Palou has smooth run to IndyCar title after early O’Ward blow

Sophomore Alex Palou won the 2021 IndyCar title in his first season with Chip Ganassi Racing, as Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward was taken out of contention early and Colton Herta won the race from 14th on the grid.

Both O’Ward and polesitter Josef Newgarden of Team Penske needed to finish in the top two to win the title while a 12th-place finish would guarantee Palou the honours regardless of the others’ finishing positions.

At the end of the first lap O’Ward was tapped into a spin by Ed Jones at the hairpin. Jones was trying to pass the car behind O’Ward, James Hinchcliffe.

Palou was behind Jones and lightly hit his rear with his front wing as Jones slowed, while Ryan Hunter-Reay nudged Palou’s rear.

O’Ward – who called Jones an “idiot”, as did his Arrow McLaren SP team boss Taylor Kiel – looked to have come away unscathed from the incident initially and was far from out of contention as pitting under early cautions has led to podiums in multiple races this year.

But on lap 19 of 85 O’Ward drew to a halt on the main straight unable to change gears.

That put him out of the race and at risk of losing second in the championship. He returned to the race 34 laps down after repairs and finished 27th but Newgarden took second away from him.

One of the first drivers to pit when O’Ward pulled to a halt was Herta, who started 14th and had already moved up to sixth by that point.

He predicted the caution before it happened and pitted in anticipation, allowing him to cycle up to third after everyone else had pitted, as those who didn’t pit lost track position later on, including fourth and fifth-place runners Romain Grosjean and Felix Rosenqvist.

Herta passed Scott Dixon and Newgarden rapidly and led the race by 6.5s at its halfway point, but he took the softer tyre for this stint while his rivals went for the hard in order to finish on the softs.

Herta pitted on lap 54 of 85 with a lead over eight seconds and emerged over 10 seconds clear of Newgarden on track, but shortly afterwards a caution came out for an Oliver Askew/Conor Daly crash.

That didn’t change the order, even though Newgarden closed in right on Herta’s tail on the softs at the end, as Herta still sealed the win.

After flying in practice, Herta had crashed in qualifying – which cost him what many thought would be his pole, and seemed to have lost a chance to make up for his crash at Nashville where he was second and led most of the race before crashing.

Newgarden did everything he could to stay in championship contention but ultimately his fate was decided before the weekend by coming in so far behind Palou, with Scott Dixon rounding off a year where he couldn’t fight for the title at the last round with a podium.

Palou had joined Herta in beating the early caution and cycled out fifth, but as his team-mate Dixon edged away Hinchcliffe began to hold Palou up, and he tried but failed to pass at Turn 1 as he came under increasing pressure from Simon Pagenaud behind.

However the final stops followed and the number 10 team for Palou – excellent on pit road this year – jumped Hinchcliffe and gave Palou fourth place.

Pagenaud’s undercut strategy put him on Palou’s tail until the end of the race, but ultimately Palou held on for a 10th top five in 16 races.

The 24-year-old Palou won three races in his second IndyCar season and also had a first pole position, on the way to a championship he led for the majority and has announced himself onto the scene with his professional and consistent approach.

“Yes!” Palou yelled on the radio. “You’re an amazing team, Thank you so much.”

Alexander Rossi had a busy day, clashing with Helio Castroneves in the warm-up and then banging wheels with Grosjean in the race.

Grosjean – in his last race for Palou’s old team Dale Coyne Racing before switching to Rossi’s team Andretti – clipped the wall while running sixth in the second half of the race and had to pit for repairs.

Rossi reclaimed sixth then, as Jack Harvey came from 25th to seventh in his last race for Meyer Shank Racing before he is expected to switch to Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

Sebastien Bourdais is a previous winner here. He was spun early on but recovered to eighth ahead of Takuma Sato and Will Power.

Second-row starter Castroneves went on what looked like a bizarre strategy where he refused to pit in the early cautions and took himself out of a likely podium, eventually finishing 19th in a race he started from 13th.

Race Results