Newgarden ended up 11th and teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin 14th and 15th, respectively. All three Team Penske drivers have victories at Iowa, so they know how to find victory lane here. But the spoils go to the speedy, and Team Penske needs to find pace. Hopeful Test for Ericsson It's an understatement to say Marcus Ericsson's move to Andretti Global from Chip Ganassi Racing after the 2023 season hasn't gone as planned. He was 15th in points last season and is 21st at the halfway point of this season after three consecutive sixth-place championship finishes for CGR from 2021-23. This test provides hope for Ericsson, who has just one top-10 result this season. He ended up fourth on the speed charts and was the fastest of the three Andretti Global drivers, clocking in just ahead of teammate Herta. Ericsson has become a skilled oval racer since joining the INDYCAR SERIES in 2019 despite his road-racing pedigree, and top-five results – or even a victory – could turn his fortunes in a hurry at this event weekend. But he was 15th in points after his first season with Andretti last year, and he's 21st this season. MSR Keeps Rolling It's no longer just a nice story from a race weekend or two: Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian continues to step up this season into the pantheon of elite teams in the series, and this test did nothing to dispel that. Felix Rosenqvist was third and teammate Marcus Armstrong eighth on the speed charts in the team's Honda-powered cars. Rosenqvist is fourth in the series standings and Armstrong 11th, as MSR has joined the 'Big Four' of Chip Ganassi Racing, Arrow McLaren, Andretti Global and Team Penske as a team with two drivers in the top 11 of the standings. Combining the total points of each of those team's two drivers in the top 11 sees CGR first at 617, Arrow McLaren second at 503, Andretti Global third at 477, MSR fourth at 415 and Team Penske fifth at 387. It's been a breakthrough season for Mike Shank and Jim Meyer's team, and that shows no signs of stopping at Iowa. Solid Showing for PREMA First-year NTT INDYCAR SERIES team PREMA Racing shocked the racing world in May when its rookie driver, Robert Shwartzman, became the first rookie to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500 since 1983. It was the first oval race for the driver and team. PREMA's background is decades of success in global junior open-wheel series, all taking place on road courses. But its rapid assimilation to the subtlety and unique nature of finding speed on ovals continued at this test. Shwartzman ended up 12th, and veteran teammate Callum Ilott was 13th in the team's Chevrolet-powered cars.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
Inside Alex Palou's Strategy For His Latest IndyCar Series Victory
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing Honda celebrates after winning the NTT IndyCar Series XPEL Grand ... More Prix at Road America on June 22, 2025 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Gavin Baker/Lumen via Getty Images) Lumen via Getty Images Alex Palou is normally one of the most level-headed drivers in INDYCAR. But he admitted after winning his sixth race of the season in the June 22 XPEL Grand Prix at Road America he wondered if Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Barry Wanser's strategy was going to work. Two of the three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers were using a fuel saving strategy including Scott Dixon and Palou. Dixon, however, was two laps short of making it to the finish because Palou's final pit stop was two laps after Dixon took fuel on Lap 38 of the 55-lap race. The maximum laps a car could run on the 4.028-mile, 14 turn Road America road course is 15 laps, unless there is a caution period, which would allow this fuel strategy to work to reduce speeds and save fuel. Palou pitted on Lap 40 and made it to the distance. 'It was tough,' said Palou after his sixth IndyCar Series win of the season, including the 109th Indianapolis 500 on May 25. 'It was a crazy race. I don't know about how it looked from the outside, but from inside, it just felt like there was a lot going on. Lots of yellows, obviously, that were shaking how we were looking. 'We were looking really bad at the beginning, then really good, then terrible, then really good. It was tough to be up there. But yeah, we just had to stay focused on battling against the people that were on our strategy.' But it was a strategy Palou didn't think was going to work and the driver from Spain who is usually affable and cooperative, became downright 'Grumpy.' 'I didn't agree with Barry's strategy called. 