“Killshot.”
Because I’m chronically indecisive and follow way too many series to count, welcome to the second half of another Dre’s Race Review double header. And on the other side of the pillow this week, IndyCar headed west to California and its former season decider track, WeatherTech Raceaway, otherwise known as Laguna Seca. And in shocking news, Alex Palou would drive a flawless race to take his eighth win of 2025. Let’s get into it.
Chasing Perfection
I’m going to cut to the chase on this one as I don’t want to waste anyone’s time – Alex Palou was about as flawless as I’ve ever seen anyone on a road course in IndyCar this decade.
Palou qualified on pole with a stunning final lap, his fifth of 2025 (Only Colton Herta has more than one besides Alex this year).. He had a perfect start, and was at times, over a second a lap faster than Herta, who was an alternate strategy, starting on the black tyre. Problem for Colton was, it was quickly unravelling into a red tyre race as the difference in pace was too big. Even with two early cautions for Kyffin Simpson smashing into Felix Rosenqvist, followed by Jacob Abel losing control, Palou remained cool under pressure and kept pushing that gap out to comfortable pit range. Every. Single. Time.
His second stint was arguably his most impressive, on used Primary’s, he was matching Colton Herta on used reds. A reminder that Colton has won here multiple times, once as a teenager, and the American had nothing for him. Christian Lundgaard took up the fight in the back half of the race after a bullish send at the final corner to pass Herta, but he didn’t have an answer either, even with sticker reds in the back half of the race from the McLaren, it wasn’t enough. In similar fashion to Mid-Ohio, Lundgaard at his very best can match Palou for pace, but isn’t as good on his tyres longer into a stint. Palou’s lead peaked at over eight seconds before another pair of late cautions on Lap 78 for Marcus Ericsson’s spin, and Lap 85 for Santino Ferrucci spinning out at the Corkscrew. And every time on the restart, Palou put a good second out in front and stopped any chance of a counter-attack.
This was a 95-lap race. Alex Palou led 84 of them, had a boat load of P2P he never even had to use, and never, ever looked like he was going to lose. I could only laugh at how good it was. Pato O’Ward; the man who said he had no pressure to go after Palou in his house and in white-hot form, was at one point 28 seconds behind. Utter domination.
Alex Palou’s average finish at Laguna Seca drops to an even more unfathomable 1.6 in five starts there. It reminded me of Jon Bois’ “Bob Emergency” video talking about the late great pitcher Bob Gibson, his impossible 1.12 ERA season of 1968, and just how hard it is to bring that average down the closer you get to one. To paraphrase the man himself, it’s like trying to crack a safe. To win eight in a CART/IndyCar Season is incredible. Only eight men previously had ever done it:
10 – AJ Foyt (1964), Al Unser Sr. (1970)
9 – Mario Andretti (1969)
8 – Tony Bettenhausen (1951), Michael Andretti (1991), Al Unser Jr. (1994), Sebastien Bourdais (2007), Alex Palou (2025* – 3 starts remaining)
We’re still only 14 starts into this season. And Palou’s doing this in a spec series. You can change your damper settings, and you have a choice of engine… and that’s about it. Palou still has a chance of the 11-win, record-breaking season. But he has to run the table. And with two short ovals to run at Milwaukee and Nashville, I have my doubts. But if anyone can do it, Alex Palou can.
And the worst thing about it is – I feel bad for him. He’s been so utterly brilliant, he’s getting unfairly shit on for being as good as he is, when it’s down to everyone else to figure out how to beat him. The series couldn’t have chosen a worse time for an identity crisis. More on that next…
Dre Rants About Race Control #483
Again, cutting to the chase somewhat here – This wasn’t a great race to watch. Passing at Laguna Seca usually comes at a premium at the best of times, but there were moments during this race where I wanted to punch a hole in my monitor.
Cautions. We had two really bad ones from Race Control. The first was when Rinus Veekay was punted into oblivion at Turn 2 by Kyle Kirkwood. Veekay’s dead car is sitting there for 90 seconds, completely vulnerable to potentially being hit by a second car, because IndyCar has their habit of what we on M101’s Discord calls “soft-race manipulation”. Why? Because for those new here, if there’s an incident right before a pit window, the series will wait until the leaders have chosen whether to pit or not, only then throwing the caution once they’re back up to speed.
A later caution was a different kind of stupid. Marcus Ericsson spins out on his own on the run up to the Corkscrew. His 27 car is glitching so they can’t get the hybrid going to restart the stalled car. He’s also over the blind crest where he can’t be seen until you’re right on top of it. Local yellow be damned, you got nothing. It was an agonising two minute wait before the officials, giving Andretti every chance to get going again, finally dropped the caution.
I don’t think you need me to tell you how dangerous both these scenarios were. For a series that generally is outstanding in terms of safety, and glorifies how great their (sponsored) Safety Car is, they’re literally compromised when you’re telling them to wait for sometimes minutes before they can start recovering a vulnerable car. It’s one of the dumbest systems in Motorsport, and I can’t stand it.
IndyCar needs to understand that if you’re going to close a pit lane the moment a track is under yellow, you’re going to have some unfairness when it comes to a split strategy field. That’s Motorsport, suck it up. You can’t please everyone. But please, for the love of God, be more prompt on the caution. This isn’t about placating drivers and teams, this is about safety, and what they’re doing is not safe. If there’s two former drivers in the commentary box screaming at you to throw the flag, throw it!
PS: The TV Direction consistently cutting away from passes at key moments didn’t help either.
The Lightning Round
As a Sky Sports viewer for IndyCar, this is as nice as I’ll be… those filler gaps are tough.
Felix Rosenqvist’s stunning Grateful Dead livery lasted 45 seconds before being put in the wall. I hate it here.
One more Alex Palou stunner of a fact: His best lap was seven tenths of a second quicker than anyone else’s over the course of that race. Oh, and that pass on Nolan Siegel? Good lord. Okay, I’m done.
Title update: Only Pato can mathematically stop Palou now, he’s 121 points behind with a theoretical 162 left. Given that minimum swing, Palou can afford to lose 13 points to Pato and he leaves Portland a four-time Champion. Easiest clinching scenario for Palou is second place and any 2 of the bonus points (Pole + Leading a Lap, or Leading the Most Laps), or better. And well… It’s Palou in Portland, where he’s won twice. Good luck, Pato.
Penske didn’t suck! – 7th for Power and 10th and 11th for McLaughlin and Newgarden! Honestly, for them, just a quiet, average day is an improvement for Team Penske. Still just three races left to avoid the winless season. Squeaky bum time, as Sir Alex Ferguson would say…
Credit to two people in the field for outstanding jobs for their fuel-saving. Scott Dixon is one we’ve come to expect, pitting on Lap 12 and going off-sequence, but Callum Illot for Prema did the same and ended up sixth, Prema’s best ever result, a mark they’ve lowered three times in the last three races (10th > 9th > 8th > 6th). Illot badly needed some form after a dreadful season by his standards, so finishing strong would be huge for him and the team. There’s something here, something I couldn’t say about Prema when the year began.
Sincere question: Is the hybrid doing anything for the enhancement of IndyCar right now?
The Verdict: 5/10 (Okay) – This wasn’t terrible by any stretch. There was an actually healthy amount of passing by Laguna Seca standards, but it still couldn’t do too much to elevate this above a bit of a dull one. Again, not Palou’s fault he’s driving as well as he is, but he had no competition on this one and the action mainly came in bursts off the first couple of laps off a restart. It is what it is. The horrid cautions didn’t help. See you in Portland.
