“I hate the title of this blog, and I’m not slapping another sponsor in there for free. Have your people call my people!”
Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review, and in the first of two episodes this weekend, it’s time for IndyCar to go first as their Grand Prix at the Indy Road Course took place on Saturday night (Remember, they have to get the track ready for first 500 practice on Monday), and spoiler alert – Alex Palou won in dominant fashion again. That to me, wasn’t the story of the weekend. For me, it’s an interesting observation that public perception is beginning to turn on the reigning Champion. Let’s get into it.
If You Hate Me Now
Alex Palou was odds-on favourite the moment he got to Indianapolis on Friday, having won the previous two races at the Indy Road Course. He backed it up with confidence to save his tyres for when he needed them across the weekend (More on that later), and was four tenths quicker than the field on Friday.
In the race, it was classic Palou at Indy. Winning via bullying and overwhelming pace. Graham Rahal used his sticker reds early to take the holeshot and rip out a huge early lead. But a Palou undercut and better handling of the black primary tyre, brought him right back up to Rahal, even more so with the rolling roadblocks of Jacob Abel and Colton Herta fighting to stay on the lead lap.
Rahal couldn’t keep his used alternate tires in the window, and Palou eventually passed him. Three laps later, he was five seconds in front. Rahal was inadvertently holding up the faster driver in Scott McLaughlin, and by the time the Kiwi eventually did get in front, it was an eight second gap. And with Palou still keeping his sticker red set to the very end, it was game over. And that was even with David Malukas’ car dying and leading to IndyCar’s first caution in 408 laps, nearly four entire races. Yikes.
Pato O’Ward had steadily climbed his way into second by the end of the race, picking people off via the pitlane, and even with the late bunching, he couldn’t make his move at the start of the final restart, and Palou took off. Four wins out of five for that damn Spaniard, and the first to do so in North American open-wheel racing since Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car back in 2006.
Beneath the surface though, I did notice, and read reports from the track that Palou was booed when he took pole away from Rahal at the death. A small smattering of boos when he passed Rahal for the lead, and when Palou crossed the line. I’ve seen some of the comments on social media too, where people are starting to turn on Palou’s brilliance, deeming it booing, or finding other people to talk about.
I shouldn’t feel bad for one of the world’s best racing drivers, and a three-time IndyCar series Champion. But I do, because what’s starting to happen is going against the very nature of the series itself. One that’s taken pride in being the spec series, so when someone does well, we pat them on the back and go: “Good game”. This isn’t F1 where the historic privilege of 75 years of history has led to roughly the same three or four teams constantly fighting at the top, and rarely all at the same time. This is a spec series. Besides damper settings and a choice of two engines, these cars are the same. Yes, resources behind the scenes swing the balance a bit, but Palou winning every week despite knowing that makes what he’s doing even greater by comparison.
Is IndyCar spoiled as a series because it’s spent years tooting its own horn about competitive balance and unpredictability so badly that the moment a freak talent comes along and breaks the sport over its knee, we start pretending he’s the villain? Because to me, that’s not fair.
I find it hard to believe it’s a personality problem – Palou is a puppy. Always smiling, always polite. People have gushed how warm and genuine he is off the track. He’s sincere, witty and open with the media, especially when you consider that English is his second language. The most shit you could say about it was how he handled the McLaren deal he backed out of in 2023, but unless you swear by the Papaya, how valid a reason is that to boo him?
No, I think this is going hand-in-hand with the series biggest current problem – The fact it’s 0-for-5 in good races so far this season. These races aren’t complete borefests by any stretch, but the wheel-to-wheel high-stakes action that makes IndyCar what it is hasn’t happened, and this race was the antithesis of that.
I warned people last week that the new tire rules weren’t going to make a huge change in the action, and they largely didn’t. The field got nine sets of tires for the weekend (5 Black, 4 Red), and it was a mandated 3-stopper with 2 stints of each compound required. The aim was that we got more racing that flowed on track and tried to get swinging deltas on pace. It didn’t work, and we got big spaces on track, and most passes were in pitlane on undercut attempts. Given the Indy GP is normally a 3-stop race anyway, I’m not sure this was ever going to have a huge impact.
If IndyCar wanted an all-out racing strategy battle, a traditional 2-stop race would have been the ticket for change… but IndyCar doesn’t have any of those. Even less so now they’ve added laps to a third of the races this year. Whoops.
It’s still hard to say for sure that Alex Rossi’s theory on driver’s not pushing all the way is causing these issues, but something isn’t right here and it’s harming the quality of the product. Dirty air, traffic control, strategy calls that don’t matter, 408 laps and nearly 4 races between cautions… It feels very F1 at the moment, and having a dominant winner is an easy smoking gun for anyone looking to vent their frustrations at the series.
I said a couple of years ago that Palou was the new Dario Franchitti. Dario won three straight titles with CGR, winning 11 races with an average finish of 4.8. We’re witnessing that kind of brilliance again right now. Palou’s average finish since JOINING CGR in 2021, has been 5.3. The unfortunate difference for Palou right now is that Dario had a quicker Will Power on raw speed, with Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe also challenging for titles and taking fights down the stretch. Palou has a 97 point lead after just five races. A decent 500 and this Championship battle might already be done.
It’s not his fault that people feel the way they do about the series right now. But IndyCar has the feeling of milquetoast right now and it needs to be addressed quickly before interest in this season drops off entirely.
The Lightning Round
Credit to my man Ryan Erik King of Jalopnik for pointing it out too, but as well as Bourdais, Dan Wheldon also won four for five in the IRL in 2005. Saying Palou’s start is the best in the series since 1964 is a bit disingenuous. As much as no-one feels happy about it, ignoring “The Split”’ shouldn’t be happening.
Why is it that Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing is ONLY GOOD HERE?! For the last three years, this race they’re absolutely cracked at, but are terrible almost everywhere else? Graham Rahal, Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco were second through fourth in Qualifying, an insane achievement. But poor pit work sunk Rahal to sixth, Devlin to 17th and Foster couldn’t hold his speed and dropped to a still reasonable 11th. Can Jay Frye figure this out? (Y’know, without an FBI raid ideally?)
Josef Newgarden is 12th in the standings and 152 points off the Championship lead after just five races. He’d better three-peat the 500 or else he should be in big trouble. Simon Pagenaud was let go from this team for less than this.
Someone save Colton Herta. That brother’s starving out here. Andretti were awful all weekend and Kyle Kirkwood did well to spare some blushes going from 21st to 8th.
The blessing for Newgarden here, is that appointed heir David Malukas is 19th in points. AJ Foyt losing Michael Cannon is going about as well as expected.
Scott Dixon was barely mentioned on commentary all day. He ended up fifth. He’s back!
The ace signature Christian Lundgaard race and he got a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit-exit line. Unserious.
I’m tired of talking about FOX every week, but we still can’t get a timing tower that works for the entire race, with interval gaps constantly switching off during the race and GPS during qualifying still all over the place. One more time, they’re a multi-billion dollar broadcasting company, who already covers racing. It’s unacceptable.
And I’ll be real, the longer this goes on, the less I’m digging Will Buxton as lead anchor, feeling like a third wheel on a bad date between the excellent James Hinchcliffe… and Townsend Bell, who’s also there.
The Verdict: 5/10 (Meh) – Yeah, new trial of strategy didn’t really work out on this one, it didn’t feel like it made any difference to the inevitable winner. Strategic races can be fun, but when the position changes are only really in the pits, that’s not all that exciting. Check back next week for my review of Indy 500 Qualifying. Until then.
