Chasing Alex Palou, INDYCAR Drivers Have 2 Choices: Acceptance Or Anger

In Driver’s Eye with James Hinchcliffe, the six-time INDYCAR winner will bring you inside the mind of a racer while breaking down the nuts and bolts of the sport for fans. Still riding the joy from a fantastic INDYCAR trip to the West Coast last weekend. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach delivered perfect weather, plenty of action and more fans than I can ever remember being at the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course venue. It had an amazing vibe that makes me wish we could go back and race there again this week, which is a familiar feeling when leaving Long Beach. However, there was another familiar feeling leaving the latest INDYCAR race — and one that surely hasn’t left drivers feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. But it has left them with two choices as they attempt to solve the biggest predicament in the sport this season… HOW DOES ANYONE STOP ALEX PALOU?! You guessed it: Alex Palou and the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing team pulled off another victory, adding to the list of tracks in their W column. And they snatched their third win of the season with their trademark combination of blinding speed and perfect execution, once again. At this point, it is genuinely tough to think of another driver that has maintained such a level of dominance over this elite competition. It’s not just the wins; it’s also the consistency (but more on that later!). I remember in the early 2010s, Will Power would be good for four to six wins a season, and each time, I would think, “Man, he got another one!” When he was out front, it was so tough to beat him, and it hurt to lose to him so often. But mixed in with those dominant wins were tough days at the office, so the title was still a down-to-the-wire proposition. Palou and his squad just aren’t having those days. At Long Beach, pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist had the edge in qualifying and in the first two-thirds of the 90-lap race. But during a pit stop under a full-course caution, Palou & Co. capitalized and emerged ahead by less than a car length. The stop for Rosenqvist and his No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing crew was marginally slower, no massive mistakes, but it was enough to make the difference. For their first pit stop of the race, Palou and Rosenqvist came in together, and it was a straight fight between the No. 10 crew and the No. 60 crew. And in that instance, the MSR team nailed it, and Rosenqvist came out in front by about 1.5 seconds. But on the second stop at Lap 59, a one-second delay in the grand scheme of a nearly two-hour race was the difference. When a driver is so thoroughly dominant for so long, one of two things happens to the rest of the competition. The first choice is accepting the inevitable. You end up thinking, “They are truly unbeatable. There is nothing I can do. I am racing for second place.” When you think like that, he has already beaten you. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you see him in your mirror, you assume he is going past. If you pit with him behind you, you expect him to leave in front. And when that’s your attitude, that’s exactly what happens. The other choice is to get mad. Drivers hate to lose as much as they love to win. Use the feeling of getting beat as fuel to do more, push further, train harder. Study the data. Review the video of onboards to find any little thing you can do better. Whatever you have to do to beat the guy. But it can’t just be the driver. This is a team sport, after all, and you need to motivate your whole crew to embrace the anger and frustration of losing to get the best out of themselves. Get so mad at losing that you refuse to let him win. It is certainly easier said than done, but the competition getting better is a lot more likely than Palou slowing down at any point in the near future. The trick is not to spiral. Getting mad should fuel what you do off track, but on track, you need to stay cool and calm. In these situations, when you’re pushing yourself harder than ever, if the results don’t start falling your way, the frustration can get to a point where it lingers in your head while you’re racing, which can lead to going slower and making mistakes. It’s a fine balance and so tough to do. So, how does someone beat Palou? Be perfect. That’s all there is to it. The confidence and momentum the No. 10 team has right now can’t be topped any other way. Palou and his crew are beatable in a straight-up fight. Kyle Kirkwood proved that at the Arlington street course in Texas, but it has to be on a day when not a single mistake is made. Drivers once used to be able to have a small bobble on track or in the pits and maybe still grab the win. But Palou and CGR have raised the bar so high that overcoming a tiny misstep now can be insurmountable. SOUND LIKE AN INDYCAR EXPERT Let’s dive into the championship standings, how points are earned and how they can be used to try catching up to Palou — if you can’t beat him outright. Always remember: Every point counts. There is a famous case illustrating this from late in the 2015 season. Scott Dixon — now in his 25th season with Chip Ganassi Racing — was in a title battle with Juan Pablo Montoya, and the race at Iowa Speedway was a pivotal moment. Montoya crashed out early in the race, and Dixon saw a chance to close in on the title. But he hit mechanical issues in pit lane, and it looked like his day was done. But points could be salvaged. So instead of giving up, Dixon’s team worked on his car, falling dozens of laps down. Eventually, he got back on track, and if anyone else wrecked or had an issue, he and his team could pick up a single position. Sure enough, another driver crashed out, so Dixon moved up one spot on track. He finished 18th — 37 laps behind the leader and dead last among cars still running by the end — but earned one more point than he and his team would have had they parked the car when trouble hit. Fast-forward to the final race of the year, and Dixon and Montoya were tied on points. But Dixon was awarded the title on a tiebreaker — who had more wins — and that single point made the difference, giving the New Zealand driver his fourth (of six total) INDYCAR titles. Now, back to Palou and attempt to beat him on track or catch him in the championship standings. As I have said, the biggest key to his title runs is consistency. Sure, to be the champ, you have to have speed. But if you’re mixing speed with a lot of mistakes and crashes, you won’t be in the title conversation come the last race. Put another way, it’s better to finish fourth than to crash trying to pass a guy for the last podium place and end up with a DNF (did not finish). On a day when your car isn’t fast enough for a top-5 finish, settle for that eighth place and bag the points. One of the important metrics we love to look at is: Who has the best worst finish? A driver may only have one win on the season, but if 12 races in, they have nine top-10 finishes and a worst finish of 12th, that consistency will keep you in the fight. Points start at 50 for a win, then 40 for second, 35 for third. From fourth, at 32 points, it goes down in increments of two until 10th. Then, it’s one point per position to 24th, and 25th and lower get five points. So 50 points for a win, five points for a last-place finish. It’s a big swing. You can also get a bonus point for qualifying on the pole, for leading a lap and two bonus points for leading the most laps. And, again, every point counts. At the end of the day, to be a champion in this series, you need the speed, but you also need the consistency. Alex Palou has both in spades. It’s up to the rest of the field to get mad and start winning. MORE DRIVER’S EYE: