Alex Palou “more comfortable” after Portland win stretches IndyCar lead to 110 points

Alex Palou acknowledges that he feels “more comfortable” as he continues his quest for another IndyCar Series championship, extending his points lead to a commanding 110 points following a dominant victory at the Grand Prix of Portland.

The 29-year-old Spaniard entered the weekend with an 83-point cushion, but a commanding performance in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda allowed the reigning four-time series champion to widen the gap with only five rounds remaining in the season.

“I mean, yeah, more comfortable than when we came here,” Palou said, who now sits on six victories this season. “This was one of those weekends where we wanted to do good. I mean, we want to do good every single weekend. But we don’t know what’s going to happen at Markham. New track for everyone, new track for me. We don’t know what’s going to happen at DC.”

While the added breathing room provides peace of mind, Palou emphasized the importance of maximizing every opportunity before IndyCar visits unfamiliar venues later in the season.

“There’s still a lot of points to play,” Palou added. “It was important to maximize. If we had an opportunity to win, to win, instead of finishing second or anything like that. A win gives you a big, big amount of points. The same way that in the last two weekends we got a huge gap, someone else can do the exact same thing. So we need to keep on pushing.”

Palou earned the victory — his 25th career win, with three of those coming at Portland International Raceway — by leading 60 of the 110 laps. The critical moment came during the first round of pit stops, when Palou erased a gap to leader and pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist to pull off a clever overcut.

“We were like three, three and a half seconds back from Felix. Marcus (Ericsson) was in between,” Palou explained. “The overcut doesn’t make anything there. Like, you don’t lose three seconds on an out lap. You lose one, one and a half. You risk it to close the gap. As soon as Marcus pitted, just go on the back of his car and just try and make him either pit or make a mistake, or in case he was going to pit before us, just to make sure that we’re going to have one clean lap to go for it.”

“Once again, it doesn’t always work, because I was lucky that there was no traffic. I was lucky that my car was still handling super well,” Palou said. “But as soon as I could see that my car was so good, I started pushing, the lap time started going down, I knew if the pit stop was good, we’re going to get him. It was great.”

Despite sitting comfortably atop the standings with a lead equivalent to more than two full races, Palou noted that the team consciously avoids taking its current success for granted.

“Every day. Every day. Yeah, I just don’t give it for granted. I think nobody in the team does,” Palou said.

“So yeah, it’s not like once a year that you think about it. It’s like every single day when we talk about it. Normally I call him (Barry Wanser, Palou’s race strategist) after a race, ‘Man, who expected that?’ After Nashville, ‘Man, we’re so lucky to be in this position.’ Because we are. We’re lucky to have the full package. You don’t know if it’s going to end next weekend, if it’s going to end next year, in ’28. At some point it’s going to end. This cannot go forever.”

“I think that we’re doing a great job of, like, understanding how lucky we are. When I say ‘we’, I mean the team as well, everybody in the 10 car, CGR. I think that keeps us motivated.”

Source link