Alex Palou Wins Once Again
This is getting monotonous. As I said last week; if this keeps up, FOX is going to want their money back. I never saw TV ratings for Barber, but if they were good – I’m sure we would’ve heard about it. Alex Palou won another race, and IndyCar almost had another caution-free race.
For only the second time this season, the yellow-flag was unfurled – perhaps moths flew out of it. With sixteen laps to go, David Malukas went off and brought out the first yellow-flag since the opening lap at St. Petersburg. That was 408 laps of green-flag racing before that happened – almost five entire races.
Up until then, it was not a very exciting day. Graham Rahal made a move on Turn One at the start, and led up until Lap fifty-eight, when Palou passed Rahal heading Turn 7. After that, everyone knew it was over. Rahal ended up sixth. He led forty-nine laps, more than anyone else but slid backwards after Palou passed him.
Tire strategy hurt all of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars that had such high hopes for this race. With all of their cars starting in the Top-Five, it appeared a great day was in store. And then it all went terribly wrong. In the end, the Rahal cars finished sixth, eleventh and seventeenth; after starting second, third and fifth. Ouch!
While the Rahal cars were sliding backwards, many that started worse than you would’ve thought moved forward. Josef Newgarden qualified sixth, but was sent to the rear after he pitted on one of the parade laps. He fought all day and finished a hard-earned twelfth. Scott Dixon did what Scott Dixon does. He started sixteenth and finished fifth. Everyone was surprised that Kyle Kirkwood qualified twenty-first. It was no surprise that he finished eighth – he’s that good. Rinus VeeKay impressed everyone with his run at Barber, but fell flat in yesterday’s qualifying and started twenty-fourth. When the race was over, VeeKay was ninth.
Most people are hating on Palolu. It’s not his fault that the season is drama-free. He’s just doing what he’s paid to do – drive faster and better than anyone else and win races. It’s up to the twenty-six other drivers to figure out how to beat him. Four out of five races, they haven’t done it. Kudos to Kyle Kirkwood for being the only driver to beat Palou this season – and even then, Palou finished second.
Now the chore of turning the track over to the oval begins, and on Tuesday the cars will be turning the “right” way, as practice for the Indianapolis 500 officially gets underway. Let’s hope the weather from the Open Test and this weekend will carry over. Last year, the week of practice was pretty miserable as practically every practice day was affected by rain – which carried over to Race Day. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this year.
That will do it for us. There will be no post here on Sunday, but I will have my usual Random Thoughts post on Monday, and will continue posting every weekday in May through Race Weekend. We will drive back on Sunday. Our plans are still fluid due to another upcoming procedure for Susan, but the plan is for both of us to drive back up here on Thursday morning. Lately, I have been coming up for the entire week of practice, but I have a work commitment for my day job on Wednesday. If plans change, I will update things here.
I will close with Susan’s photos from today, including one of the both of us on the grid just before the race. Thanks for following along this weekend, and please check back here on Monday.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
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