It’s good to be Alex Palou.
This year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach champion has taken plenty of checkered flags during his meteoric ascent to the top of IndyCar. Remarkably, he’s won 11 of the last 22 IndyCar races he’s run in, and he has taken a podium spot in fully half of the races he’s run in his career. For the non-racing fans reading this, there’s not really a way to put into words how truly insane those numbers are.
Palou has won 22 IndyCar races at the age of 29 in just six years—he’s already tied for 20th in IndyCar career wins all-time and has won four of the last five IndyCar Series Titles as the top driver. That’s tied for second most in history, and he’s got a great chance to win it again this year and pull within striking distance of Scott Dixon’s six titles (he won his sixth at 39, a decade older than Palou).
It’s not just the hardware, though. Palou’s first trip to the winner’s press conference saw him walk in with an easy smile and well-earned confidence, and he advanced that image throughout the Q&A with local media.
“I feel so lucky with the opportunity to win the (Indy) 500 last year, Long Beach this year, I’m on this amazing cloud of happiness,” said the beaming Spaniard.
He also had what every top-tier winner needs: luck. The full-course yellow couldn’t have been better-timed, with a quick pit stop allowing him to move up into first.
“You want to think that I was not giving up, but I think it would have been very tough for us (without that yellow),” he said. “My confidence was high, but my chances were low.”
In addition to luck, Palou has a great team behind him. Barry Wanser is Palou’s race strategist and car manager and he acknowledged that the duo as well as the rest of the team at Chip Ganassi Racing are on an historic run.
“We put a lot of effort into this, it doesn’t come easy,” he said. “I know a lot of people are saying that—but it’s hard to win in IndyCar.”
Palou did his best to pretend that it’s not coming easy to him, but wasn’t as convincing as Wanser.
“It’s super super cool,” he said of winning Long Beach. “I mean we’ve been so lucky to have so much success.”
Asked about the incredible 50% podium rate he just smiled and shrugged.
“I mean, it’s incredible, I don’t know what to say,” he said. “This team is amazing, and it gives me the opportunity every single race to compete. No comment?”
Some IndyCar fans complained on social media that Palou’s dominance has been boring, but that’s not his problem—and it’s not likely to be a problem in Long Beach, where local fans love a repeat champion and will likely be rooting for Palou to join the ranks of Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti, Dixon and others who’ve dominated our race over multiple years.
For those sports fans who’d prefer at least a little drama from Palou, he did sweat it out a bit when asked about a dance that he and Wanser had come up with to Taylor Swift’s “Fate of Ophelia.” Smiling, he declined to perform, joking, “I’m not ready, I’m feeling nervous…I just had a long race, I’m very tired.”
Perhaps for the first time in his golden career, Palou received a chorus of boos in response.
