The Inside Line IndyCar Podcat: Alex Palou wins the Indianapolis 500
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Forbes
IndyCar's Alex Palou Goes ‘Mushroom Hunting' As He Nears Another Title
It's not a matter of if Alex Palou is going to win a third-straight NTT IndyCar Series Championship, his fourth since 2021, it's a matter of when. It could happen as early as Sunday, August 10 in the Grand Prix of Portland. With three races remaining, the Chip Ganassi Racing star from Barcelona, Spain enters the race at Portland International Raceway with a 121-point lead over the only other driver in contention for the championship, Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward. If Palou has a 108-point lead over O'Ward after Sunday's race, he clinches the championship. There are a variety of mathematical possibilities for that to happen, but in its simplest form, 108 is the magic number for Palou. Alex Palou's Winning Form Already an eight-time winner in IndyCar this season including the 109thIndianapolis 500 on May 25, Palou could achieve history if he wins two of the remaining three races. That would be IndyCar's all-time single-season victory record of 10 set by AJ Foyt in 1964 and equaled by Al Unser in 1970. One more victory would tie him with Mario Andretti's nine wins in 1969. If Palou wins all three, he will close the season as the winningest single-season driver of all-time with 11 wins in 2025. So, what did Palou do in the Firestone Fast Six qualifications at Portland? He went 'Mushroom Hunting.' Late in the session that would determine the Verizon P1 Award at Portland, Palou was on a very fast qualifying lap when he lost control of his No. 10 DHL Honda entering Turn 10. Palou tried to regain control, but when the car went through the grass he ended up nose-first in the tire barrier. The damage to the Chip Ganassi Racing car was minimal, but it ended Palou's attempt at the pole. 'Happy that we had pace, obviously not happy that I went looking for mushrooms there in Fast Six,' Palou said afterwards. 'I tried a little bit too hard. Just lost the car. I don't know if I impeded anybody. I'm sorry if I did. 'We wanted to fight for pole. It's good that we're starting in the top six tomorrow.' I had a chance to asked him what kind of mushrooms Palou was looking for, and he said, 'Portobello. 'But I didn't find any,' he said. Palou, of course, has a chance to find much more than mushrooms if he ends up with a margin of 108 points or more after the Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday. He would continue an unbelievable season for the ages in IndyCar and continue the 'Era of Alex.' Christian Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren was the Verizon P1 Award winner as the fastest qualifier, but he will actually start seventh because of a six-grid position penalty for going over his season allotment of Chevrolet engines. Instead of starting first, Lundgaard will start seventh. That moved Arrow McLaren teammate O'Ward into the pole position, although he is not credited as the pole winner. It also moves Palou up on the grid from sixth to fifth. Lundgaard was behind Palou when he made his rare mistake and was asked if he actually did a 'double-take' to make sure the near perfect driver had actually made a mistake. 'Well, I did see the yellow flag when I was going into turn 10, I wasn't really paying attention to who it was, just making sure it wasn't going to be a red flag,' Lundgaard recalled. 'When I came around, I saw he (Palou) was reversing. 'The only thing I was really thinking about was make sure I keep these tires clean for the next lap.' Palou explained that he did not feel his car getting squirrelly just before the going off course, and said it was a function of locking up the tires. 'The car felt like it accelerated instead of braking,' Palou explained. 'It was a small mistake. 'I think we were all very close to having fast time. It was about putting the lap together. I think we saw that in Q1 and Q2, that everybody's like super close. That's why I just tried to push a little bit more. I saw that in Q2 they had a little bit more pace than me. 'I just wanted to give everything we had.' The temperature for Sunday's race is Portland is expected to exceed 95 degrees, which could tax the drivers and make the racing course slippery from the heat. 'As of today, I think we have a great car,' Palou said. 'I can't wait.' But Palou may tone down the aggressiveness, at least at the start of the race as every driver in the 27-car field tried to get through the difficult Turn 1 portion of the road course without calamity. 'It's tough,' Palou said. 'I think everybody plays it by how we get the start, the position you're in. I think mostly everybody in the Fast Six is OK by having the first lap like that. But there's always gaps and people go for it. 'I don't know how I'm going to take it. Depends on if there's a gap or not.' As for O'Ward, Palou's 'Mushroom Hunt' created a very slight opportunity, but the driver from Monterrey, Mexico realizes his shot at a championship is nearly insurmountable. 'I'll be thinking winning the race,' O'Ward said. 'The points will take care of themselves, yeah.' As for Palou, is he thinking of playing it safe and banking the points, or continuing his season for the ages with another victory? 'I think it depends,' Palou said. 'I know that by winning the race I can win both things. That's obviously the goal. 'I think everybody's going to try and win the race tomorrow. 'I think we need to see. I'm not going to drive differently just because we have a chance. As long as we finish the year with the championship at home, that's the goal, right? 'If we can get it tomorrow, great. If we can't, it's okay. But I think knowing that by winning the race we can clinch it here, that's what we're shooting for.' Instead of hunting for mushrooms, Alex Palou can find his racing 'Pot of Gold' with a fourth career IndyCar Series Championship in just five seasons.
