Palou’s Gateway pole “means a lot” as 15-year IndyCar streak ended
- Archie O’Reilly
- 6 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Not for a decade-and-a-half - since Will Power scored consecutive poles in St. Petersburg, Alabama, Long Beach and São Paulo at the start of the 2011 season - had a driver led the IndyCar field to green in four successive races.
But not only has Álex Palou now slashed that 15-year streak, with pole position at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) oval, the Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) driver has scored four straight P1 Awards on IndyCar’s four different track types.
The first pole of this run came one day shy of a month ago, when Palou dominated the field to head qualifying by 0.5475 mph on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The following weekend, he scored a second career Indianapolis 500 pole, before following that superspeedway success by leading qualifying on the streets of Detroit.
The latest of the quartet of poles - on a short oval - may be the most satisfying of all, given WWTR has traditionally been Palou’s weakest track. He had only started inside the top 10 twice previously at the circuit, headlined by fifth place in 2022.
“I lack talent here,” he laughed ahead of the weekend. “I don’t know what to say. If I knew, I would fix it right away. Just confidence-wise, I struggle here. This is probably my worst place. We had good cars but never been able to run up front.”
Yet, in qualifying this Saturday afternoon, Palou produced an utter annihilation of the field, ousting Team Penske oval supremo David Malukas’ stout 173.244 mph two-lap average run by over an entire mile per hour with a stunning 174.353 mph effort at the death.
It marked a fifth pole in nine races this season for Palou, whose career tally now stands at 17 poles, having only achieved six P1 Awards in five years before the start of 2025.
“You always want to think that you can make it. That’s always the mindset,” Palou said. “I was not really confident about it. We were shooting for always pole, but in my head was more like: ‘If it’s great, we can be top five. If it’s not, it could be like 12th.’ Incredible.
“This pole, it actually means a lot more than what people might think. People might think it’s just another pole. For me, it means a lot. I’ve been preparing a lot for this race and for this qualifying. I’m very, very happy that it worked out.”
Owing to his leading of the championship, Palou admitted there was certainly an “advantage” to running last in the qualifying order. He was able to seize the best of the track conditions, while also being able to tap into feedback from the runs of his teammates, Scott Dixon and Kyffin Simpson, and the CGR-allied Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers.
Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist ultimately qualified fourth for MSR, with his teammate Marcus Armstrong sixth, followed by Dixon in seventh on a strong day for CGR-affiliated cars. Simpson will start slightly lower in 14th place.
“I knew what they were running and what they said on the radio,” Palou said. “I knew we were on a good place knowing how they went and what we were going to do.”
Whether feeding into Palou’s newfound success at WWTR or not, the Spaniard has thus far relished alterations to the package for this year, including a reduction in both downforce and power, in a bid to make the racing even better under the lights on Sunday primetime.
“Qualifying was super fun,” Palou said of changes made for 2026, “just because you need to commit so much into Turn 1 and 2 that actually feels that you are going a second faster instead of a second slower. It’s actually super fun to drive.
“We need to see how it’s going to behave in traffic. I think it’s going to be good, create more passing opportunities. Watching the races that we had in the past two years, especially last year, it was already incredible. I think it’s going to be a great show.”
In Sunday night’s 260-lap race, Palou will be in search of a fifth victory of the season inside only nine rounds, as he looks to chase his tally of eight wins last year.
In pursuit of his fifth championship in six years and fourth in succession, he currently leads the standings by 62 points ahead of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who is the defending winner at WWTR and starts third. In Malukas, Palou shares the front row with the third-place driver in the championship, who is currently 79 points adrift of his lead.
With a fourth-place finish in 2024 his only top-five result at WWTR, even from pole, Palou knows there is a long way to go and plenty yet to tackle come race day.
“For sure, [pole] is a huge advantage for me,” he said. “[But] that doesn’t mean anything for the end result of the race. In a normal race start, you have an easier start. Even if you get shuffled in a little bit, you can still be in the top three, top five. But then once the pit cycle goes, once you start getting through traffic, that’s it. The pole, let’s say, goes away.
“Although it’s huge and I’m super pumped - it’s incredible to be on pole - it’s only a pole. I wish it meant more but it only means I’m going to be super happy going to sleep tonight; I have a fancy hat and another point. That’s it.”