'I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again,' Palou continued as he looked at Wanser. 'It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy. They made it look really good, and HRC that gave us the mileage we needed to gamble and to make it with that stop that we did.' 'Grumpy Palou' Wanser indicated that Palou's general attitude is pleasant and cooperative, so when he heard that his driver was 'grumpy' it got his attention. 'Well, he doesn't get grumpy, so when he is grumpy, I know he's really mad and questioning what we're doing,' Wanser said. 'But I don't know if you were following that race, we didn't know we were on the right strategy until like 10 to go. We're reacting based on what we think is happening. Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team manager Barry Wanser. (Photo by Geoff MIller/Lumen via Getty Images) Lumen via Getty Images 'There was obviously a lot of cautions this race. But we made some strategy changes on the tires during the race that we went against what we all agreed on before the race, so he wasn't very happy about that, but we saw what our competitors were doing and who we were racing, so we had to make that change to be able to stay with them and then beat them. And it worked out. 'Look, today was luck to be on the right strategy because it was hard. There were several different strategies going on.' The pivotal moment the team realized it made the right call came during a caution when the team had to decide to pit, or not to pit. 'I would say just that yellow that we were leading, we were leading, and we pitted, and some people stayed out,' Palou said. 'That was the moment that I would say gave us the win. I mean, we pitted from first. We were leading. 'We had still I would say five laps of fuel to make it, but it was not enough: in case there's another yellow, you're done. So that was a great call. 'I would say the only one that I was a bit like, oh, no, it was just when we went on the second stint on reds. That was only our set of alternates because yesterday I was pushing to try and get the pole, which we didn't get, and kind of put us on the back foot against Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin and everybody else that was not in the Fast Six. 'I knew it was going to help us during that stint, but it was going to hurt us a lot on the last stint. But honestly, the pace we had today in the 10 car was amazing, and we were able to save fuel even on primaries to be quite fast.' Wanser Questioned His Tire Strategy At The Beginning Wanser admitted one error in strategy was starting the race on Firestone Blacks instead of the Reds, which proved to be ideal for the hotter conditions at Road America despite being a softer compound. Firestone "Red" IndyCar Tires. (Photo by) Getty Images 'I'd say one of the pivotal moments is we should have never started on the Blacks,' Wanser said. 'It worked against us. Quite a few cars around us picked us off. But it ended up being the right call in the end. But if we were to do the race again, not knowing what we know, we probably should have started on the Reds. 'We actually declared primaries, and then other people got involved outside the 10 car stand. We thought about it. We were like, no, we're going to stay with primaries, and then last minute he decided again, maybe we're not making the right decision. 'Alex is a big part of the tire strategy; he's the one driving the car. He was like, all right, I think we need to start on the alternates, and when we set it in, it was like 10:01 but the window had closed at 9:56 or whatever, the 30-minute window. So even it accepted it, we knew, no way, it's not going to happen.' Wanser Knew It All Along As the laps were dwindling, and teammate Scott Dixon remained in the lead trying to stretch his final tank of fuel for 17-18 laps when 15 is the maximum without a caution period, Wanser assured Palou that Dixon would have to pit. Palou had made his final stop two laps after the Dixon, and although he needed to conserve fuel, his fuel number was much more doable. 'We really needed a yellow because we gave him a big fuel number,' Wanser explained. 'We kind of needed a yellow to help us. We got that yellow, but it wasn't enough for Scott and Alexander Rossi because they pitted two laps before us. So, we were already looking at a big number two laps after them, so you could imagine they needed a much bigger number than we did, so even the short yellow didn't help them.' Who Do You Trust? It all came down to a matter of trust between Palou and Wanser. 'He has more information than me, and when I was following Scott, I could see that he was not saving as much as I was,' Palou recalled. 