Palou continues champion embodiment with Indy 500 pole

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Álex Palou could have easily rushed off to be with his team. With a late draw - only just scraping into the Fast 12 - the turnaround time to the pole fight was slender.

But the moment he finished his media bullpen duties immediately after his one-and-done guaranteed run on Sunday, he made a beeline for the fans. Audibly, he exclaimed to his Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) team member that he was heading to a group of kids first.

Palou remained for several minutes; he was not missing a single fan.

“I was a fan not long ago,” he reflected. “I’m still a fan. Especially the kids… when there’s kids waiting for a signature, I cannot say no. That’s my job.”

That humility continually defines Palou as a champion, almost as much as what he continues to astound with on track. By way of the latter, a second Indianapolis 500 pole, following on from his legacy-defining first win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) oval last year, only continues to bolster his standing within the pantheon of IndyCar’s greatest.

Maybe it could indicate an even greater liberation, with the weight of being without a 500 win lifted. But not much has changed, he insists, aside from chiefly his appreciation for those at the core of what makes Indianapolis special only ramping up further.

“Especially it’s the fans - it gets a lot busier,” he details of what has changed in his first week back at the Speedway. “I have to plan [more time] when I move from the garage to pit lane a little bit more. But it’s super fun. It’s incredible. 

“It’s incredible to see so many young people, so many fans that have been here for more than 50 years straight. I don’t know but it seemed like it was the biggest attendance I saw here in qualifying. So it’s incredible to see. It’s incredible to feel as a champion.

“Other than that, it doesn’t change. Winning last year doesn’t mean anything this year.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Heading into qualifying, Palou had little expectation that he would secure another P1 Award at the Speedway. He was second on the telling no-tow charts on Fast Friday, but dealt the draw of 31st in the running order, he tasted the worst of the warm Sunday conditions once qualifying finally ran in its single-run format after the Saturday rain-out.

The margins were fine, but on a 231.155 mph four-lap average, he was able to somewhat scrape into the Fast 12 and stay in the fight for pole position.

“It’s basically just speed and balance,” he explained of what he battled to reach the pole fight. “Normally when you go out and you have speed and you are slow, you try and trim and you try make it faster, but then the balance goes away. 

“So you need those two lines to merge in order to have a really good car capable of fighting for pole. We were not able to merge those lines throughout Thursday and Friday. Not even in Fast 12; I was happy but I was not overly happy. [But] in Fast Six, that car was a rocketship.”

Heading into the Fast Six, it was Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist who appeared the resounding favourite. The Swede had led the guaranteed runs by just shy of 0.8 mph and again by 0.4 mph in the Fast 12 session, with nobody coming close to making inroads.

But second to Rosenqvist in the second round, Palou had started to find some speed and comfort. And there was no thought given to being particularly risk averse.

“We went very, very aggressive to try and get the pole,” he said. “We did not have the speed. Even on Fast Friday, we tried and tried and tried to get more speed. It was okay but there were cars like Felix that just had a huge advantage on everyone.

Credit: Chris Owens

“We barely made it into the Fast 12 but that kind of helped us. Struggling a little bit in those conditions made us work a lot and made us put our car for those conditions and they were a lot more similar in Fast Six. The car [in the] Fast Six was incredible. 

“For us, qualifying got better and faster - and for everybody else [it] got slower and greasier. We found more speed. I know that by far we are the most trimmed car out there in the Fast Six. So we were going for it. Last year we did the same. 

“In Fast Six, we trimmed and we just went slower, slow, slow, slow every lap and we just qualified sixth. But [this time] it paid off.”

Running second-to-last in the pole shootout, Palou set a benchmark of 232.248 mph, placing him comfortably ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi. But a nervous wait ensued for Rosenqvist to begin his final run.

It was all but confirmed from the outset of Rosenqvist’s run, with his first lap considerably below par, but there was a familiar eruption of jubilation on pit lane - the No.10 team enjoying every success the same - as pole was finally confirmed.

“[The wait made me] very nervous. I was expecting him to also pick up some speed, as we did, and go faster,” Palou asserted. “The Fast 12 was the biggest target but we did not expect to be on pole. The emotion was probably a lot higher because we did not expect it at all.

“It’s only a pole but it feels like a race. The intensity and everybody’s attention is on qualifying only so we treat it and celebrate it as a race win. That doesn’t guarantee us to be up front throughout the race next week, but still it’s the best starting spot.”

Credit: James Black

After a brief bout of media in the evening and morning afterwards, shuttled here, there and everywhere, alongside the front-row photoshoot to begin race week, Palou and the field’s attention quickly shifts again. There is little time to bathe in the adulation.

Now, the focus turns to defending his Indy 500 crown next month across a total of only four more hours of practice running, should weather not impede, across Monday and Friday.

“Pole is huge. The emotion, the momentum and everything that comes with it, it’s incredible,” he admitted. “But it’s totally different to the race. That doesn’t guarantee us having an easier race; it guarantees us to have the best view heading into the first corner. That’s about it. 

“We need to work hard to try and keep ourselves up there and be at the front when it matters.”