Alex Palou has commented on his unexpected win at the IndyCar season opener in St. Pete after a strong recovery drive.
Alex Palou looked set for a difficult afternoon in St.Pete, after qualifying eighth on the grid for IndyCar’s first race of 2025.
But the first corner melee that wiped out Will Power, Louis Foster and Nolan Siegel presented Palou with an opportunity.
Using an alternate strategy, he clawed his way back through the field to lead for the final 27 laps of the race to secure the 12th win of his career.
To win, he had to fend off team-mate Josef Newgarden, and the rapid Scott Dixon in the closing laps, while trying to lap the Juncos Hollinger Racing of Sting Ray Robb.
Perfect start to 2025 for Alex Palou
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Palou said he “couldn’t be happier” to win the first race of 2025.
“Couldn’t be happier. It’s been a long off-season and a tough off-season for everybody at CGR and HRC.
“They’ve been working really, really hard to try and I mean, we were speaking on Thursday during media or Friday that it was one of the places that we’ve been struggling in the past, and we wanted to get a little bit closer to the competition.
“I wanted to be here in Victory Lane, but I did not expect maybe to be here in Victory Lane.
“That shows the amazing job that all the men and women did at Chip Ganassi Racing during the off-season. One-two for the team, I don’t know what Chip said, but I bet he’s pretty happy.“
Making the overcut work
Overcutting the Penske of Scott Dixon in his final stop sealed the win for Palou, a factor that the Spaniard called “lucky”:
“Normally it’s overcut, especially on a street course where out laps are really tough on cold tyres But Dixon was catching traffic at that moment, and so we were going to do the opposite of the 9 car.
“We were trying to win. So if he was going to stay out, I was going to come to try and get advantage of the traffic he was going to get to, and if he was going to pit that lap, we were going to try and stay out and pray for traffic laps to just go fast.
“Got lucky this time. I’m very glad, I’m very pleased of the strategy they called.
“At one point it was tough, on lap 5 or 6, that we were P14. It doesn’t seem too bad, but when you drop positions on a street course, it’s actually tough to gain them back, and you expose yourself to mistakes or to accidents, I was happy.”
Tense moments behind Sting Ray Robb
Palou also revealed his emotions and mindset while stuck behind Robb in the closing laps. He likened it to encounters on the highway.
“Similar to when you’re on the highway and there’s somebody that is driving, like, 40 miles an hour in the left and wouldn’t move, and then you pass him and he’s like trying to go faster than before and he passes you again.
“It’s that kind of frustration, especially when he’s able to use the OT, and you as the leader, you don’t want to burn 50 seconds of OT to pass a lap car, but he can do that to try and stay in front of you, especially if he’s from another engine manufacturer.
“It’s a shame, but honestly, I know that’s the rules, and there’s been some races where that was beneficial to me, like to be second and to have the first one trapped in traffic. This time I was the one that started losing my cap to Newgarden and it went from five seconds down to .9, to we lost a bunch of track time, but at least we didn’t lose any track position“
Feature Image Credit: Penske Entertainment
