Alex Palou becomes the first person to wins 6 out of the first 9 races in an NTT IndyCar season since A.J Foyt in 1975, with a stunning tyre and fuel saving masterclass at Road America.
Defending NTT IndyCar Champion Alex Palou had just enough fuel left in his car to make it to victory lane, after securing his 6th win of the 2025 season, and his third at Road America.
Lots of early yellows
It was a wild and caution filled race at Road America, with 5 cautions taking place in the first 23 laps of the races, causing some major shake ups in strategy,”I don’t know about how it looked from the outside, but from inside, it just felt like there was a lot going on. Lots of yellows, obviously, that were shaking how we were looking.” Palou said when asked about how the race looked from inside the car.
“We were looking really bad at the beginning, then really good, then terrible, then really good. It was tough to be up there. But yeah, we just had to stay focused on battling against the people that were on our strategy.“
The pivotal call
Many times during races, changes to tyre or fuel strategies are made on the fly, one of which Palou said this about: “ I didn’t agree with Barry’s (Barry Wanser) strategy call. I got to be grumpy for a couple of laps, and then I saw it was working out, and I started saying thank you again. It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy.” Additionally, Wanser went on to mention that they weren’t sure that they had made the right call until 10 laps from the checkered flag.
He later on expanded on when the team made that race winning call, which long time team manager Barry Wanser said came before the race even started. “Yeah, I’d say one of the pivotal moments is we should have never started on the blacks. It worked against us. Quite a few cars around us picked us off. But it ended up being the right call in the end” Wanser stated, Palou chiming in: “Yeah, we tried to change it, but we were one or two minutes late“
Palou had made the call close to the start of the race to change the tyres to the red-walled alternates, but the team was too late, as the 30-minute window to make those decisions had closed.
In the end, Palou said it was team team that gave him the win, “It was interesting, but for sure, we got the win because of the team that we had on both pit stops and strategy. They made it look really good, and HRC that gave us the mileage we needed to gamble and to make it with that stop that we did.”
Teammate vs Teammate
Palou was prompted by the media to answer on whether or not he had believed he could best Scott Dixon, who was on a similar long run.. “If it was another driver, I would have probably just focused on myself, but I know that Scott can make crazy stuff happen.”
“If it’s only a one-lap yellow, yes, I think we would have been able (to catch him). But if it was like a back-to-back yellow and then ends up being like four laps, he’s going to make it on a good number. So you never know.” Palou commented about his chances of an on track over take on Dixon, had there been a caution in the races closing laps. In addition to that, Palou made this comment about his initial faith in the strategy call: “Yeah, I trusted Barry but I was like, man, if he gets a yellow he’s still P1 and we’re not going to be able to pass him“
Palou however, trusted his team and the call they made regarding Dixon, having double and triple check the Australian’s numbers despite the lap times he was putting in. Dixon ultimately had to dive into the pits for a last minute refuel which then left Palou with a net P1 on track as the last few laps of the race ticked away.
Alex Palou comes away from Road America with his 6th win of the season, and a now 93 point gap back to his closest championship contender in Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.
