MONTEREY, California – Two-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou regained the lead in the points standings by winning on the pole Sunday at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Palou, now a two-time winner on the permanent road course, has finished on the podium in all four of his career starts at the California track. His victory there at the end of the 2022 season is believed to have been the catalyst for him changing his mind and leaving Chip Ganassi Racing to move to Arrow McLaren Racing.
It is the second victory of the season for the Spaniard, not counting his victory in the $1 million exhibition race in March. He was unable to explain his dominance on the 11-turn, 2,238-mile gem of a road course.
“I’d like to know, so I hope I can try to analyze and see if I can do the same on other tracks where I’m not as fast,” said Palou. “I love this track. When you love a track so much, I think you get something extra that helps everything. The fact that we have really good cars here helps a lot.
“I would say it is a suitable track. You really can’t make any mistakes,” he continued. “This allows you to push really hard. It’s the most beautiful place we go, for sure.”
Palou lost the lead exiting the first corner of the race to Kyle Kirkwood, but regained it through strategy. He then had to hold off Herta, who was in fuel economy mode late in the race, through three late cautions.
Palou ultimately led 48 of 95 laps.
“I made a mistake and lost the lead. I wasn’t very happy with myself at the beginning and the team had to make a very risky strategy, too risky,” said Palou. “It was very risky, but it worked.”
Colton Herta finished second for Andretti Global and Alexander Rossi finished third to claim his first podium of the season – and just his second overall since joining Arrow McLaren.
“It was a good result for us. Obviously it’s frustrating not to win here, being from California,” Herta said. “We had a lot of pace and it’s a shame not to win here. I really want to win here, but I’m happy with the podium.”
Rossi, who is also from California, led 10 laps. Herta led eight.
“We will take a lot of positives from the weekend,” said Rossi, who is one year into his contract with McLaren. His seat is the only one of the three at McLaren yet to be guaranteed for 2025.
Romain Grosjean was fourth in his best result since joining Juncos Hollinger Racing this year. It was the best result ever for a JHR driver.
Andretti’s Kirkwood fell to fifth place. He was followed by Ganassi’s Scott Dixon and then Team Penske’s Will Power. Power had a five-point lead over Palou in the standings heading into Sunday’s race.
It was an OK Arrow McLaren debut for 19-year-old Palo Alto native Nolan Siegel, who was just hired for the role earlier this week. The youngest driver on the grid left the track and fell into the gravel, receiving a warning for the entire course when he restarted mid-race.
“Sorry about that,” he radioed. “I’m really sorry.”
He finished 12th after starting 23rd and was the “biggest driver of the race”.
“All done in my first race at Arrow McLaren. Overall, I think it was a successful day,” Siegel said. “It was not without its challenges, but everyone pushed forward and remained strong throughout the race. We managed to score a ton of points at the end. I’m grateful for my team and can’t wait to work with them more in the future.”
Siegel is the third driver in sixth place this season as the race was supposed to go to Palou, who changed his mind due to a contract dispute with McLaren. The team then signed David Malukas, who broke his wrist in a mountain biking accident a month before the season opener.
After he missed the fourth race of the season, it triggered a clause in Malukas’ contract that allowed McLaren to fire him and the team finally chose Siegel as his full-time replacement this week.
Meanwhile, Malukas was signed by Meyer Shank Racing. He made his season debut on Sunday and finished 16th. There were doubts about whether his physical condition was sufficient to complete the 95-lap race.
“It was definitely a shame to finish where we did, especially with the pace we had,” said Malukas. “I think we were in eighth place. But I think being sad about this result is good when we really intend to finish. I know for me, I just wanted to cross the line. But overall it was a great debut with a new team and a new hand.”
Because of a rain stoppage at the NASCAR race in New Hampshire that caused the event to be prolonged, NBC Sports broadcast the IndyCar race on its Peacock app instead of USA Network. The Cup Series remained on the USA Network for over six hours in length.
The next IndyCar race will be on July 7th at Mid-Ohio, where hybrid engines will be introduced for the remainder of the season.
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