Indianapolis Star
13 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
'This juices it up for all you fans': Pato O'Ward starts out front at Portland with narrow title hopes
PORTLAND – Pato O'Ward continues to insist IndyCar's two-man championship showdown is over for all intents and purposes. And yet, if you were putting together a script for Sunday's third-to-last race in hopes of igniting a drama-filled afternoon, the front rows of IndyCar's starting grid for this weekend's race at Portland International Raceway couldn't be drawn up any better. In top starting spot, headed toward the most treacherous Turn 1 on the IndyCar calendar, is O'Ward, 121 points back of runaway championship leader Alex Palou and needing to make up at least 14 points to hold onto a mathematical shot at the Astor Cup following Sunday's checkered flag and a minimum of 24 should he hope to still have a chance with two races to go that doesn't involve Palou missing one of the final two races. After an over-zealous run in the closing minutes of Saturday's Fast Six, Palou sent his No. 10 Honda into the tires in Turn 12, leaving him to qualify sixth, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver's worst qualifying performance at a track where he won in 2021 and 2023 and took runner-up a year ago. And yet, he'll advance one spot to 5th on Sunday's grid, as O'Ward teammate Christian Lundgaard snagged his first pole of the year on Saturday but was forced to take a six-spot grid penalty due to an unapproved engine change made between Practices 1 and 2, leaving him to start ever so curiously immediately behind Palou in 7th. Presuming the Danish driver, who sits 5th in the championship with three races to go and aspires to be a spot or two higher by the end of the season, doesn't purposefully turn into a human bowling ball as his No. 7 Chevy barrels toward Turn 1, he, at minimum, could make things noticeably difficult for his teammate's title challenger. But does Palou expect a borderline overzealous lunge from behind? Is Lundgaard willing to play gunner for O'Ward at the risk of ruining his shot at a 3rd-place championship finish? Sparks could come to a head rather quickly come Sunday's green flag. 'It's tough. I think everybody plays it by how we get that start with the position you're in. I think mostly everybody in the Fast Six will be okay by having those spots for the first lap, but there's always gaps, and people go for it,' Palou said of his inside starting spot on Row 3 for Sunday, a race where merely finishing runner-up would clinch his third consecutive IndyCar title and fourth overall with two races still to go, and where a win would keep his hopes alive to reset the sport's single-season wins record. Insider: How Alex Palou can clinch fourth IndyCar championship at Portland 'I don't know how I'm going to take it. Depends on if there's a gap or not,' he continued. 'I know that by winning the race, I can win both things. That's obviously the goal, and I think everybody's going to try and win the race tomorrow, but we need to see. 'I'm not going to drive differently just because we have a chance. As long as we finish the year with the championship at home, that's the goal, right? If we can get it tomorrow, great. And if we can't, it's okay. But I think knowing that by winning the race we can clinch it here, that's what we're shooting for.' On Friday, O'Ward, told IndyStar he has his sights set on locking up a runner-up finish in the championship – what would be a career-best for the 26-year-old Mexican driver – and that any opportunity for such a mindset to allow for his longshot title odds to remain alive would merely be 'extra gravy on those mashed potatoes, because it doesn't really depend on what we do. It depends on if (Palou) is lucky or not.' In short, he's not about to roll the dice on a longshot strategy to try and force a win that's likely not in the cards in hopes of preserving his minuscule chances for another couple weeks. Max points is the focus for the driver who's won twice in 2025 and remains the only challenger Palou with a mathematical shot at the title up against a driver who's on one of the sport's best modern-day campaigns. Focusing forward, inward: Despite looming IndyCar title battle, Alex Palou, Pato O'Ward focused on themselves at Portland 'This juices it up for all you fans, but this guy's pretty much won (the championship) already. I know they're making a big deal out of this, the championship, but we're (so far) back,' O'Ward said Saturday after qualifying. 'He has got to have the worst luck he's ever had in his career, just like the best luck he's had in his career so far this year, in order for us to keep this alive. 