'I was like, 'This guy is crazy; how is he going to do it?' 'But I didn't know. Like I don't have a lot of information. Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) driver holds his daughter Lucia and raises a finger as ... More the team lifts their Red Solo cups after winning the NTT IndyCar Series XPEL Grand Prix, Sunday, June 22, 2025, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Icon Sportswire via Getty Images "If it was another driver, I would have probably just focused on myself, but I know that Scott can make crazy stuff happen. 'I trusted Barry, but I was like, 'Man, if he gets a yellow, he's still P1 and we're not going to be able to pass him. We were still trying to get that first position on track just in case there was a four-lap yellow at the end and then he was still leading and ending up with a win.' With three different race strategies playing out during the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, second-place finisher Felix Rosenqvist was one of the few drivers at the end of the race that had plenty of fuel and could run full throttle. Second-Place Rosenqvist Had Plenty Of Fuel But Palou's fuel-saving strategy was too much to overcome, and Rosenqvist finished second, 2.1725 seconds behind the race winner. It was Rosenqvist's first podium finish in a points-paying race since finishing second in September 2023 at Portland International Raceway. 'Yeah, good memories from here,' Rosenqvist said afterward. 'I had my first win here. It's been a couple of good results here in the past. I felt the whole weekend we had good pace and in practice we were rolling well. Kind of messed up qualifying. Tried to do the carousel flat and I lost it, and I started P12. 'It wasn't ideal, but I knew we had good pace in the car. My Meyer Shank Sirius XM Honda was just on rails. There was a lot of strategies going on. We did two black stints in the beginning, and we held on pretty good, and especially in the restarts, it seemed like the blacks were pretty good, and they faded a bit when you got up to speed. But we capitalized on all those yellows, and I think that was to our advantage. 'Then at the end of the race we didn't have to save any fuel, and we had two new reds, and we were just doing qually laps every lap, and that's kind of when we ended where we ended. So, it was really good, and super proud of all the guys. 'It's a hot day out there. It was tough for everyone, pit crew, engineering, and computers and all that kind of stuff. Everything is running hot. Happy we made it to the finish.' But in this race, Palou had the right strategy because his fuel tank was good to the last drop. Alex Palou celebrates his Road America on June 22, 2025 in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. (Photo by Gavin ... More Baker/Lumen via Getty Images) Lumen via Getty Images
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
IndyCar Road America TV ratings dip following solid post-Indy 500 progress
The hope in IndyCar's jam-packed summer schedule with new exclusive media rights partner Fox was that momentum from one weekend would roll right into the next, creating a fly-wheel effect that would help network race audiences steadily grow and turn the sport's two-week stretch of average audiences above 1 million into a commonplace occurrence. But Sunday's down-to-the-wire thriller won by championship points leader Alex Palou – the two-time defending series champ's sixth win of the year – drew an audience of 781,000 in the early-afternoon time slot, marking Road America's least-watched IndyCar race on network TV since the track returned to the series' annual rotation in 2016. It comes off the back of post-Indianapolis 500 races at Detroit and World Wide Technology Raceway – the latter IndyCar's first-ever Sunday night primetime race – that averaged 1.061 million and 1.012 million, respectively. Why the notable drop? According to a Fox Sports spokesperson, news coverage of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East drew more than double the average audience (from noon to 6 p.m.) combined across CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsmax (4.214 million) than last year on the comparable Sunday afternoon (1.862 million) and last year's Road America race date that fell two weekends earlier in the month (1.99 million). In the racing world, IndyCar ran up against IMSA's six-hour endurance race at Watkins Glen, which kicked off just after noon – the first three hours of which aired on NBC, overlapping with the first 90 minutes of Fox's IndyCar race broadcast and roughly an hour or so of the actual racing action. The series gained a major theoretical boost with a more than two-hour rain delay