Rare Early Exit Halts Alex Palou's Dream Start to Season
INDYCAR
This much is clear about Alex Palou's tire barrier shunt late in Sunday's Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear: He still has a healthy points lead in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings, but the advantage is not as significant as it once was.
The winner of five of the season's first six races, including last week's Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, suffered his worst finish in nearly three years when Indy runner-up David Malukas knocked him off course in Turn 1 on a restart. Palou's No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda had to be hauled away by a tow truck, resulting in a 25th-place finish out of 27 drivers.
Palou wasn't happy about the contact from behind, but he was resigned to the fact these things happen on tight street circuits such as this one.
'It doesn't feel great, but there's nothing we could have done there,' he said on the FOX broadcast.
Malukas, the No. 2 starter in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet of AJ Foyt Racing, was issued a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact. He finished 15th.
'Just ran out of talent,' Malukas told FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass. 'I feel so bad. (I) tried to slow it down and just locked up both front brakes.'
Malukas said he nearly hit Palou in the corner prior, and then he braked early approaching the corner where they came together. Malukas vowed to call him if he couldn't find him at the track.
'I'm 23 (years old) and this is my third (plus) season in INDYCAR,' he said. 'I shouldn't be doing things like that. Those are more rookie mistakes.
'Every lap, every restart, we expect (the field to be bunched), and it still caught me off guard. So, I can't be letting these things happen.'
The Spaniard pursuing his third consecutive series championship and fourth in five years entered the weekend with a 112-point lead over Pato O'Ward. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished seventh, narrowing the gap to 90 points, which is still the equivalent of just under two races.
Race winner Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global moved from fifth in the standings to third in the No. 27 Siemens AWS Honda, overtaking Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard, who finished eighth in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Kirkwood trails Palou by 102 points heading to the next race, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Sunday evening, June 15 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Lundgaard fell to fourth in the standings.
Palou became the latest Indy winner to suffer a disappointing finish in the ensuing race. In the past 10 years, only Takuma Sato in 2020 has finished in the top three – the Japanese driver was second at World Wide Technology Raceway. No other Indy winner has finished better than sixth. Juan Pablo Montoya is the last '500' winner to win the next week's race, and that was in 2000 when the Colombian captured the CART race at the Milwaukee Mile.
Palou likely wasn't going to win Sunday's race even without the race-ending contact. He had qualified in the sixth position before jumping to third on the opening lap. But that's as far forward as he got. He was in seventh place when Malukas' car struck his on the restart at Lap 73.
'It's very unfortunate,' Palou said. 'We did an amazing recovery this weekend (as) we didn't really have much pace at the beginning (of the weekend).
'I thought we were running good to try to sneak onto the podium (as a top-three finisher) there at the end.'
The last time Palou didn't finish a race was in last year's first race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader. There, he spun by himself on the front straightaway. The last time someone bumped him out of the race was nearly three years ago in the 2022 race at Road America when he took Turn 5 contact from Marcus Ericsson, who was then his teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou tried to keep going and did so for about 30 laps before retiring in last place (27th).
So, yes, Sunday's occurrence was mighty rare for the reigning series champion.
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