Simpson rebounds from qualifying crash to set career mark in Freedom 250

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- What a difference a day makes for Kyffin Simpson, who left the street course in downtown Washington, D.C., dejected after a crash in qualifying.

The damage to his No. 8 Sunoco Honda put the Chip Ganassi Racing driver in 23^rd for the start of the Freedom 250 on Sunday and not in the greatest position to salvage much for the race.

Instead, he was the biggest mover of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race and his fifth place finish set a career best for Simpson with a total of seven top-10 finishes this season.

“I left yesterday very bummed about the crash and pretty disappointed, to be honest, because I felt like we had a really fast car,” Simpson said. “But I still had the confidence that we were going to be able to do something with it today.”

He praised strategist Taylor Kiel with calling a tremendous race for Simpson that allowed him to move through the field and challenge for a podium finish. 

“Taylor called a great strategy and got us come clean air, and yellows played out in our favor as well. It just worked out. Just so thankful to Sunoco and Honda and Chip Ganassi Racing for such an incredible car and what a weekend.”

It wasn’t as great for the rest of CGR, which started the day with a mathematical chance for Alex Palou to win his fourth consecutive INDYCAR title and fifth in six years.

Palou started on the pole in the No. 10 OpenAI Honda but he hit a tire on an early pit stop and the drive-thru penalty he had to serve as punishment for hitting equipment dropped him a lap down from the leaders. He finished 20^th.

“The first pit stop when I kind of smacked, I think a tire, obviously, was not on purpose, and that just put us on the back foot,” said Palou, who was also plagued by a slow pit stop when his CGR crew struggled with his left front tire.

Contact with the wall later caused him to break the toe link on his Honda, which later led to a spin and crash and a 20^th place finish. His lead in the INDYCAR standings over Kyle Kirkwood, winner Sunday in D.C., was cut from 133 points to 91 points with three races remaining.

“At some point I smacked the wall a little bit. The toe link was bent for like 20 laps, and then suddenly it just broke, so that's why we spun and crashed,” said Palou. “One of those days. But it is what it is. I did that mistake in the pits. Then we just had to do something on strategy to try and make it. Once we had that slow stop with the front tire, we were behind the leader, so we had to burn all our fuel, do an extra stop to try and catch Kirkwood, which we couldn't, and then that's it. Like we're on no man's land.”

Because of the large lead Palou had built in the standings ahead of Sunday, he still feels confident about his title chances.

“Never ever super comfortable until it's done, right? But obviously today sucks more for this race than the championship,” Palou said. “I think the good amount of points that we had is great for a day like today, just so we can now focus on Milwaukee and try and win.”

Scott Dixon in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda finished seventh and felt he could have had a better day with a bit of luck.

“Definitely an interesting day. Seemed to be more of a track position race than we thought,” Dixon said. “Got caught up in that first yellow, and then the one later on, as well. That kind of moved us to the back and then we just tried to eliminate a stop, so we had to get massive fuel mileage, which was pretty tough to do.

“But we ended up doing it and eliminating one stop. The car was definitely capable of more. If we had a little bit of luck fall our way, we could have been in a top three fighting position there at the end. But it wasn’t meant to be.”

UP NEXT: INDYCAR races a doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile with races on Saturday and Sunday. Coverage of the Saturday race begins at 2:30 p.m. on Fox Sports. Coverage of Sunday’s race begins at 1 p.m.