to the start of NASCAR's Cup race at Pocono that was scheduled for a green flag start just after 2 p.m., but was bumped to 4:30 p.m., 45 minutes after Palou took the checkered flag. Amazon Prime continued to air-elongated pre-race coverage in the lead-up to the delayed race start, though one would imagine anyone who would've been torn between the two races airing at the same time would've switched over to IndyCar with the opportunity to do so. Sunday's IndyCar audience on Fox peaked at 934,000 from 3:30-3:45 p.m. as Palou hunted down teammate Scott Dixon and eventually inherited the lead after the former was forced to make one final pitstop. A close call: Scott Dixon's 'nothing-to-lose' strategy almost won at Road America. Why it almost worked, but didn't Through eight non-500 races on network TV, IndyCar's race audiences are averaging just a tick below 900,000 after Road America (894,250 to be exact). NBC's network race average from 2019-2024, excluding the pandemic-altered 2020 season, as well as 500 broadcasts, rain-delayed races and ones that went up against the NFL, came in at 998,342. In order to meet that average by the end of the 2025 IndyCar season, the remaining eight races themselves would need to average roughly 1.1 million. At this point in NBC's final season a year ago – when only four races outside the 500 had aired on network TV – those races had averaged 869,000 viewers per race, a mark that the 2025 campaign is up on by 2.9%. NBC's whole slate of six network races last year not including the 500, the Thermal exhibition and the finale up against the NFL delivered average audiences of 932,833 per race – a mark the closing stretch of eight races left this year would need to average 971,417 fans watching per race to match across the entire season. Insider: Pre-race decision left Alex Palou 'looking really bad.' How the IndyCar leader pulled off 6th win Through nine races this year, the average per-race audience for 2025 IndyCar all-network TV slate is up 33% year-over-year, according to Fox, with the caveats that last year had Long Beach and Detroit on cable instead of network, Thermal was an exhibition race and the cable race planned for Laguna Seca in 2024 was bumped from USA Network to CNBC due to a NASCAR rain delay, where the race grabbed an average audience of less than 200,000.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Chip Ganassi Drivers Pull Off Major Fuel Save En Route to Sixth Alex Palou Victory in 2025
While Chip Ganassi driver Scott Dixon was unable to pull off a ___ fuel save, with the attempt to pit for the final time with 18 laps to go, the effort helped lead to a win for his teammate Alex Palou. Palou pitted with 16 laps to go and was able to complete the cooldown lap after the race as several drivers that pitted at the same time stalled after crossing the finish line. Knowing that Dixon, even if he's an all-time great when it comes to saving fuel, would need to splash and go on the final lap, CGR was able to utilize Dixon's position in the lead. Palou drafted behind Dixon in the closing stint to save fuel and keep his buffer over Alexandar Rossi, who pitted on the same lap as Dixon. When Rossi went to the pits with three laps to go, Felix Rosenqvist, who seemed to be on the winning strategy until CGR pulled off the fuel save, moved to third. Rosenqvist grabbed his first podium with Meyer Shank and was just two seconds away from his second career win, the first one came at Road America in 2020 with CGR. Santino Ferrucci completed the podium, his first podium since he was DQ'd from third at the Streets of Detroit earlier this month. With Palou's sixth win on the season, the streak of just two winners in 2025 continues with Kyle Kirkwood taking Long Beach, Detroit, and Nashville. This is the first time since 1980 that two drivers have swept the first nine races of a season. Johnny Ruthersford and Bobby Unser's streak was broken that year in the tenth race when Michael Andretti won the Gould Grand Prix at Michigan International Speedway. Kirkwood narrowly missed the podium, finishing a second behind Ferrucci. With their three-place difference, Palou extended his championship to 90 points, and Kirkwood jumped to second in the points, ahead of McLaren's Pato O'Ward. While the race came down to three fuel strategies, those were set up through multiple early cautions, including David Malukas and Jacob Abel tangling on lap one. Malukas would rebound for a top ten finish in seventh behind Kryffn Simpson and Marcus Armstrong. Sting Ray Robb, Robert Shwartzman and Josef Newgarden all DNF'd. Newgarden's out was his third DNF of the year. You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
