Palou shuts down Simpson’s doubters: “He’s been amazing this year”

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Álex Palou took his third pole position at Mid-Ohio on Saturday, shutting down hopes that he’d give his competitors a fighting chance at the championship.

But after qualifying, Palou was full of praise for his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyffin Simpson, who made the Fast 6 for the first time in his IndyCar career and qualified third behind Palou and Christian Lundgaard.

Simpson’s best ever qualifying

Simpson is in his second year of IndyCar with Chip Ganassi Racing, and has only achieved three top ten finishes to date (all from this season). His best qualifying result, before today, was tenth.

In Group 1 of qualifying at Mid-Ohio he finished sixth to squeeze his way into the Fast 12, and finished sixth again in that session to make it to the Fast 6 for the first time in his career. In the final part of qualifying he beat out Nolan Siegel, Colton Herta and Louis Foster to qualify third overall, where he’ll start tomorrow’s race from.

“He's been amazing this year, especially road courses,” Palou said of his teammate after qualifying. 

“He's been super fast. I would say that when he did, when he was super confident, I would say it was like Indy Road Course, he had a bad qualifying, but in practice he was always top 5, top 6. I would say since then, he's been always really, really fast.

“It's amazing to see that. It's not only good for the team but for him it's huge. Hopefully this gives him the confidence to know that he can do it every single weekend and he's up there. Not too fast, like not faster than what he's done, but consistently there would be–yeah, amazing.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

It’s no secret that Simpson doesn’t have the best track record on the grid. He came into IndyCar in 2024 after two seasons in Indy NXT (the series formerly known as Indy Lights) where he finished ninth and tenth overall.

Palou was again quick to defend his teammate, saying: “Yeah, we need to remember that he's very, very young. I think he's–how old is he? 20. He's 20. He's very, very young.

“He's been picking up a ton of speed, especially this year, as I said. I think he's in front of one Penske car in the championship standings now with a couple of incidents and mechanical issues that he had.

“If you look at the performance he's had, he's been really, really fast, and it's not been just by luck. I think he just finished in Road America sixth or fifth, so that was pretty good.

“Yeah, it's amazing. Honestly, I don't think he cares or I care or anybody cares about what they think about him, but yeah, he's good. I'm very happy for him.”

Two of Simpson’s three top ten finishes have come within the past three races, his fifth place at Detroit and his sixth place finish at Road America. Based on his recent results and Palou’s assessment, Simpson is a driver to keep an eye on for tomorrow.

Mixed up grid for the race

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Simpson wasn’t the only young driver with a shocking result in qualifying - 20 year old Nolan Siegel and rookie driver Louis Foster also qualified in the top six. Siegel’s previous qualifying result was sixth place, which he improved upon at Mid-Ohio with a fourth place result. He out-qualified Pato O’Ward, his more experienced teammate (who will start 15th in Sunday’s race) and only two places behind his other, also more experienced teammate, Lundgaard.

Foster has now seen the Fast 6 twice in a row, his last outing in Road America ended with him on pole position. This time out he only managed sixth place, but still an excellent result for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Speaking about the success of the young drivers, Palou was complimentary but made sure to mention that he doesn’t want them challenging him at all.

“Everybody is pushing,” he said. “But yeah, Foster has been doing a tremendous year knowing that it's his rookie year. I was very surprised in Q2 and also Road America, but Q2 today as well.

“It's great to see that there's different drivers different weekends up there and fast. Hopefully they don't do it too often.”

Three young surprises in the top six means that several of the more expected drivers were displaced and will be starting further down the grid.

With a mixed-up grid for tomorrow’s race, there will be experienced drivers fighting their way up the grid, and inexperienced drivers fighting to keep their places at the front.

Lundgaard, who will be starting second, knows that it takes more than speed to stay at the front in a race. It’s something the young drivers, including his teammate, will need to be aware of.

“I feel like there's more and more young drivers that are kind of showing potential, I would say, throughout this year,” said Lundgaard about the young talent. “And I think Kyffin is definitely one of them. He's been very competitive lately.

“I know what Nolan is capable of. I know he's fast, and it's nice to finally see him do it this weekend, get into the Firestone Fast Six.

“But racing in the front is kind of a different animal, and I think Alex will agree with this. As soon as you're starting to check out, it's the small details that matter. Some of them haven't been exposed to that in the past, and that's why I think you see the veterans always kind of making their way forward in the race even if they're having a bad qualifying.”

Lundgaard will start second for tomorrow’s race, and he knows he has a lot of work to do to stay up at the top. When asked about the biggest challenge of the weekend he simply answered: “Beating the other 26 drivers.”

All photos in this article were taken by DIVEBOMB Photographer, Dominic Loyer. You can find Dominic's work on Instagram (@dominicloyer_photography)