Álex Palou secures his first oval win at Iowa Speedway

Álex Palou kept a strong lead throughout most of the Farm to Finish 275 on Sunday, and despite several attempts from Iowa Speedway dominator and Chevy driver Josef Newgarden, it was the Honda driver and multiple IndyCar series champion who took the top spot on the podium for his first win in Iowa.

Despite winning the Indy 500 and having three championships under his belt, Palou mentioned that some of his fellow racers have told him you’re not a real IndyCar driver until you’ve won at every style of course. Now that he’s claimed victory at the short oval in Newton, it’s official: Álex Palou is a real IndyCar driver.

“It feels great!” Palou said with a laugh. “Honestly it’s tough, it’s tough. That’s why it’s so fun to race in IndyCar with this team, with these different tracks. Like it’s different challenges that you have. You go to a street course and you need different needs than on a road course … It’s super fun.”

However, the race wasn’t without its challenges. Barry Wanser, strategist for Chip Ganassi Racing, said the second race in a doubleheader is always faster and more aggressive. And it showed. There were significantly more passes in the second race. Palou had a whopping 28 on-track passes.

“It’s hard to win a short oval race, especially at Iowa,” Wanser said.

Palou added, “I was passing so many cars I felt like I was Lightning McQueen or something … There was a lot of traffic. It’s good. It was fun getting to see different people struggling in different areas. Then you would get to another car and he would be riding the line that you’d like and then you struggle.”

It was fierce race for first. While Palou held the lead for the majority of the race, he was tailed by Josef Newgarden at many points and even lost his positioning at the top of the pack. Unfortunate caution timings and early pits thwarted the King of Corn Country’s efforts to take home a win after a close finish the day before.

“You had to fight hard,” Palou said. “I think he knew that without that I would have been able to be side by side in turn one and kind of, like, hold the position. It was tough. But then in strategies sometimes it goes like that. Honestly, we knew we’re not going to gain much by pitting early, especially at the first pitstop.”

The race leads were constantly fluctuating, and the momentum often shifted between Palou and Newgarden. It wasn’t by accident. Palou said his team did not want to sit by and be reactive for this second race. He admitted he struggled finding his balance whereas Newgarden excelled in that regard.

“He was driving excellent towards the end of the stint,” Palou said. “It just happens in racing. Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you don’t.”

With the win at Iowa Speedway, Palou is looking at seven first-place finishes this season. A.J. Foyt and Al Unser, Sr. have set the record at 10 wins in 1964 and 1970, respectively. On top of his successes these past few seasons, Palou is having a helluva run. It’s tough to put it into words, he said.

“It’s magical, I think,” Palou said, noting Chip Ganassi Racing is . “I think everybody in CGR — and the No. 10 car especially — is feeling that. We don’t really know how to describe how happy and how hard they’re working to be here. It’s not that it comes easy.”

Does he think he can get 10 wins? Palou isn’t even thinking about it. But if the wins do end here in Iowa, Palou and his team will still be proud.

“If it stops here and we look back and it’s like we won seven, it’s going to be quite impressive,” Palou said. “I’m going to work to get 10, obviously. But I’m not waking up and thinking about getting 10. I think it’s a pretty unrealistic goal. It’s far. It’s three wins. It seems like it’s only three, but it’s very far.”