Alex Palou won his seventh IndyCar race of the season on Sunday, extending his points lead and all but ensuring that he will end the year with his fourth series championship.
His victory gave him a mark on his stat sheet that he had been missing to this point: a win on a short oval.
Palou has now won on all the track types IndyCar visits, and can seemingly adapt to any situation he is presented.
Speaking after Palou’s win in Iowa, Ganassi team manager Barry Wanser explained that having a star driver allows the team to utilize a variety of strategies as needed the same way legendary drivers from the team’s past have done.
“Alex basically brings to us the same thing Dario [Franchitti] did to the #10 car,” said Wanser. “He gave us all the options.
“So when you look at strategy and options during the race, whether it’s before the race or the tire choice, the starting tire, the setup of the car, and then what he has to do for us in the race to perform against everybody, he gives us all of those options.
“We’re never at a point where it’s like, ‘We can’t do this part of the strategy or we can’t do that part.’ We have it all, even sometimes when he doesn’t agree.”
The unpredictability of IndyCar is one of the major reasons fans of the series follow along each weekend.
Differing strategies, pit stop philosophies, and track demands can change multiple times over the course of any given race, which means adaptability is the key to success.
Palou’s ability to excel in all manner of situations is a major factor in his success, and it seems likely to carry him to yet another championship this season.
