Palou Secures Podium at Iowa, Continues Leading INDYCAR Championship
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Posted on 07/23/2023
Alex Palou led a late-race charge in the No. 10 American Legion Honda and captured a P3 finish in the second race of the Iowa Speedway doubleheader. He remains the championship leader for the eighth race in a row, now clutching an 80-point advantage with five races to go.
Palou secured his 21st career podium in what was his 45th start with Chip Ganassi Racing today.
The 2021 INDYCAR champion again displayed his consistent ability to navigate through the field, advancing nine positions over the course of the race to finish on the podium. The P3 result is Palou’s personal best at Iowa Speedway, previously earning a P6 finish in the first race of last year.
Scott Dixon matched his previous day’s result of P6 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, again fighting with the frontrunners for position throughout the entirety of the race.
Dixon has now posted an average finishing result of 4.3 over his past seven races at Iowa, claiming a top-six finish in each of those events. The six-time champion is right in the mix of the championship chase, as he sits third in the standings with 357 points.
Similarly battling near the front of the field was Marcus Ericsson in the No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz. The team recorded a P9 finish and moved upward to fourth position in the standings with 330 points.
Takuma Sato unfortunately made contact with the wall on lap 142. He was forced to pit and spend an extended amount of time on pit lane for repairs before returning to the race for a P25 finish.
Up Next: INDYCAR racing will return to the streets of Nashville from August 4-6, where Chip Ganassi Racing has has won both Music City Grand Prix races (2022: Dixon; 2021: Ericsson).
Alex Palou - No. 10 American Legion Honda
“I’m very happy to drive our American Legion Honda to the podium. It was a really busy day, even making five pit stops. We didn’t really have the pace at the beginning, but the team put me in a position to finish third after starting fifth on the restart with four laps to go. This was a great crowd here in Iowa, and I’m happy for The American Legion to be here on the podium in Iowa.”
Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank Honda
“Honestly, the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda was very good. We may have gone a bit too long on our stints and got undercut. It was a frustrating day, as we had moved up to third, were then challenging for second and then ended up sixth. This is definitely a fun track. It’s obviously more fun when things go right, but that’s not always possible.”
Marcus Ericsson - No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda
“It was a bit of an up and down day. I had a really good start to the race and for most of the day we were running in the top five. But things just didn’t fall our way in the second half of the race. It’s a bit disappointing and frustrating, but that’s short oval racing sometimes. I love racing on short ovals, constantly battling and overtaking, but there’s so much with strategy, how the yellows fall, how the tire degradation gets and overall so many decisions that you have to make as a driver. Overall, though, it’s been a good weekend for us in the No. 8 car.”
Takuma Sato - No. 11 Deloitte Honda
“It was a really tough day for our Deloitte 11-car team. We had such a successful practice this morning. Everything was hooked up and the balance felt much more connected. But unfortunately, things flipped on us during the race. We caught some understeer and things just seemed off. But a big congratulations to Alex for achieving the podium finish. Chip Ganassi Racing had a very strong day today and I feel sorry that we couldn’t deliver the result that we wanted. We learned a lot, so hopefully we can transfer all the information to our last oval in St. Louis.”
Source: Chip Ganassi Racing