Alex Palou starts from the front row alongside first time pole sitter Louis Foster, ahead of Sunday’s race at Road America.
Alex Palou spoke to the media following qualifying at Road America, where he will start from the front row for the third time this season. He starts alongside Louis Foster, as the rookie driver took his first NTT Indycar pole positions.
Qualifying brought the heat
It’s the hottest weekend to date for the 2025 Indycar season, which brings new challenges to the teams. “It was very warm for everybody. It was interesting. We had a really fast car” Palou answered when asked about how the car felt during the multiple qualifying sessions. When prompted about about how good the car may feel in race trim, he was cautiously optimistic saying: “We will see tomorrow. With heat tomorrow, tire deg, stuff like that, we’ll see. I think it’s going to be tough for everybody.”
Sunday is shaping up to be a scorcher, which could throw a curveball to the teams in regards to race strategies and tire choices. Last year,the teams seemed to be wary of the redwalled alternate tires and pushing too much on them.
“I think last year everybody was a little bit scared on the alternates. I think we’ll see a bit more tomorrow during warm-up when we’re able to do, like, eight laps in a row pushing, or 10 laps“
For that reason, Palou wasn’t sure what calls would be made by the teams, in regard to tire and fuel strategies, saying “I don’t know. It’s a tough race both on fuel and tires. It’s going to be interesting who bails because of fuel or who bails because of tires.”
“Honestly, I think it’s a bit of an unknown for everybody until tomorrow when we’re in warm-up“
He was also asked about why Road America was the best track on the calendar to have such a hot race weekend, as the track is known for long straights, where not being on the gas plays to the drivers advantage.
“Yeah, it helps a ton, honestly. It’s been really warm at the track with the suit and everything. But you can rest quite a lot on the straight. It’s probably one of the best tracks to have the warmest weekend.”
A kind track to rookies
Louis Foster, rookie driver and 2024 Indy NXT Champions, starts from pole position for the first time in his NTT IndyCar career, at a track know to favor more veteran drivers. Palou has faith in his performance come Sunday.
“Yeah, it’s huge. First pole. Not only that, but the way he did it, it’s pretty impressive. I think it’s going to help him have a great result tomorrow and push him during the year“
In addition to getting to know Foster over past race weekends, Palou left off a few quip about Foster rather infamous mustache and how maybe having it shaved gave him a bit of luck.”I know he doesn’t have a moustache now and I give him shit for that because he sold it only for a thousand bucks. It worked, yeah. Well, what didn’t work was the moustache, so now he figured out.”
Alex Palou starts the race Sunday in P2, next to Louis foster and head of championship contender Kyle Kirkwood in P3, who has now closed the championship gap to 74 points.
