The Spaniard continued his terrific form at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca by recording his 4^th podium in a row at the track, and fired to his second victory of the season from pole position after a roller coaster of an afternoon in California. 

Palou survived 2 late race restarts under immense pressure from Colton Herta and held off the 2019 and 2021 winner of this event, subsequently adding this victory to the one he secured at this track in 2022. 

Herta and Alexander Rossi finished on the podium a little way behind Palou, despite Rossi taking the lead on lap 27 after the first round of pitstops. Romain Grosjean secured his season’s best result and an all-time best result in Indycar for Juncos Hollinger racing in 4^th.

Kyle Kirkwood passed Palou for the lead at the opening corner of the race, but his Andretti Global machine did not quite have the ultimate pace to keep up with the leaders. Kirkwood recorded his third top 5 finish in a row and maintained his record of finishing in the top 11 in every race so far in 2024. 

Scott Dixon finished 6^th for Chip Ganassi racing but lost ground to Palou in the championship, as the race winner opens up a 23 point lead over Will Power, who followed Dixon over the line to finish 7^th. Pato O’Ward was 8^th for Arrow McLaren, ahead of Santino Ferrucci and Marcus Ericsson who rounded out the top 10. 

Josef Newgarden had been in a strong position when a caution for the stricken Marcus Armstrong had given him a free stop, but the Indy500 champion spun at turn six on the penultimate lap, resigning him to 17^th. 

Palou strengthens championship grip with powerful victory

Having secured the NTT P1 award on Saturday night with a stunning lap in the Firestone Fast 6, it looked as if Alex Palou’s Sunday had seen his fortunes change when he was passed by Kyle Kirkwood at the opening corner of the race. 

He was able to stay close to Kirkwood throughout the opening stint, whilst also saving a significant amount of fuel. Palou pitted the lap after Kirkwood, and dropped from 2^nd to 4^th as Colton Herta made his way past, and Alexander Rossi took the lead. 

After Luca Ghiotto’s crash neutralised Rossi’s four second lead over the field, Palou took the lead after those ahead of his pitted, and whilst Rossi and Kirkwood dropped into 15^th and 16^th, Palou was able to build a lead despite coming under pressure from Romain Grosjean at the restart who employed the same strategy.  

Palou pitted for the second time on lap 55 with a 22 second lead over Colton Herta, and emerged in 3^rd place, with fresh tyres to attack Rossi and Herta ahead of him. He passed Rossi on lap 62 having fended off attacks from Kyle Kirkwood, before charging past Herta on lap 64 to retake the lead. 

Despite a series of cautions in the last 20 laps threatening to take the victory off him, Palou kept his head and defied the challenges from Colton Herta on restarts to claim his 11^th win in Indycar, and second at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. 

Having lost the championship lead at Road America after Will Power’s impressive victory, Palou roared back to the top after this result, as the reigning champion now leads the standings by 23 points. 

Palou said ‘it was a really tough race. Lots of up and downs. It went down on the first corner when I did a mistake, played it too nice, lost the lead.’

‘At the beginning of the race, I wasn’t really executing. The car was really fast. I couldn’t overtake Kyle. That kind of put us in a bad position.’

‘The team had to do a really risky strategy, too risky in my opinion. Glad that it worked out. Glad to get the last win of this era. Glad to get this win, DHL last race with the pride livery. Excited for Mid-Ohio.’

Californians Herta and Rossi outduelled by Palou 

Despite feeling disappointed with second at Laguna Seca, Colton Herta can take heart in knowing that his season is back on track after a tough stretch of races since taking the championship lead. He backed up a reasonable sixth place at Road America with a strong drive to take second in California. 

Herta said ‘it’s a good result for us today, something to build off of. Obviously, it’s frustrating not to win here I think for both of us being from California and whatnot.’

Despite leading multiple laps and looking like one of the strongest cars in the field, Palou was able to breeze past Herta on lap 64 into the Corkscrew corner. Herta was handed a lifeline when Marcus Armstrong spun on lap 75, cutting down the gap to the lead from 9 seconds to nothing. 

Herta was unable to pass Palou at any of the three restarts at the end of the race, as the local favourite was resigned to second. Although he was a little disappointed, Herta can take heart in the fact that his performance was strong, as he picked up valuable points. 

‘The Gainbridge Honda was fast. We showed it saved fuel fast and it could run flat out fast. Yeah, I’m happy with the podium.’

Alexander Rossi was also back on the podium after a lengthy drought, and although he was on the third step, Rossi could have won the race had Luca Ghiotto not crashed on lap 42.

Rossi was ahead of those on the same strategy by four seconds, and breezing off into the distance but the yellow brought the field back towards him, and he eventually had to settle for third. Despite coming under intense pressure from a resurgent Romain Grosjean towards the end of the race, Rossi fought off the Juncos Hollinger car and secured his position on the rostrum. 

Rossi said ‘I think it was a good day for the organization. I think our pace out front, pushing, was certainly better than what we could do once it kind of switched to a fuel race.’ 

‘Nonetheless, it was a great job by the team all around to manage a difficult race with the strategy flipping back and forth. Kind of wild there with all the restarts at the end.’

‘Yeah, ultimately we’ll take a lot of positives from this weekend and build on it going into Mid-Ohio where we’re starting a whole new wild, crazy, unknown era of hybrids.’ 

Indycar championship race takes another twist before incoming hybrid 

‘Yeah, ultimately, we’ll take a lot of positives from this weekend and build on it going into Mid-Ohio where we’re starting a whole new wild, crazy, unknown era of hybrids’ said Alexander Rossi after crossing the line at Laguna Seca. The series moves into a new era midway through the season following the introduction of the hybrid power unit. 

Alex Palou has taken control of the championship thanks to disappointing results for Will Power and Scott Dixon, who slip to over twenty points behind the reigning champion. 

Josef Newgarden had been pencilled in to take control of this championship, thanks to his phenomenal record on ovals. Six of the final eight rounds in 2024 will be on short ovals, and Newgarden has been beaten only three times on ovals since the 2021 Indianapolis 500. 

The arrival of the hybrid engines brings about doubt to the championship hunt as no doubt the Honda and Chevrolet will be slightly different, perhaps offering an advantage to either Chip Ganassi’s championship contending and Honda powered pair of Palou and Dixon, whereas Chevrolet getting the upper hand might allow Newgarden or Power to take control for Team Penske. 

For a sport about to be thrown into the unknown, one thing is for sure. Alex Palou reigned supreme at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and will be a tough man to stop in 2024. 

The NTT Indycar series continues on July 7^th at the Honda Indy200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.