Alex Palou has revealed how he pulled off a dramatic move in the closing laps to seal victory at the Indy 500.
Starting in sixth place, Palou surged forward in the closing stages of the Indy 500, using his strategy to move up the order.
In the closing 20 laps, Palou moved into second place after Marcus Ericsson emerged from the pits in the lead.
Pulling into the Swede’s slipstream, he pulled a stunning move to sweep into the lead for the remaining 17 laps. It was his first oval and Indy 500 win.
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Palou said it was “amazing to win” the iconic race.
“It means that we checked that box and we need another one now. It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s
amazing to win this race. This race means so much for me, for my family, for the INDYCAR community, our fans, and I would say motorsports in general. To be an Indy 500 championship winner, it’s amazing.
How Alex Palou won the Indy 500
Asked to walk through the move that sealed the win, Alex Palou said strategy and fuel almost prevented from making a move. However, traffic proved to be an unlikely ally.
“Well, we were not in the best position on strategy. We had the worst tyres and less fuel than Marcus and a little bit less than [David] Malukas.”
I knew that it was going to be tough at the end just because with less grip on the tyres and with some traffic, I was just not going to have any chance to overtake him. I saw that I had a small gap, and I wanted to take it.
“It was a bit too early to go for it, but I thought it was my best strategy to try and go with the traffic and try and get the win.
Palou then confirmed the timing of the move, revealing that instinct kicked in to force the overtake.
“When I was behind him, I was just saving fuel. We didn’t have enough fuel to go for it, so those first five, six laps or maybe a bit more that I was behind him, I was just trying to save some fuel so we could go hard at the end trying to stay in the lead.
“I knew that was getting towards, like, late to pass him for the amount of laps that I had on the tyres, but, glad we made it work.”
Palou joins a prestigious list of winners
By securing the Indy 500 victory, Palou joins Al Unser, Sr., and AJ Foyt as the only other two two drivers to win five of the first six races of a season in modern IndyCar history.
The Spaniard was stunned when told of achieving the milestone.
“It’s incredible. Honestly, I think I get a lot of credit because you see that I’m the only one driving the
car. But there’s a huge team behind that is making me look very good on track. We have fast cars every single weekend, and that’s really tough to do here in INDYCAR, especially nowadays.
“I was just taking the chances that we’ve had so far this season. Whenever we’ve had the chance to win, we’ve been able to execute. And that’s taking into account not only the setup, but the strategies, the pit stops that they did today as well.
“It’s incredible. And I know, I’ve been telling you guys that I know that this is not normal. But I’m glad that it didn’t end today and that we got the wave until the 500 at least.
