Palou "has a great opportunity" for first short oval victory after claiming Iowa pole

Written by Dan Jones

Credit: Travis Hinkle

Álex Palou believes that he "has a great opportunity" to claim his first short oval victory after claiming pole for Race 2 at IndyCar's Iowa double-header weekend - the first time he will lead a field to green on a short oval in his career.

Palou qualified fourth for the opening race, which takes place on Saturday afternoon, before taking pole position for the second race with an average speed of 184.014 mph, which will take place on Sunday. It's the second time that Palou has taken a pole position on an oval in his career, and the first on a short oval track. It also marks the fourth time he has claimed pole in the midst of his record-breaking season.

"Hopefully we can win both of them and get my first short oval win," Palou said. "I think we have a great opportunity in terms of speed and the car, the car speed and my confidence to try and fight for wins in both of the races. If we can make it today, it would be great because we're starting on the best spot tomorrow, and if we cannot, we have something to look up for tomorrow."

Despite claiming three championships in the last four seasons, Palou has never been regarded as a strong oval racer, particularly on short ovals such as Iowa Speedway or World Wide Technology Raceway. However, Palou claimed third place at Iowa in the second race in 2023, and a conveniently-timed caution meant he finished second last year - in touching distance of what would have been his first career oval victory.

Palou won his first oval race earlier this season, when he won the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500. He looks to claim a seventh victory of the season at Iowa, after a late-race error gifted victory to Scott Dixon last week at Mid-Ohio.

"Yeah, it's great starting positions," Palou continued. "I think last year on both races we were also, top five, top four. We for sure have good cars in qualifying here, but it's a long race and it's, 25 laps longer each. It's going to be a tough day I think with the strategies and so on."

A repave prior to last year's race caused major controversy, where a smoother track surface on the lower lane caused much faster speeds and limited running on the higher lanes. It made overtaking particularly difficult, with the race being won and lost on pitlane based on fuel mileage. It's yet to be seen whether this year's event will follow a similar tale, and Palou was not certain on whether it would be a tyre or fuel race:

"I think it's both. Hopefully it's not as fuel as last year. Last year was 100% fuel, and tyres were not an issue at all. I think it's going to be a little bit towards tyres now, although fuel, it's obviously going to dictate a lot. I still don't really know because today also the practice was so short that we were just focused on qualifying.

"Yeah, hopefully it's one of those that you start struggling towards the last 15 laps of the race and then you have to pit, or you either stay out and lose couple of positions. So hopefully it makes it entertaining on the strategy side."

A rare, rare sight | Credit: Joe Skibinski

Although he claimed a podium in the second race, Palou's 2024 weekend featured an uncharacteristic error where he crashed on the exit of Turn 4 completely by himself in the opening race, as he moved from the new tarmac to the older tarmac on the frontstretch. Palou still maintained that it's difficult switching between the surfaces:

"Yeah, it's tough, especially on used tyres. I think last year when I had the issue, when I spun and crashed, was out of Turn 4 on the bump just because the tyres were a bit older, and I was pushing a bit too much. Hopefully it's going to be even tougher this year on tyres, and hopefully makes it just more passing opportunities. I think in practice today was a little bit better than I thought. So, yeah, we'll see."

Palou's 2025 season has been utter dominance to this point. The Spaniard holds a 114 point lead over his closest competitor, Kyle Kirkwood, and has won six of the 10 races thus far in 2025 - and finished second in a further two of them. A fourth championship for Palou seems more of a case of 'when will it happen?' rather than 'if it will happen?'

With overtaking expected to be difficult, it may mean drivers have to make braver moves on the higher lines and be aggressive when overtaking. Palou has typically been renowned in his career for being particularly smooth and patient when it comes to overtaking, but believes his aggression at other points this year gives the No.10 stand the flexibility to win, when asked by DIVEBOMB:

"Driving-wise I think we've been driving aggressive all year. That's what got us to this point. I don't think that we need to go overly aggressive just because we have points because you can lose them very quick, especially two days back-to-back.

"It's more in terms of, like, strategy and stuff. Instead of just trying to settle for a top six, maybe you're, like, Okay, let's just go for trying to get a win. Even if it doesn't work, we want to try and get that. I don't think we need to drive overly aggressive. We just need to keep on doing the things that we've been doing this season so far."