'We're focusing on our car, on our end, and we'll see where we can capitalize. I'll be thinking about winning the race, and the points will take care of themselves.' And Lundgaard, his teammate, has said repeatedly this weekend he plans to do the same, swatting down any idea he could take on a No. 2 driver role – ala Formula 1 – to try and be O'Ward's wingman and either shadow Palou to try and take away points from the season-long championship leader with O'Ward on a separate strategy, or roll the dice on a longshot one as O'Ward attempts to mirror Palou and come out on top. Details: IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland qualifying, starting lineup, time, TV, schedule 'Ultimately, I'm fighting for my own championship. That's where my priorities lie,' said Lundgaard, who sits 19 points out of 4th -place (Kyle Kirkwood) and 34 back of 3rd-place (Scott Dixon). 'If I have a chance of passing Alex, I will, but it's not to help Pato. At the end of the day, that's not how we race. 'If you're a lap down, sure, make (Palou's) life hard, but I don't think any of us want to race that way, and at the end of the day, we're all competitors, and I'm still racing for something just as (Pato's) still racing for something. So I wouldn't say I'm going to give up everything and say, 'Hey, I'm at your disposal.''
Fox Sports
14 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Pato O'Ward To Lead INDYCAR Field To Green, Alex Palou Eyes Title From Fifth
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Pato O'Ward To Lead INDYCAR Field To Green, Alex Palou Eyes Title From Fifth Published Aug. 9, 2025 5:34 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link PORTLAND, Ore. — Alex Palou joked that he went "looking for mushrooms" during the final qualifying session Saturday at Portland International Raceway. Hey, the way he has cruised through the season, he deserved some time to go off the grid. Palou didn't make that off-course excursion on purpose and will start fifth Sunday, as he attempts to clinch the 2025 INDYCAR title with two races remaining. The driver he is battling, Pato O'Ward, will start from the pole. Alex Palou will start from fifth at Portland. But O'Ward didn't technically win the pole Saturday. His Arrow McLaren teammate, Christian Lundgaard, won the pole with the fastest time in the final round of qualifying but has a six-spot grid penalty for an engine change earlier in the Portland weekend. That means O'Ward doesn't get the one bonus point for the pole and remains 121 points behind Palou in the standings. If Palou leaves Portland with a 108-point lead, he clinches the title. If he leads by 98 points, all he has to do is start the final two races at Milwaukee and Nashville to capture his fourth (and third consecutive) championship. ADVERTISEMENT "The guy's pretty much won it already," said O'Ward, not trying to worry about what he views as the inevitable. "I know they're making a big deal out of this. ... He has got to have the worst luck he's ever had in his career, just like the best luck he's had in his career this year in order for us to keep this alive." Palou has won two of the last four races on the 1.964-mile road course, located just north of downtown Portland, where temperatures are expected to be in the low-90s for the race. It will be about 10 degrees warmer than Friday and Saturday. "Nobody knows what the track and the tires are going to do," Palou said. "Not yet. ... [The track] is going to change tomorrow. "As of today, yeah, I think we have a great car. I can't wait." The Chip Ganassi Racing driver appeared to have a car capable of winning the pole until going off track and having the nose of his car bump into a tire barrier. The car did not have significant damage. "I'm happy that we had pace," Palou said. "Obviously not happy that I went looking for mushrooms there. ... I tried a little bit too hard and just lost the car." O'Ward was also happy with his performance at a track where he struggled a year ago. He was good but not great in the two practices prior to qualifying. Pato O'Ward will lead the field in INDYCAR's race at Portland. "In practice, I wasn't feeling super-confident just because I was really struggling with the car," O'Ward said. "I was struggling to get a lap together." While it would have been nice to cut a point off Palou's lead by earning the bonus point for winning the pole, O'Ward had no ill will toward his teammate beating him for the top spot. "I'm super pumped to see both cars [No.] 1, 2," O'Ward said. "I just missed it there in [the final round] a little bit." Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass. share
