Alex Palou, the defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion, went into today’s XPEL Grand Prix of Road America 18 points behind championship leader and his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon in second place and after his fourth-place finish here today, following his seventh-place start the Spaniard has gained 13 points and is now only 5 points behind new championship leader Will Power who scored his first win in two years and four days and speaking following the race, Palou said:
“It was a good solid day for the #10 DHL Honda. We made up some positions, but it was just a shame we didn’t have the ultimate car speed today. Overall, a good result, and we’ve gained some points in the championship as well.”
Kyle Kirkwood in the No.27 AutoNation Honda started the race from fourth and came home in fifth place and speaking following the race he commented saying:
A decent day. Of course, you always want to win, especially when you lead some laps here, but top five is always a good
result, and that’s what we got here today. The Honda had great fuel economy, we just couldn’t make the tires last to actually use all the fuel. But as I said, a decent day, and we’re still fifth in the points, so we’ll go on to Laguna Seca happy with the finish.”
Colton Herta in the No.28 Gainbridge with Curb Honda started the race from second place and came home in sixth place having been hit by Josef Newgarden on the opening lap of the race, for which Herta felt that the Tennesse-native should have been given a penalty which he wasn’t.
“I’m not happy with sixth place with the car that we had and the pace that we had. We had a little bit of damage from the
incidents and that did make it harder to get back up there. But, because of our strategy, we were able to go so much longer on fuel and get so much more clean air that it just kind of worked in our favor. It’s disappointing for everybody on a weekend that I feel like we could have won. It’s disappointing for our team, and for Honda, that we aren’t at least on the podium.”
Kelvin Fu (Vice President, Honda Racing Corporation USA) on today’s XPEL Grand Prix at Road America:
“We had a great qualifying this weekend at Road America, 1-2-3-4 for Honda showed a lot of promise and we hoped to continue that all the way to the checkered flag. Unfortunately, racing is racing and we can't predict how these events will pan out. As always, thank you to our men and women at HRC for all their hard work and to all of our Honda teams for the effort they put in this weekend. We will certainly be pushing for more at Laguna Seca.