Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No.10 DHL Honda has been extremely consistent during the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season and heads into this weekend’s season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Super Speedway on the verge of claiming his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship in four years.
Of the 2345 laps completed this season, Palou has managed to complete 96% of them, which is a remarkable statistic. The Spaniard heads into the weekend with a 33-point lead in the championship over Team Penske’s Will Power. So, what led to Palou’s dominant season? Well, for one thing, the Spaniard is not prone to making mistakes and is very methodical in his approach to racing.
Palou’s start to the 2024 season in St Petersburg in March started slowly with a fourth-place finish. However, at the non-points race at The Thermal Club, he took victory, and this was really the start of a great year for the No.10 DHL team.
At the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Palou ended the race on the podium in third place behind his teammate Scott Dixon and Colton Herta. At the Children’s Grand Prix of Alabama, where he took his first-ever INDYCAR SERIES win in 2021 on his way to his first championship, Palou came home in fifth place.
The Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Indy road course on May 11 was the turning point in Palou’s season. Not only did he start the race from the pole, but he led 39 laps on his way to his first win of the season, having utilized a three-stop strategy to get there.
At the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, which took place at the end of May, Palou started the race in 14th place and finished in fifth place. At the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the streets of downtown Detroit, Palou began to the race from the front row but left the Motor City disappointed with a 16th-place finish.
At the XPEL Grand Prix of Road America, Palou started the race from seventh and came home in fourth place. So, while he may not have been scoring victories, the Spaniard was consistent in his results throughout the first half of the season as we headed into the Summer.
Palou and the No.10 team scored their second season victory at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He took pole and led 48 of 95 laps, ending the race just ahead of Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi.
Palou started the season’s next race in Mid-Ohio from pole position and came home in second place following a fierce battle with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward.
Palou retired from the opening Hy-Vee Homefront 250 at Iowa Speedway following contact but followed this up with a second-place finish in race 2, which Team Penske’s Will Power won.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES traveled north of the border to Toronto in mid-July. Palou came home in fourth place in the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto in fourth place behind his teammate Scott Dixon.
INDYCAR took a summer break while the world watched the Olympics from Paris. When the series returned to racing at the Bommarito Automotive Group 500, Palou returned and finished in fourth place.
The Grand Prix of Portland saw Palou come home on the podium in second place behind Will Power. In race one at the Milwaukee Mile, Palou finished fifth, having rolled off from 12th place. In race 2, he suffered a mechanical issue, which Barry Wasner, his race strategist, confirmed earlier this week was unrelated to the hybrid system. The Spaniard recovered from the issue to come home in 23rd place and, in doing so, scored seven valuable points on a day where Will Power also struggled.
The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, presented by Gainbridge, will be a spectacular end to a phenomenal season. Palou’s path to the championship is simple, he has to finish Sunday’s race ahead of Will Power. Should Power win the race, Palou just needs to go to the race in the ninth.